Good teachers!

[LibrarianGal]

My 7th and 8th grade teacher was a wonderful man. Mr. R was responsible for all 60 kids in my grade levels in my rough city school (and countless before and after us) being avid theater and classical music fans. He taught as all how to play basic piano (at least the scales!), we mounted our own productions of Phantom of the Opera, On the way to the forum, and several others. In class (although he taught science) he played musical soundtracks and classical music. We'd spend time discussing the merits of a particuliar show and musical period. He even arranged a class trip for us to see a real show on stage. He made it cool and enjoyable
I had many other wonderful teachers, but as I still am a crazy theater fan, he always comes first to mind 
LibrarianGal

[RuneGuardian]

Well let's see...all my elementary school teachers were either morons or b*tches, so none of them qualify for this topic. Forgive my coarse language, but there really aren't more befitting words that are less caustic to describe them. I can't believe some of them actually had teaching degrees - that's how dumb they were. I digress.

My art teacher in high school is an awesome guy. He taught me so much and I owe it to him for talking some sense into my mother about allowing me to draw rather than trying to discourage me. He got me into PhotoShop and Flash as well as oil painting, the latter being something I never would have considered since I'm not that good with paint. My art teacher was the biggest influence in my life - I came to high school with skills and he helped me refine them, and by the time I graduated I had developed enough to make decent artwork to submit to potential colleges.

My algebra III teacher, Mr. Sikora. I had a different teacher for two years before Sikora, and the previous teacher couldn't teach to save his life. I passed by the skin of my teeth in his class. Then I had Mr. Sikora for algebra III and I got A's and B's on everything because he taught that much better. He also had a tendancy of telling really stupid jokes and laughing at them. Very cool guy, and very smart. I think his IQ is genius level, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that.

Mr. Frantz, my English and journalism teacher. He was so nice to everyone, even the troublemakers...as well as very lax with assignments. Maybe a little too lax, but he was still an awesome guy; great to talk to and he had a cool sense of humor. I recall an assignment for journalism where we had to bring in three songs of our choosing so we could share our favorite music with the class. Seeing everyone's expressions warp when I played the wonderfuly perverted song "Little Girls" by Oingo Boingo was one of my most memorable high school experiences. He also interviewed me and let me do comics for the school paper.

Mr. Pipher, my sociology teacher. I really enjoyed his class, though I think we could have done without watching "Being John Malkovich" because it was a crappy movie, but I digress. He has a really nice personality and a great sense of humor. I know I've said that about all these teachers, but I love a teacher who can laugh a little during the lesson. Mr. Pipher is really attractive too, but don't include that in my list of reasons why he's a good teacher - his looks are just extra goodness 

[Miss Misery]

Mrs. Marsh, my 10th Grade English teacher.

The class was required to keep a journal and write down what we were thinking at the moment, or write an alternate ending to a story we read. She would read them and write comments next to the entries. By several of my entries she wrote that I was a good writer and that I should consider writing as a career. I'll never forget that even after 15+ years. It was one of the few bright spots in my high school years.

I write fanfiction (read it here: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/934606/) and am trying to get my butt in gear to write the novel I've been planning for six months.

[hkkatie]

The first teacher that came to mind was my jr. and sr. year English Teacher/soccer coach. Besides being just a fascinating lady, I felt like she really cared about me and my well-being. I think it was the beginning of my senior year, and I was just not putting forth much effort in class, slacking off big time. I think I was a bit depressed, to be honest. Anyway, she pulled me out of my math class one day to talk to  me to make sure I was doing ok and to see if there was anything she could do to help. We talked for about half an hour, I don't remember about what exactly, but I remember the feeling I had afterwards: that I wasn't alone, and that there were people there who cared.

[MelJill]

Probably my best ever school teacher was the one they took away from me in third grade.

Mrs. B.  did have her personal problems--she was a heavy smoker, and I much later found out that she was an alcoholic (and that her drinking had started in the aftermath of a car accident in which she had been driving and her then-11yo son was killed, but she was not drinking at the time of that accident).

Nevertheless, Mrs. B was a great teacher--she was able to deal with the slower kids in the class and me.  Even so, I was bored to death in school.  I'd already done the problems in my entire math book by November (school started the last week of August), and was finding it really easy.

