[KindOfBlue06]

Tell me about your favorite teachers. Why did you like them? Here are mine:

Mr. C. I had him for History. He was an oldschool champion. His speech on the first day of class was about time. He said your time is precious, and you should sell your time. (Make something of yourself.) He didn't teach from the book, instead he talked about life, politics, and money. He taught everyone about compound interest, stocks, politics ect. He also told us some saucy stories from his younger years when he was more wild. He was a great man.

Mr. S. I had him for sociology. On the last day of class, he told everyone in class one special thing he saw in them. He told me "You've got "it". Whatever "it" is, you've got it. You're going places." I'll never forget that. The guy was a champion.

Mrs. D. She taught English class. She was the first one who really believed in my writing. For creative writing project, most kids wrote maybe 3 pages. I wrote 25 LOL. She encouraged me after that to continue and she was a beautiful soul.



Eric my first guitar teacher. What a cool guy. All I wanted to do was learn some bass to play in punk bands, but he said nah fuck that, you're learning Metallica! He encouraged me, and believed in my playing. He instilled in me the confidence that pushed me forward towards more advanced music.

John my other guitar teacher. This guy was just plain awesome. He taught me so much about jazz, and music theory. Every time I play Autumn Leaves, I think of him, and jamming with him in that small practice room on campus.

What about you guys, who are your favorite teachers?

[Wanderlust94]

My favorite was a man named Starling. High school U.S. history. Coolest man ever. Very witty and used a bunch of word play. I was the only one who respected him in class and he took me the most seriously. Not favoritism, but he saw the potential in me while I listened to his lectures and everyone else just slept. He would call me Prof. because he saw my enthusiasm for history and treated me as an equal and would spend lunch discussing history and philosophy. He was a great man. I mean that scenario sounded creepy, but he was a genuinely nice man interested in buddhism and never harmed a fly. His teaching style was that of a college man. Heavy lectures with some supplemental material, but I did great in that class while others lagged due to the way he taught. Him and wife were just great and humane people. I truly appreciate him and what he did and all the dicussions we had. Greatest teacher ever for me.

Sadly that was really the only one who I remember very well due to his kindness and other qualities. Others weren't so great.

[ethylester]

I had a few great teachers. The best ones were the ones who noticed something in me and told me so. One of my university Spanish teachers, Monica, was one of these. In Spanish class, you can make up your own stories and sentences. As long as you know the vocab and use the right grammar, you can say whatever you want. right? I always took that idea and ran with it. My homework assignments always entertained my creative side because I would attempt to come up with the strangest and funniest sentences, stretching my knowledge of the vocab. My Spanish teacher loved this and told me so. She said I was her favorite student (what teacher actually says that?) and that she loved reading my homework because she could tell I had fun with it. She said I stood out from her other students and I was most creative. This is totally what I wanted to hear. Therefore, I loved her too. :)

My 4th grade teacher was great too. I went to a small school and had something like 12-16 kids in my class so the teachers actually had time to get to know the students. This teacher noticed that I was often bored and daydreaming in class. Instead of thinking I must have ADD or something, she went and got a bookshelf and filled it with books. Then she deliberately placed my desk next to the bookshelf and told me that whenever I felt bored, I had permission to look through any of those books, as long as I didn't disrupt class (I never disrupted class anyway). She encouraged me to write stories and read them to the class in my spare time. Whenever I made my own art project at home or wrote a story or made a video with my friends, she would allow time from the day to present it to the class. She made me feel special and encouraged me to express myself how I saw fit. I think that's just what a Type 4 INFP kid needs, as self-centered as that may sound. :)

Teachers who:
-let me be creative
-let me be artistic
-commended me for being creative and artistic, even if it is just in comments on papers
-let me think outside the box and stretch my imagination on boring assignments

Those were the best teachers.

[Aqualung]

I had several I liked but 2 come to mind now. One was my high school math teacher. A very eccentric individual. He was a Vietnam veteran & he talked about watching his friends die in ambushes & fighting for his life. I could tell it affected him. Sometimes he went on passionate rants about his hate for the war & started yelling. Wouldn't want to piss him off. He was like 6'5" & strong as an ox. He couldn't care less what people thought of him, especially other teachers but he was a very kind, patient & compassionate man who cared about his students like we were his own children. I think he may have been INFP. And # 2: She was actually in her senior year in college, doing her internship for our English class. She taught us a lot about Bob Dylan, the Beatles & lots of other 60's artists she grew up with. She was only about 5 years older than us. One of the most enjoyable classes I ever had.

[StaceofBass]

I have a few:

Mrs. B - She was my Kindergarten teacher and one of the ones who helped me out the most with overcoming my epilepsy in the education system. I believe she's retired by now, but i will always be thankful to this lady for showing me how to be the go-getter I am today.

Mr. W - My elementary P.E teacher. He helped me to catch up to my peers in the physical sense. I started off being probably the least flexible and limber kid and grew to be the most flexible by the time I graduated from 6th largely due to the fact he spent so much time helping me despite my problems with asthma. Something else he did but he didn't have to...after my brother and I had both gone on to junior high, he came by to check on my family because we had lost our stepfather. He wanted to be sure my mom was taking the loss okay and he wanted to be sure us kids were okay because we had lost a father figure at a very critical age. To my knowledge he's still teaching and I still go back to my old school to give him hugs. :D

Mrs. W - Best math teacher ever! She taught me high school algebra and she made it fun! She was literally like a kid in an old woman's body. I still remember all the jingles she taught us and she's the reason I love math so much.

