Who Was Your Favorite School Teacher and Why?

by compound complex 31 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Abandoned

  Favorite teachers?

  Elementary School: Mrs. Nye. I don't know remember her first name, but that's probably because I never knew it in the first place. She was my third grade teacher and she allowed one of my friends and myself put on a play in front of the rest of the class. It was cool. OH, and although it was HIGHLY based on Three Billy Goat's Gruff, we basically wrote it ourselves. :-)

  HIgh School: Mr. Ed Anderson. He was my tenth grade math teacher. I don't know if he's still teaching as that was back in 1982, but he had such an awesome sense of humor that I looked forward to math class every day. Mr. Anderson wasn't into JOKES though, he liked to tell humorous stories. Most of his stories were about him when he was a kid or in college and such but a few of them were about his kids. Well, one of his kids was in my grade and I'm sure Lee was embarrassed every day over the things we learned about him. I don't know if I'd have been such a big fan of Mr. Anderson if I'd put myself in his son's place, but I did gain a HUGE love for math.
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  misspeaches

  Miss Narelle Adamson. In primary school. She was the kindest most beautiful teacher I ever came across. She cared so much about all the students. We all flourished academically under her tutelege. *spelling?* We had a happy class with a beautiful teacher.

  Miss Adamson eventually got married and was transferred to another school. I happened to have friends at this school. A couple of years later I heard she had, had a baby after many unsuccessful attempts to have children. She loved children and wanted one of her own. Tragically her baby died from SIDS. It was too much for her and she committed suicide.

  I still remember the days I spent in her classroom & her love for the children. Such a sad & tragic outcome.
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  Lady Lee

  In Grade 3 I had a teacher who taught us about snakes and how so many are not dangerous. I remember her walking into the classroom with gartwer snakes wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet.

  In Grade 10 I had an awesome music teacher, Mr. Tidy. Most of the kids thought he was gay but I didn't care if he was or not. He was someone who reached out to me when I thought I was all alone. He got some of us (ok probably just me) into classical music, which was quite the deal in the era of Stones vs Beatles. I still listen to some of what he taught us. He conducted the school choir and actually got permission from my foster mother to let me join the choir. This was a huge deal because I was not allowed to go anywhere to do anything. Before I left school and went home to visit my mother for the first time in 3 years he offered that if I came back he would help me get into some other foster care. Just the fact that he cared about me as a person was something I needed more than anything - to believe that someone saw me and cared.
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  XJW4EVR

  I had two teachers that stood out in my life:

  Favorite: David Stormo. He was my Government & Law teacher in High School. He made the U.S. Constitution come alive. He introduced us to critical thinking about politics. Strong personality, and a white teacher in a Latino controlled school. He was railroaded by the the bigoted administration of Taos High School. Unfortunately, only one family, a white family, came to his defense when his case was heard by the Latino dominated school board. Bigotry is an ugly thing, especially when the discriminated become the discriminators.

  Hated: Mr. Mondragon. He was my 6th grade teacher, and was a racial and religious bigot. He hated white people, and he hated anyone that was not a Catholic. Every JW that was assigned to his class eventually transfered out of his class or to another school. The Mormons brought a number of leaders to the school to discuss the problem he had with Mormon kids. He was eventually "retired," but not before damaging the lives of countless kids with his bigotry. I heard, throuh the grapevine, that when he died in September, he had the lowest turnout for his funeral, than any other teacher in Taos valley's history. Serves him right.
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  compound complex

  Dear Fellow-Students,

  Thanks so much for your terrific, heart-warming replies! I will refer to them often for a good laugh and reminder on how to deal with my own students. The key is love, patience and treating children with respect. It's incredibly awesome to have adult, former students see you 20 years later and say how much they loved your class! My gratitude to you, once again.

  Forever in education,

  CoCo
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  nvrgnbk

  I was thinking about this just the other day, CoCo.

  I have a few I really need to look up.

  Thanks for the reminder.
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  changeling

  Nydia Cabassas, Spanish AP. She trully loved and was involved with her students as induviduals. "How" she taught was as important as "what" she taught. I'll never forget her.

  changeling
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  Leolaia

  Liked:

  Mr. Hee....Taught chemistry class but spent the first day of class talking about mass hallucinations from fungus in rye bread, whether decapitated heads can still perceive a while before dying, and other strange stuff. He showed us James Burke's CONNECTIONS in class, which was awesome. He also was a nice, cool teacher.

  Mr. Resurrection....He was newswriting teacher...fun and funny guy, but Rez died a few years later :(

  Mr. Ling....Taught cimenatography...showed us the silent film Trip to the Moon, Blue Velvet, other David Lynch stuff...

  Ms. Sunakoda....Hilarious, because she would often have the perfect response to the smart alecky students in the class.

  Ms. Fukumoto....Fuks supported my writing ambitions, encouraged me to join the writing club and that was at the time JWs were discouraged from joining clubs.

  Disliked:

  Ms. Koizumi....Boring as hell! Had two classes with her. :(

  Ms. Shigeta....Taught math and math was not my strength, and she very pretty strict. She was I'm sure a fine teacher, but I did not enjoy her classes. I liked Mr. Wong's classes which were easier.

  Ms. Yamamoto....Gave me my only F in my school career. Blech!!
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  stillajwexelder

  Chemistry teacher - so passionate and made the subject come alive
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  knock knock

  Funny, I can only remember the teachers that were, well, funny. Or at least had funny names like Mrs. Bowjarski. Bow-Jar-Ski as she drew pictures of each on the kindergarten chalkboard. Had a history teacher that was forever telling the class what would "behoove" us. What the hell is that?
  
  But I guess the one I remember most is the algebra teacher that informed us that old math teachers never die, they just reduce to lowest terms. Ba-dum-bummmm.