We had struck a deal--if my mom said it was ok, Mrs. B would let me stay an hour after school and she'd teach me more advanced material because the school district refused to allow me to skip a grade.  (They said I was socially immature because I didn't have friends amongst my classmates ...  I am, and have always been, an introvert by nature and I didn't think that simply being born in 1965-66 was sufficient grounds to form a friendship.  So sue me.)

That night, I told my mom about the deal, and she okayed it.  I went to school the next day (just before Thanksgiving break) all excited ... only to find out that Mrs. B was not there and we had a substitute teacher, Mrs. W (about whom I'll say more in the bad teachers thread).

Mrs. B never returned, and it wasn't until I was 20 that I learned that it wasn't my fault that she left.  But that was the last time I was ever excited about going to school.  My grades were fine ... as long as I was interested in the material, but even when I wasn't, I could pull a B without any effort.  Mrs. B was the only teacher who was teaching me how to learn, and the only one who ever made me want to put serious effort into learning something that didn't come *snap fingers* easy.

[troll1984]

I was raised as an only child by a single parent. I wasn't around kids much when I was growing up except for school. Since I was always around adults, I tended to make better friends with them than my peers. This made for me having some great teachers that turned into great friends.

9th Grade - Health Class. Boring class, but the teacher was great. She really cared about her students and I was going through some rough times in high school. After the class ended, I would go talk with her after school, or during any free time I had. She retired at the end of my 10th grade year, but I looked her up and we keep in touch. I really miss talking to her, but I'll be moving back closer to home this summer. I can't wait to be able to hang out with her more. I don't think she knows how much she helped be during the worst part of my life (thus far, hopefully forever).

5th - 12th Grade - My band director was the greatest. He was the first stable male figure in my life and I really looked up to him. We always had great conversations on long school bus rides and I got along with him great. Those conversations shaped some of the ways I think about things now.

2nd - 3rd Grade - I absolutely hated this teacher when I was in those grades, but when I got out of school, I was friends with her son and still kept in touch. Looking back I realized that she turned me into the student that I turned out to be. I really appreciate what she did for me.

[kisu]

Two really outstanding teachers from my life:

Ms. Eve Alexander, 2nd grade: My family moved to Canada for a year, and I was put in the local school even if I only knew four words in English. Ms. Alexander was genuinely interested in my learning and got all my classmates helping as well. I was never teased for being the weird girl who doesn't really know what's going on, they all treated me like a friend from day one and put so much effort into understanding me and helping me understand them. She was so enthusiastic about all my progress in English, and so supportive!

Mrs. Tiitinen, 3rd-6th grade: Back home, I went to the "international school" where the teaching was in English. The school was 10 km away from my home, and most of the class I belonged to had been together since first grade. Mrs. Tiitinen helped me adjust to the new class and also helped me catch up in some things I'd missed during the Canada year. It's her I have to thank for my interest in English literature and writing.

Wonderful women!

[Quesselin]

Mrs. Jeppesen, my first to fourth grade Danish teacher, and therefore the one who taught me to read. I learned *very* fast, and within no time was reading much more quickly than my class mates. One day, we had to read a page or so in a book, and then talk about it. I read it, then started looking out the window. She told me to read my text instead.
"But I already did?" I explained. "Not that quickly, I doubt that. Now be a darling and read your book."
Not the kind to stir up trouble, I just shrugged and read it again, no harm done, I thought. I then started looking out the window again.

She came and hunkered down next to me. "Sweetie, you have to read the book." "But I did!" "Okay, then, what was it about then?" I told her. She blinked, then said: "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said you didn't read it. Why don't I bring you a book tomorrow you can read after you've done with the texts we read in class?"

And she did. I'll never forget how she apologized to a 7-year old like that, and how she helped and supported my love of languages during the next years. I didn't see her for a couple of years after leaving town as a teenager, and then decided one day, on the spur of the moment, to go see her (I was walking past her house while back home visiting my family).
I rang the bell, and she opened the door, looking pretty much the same after those 4-6 years since I last saw her. I did not however; I was pierced, dressed like a goth and wore more makeup at once than I do in two weeks now, my hair was orange, the whole shebang. And the second she laid eyes on me, her face lit up and she held out her arms and said my name and started crying with joy of seeing me again.

She is not just the best teacher a child could ever have, she is one of the most wonderful people any person, child or adult, could ever hope to know.

[Slartibartfast]

I had many wonderful teachers, but one of the best was my 7th-through-9th grade math teacher, Mr. Jome.

In seventh grade, I was still an awkward kid.  I was always "the smart girl", but didn't always know how to be assertive enough to get myself in situations I could really learn.

