Who is the best teacher you have ever had?

[amateurmacfreak]

I know many people claim to have a teacher who turned their life around, who made them realize their potential and what they wanted to do in life/who they wanted to be.

Who was that teacher for you??

In high school, I hope and expect that I will probably have another teacher that I love that inspires me, but at this point, that teacher for me has been my science teacher, Mr. Folger. He's my science teacher, and he absolutely has made me adore scientific thinking and realize my full potential in science. He makes me excited about every aspect of science and always challenges me to think. I know he cares about my future and my future career paths and that he really actually cares about my academic career.

Also, my French teacher has had a big impact on me. She is a great, fun teacher, but mostly I enjoy how much she genuinely cares about her students' lives and enjoys being a part of them. She knows I don't like French so much, that I like it but I'm totally in love with science and algebra. She got really excited for me when I told her how I'm probs going to take Advanced Geometry in the summer before 9th grade so I can get ahead in math and do Algebra 2 in 9th grade. She also has told me how much she hopes I go into science and do something wonderful in the field, so her active interest in my life and how well she knows me really helps me to believe in myself.

So, anyways, who was the teacher who made the biggest good impact on you??

[Jaffa Cake]

There was a teacher at my old school who several pupils would describe as the best teacher they've 'ever had' – unfortunately, he's up in court for it at the moment...

[mjstew33]

My English teacher I have right now, love her to death.

And, my art teacher. love her to death too.

[devilot]

When I was in high school-- my AP biology teacher, Mr. Kucer. He was considered a hard ass and a lot tougher than many of the high school's teacher. He warned us all the first day of class, that all of us A students had better be prepared, because our new best grades would be C's. He said, that by the first 6 week grading period, what you had then, would most likely be what you would have at the end of the year: translation, if you don't make it then, you won't make it through.

I had an F at the six week grading period.

I stuck it through, worked my butt off... consistently got 1/3 on his ridiculously hard 'quizes.' My grade at the end of the year, regardless? An A. He also warned those of us who were thinking of asking him for a letter of recommendation for college-- to seek him out privately and ask him first if he would be able to write a sparkling review of us, because he would tell us honestly, if he wouldn't write a nice review. I asked him if he could write a good review for me, :sniff: He got teary-eyed and said that I had demonstrated such a thorough understanding (yeah right) and passion for the field and sincerely hoped I would go into the field for my career. He said I was one of his top 3 students (one of the other girls was going to CalTech, and the other to Yale). :sniff: He changed how I treated school. I never had to work for an A like that.

At a community college course, an English teacher changed my world view. I took an English course focused on writers who are women of color. It is because of her that I want to major in Feminist Studies. *this all gets a bit too personal and emotional to elaborate, but trust me, she has changed my life*

[thedude110]

I've been lucky to have (and to work with) a lot of really great teachers. But the teacher who taught me the most -- hands down -- was an English teacher I had in college.

Every class with him was like an exercise in learning how to read, write and think all over again. And his personal commitment to his students ... well, he was a real role model for me.

[zap2]

Originally Posted by Jaffa Cake

There was a teacher at my old school who several pupils would describe as the best teacher they've 'ever had' – unfortunately, he's up in court for it at the moment...

why?


MY best teacher, well i have a few, my 4th grade teacher, were friends now, she was that cool. My Art teacher is one of the coolest guys ever(and the only teacher with Macs in his classroom) my Spanish Teacher last year, uses Macs(a TiBook) and he was an around grreat guy. And my last yeat math teacher, we would always laugh and have fun in his class but we still learned everything we had to.

[Jaffa Cake]

Originally Posted by zap2

why?

Well, if you're wondering what he'd done... suffice to say a number of his female pupils over the years. It's quite the scandal back up there...

Anyway, the best teacher of mine... probably Mr Bishop, at Primary School. I would have been about nine or so at the time. I'd like to say he taught me something incredibly profound that altered the course of my life, but he didn't to be honest. He was just one of those teachers that sticks in your mind for being a really, really nice bloke who taught his pupils well and wasn't afraid of them enjoying their lessons.

