My Favourite Teacher

[Tsuyoiko]

I think most people remember a teacher who was particularly inspirational. Tell us about yours!

My favourite teacher was my high school Religious Studies teacher. He came to work at my school straight from University. He taught us for three years, from when I was 13. Before him, our RS teacher was a lay preacher, very religious, and taught us only about Christianity - it was really Religious Instruction rather than Studies. Our new teacher was a breath of fresh air, and he made RS my favourite subject, and it has remained one of my favourite subjects ever since.

We didn't like him at first. On our first lesson he made us sit in rows in alphabetical order, barked instructions at us, and made us sit in complete silence. This continued for a couple of weeks. All of a sudden though, we were sitting working quietly, scared half to death, when he started doing Monty Python's Ministry of Funny Walks up and down the aisles. When we started laughing he went back to his evil persona, which just made us laugh all the more! His strategy had worked though - we knew he had a sense of humour, but we didn't dare step out of line.

RS wasn't just Christianity any more. We learnt about other religions, particularly Judaism, which was his special interest. He taught us about Philosophy of Religion and Ethics. We went on interesting field trips, including a synagogue service on Yom Kippur. When we were studying the Bible he would go back to the original Greek if we had a question about an inconsistency - our old teacher would have thrown chalk at us for being insolent! In Ethics he would set up debates - sometimes he would tell us which side we had to argue on so we had to research not necessarily in line with our true opinions.

Because he was young he was still in touch with young people's thinking and could relate to us. Because he was an atheist he could present the facts objectively.

I wonder what he's doing now?

 

[Malaika]

hmm...I have lots of favorite teachers all whom are females, because I don't really like having male teachers they make me nervous for some reasons, though some male teachers I have, I accept them, because if I feel comfortable around them, then I don't mind at all.

hmm.. let me think.

my current favorite is my japanese teacher. I've known her for about a year, ever since I joined the anime club at the college when I was still a HS. I didn't talk to her that much, but then when I entered community college I chose japanese 101 as my class (long story) so when I walked in I saw her and I was shocked, for then on we bonded.

And she's really funny, I like her personality and everything. She teaches really good japanese, the thing is that she's very fast in her teaching, I don't blame her, though I try to keep up with her. lol. I did pass the 101 class, but 102 is a bit harder, though I just keep going to that class, I might re take 102, but its okay, I mean hey if I didn't make it the first time, then I can always try doing it the second time.

I can't say anything else, other then I've grown very close to her and I like going out and having fun with her. This would be the first time I've done something like this with a teacher, I mean just continously having fun and good time you know.

^_^

 

[Ma Cherie]

I had alot of teachers that I liked. One was my first grade teacher. She was hard on us but above all she was really nice. She taught me how to cut properly. Another was my third grade teacher and she was hard on us about grammer and the proper way to speak English. If one of the students said something incorrectly she'd scold us. I miss having teachers like that, I don't know, it seems that these days some teachers don't care about their students. :?

 

[MeAndroo]

Andrea Morales - Consumer Behavior:
Easily my favorite college professor, Ms. Morales was a 5' bundle of energy, which alone set her apart from a great many of my other business profs. She kept class light without straying from the material, and spoke authoritatively on the subject without being dull, and gave us outside projects that illustrated the concepts well. Plus she let me be the class goof that I was in high school. Word is she's moved to a different university, and USC is worse for her loss.

Mr. Sims - Honors Chemistry
Mr. Sims probably had one of the better senses of humor of any teacher I've met, let alone had. He was constantly cracking jokes about nerds and geeks, of which he was a proud one. He also was one of the few teachers I had in HS that asked me about my plans for college, which I thought was odd since I was in the "smart" classes. Great guy, class was tons of fun. My most memorable moment was watching him almost burn himself while igniting magnesium.

 

[Flashjeff]

A very interesting topic, and I've enjoyed reading the responses so far. As for me, sorry, but I can't remember that far back.... and I'm not kidding!

 

[DoctorP]

Well I have two: Mrs. Kirkham was my Algebra, Calc, and Adv. Math teacher...we were all pretty sure she was crazy, but she was a very good teacher.

The other was Old Lady Burge...she was my Biology teacher. I hated the class, but she made it fun anyway!

 

[Mycernius]

There are two teachers that stand out for me, bith from my last school.
The first was an English teacher called Andrew Taylor. Dressed like a hippy and could relate to us. He had a real passion for the subject and it rubbed off onto the class. Very easy to talk to and would recommend books for you to find out for yourselves. Unfortuanately he left in my second year and was replaced by probably one of the worst teachers I have ever had.
The other teacher was a chemistry teacher called Chris Kingston. He came to my school at the beginning of the last year I was at school and during exams. He had come from a public scholl and at the first lesson he said that if we stepped out of line then he would have us coping pages from Great Expectations. The other thing was he said that the class couldn't even pass a CSE exam (old english exam system) because of our last teacher, who had missed out a complete section, wasn't very good. At the end of the year the entire class passed their exams. He even put in overtime after school for us to catch up on our work. This was during the trouble with the teachers union in 1986. We were told we were doing detention if anyone asked. Again he was another teacher who had a real interest in his subject, which I think is important for any good teacher.

 

[Nuala]

I liked my history teacher in 8th grade, and my 5th grade teacher. My 5th grade teacher had interesting reptiles like a blood python and boa constrictor. My 8th grade history teacher was just funny. I believe he was a Vietnam veteran.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

Another favourite teacher of mine was my high school Art teacher. I kept in touch with him after I left as he gave up his job to run a stall on the local flea market and I used to visit him there. He was gutted when I chose Science and Mathematics A levels and then Mathematics and Philosophy at university. He always said I should have taken Art. Even so, he was convinced that one day I would make money out of Art. He died of a brain haemorrage a few years ago (he was only 45). I often wonder what he would say if he saw that I am selling my own jewellery that I design and make. I think he would be proud of me.