Mrs. K - She was the one who believed most in my singing. I always tried out for solos and frequently got them because I believed I could mostly because I knew she believed and supported me. She was the teacher who inspired me to want to be a professional singer but parents dashed those hopes and dreams... =/ I have no idea where she is, but I'd like to find her because I feel like I need to be inspired again.

[Totalbrit]

My Archaeology teacher was amazing, she would always joke around with the class but unlike some teachers she was still good at teaching us. When I ended up really ill for half the year she helped me back on track and I passed the class! She was there on results day to give me a hug and say congrats!... I miss her :(

[Alyosha]

In second and the first half of third grade I had this older man who would insist on sharpening our pencils with a knife. I really liked him because instead of teaching he would sometimes tell us long stories about himself, although when I think back to it now, many of the things he said I don't think I would approve of today, and the only story I remember very well borders on bragging. He had a very ruthless way of keeping order too. If someone did anything they weren't supposed to, no matter how small it was, he would yell, "Hey!" at them, really, really loudly. I'll give him that it worked quite well though.

Later, in ninth grade, I had one who was particularily nice and understanding. Best of all, though it's a bit selfish, she is the only teacher who has ever made me feel really special about my writing. Her responses to my stories were always extremely enthusiastic and hyperbolic. Finally, the year before last, I had an INFJ in Philosophy, and an INFP in psychology. They were both great. The INFP was really, really nice. She insisted on using ourselves instead of textbooks which we didn't have. We'd have the theme set out for us, and then people would share their experiences on it. Later she would link it to the funny words and biographies of people who made them up. For some things which that didn't work with, for example phases of development, we'd look at the phase, and then we would relate. And brace yourselves. Our class had like a ridiculously high grade average, and it's not just because she was nice with the grades. The exams were graded by teachers from other schools.

The INFJ was really sympathetic too. He also had a very interactive format. But I didn't actually realize how much I appreciated him before he went on sick leave and was replaced for a while. Not only did the INFJ always have something to say about the things I would say, but he never gave me the what-are-you-doing-in-a-classroom-you-should-be-in-a-mental-hospital-you-crazy-person-how-do-you-even-think-of-the-things-you-say-least-of-all-say-them look.

 

I probably forgot loads of favorites.

 

All teachers were my favorites anyway, because I wouldn't be exactly as I am today without a single one of them.

[Theodore]

I like this thread.


Dr. Roberts, Western Civ I & II. I took them at the community college the summers between my sophomore-junior, and junior-senior years in high school. Like other history teachers I've had, he had a real gift for storytelling. He would more or less act out a given scene from history, like the assassination of King Philip of Macedon, and all in this big, booming voice. I later worked in the library adjacent to his classroom and could hear him lecturing and occasionally banging on the blackboard, killing Philip or some other poor king. He'd also give me historical fiction and classical history paperbacks he'd found at book sales or stores.

A teacher who's enthusiastic about his or her field is usually a joy.

[Lawless Land]

My 9th grade art teacher Mr Piller. That class was just awesome!! I remember he came into class one day and said "Okay I don't really feel like doing anything today so how about you just scribble on your page and we'll call that the abstract art unit" He was a good teacher, he could draw and paint anything but some days just could not be bothered to do anything. He never said your work was bad or talked down to you no matter how bad it looked he was just a good guy to have as a teacher.

My 4th grade teacher Jean-Guy (he made us cal him by his first name) simply because he would take us outside everyday for an hour and let us do whatever we wanted, he'd actually usually join in if there was a soccer game.

My 10th grade civic teacher Mr Izzo because he explained everything so simply and made all the work fun. he was also flamboyantly gay which made each class entertaining in itself.

My 11th grade resource teacher Mr Jones (or Dr. Jones as me and my friends called him) he was always nice and you could talk to him about anything at all. Also he liked batman a lot so that automatically makes him cool.

[Theodore]

Something else that occurred to me... Not one of my favorite teachers by any means but I took a History of Modern Europe course during my first (or second) life as a college student, while at the same time suffering from nagging health issues that would later turn out to be a wonky thyroid. I felt terrible on a daily basis but went on until it was too late to drop courses, even though I was feeling progressively worse. I failed to turn in a final essay but then prostrated myself (not really) before the prof and begged for leniency. She gave it even though she clearly didn't want to... it was kind of an ordeal. Well, I screwed it up. I ended up not turning it in, anyway. Oy.

I was a bit unnerved by that incident, and the whole semester, and it never really left my mind. Nightmares, even. 6 or 7 years later I took a historiography course from her, as hers was the only one offered that semester. I didn't expect her to remember me and she didn't. Come the end of the semester and the big paper, I was certain that it was very poor indeed and the most I could hope for would be a B- and probably a C. She had us fill out a self-evaluation rubric with every paper and I said as much. So, we got our papers the last day of class after turning in an exam and she motioned for me to come out into the hall. I thought, "Oh shit, it's even worse than I thought. It must be something truly heinous...." :D She told me, with a big smile on her face, that my paper was outstanding, was far and away the best, and was the only one that truly fulfilled the assignment. That was the last day of undergrad and, apart from instantly erasing the mini-trauma of that earlier class and semester, it was a really good way to go out. I read the evaluation with her comments and it said something to the effect of "You have got to be kidding."

Nevermind that the day in that class that I was the only one who did the reading in my "group" was the single worst class period I've ever had... :P

I feel badly for that prof and the others that do their job to the letter but aren't necessarily dynamic or "makes learning fun" types. She didn't get any respect. I feel a nascent rant coming on about people going to college who don't belong there so I'll stop. :)P