[Les Kern]

me

[pknz]

There was a teacher at my old school who several pupils would describe as the best teacher they've 'ever had' – unfortunately, he's up in court for it at the moment...

Oo burn.

I had a really excellent English teacher in year 9, a good maths teacher in year 10 and thats about it. Since then I have hated all my English teachers, I got 93% in an exam in year 9, now my English grades are pretty lame.

[katie ta achoo]

I've had 2 or 3 amazing teachers in my life..

One was Wayne Brooks. Even though I only took a few viola lessons from him, he still taught me immeasurable things about music. He's an amazing man, and I'm saddened that I can't play viola much any more, so I don't need lessons. He's the principal violist of the HSO, and took me on, even though I was a mediocre, at best, violist with about 2 months of experience (but 10 on violin)

Another was TROY! He was a student that taught Fed Challenge/economics my junior year of HS. He is amazing. He's the coolest guy I know. He is incredibly smart, good at violin, and just generally a great guy. He instilled the love of economics into me. He's at Harvard now, and (iirc) the only freshman on the Fed Challenge team there. He's awesome.

My third, would have to be my math teacher from 4th grade. She was an amazing woman. She made math FUN. She got married and moved away, so I haven't seen her since then. I'd like to thank her.

[Benjamin]

Well for me it just has to be well.. TV? Kidding...

Most of my science teachers in HS were probably the best at the time. All of theme really were great to have. In college I've had many great professors as well, but this time in philosophy and biz. To be honest I wasn't ever a TV watching kid, I was always on the computer.... heheh.

[leftbanke7]

In high school it was my History teacher Chris Krueger. In college, it has been one of the professors in the film department, Chris Lippard.

So odds are if your name is Chris, you will be a good teacher

[amateurmacfreak]

I have also had an amazing math teacher.
She makes math so fun and everyone always enjoys her class. I love math anyways, but she has taught me so much and challenged me and encouraged me..... She's a wonderful teacher.

[RacerX]

I've had a lot of great teachers, many of whom went out of their way to help me. In almost any endeavor I set out in I seem to find the best people and they inevitably take me under their wing.

But of all of those people (far too many to list here), I would say that Professor Fillmore of UCSD (who retired in 2000) had the biggest effect on me. More than just a teacher, he is a great friend and a father figure to me.

Usually you have a professor for one or two courses, I had Professor Fillmore for a ton! The ones I can recall off hand:

Classical Differential Geometry
Calculus on Manifolds
Lie Circular Geometry
Real Analysis
Clifford Algebras
Projective Geometry

And we wrote a paper together researching the early techniques of Vector Translation of Levi-Civita. In that paper we made use of developable surfaces created by an envelope of tangent planes to a path on another surface. The technique is analogous to the modern tangent bundle.

All this math had to be developed in a hurry back between 1915 and 1920, the field of differential geometry hadn't had much application and consequently few advancements since the days of Riemann in the mid 19th century. With the Theory of General Relativity that all changed. Without the tools needed to study the theory, physicist were unable to take advantage of the new possibilities. Levi-Civita made some of the most important early developments, and those were later refined or replaced with more advanced techniques. What was surprising was that other than the most basic examples, Levi-Civita's original technique was all but forgotten. In most texts his ideas are more of a historical footnote and are no longer explored in depth.

At any rate, it was Professor Fillmore who got me into UCSD (and why I changed majors from physics to mathematics), and it was with his support and help that I got many of the math jobs I've had.

Probably the saddest turn of events was when I moved into the area of differential topology. There were only about a dozen people working in the area I was specializing in and no one at UCSD (my research was being supervised by a professor at SUNY Stony Brook). It made it hard to share my research with Professor Fillmore as our areas of study had significantly diverged. He was still excited to hear about my research, but he could only follow the broad concepts of what I was doing at that point.

