Memorable (good) teachers

[qwerty]

There have been two threads recently about bad teachers and teachers you have had crushes on. This has been addressed a little bit in the teacher crushes thread but have you had teachers who stood out in a positive or inspiring way?

I've had two. One was my 5th grade teacher. She was just one of the nicest people I've ever known. One of those people you don't know why but you just know you like them. When my mom passed away a few years ago she sent a card. I didn't expect that considering I had her as a teacher about 20-25 years ago.

The other one was a business writing teacher in college who challenged me to do a better job than I thought I could do in his class. He had a reputation of being tough but fair and I have great respect for teachers like that.

[littlebelle]

The only teacher that I ever really liked was my psychology teacher senior year.

She was awesome; she was a television junkie like myself and liked practically all the same shows as me. She was so nice and funny, I had never seen her angry before. All we did was watch movies that were related to psychology, mostly movies on mental illnesses (one of which became one of my favorite movies ever). We'd also watched reports and stuff that she had taped back in the day. We played games a lot too, haha, it was really fun.

She let us talk with each other and even while we were working on bookwork and things like that. When I was finished with my work I'd go over to her desk and we'd just talk about Melrose Place! it was amazing. Never before had I had a conversation with a teacher during class.

[Big C]

In my Public Speaking class last year, I had a nice, old guy for a teacher.

One of the things he had us do was give a speech on how to prepare something- I did a 10-minute presentation on how to make an apple pie.

[Schmoopie]

I have one teacher in 8th grade that I will never forget. It's really bittersweet for me to talk about him, since he died of a heart attack a couple of years ago, but he had such a profound affect on me. Long story short, he was a REALLY popular teacher in my junior high. Everyone knew him. He was hilarious but really tough.
One day in class these girls were cutting up and he was getting really mad. He told them repeatedly to stop but they refused. My friend and I were sitting next to them. Finally the teacher gets so mad that he assigned us all extra work to do. My friend and I were ticked because we weren't doing anything but were included in the punishment. I think we had to write a paragraph 25 times or something like that.
Anyway, class was about ten minutes away from being over, so my friend and I started working on our punishment. After class we were gathering our books and so forth, and the teacher came up to us and said that he knew we weren't the ones cutting up in class so we would be exempt from the punishment.
I have always remembered that because he could have just made us take the punishment anyway. I was devastated when I heard that he had died.

I also have a lasting impression of a theatre teacher in college. In this class, we watched plays and critiqued them, so it wasn't an actual acting class. In 1992, my dad died. I was at school and was still in shock over his death. The teacher told us we were going to watch a movie and had to critique it for a final paper. He started the movie and it turned out to be "Crimes of the Heart" with Diane Keaton, Sissy Spacek and Jessica Lange. I'd seen the film before, but when it got to this one scene that was supposed to be funny, I was just mortified. In case you haven't seen it, in one segment, Sissy Spacek puts her head in the oven, trying to kill herself.
I hate to divulge deep information about myself like this, but my dad had taken his own life just weeks before. So when I saw that scene with the oven, it was literally like someone had set me on fire. I felt this whooosh of pain come across me. It was really weird. I was like "There is NO WAY" I can watch this film and try to concentrate on it.
I refused to watch anymore after that, so when class was over, I went to the teacher and asked him if I could pick a different film to watch and critique. He asked me why and I told him about what happened to my dad and how that scene affected me. I don't remember exactly what he said but he let me choose another movie to critique. I had "Driving Miss Daisy" at home, so I used that one instead. And I got an "A" in the class!

Andrea

[Hollow]

my high school choir teacher. he was really what built my confidence as a singer and musician in general. he noticed i had a serious interest in music and went out of his way to give me a few voice lessons and a book about music theory. when he found out i was depressed over some relationship problems, he gave me a copy of the book of mormon to console me. i'm not into christianity, but it was a really nice thing to do. he moved to another state this year at least temporarily to work on a doctorate's degree, and no matter how good the new director there is, i probably won't be going to the concerts because they would just seem empty.

[PZelda]

My eighth grade English teacher. I'd known her since I was in fourth grade, because my sis had her that year (she was a seventh grader). I'd always loved writing and reading - I still do - and while I was one of her students, she encouraged me to do so much more of that. If we did writing assignments, she'd always pick me out and tell me what a great job I did on my assignment. She was just sooooo awesome to everybody - she was pretty much everybody's favorite teacher, mine included. We got really close that year... We'd email each other and so forth. On the last day of eighth grade, I had to leave early. As I was leaving, she saw me and said "Are you really leaving now?" To which I nodded yes. "Awww, I'm going to miss you! Come here..." And she gave me the biggest hug. I was soooo surprised but very happy about that - from that point on when I was in HS, whenever I'd stop in to see her, we'd always exchange at least one hug.

We had an awesome friendship throughout my HS years... The Valentine's Day the year I was a sophomore (February 2001), her boyfriend proposed to her, she said yes and informed me the same night. When I stopped in to see her the next day to personally congratulate her, she told me I'd been one of the first 10 people she told about her engagement.

There's a lot more to this, but I don't have time to write it all out. Last time I saw her was 1 1/2 years ago, and I miss her a lot.

[ponytail]

My kindergarten teacher, Ms. Thompson. She was so sweet and patient. I felt comfortable around her.

[GARFIELDKOOL]

This is easy. My 5th grade teacher. He was so personable and approachable. He was my all-time favorite teacher. Unlike most elementary teachers, if you had to go to the bathroom, you didn't have to ask. He would tell you to get up and go. He never yelled at me.....I never gave him a reason to, I was shy and quiet. What made him so special was that whenever I approached him, he always put his arm around my shoulders. He never did that to anyone else in the class, and that made me realize I was his favorite. Now keep in mind I really don't like physical contact from another male, but since he was a good teacher and a great man, I didn't mind. What was devasting was that I moved out the neighborhood and had to change schools in the middle of the school year. I didn't want to leave the school and my teacher. I never said good-bye to him. I didn't see or hear from him again. I did go back a few years later to visit, but officials said he wasn't at the school anymore. In 2004, I discovered he had passed away from cancer. It ws in our local obits. I was so heart broken.

[AB]

My Algebra/Geometry teacher from high school. He was the best teacher at explaining things. Many teachers zip along & if you don't get it the first time that's your tough luck. But he took time to really explain things.

[PunkyP0WER]

mrs. smutnick my pre algebra teacher. i didn't even get grades, barely passing but she was very kind anyway. after my mom died she took me under her wing and always had time to talk and listen. on my graduation day she gave me this halo/wreath thingy to wear in my hair made out of flowers she got at a florist shop. it was very pretty and i'm sure very expensive.