Favorite or memorable teacher?

I don't know what made me think of this, but I've been traveling lately and when I travel I get more time to sit around and do my introverted thought games, gathering wool, and just wondering about things.  We traveled a lot growing up, and I went to four different high schools, two different middle schools, and I don't know remember how many grade schools--a lot of memorable ones, but one teacher stands out over the rest. 

I thought of my sixth grade teacher, Sister Sally.  It was a long time ago, so I'm sure I'm a little bit off, but picture Julie Andrews (Sound of Music) with a bit of the Flying Nun (Sally Field) flown in.  My sister Dia and I went to St. Monica's on Geary in San Francisco for two years, and my first year there my teacher was Sister Sally.   She wore light blue while all the older sterner nuns wore black.  She also put on a musical production every year--different year to year.  My sister's class, the year after me, did Music Man.  My year we did Fiddler on the Roof.  Picture me at eleven years old with a fake beard and big boots playing Tevye for a scene, singing as deeply as I could--Sunrise Sunset--to a girl in my class.  Just crazy.

So, now it's your turn, name one of your favorite or memorable K-12 teachers. 

.

Comments

[danette]

I was a horrible high school student. There were two teachers that stood out though. The first was my freshman math teacher Mr. Camp, at the time math came easy to me and he was a pretty funny teacher. He was also the JV Girls basketball coach, he asked me to do the game video taping. It was a lot of fun because I got to travel with the team and get out of class early to tape the games. ( I got in trouble one time taping a game, I was talking during one game and the coaches reviewed the tape didn't approve)

My other favorite teacher was my Junior English teacher, she was also the drama teacher so her classroom had a mini stage in it. She made the class interesting by getting the students on their feet alot.

It's funny because now that I'm back in school English and Math are the two subjects I fear. I take my first math class in ten years, this Fall, I'm hoping what peple say is true about how the equations will come back to me once I start seeing them again. :)

Hugs, Danette

[Chris Howard]

>I was a horrible high school student
Me too.

Your Junior English teacher reminds me of my Junior History teacher (Oak Grove High School in San Jose) who had each of his students teach one full 50 minute class during the year. There were twenty-something of us in the class, and each of us had to prepare an outline and deliver enough material for a full lesson. Stressful but fun and looking back, interesting.

[Larch]

In general, school didn’t do much for me in K-12, pretty boring. Things didn’t get interesting until college, where I met my most influential teacher, an Economics professor named Dr. Lee. He was an older guy, very wise, he introduced a number of, what were at the time, new concepts that changed the way I looked at the world. Some of the concepts were, “the efficient market hypothesis”, the notion that “technology changes everything” and how technology doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with electronics or computers, but should be thought about at a higher level as “the study of techniques”. Anyway, I could go on and on, but not only did Dr. Lee’s teachings change the way I looked at things (along with a healthy dose of Ayn Rand readings around the same time), but he gave me some fundamental conceptual tools which made it easier to succeed in the modern world.

[Chris Howard]

I agree about not being thrilled much in K-12, but sometimes a teacher just stands out. It's been a long time, but I do remember a teacher in high school who taught an AP English class and had all his students read The Fountainhead--and even some controversy with parents about that. I think you're right though. For most of us, teachers don't become interesting until college.

[Carole McDonnell]

Hands down, my favorite teacher was my college professor Michael . We were his protector, upholder, enabler, comforter. Every kid needs an alcoholic deeply devout guilt-struck, still inlove with his ex-wife, lit major professor to take care of. He taught me English and Irish Literature....and I was his research assistant. Also one of the supportive female students who kept telling him no one thought he was that flaky. I didn't sleep with him, though. Which was good. Another of his comforters did. I remember him walking into our class on James Joyce with several books on Japanese Victorian pornography...totally absent-minded and unaware he had them on his desk. He died a couple of years ago. I definitely hope to see him in heaven one of these days....to thank him for teaching me how to write and how to truly read a novel. -C