He doesn't do math any more, and I usually see him and his wife a few times a year for social outings... or to attend a lecture series. At least we live close to each other now (he left San Diego and move back to Minnesota were he had grown up).

[Doctor Q]

I merged this thread into a previous thread on the same topic, but didn't realize it was an archived thread. My mistake. It's back here in Community Discussion now. My apologies, and please carry on.

For those who are interested, here is the previous thread. Hooray for great teachers!

[fitinferno]

These are such great stories about important teachers...they truly do shape the world.

In the high school I went to, the upper classes were just filled with amazing teachers. Porter, Paris, Murawski, Howard, Murmann, Rubin, Spering, Betlinski, hell, even one of my PE teachers was brilliant...there's just too many good memories, stories and bits of inspiration to even begin to talk of them.

[AndyR]

My GCSE English Lit teacher was the best. He could be as nice as anyone but fi you crossed him god did you know it. He would just use this booming great voice to shout and scream till you thought his face was gonna blow, so because of this no one crossed him. The rest of the time though all the kids loved his lessons as he made them fun and you learn't more.

I remember one lesson where everyone was having to read a section from a book out loud to the class, it was a dull book but we had to do it. About half way through the lesson he just stood up and and say "oh this is such a load of crap" and threw the book in the bin. He then told us what happened and we went onto another book. It was this sort of stuff that made people respect him and out of the whole year no one got less than a C in English Lit as we all wanted to learn stuff in his lessons. Great bloke!

Apart from that we had a temp English teacher once and DAM was she a hottie!!!

[puckhead193]

I've had a few but my math teacher in college, she's awesome, nice, funny, udnerstanding... I'm going to China with her as a mini study aboard in May..should be fun..

[taytho]

to change this a bit..... WHY are these teachers the best. Name dropping doesnt do much for me since i dont know where these people are let alone their grade level. I am starting my teaching career in the fall and am interested to know what makes these folks so great. I would love to get my name on this thread some day.
Thanks

TT

[devilot]

Originally Posted by taytho

WHY are these teachers the best.

They are passionate about their subject. Passionate about the work they do (educating their students). Passionate about the overall well-being of the students. They know when to be a friend and when to be the authority figure.

Their passion ignites a fire in the student's heart.

At least for me anyway.

[Dagless]

Miss Booth. Drama teacher. Very very good. Me and a mate wrote a puppet show once and apparently it was the first time the iron lady laughed at something her students made.

[puckhead193]

understanding of students needs, (ie students with LD)
With my math teacher, she knew that i couldn't really do math to save mylife.... but she was an awesome teacher and i think i got like a B in the class

[emw]

It's amazing how some teachers just stick with you. As soon as I read this thread I thought of Howard Haines, my sophomore year Chemistry teacher. He was my favorite for a couple of reasons.

First, when I was a sophomore I had to be bussed from the "kid camp" part of high school, which was the Freshman and Sophomore classes, up to the "big kid" campus where the class was taught. Not that there was any sort of geekiness associated with that...

Anyway, Mr. Haines always made me feel comfortable right off the bat, even though I was younger than pretty much anyone in the class. His method of teaching was very interactive and he always had some unique way of presenting information, including his H4's (Howard Haines' Helpful Hints). Man, I remember that over 20 years later.

He was dynamic, knowledgeable, fair, and loved to get into the experiments we did. I loved his class so much that I took second year chemistry my junior year. Unfortunately, Mr. Haines had chosen to move to a different state and I was stuck with a teacher who knew only slightly more than I did about chemistry, which wasn't much.

But whenever I think of good teachers, I think of Mr. Haines.

Second place would go to another "H" - Mr. Hays, who was my calculus teacher senior year. Great guy.

[iGary]

Larry Zoller - middle school science. We still hang out today - 25 years later.

[Savage Henry]

Failure ...... it's taught me more than anything else.