A few tests into the 7th grade year, Mr. Jome asked me to stay after class.  He had noticed that I was catching onto algebra pretty easily, and asked if I'd like to look through some extra problems.  He coordinated the high school math bowl competitions, and had practice sheets from tests going back about ten years.  He gave me a few to try, and told me to ask him if I had any questions.

Of course, I did - we hadn't actually covered geometry yet, and I was only a few months into algebra.  The math bowl questions were more about thinking than about knowing concepts, though, so I was able to figure out a few geometry answers with his help.  I came back for more.  By the end of the year I was able to finish most of the problems (not always right, but usually the right idea) despite not having had the classes yet, because Mr. Jome went through them problem by problem with me.  I remember learning the pythagorean theorem in one of these after school sessions, and the basics of trigonometry.

He also put me in the very last math bowl of the year, with the high school students.  I did horribly, of course, but I loved feeling so grown up.  By the end of my eighth-grade year, I was the captain of the math team (everyone else on the team were seniors, and I was usually the only girl in the room).  By ninth grade I was winning medals in the math meets, and had started dating a junior guy who also did math meets and was *gasp* popular!  (Well, among the non-athletes.)  My younger sister got started on math meets the same way, and the two of us ended up organizing our own math meet for local 6th graders, writing the questions, sending high school kids out to "tutor" teams for it, and everything.  We had a blast, and I learned how to hold my own among kids who were four years older.

I really think if Mr. Jome hadn't seen through my skinny, awkward, 7th-grade exterior, I wouldn't have had the courage to take a leadership role in many activities in high school.  I certainly wouldn't have learned to like math.  (Which lasted until freshman year calculus in college, when a teacher killed it, but that's another story.)

[weirdfae]

My Headstart (preschool) teacher.  I was really young while I was in her class, but I still remember how sweet she was to me. I loved to "help" and she was always so nice. That was a time in my life when I was really scared of leaving my mom and she made it so enjoyable. For years afterward, if she saw my mom she'd ask about me. I saw her about 2 years ago, and even after 10+ years she remembered me. She gave me a hug, and could not believe "I was her lil Keri, all grown up ".

It meant alot that out of all the kids that had been through her class over the years, she remembered me, with that same fondness I remembered her. Oh, jeez now I wanna see her and hug her again. Tell her what an impact she made on one very shy lil girl.

[NEDESAPIO]

The two teachers who really stand out in my mind were both university professors, and stangely enough they were both thought "boring" by many of the other students.  However, I loved them.  It's true that their teaching style tended toward the "stand and lecture" method (they were both English literature professors), but they were both so knowlegable.  One was a very gentle, soft-spoken, serious young man; he was from England but of Indian descent, I remember.  He had the nicest voice; I just loved to hear him talk.   The other was a lot of fun to talk to:  if you visited him in his office and got him talking about his specialty (Dickens and other Victorian literature), you could not get him to stop and you learned a lot.  He always had time to talk to you.   

[Amitisoo]

I can't talk about my favourite teacher without bawling my eyes out.

I love him and he stood up for me no matter what. He lost his job over making his classroom my safe haven.

I haven't been able to contact him a couple years over my shame of not having a good enough job/education/ life.

I couldn't have made it without him.

[artk2002]

Let's see...

Mr. Rigg -- 6th grade.  He understood gifted students and gave us plenty of extra projects and kept me interested in school.

A whole series of band directors and music teachers:

John Carter -- elementary school orchestra teacher, who introduced me to the clarinet and music in general.  I listened to a recording of the honor orchestra from my 6th grade year recently; I have to admire his patience in tolerating our awful sounds!

Robert Bright -- Jr. High band director -- I learned the oboe from him and began to really understand classical music

Al Oliveri -- High School band/orchestra director -- I learned the saxophone, bassoon, flute and even the baritone horn.  Got introduced to big-band music and started to learn to write my own.  Sadly, he had two heart attacks the year after I graduated; his funeral was one of the saddest moments of my life.  Hmmm... I live not too far from the cemetary where he's buried -- I think I need to make a visit

F. Kelly James -- UCLA marching band director.  It was from Kelly that I learned lessons about leadership, teamwork and organization that have helped me throughout my life.  Some people considered him a lazy director, because almost every footbal halftime was planned by the student staff, but he always gave guidance where it was needed; in truth, he was a master at delegation, giving everyone the exact job that they could handle.  Another life cut short -- he had a stroke my 5th year during a football game, lapsed into a coma an died a few months later.  It's a tribute to him that we were still able to take the band to Tokyo later that year and perform.  Kelly never yelled -- he was a master of "The Stare" and could reduce the cockiest of college students to a whimpering mass without saying a word.

