Your Favourite Teacher...

Luba · 01-19-2008, 08:44 PM

Tell us about your favourite teacher and what values or lessons he/she instilled in you?

While we're at it, tell us about your worst teacher and why.

TKDLady · 01-20-2008, 06:12 AM

I guess I didn't have a best or worst. Can't think of anything in either direction.

Luba · 01-20-2008, 07:57 AM

Mine was Miss Hogendoorn in Grades Two and Three! She was an older, Dutch lady, never married, and beautiful somewhat wavy white hair! I absolutely LOVED her! When I missed SO much school from being ill, she would work with me at lunchtime to catch up! She seemed to be the only one that cared about me at that very alone and sad time, and encouraged my love of Art! I think of her with a smile, love and respect!

TKDLady · 01-20-2008, 08:53 AM

It sounds like she was a wonderful teacher and mentor for you. I am glad you had someone like that when you were little.

IvyRose · 01-20-2008, 10:02 AM

My favorite teacher was my Band Teacher. He not only made me study, feel good about myself and pushed me hard; he practically saved me from myself. I kept in contact with him until I was about 20 years old.

He was my teacher in Middle School, but kept tabs on me throughout my High School Career. He would come visit me at my High School, to make sure I was studying.

I sat here for awhile thinking about my favorite teacher and a flood of past stories came to me. Like, this one time, at Band Camp...

Though, there are some serious stories attached to this teacher. I don't know where I'd be now if it were not for him.

Probably the worst teacher I had was an Algebra Teacher that did not understand me at all. He wanted to help me, but he thought I wasn't grasping concepts because I just didn't want to. He thought I wanted to be cool. This teacher actually tried to break my spirit and said some horrible things to me.

What? Are you kidding? I was a Band Geek... Any hope of me being cool in school had already been lost! He was a horrible teacher and my Band Teacher had some words with him.

Oops, I forgot... My Algebra Teacher really wasn't the worst. My High Scool History Teacher was probably the worst. He told me I wasn't college material, but I'd have a great career at "Being The Other Woman." I took that to heart and made some stupid decisions after that.

He was a jerk.

Luba · 01-20-2008, 12:14 PM

Isn't it great when a teacher or mentor believes in you; and how terrible it is when one a teacher or someone you admire doesn't believe in you and says some terrible, cruel things that you believe for years!

IvyRose · 01-20-2008, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luba

Isn't it great when a teacher or mentor believes in you; and how terrible it is when one a teacher or someone you admire doesn't believe in you and says some terrible, cruel things that you believe for years!

Yes, it is terrible when a responsible adult whose job is to encourage young people to strive for excellence, acts like a jerk... The one good thing about this though is that it reminds me how important it is to encourage children and young adults. To always have at least one positive thing to say about them, especially when we need to point out things that need to be worked on. That every job is important, no matter how much someone makes per year. To let them know, that even if someone has a disability or limitation in an area or even several, they can still make a difference in the world and contribute to society.

I was an idiot for letting his words affect me so much. I should really thank him because through the years, I learned not to take the negative comments and/or suggestions from professionals for absolute truth.

It is a wonderful thing when even just one person in your life takes such an interest in you and changes your life. Teacher or not, it really means the world.

Thanks for making this topic, Luba. It was a joy reminiscing.

Luba · 01-20-2008, 01:08 PM

For me, too, IvyRose, I enjoyed it!

I try to find a way to say something nice to a person, no matter how difficult they are to me...unless, of course, they have made a terrible judgment of me that I KNOW I'm not...then I don't try to fix it...how do you fix that anyway? But I do try to send 'silent blessings' so they would find happiness and contentment in their lives. It must be so difficult to live daily when one thinks the world is against them, and to die never having really lived! Sometimes we just rub a person the wrong way even if we didn't actually hurt them or have any contact with them.

IvyRose · 01-20-2008, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luba

For me, too, IvyRose, I enjoyed it!

I try to find a way to say something nice to a person, no matter how difficult they are to me...unless, of course, they have made a terrible judgment of me that I KNOW I'm not...then I don't try to fix it...how do you fix that anyway? But I do try to send 'silent blessings' so they would find happiness and contentment in their lives. It must be so difficult to live daily when one thinks the world is against them, and to die never having really lived! Sometimes we just rub a person the wrong way even if we didn't actually hurt them or have any contact with them.

Ooooh, good point, Luba. You can't really fix how someone feels about you. Sometimes it is a problem within themselves. It is their problem, not yours. They are just projecting how they feel about themselves down deep inside onto you.

When you said, "It must be so difficult to live daily when one thinks the world is against them, and to die never having really lived!"

If someone lashes out at you and you've been nothing but cordial, you have to wonder what they're going through in their personal life and what they're dealing with.

I learned that too, but it took a long time to understand that it isn't always my fault when someone is rude to me.

Vice versa, if I'm having a personality conflict with someone else... If I stop and think why I dislike this person, even though we've had very little contact, I usually find that I am seeing a trait they project outwardly that I dislike about myself.

Some trait that I am battling to break the habit of or a trait that reminds me of someone that was rude to me in the past. It usually has very little to do with the person at all.

Luba · 01-20-2008, 03:19 PM

It's true, IvyRose, that I also have read somewhere that if something annoys me about a person, I have to look within myself to see if I have that trait!

Meanon · 01-26-2008, 07:31 AM

My course leader has given me some help in skill development, but more than that, knowing that he rates me so highly has been important to my confidence as a new professional in my field, as almost all the people on my course are developing within their established profession. My worst teacher - an English teacher in secondary school who introduced each lesson every day with the same sentence said the same way and then spent the entire lesson murdering the classics by reading them in a monotone. She never looked at us or spoke to us. We really didn't like her and laughed at her a little to relieve the tedium. I felt really guilty when she later had a nervous breakdown and left the school.

Just remembered - My Add Maths teacher once referred to me as "shadow" in front of the class when talking about who was shadow and substance in his class - I think he was rather suprised when I went to the staff room later to talk to him about it