[Barghest1031]

I’ve been incredibly lucky and had mostly all wonderful teachers (or just cool teachers. . .but even they were pretty good at actually teaching).

- Mrs. Stephens : Originally my 11th grade Honors Creative Writing teacher, she became our school’s new head librarian my senior year. I took senior project and was hesitant about asking her if I could work in the library as their helper since it’d never been done before that I knew of. Of course she let me, and the librarians in general loved me. Mrs. Stephens would even buy me lunch from a nearby sub place when she went out to get the other librarians’ food (if they wanted any). She was just one of those overall extremely nice (but strict when she had to be) teachers. As my Creative Writing teacher she also had lots of positive things to say about my writing and kind of helped give me the nudge into writing on the side (I was opting for Journalism as a career, but I miss acting and the theater too much.)

- Coach Reynolds : Well, he was actually a retired coach well before I was even a high school student, but that’s what everybody still called him. I had him for both Honors English 11 and Honors Shakespeare my senior year. My junior year I went through an incredibly bad spell of depression (which resulted in several near breakdowns in English class) and my grades began to plummet. During one of his classes I was called down to the office and told I had an appointment with the school counselor in charge of the peer help group. I went into her office completely confused, and she ended up telling me that I was the only student Coach Reynolds had EVER referred to her since he was so worried about me. Knowing that one of my teachers was that concerned about me really helped me out. Aside from that he was an amazing teacher. During his Shakespeare classes he would act out parts of the plays. Like in Hamlet, he stood on top of his desk, shouted “I LOVED OPHELIA!” at the top of his lungs and leapt off like he was Hamlet jumping into Ophelia’s grave. Yeah. He was just an amazing teacher all around.

- Mr./Coach Lewis : He was my teacher for Honors Ancient History which I took in 11th grade. Most of the other kids in that class were seniors, and I think there were probably only two or three other juniors like me. He kind of looked out for me in that class and praised my work a lot which was what I needed, especially that year of school. Although he did embarrass me by telling the entire class that if I hadn’t turned in our big test before the final, he still would have given me an A on it as it was over a kind of Risk like game we played and he said he admired my tactics and skill in it so much that he didn’t really care what I wrote down on paper. Yeah. I’m sure it didn’t endear me any to my fellow students, but I still beam every time I remember his words.

- Coach Stephens, Coach Abner, and Coach Bundy all fall under the category of cool teachers whose classes everybody enjoyed taking. They’re some of those rare educators who can balance out learning and fun.

- Mrs. Everson : One of my two theater teachers in high school. I had her more than I did Mrs. K.B. our other teacher, but they’re both amazing.

- Mrs. Palmore : The ONLY math teacher I have ever had who actually got almost the entire class to understand what she was teaching (algebra II when I had her). She was incredibly nice and willing to help if you didn’t understand what she was doing to work through the problem.

There are my teachers from my time in private school too, but unfortunately I can’t even remember a lot of their names since it was a while ago. Several of them were wonderful teachers who helped me a lot. I’ve also got to give credit to my music teacher then, Mrs. Sweat since she put up with my and my not so wonderful piano playing. ^_^

[Rei-chan]

Mrs. Alvarez:  My second grade teacher in Catholic school (this was at a time when the school was phasing in teachers that weren't nuns).  I don't remember a lot of what she taught, 25 years later, but I do remember picking up some basic Spanish from her, as well as her kindness to us all.  Her grandson (who was in a higher grade) always referred to her as Abuela in front of us, and that's how I remember her to this day.

Ms. Martin:  My eighth grade English teacher, who invited a group of us to go with her to Europe the summer after she had us.  Although it was a guided tour (through 3 countries) she made sure that we had as much time as possible to explore and see what we wanted to see.  It began my "love affair" with Paris and later, when my DH and I were planning our honeymoon, I was able to show him all the wonderful things she showed us (and navigate our way around the city).

Dr. Fortuna:  My college Philosophy and later Ethics teacher, who was always so sympathetic about my anxiety problems (at that time, we didn't know I was Bi-Polar) and who taught me so much about the Holocaust and the nature of evil in this world.  I hope he is still teaching, as many others could benefit from his wisdom.