ummm did the hamster eat a thread ?
Threads obviously don’t have much nutritional value. That hamster should be all beefed up by now, but 't’aint.
WOO HOO! MY FIRST OP TO BE EATEN BY A HAMSTER! YES! YES! YES!
Nerdball that I am, I saved my post in Word.
Take Two everybody…
As I’ve mentioned in another post, I’m currently studying to be a high school History teacher.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts on your favorite teacher(s) (let’s say jr. high through college years), and what traits they possessed that made them a favorite. If, for example, you say, “They made the subject interesting,” how did they make it so?
If, on the other hand, you say, “They smoked doobies with me behind the school,” I don’t wanna know.
I think that Res’ goat has been at it again, personally. Anyways, I had a favorite teacher in Gr. 8-10… Mr. Fromager. Everyone called him Mr. From, and he made music come alive for us. He was also available to chat with is about whatever was bugging us, made the band room a hangout place for people… very good times.
F_X
Best teacher I ever had was Dennis Curtin, freshman honors English. As it was, in fact, an honors class, Mr. Curtin correctly assumed that the majority of his students had a clue about the English language. Thus, he wasted very little time on verb tenses and such. He concentrated on literature, with special emphasis on comparing literary devices, themes and concepts from the time-honored “classics” to those used in contemporary literature, up to and including comic books and movie scripts.
As for history, my teachers were famous for handing out timelines for us to memorize - I’d have loved to have a history teacher who could explain better the causes and effects of historical happenings, how those causes have or have not changed in today’s world, and where we would see the lingering effects thereof. In other words, “How am I ever gonna use this stuff In Real Life?”
One of my favorite teachers was a high school history teacher! He taught AP US.
“Grim Jim” everyone called him, but not to his face. Think of Mr. DeMartino from Daria. Add a bristly mustache. That’s him. Hardest class I ever took in high school, but the most rewarding. The other U.S. History classes were basically the same old George-Washington-chopped-down-a-cherry-tree U.S. History myths we’d been fed since grade school, and the tests only tested your ability to remember the inconsequential. The AP class ran on a college textbook, which he must have fought the administration countless times to even be able to use.
But more than that, it was the way he used the materials that made it a great class. We had hundreds of outside sources in addition to reading the textbook. Also, regurgitation was impossible - the bi-weekly essays forced you to think critically, and if you just repeated what you found in the book, your highest hope would be a D. (Keep in mind we were the kind of AP students who enjoyed banging our heads against walls.) The guy refused to let any of us slip by without being able to question what we were reading, draw conclusions from different sources and even - GASP! - criticize authority.
Eventually, I started to enjoy U.S. history. Can you imagine?!?!
The course load was unbelievably heavy - at least an hour every single night - and we got 400 years of very intense history crammed into us. I was in two other AP classes as a high school junior, and it was impossible to keep up. (I ended up with a C for the class.) But my friends from different high schools walked out of the AP test saying “Who the hell studied mortality rates among lower-class women in the 1830s?” We did.
I got a 5 on the AP test. 
More than that, I got a real understanding of history.
I am the eventual offspring of generations of teachers and was indeed one before an early retirement (at age 23 :)) My mother was an English and History teacher and I grew up loving learning about history.
Unfortunately in my own classes I was rather disappointed in the shallow 1-dimensional view that many of my teachers portrayed to us. There was little critical analysis of historical events and very little focus on socialism upon which most of our decisions are made. History to me should be heavily focussed on looking at the social side of things and how lifestyle, politics, geography etc impacted on the decisions that were made at the time (which are now our “history”).
So I guess for me - a great teacher is one who can be passionate about their subject/s and use that to delve past the surface “facts” which so often turn out to be false.
My favorite teacher in high school was my Senior English teacher, Ms. Fonsbeck. I used to write very well, but she always pushed me harder. I absolutely loved that about her. There was no slacking off in her class. If she knew you could do better, she’d convince you to do it. I think her class was the best high school class I ever took. We had lots of fun chatting with her, too. It was really easy to get along with her.
Octavia i just want to say dont treat the kids like servents, when i was in fifth my teacher thought that kids were her own little slaves. Lauren make hot choclate Katherine make me popcorn, mellissa go get my shoes out from the closet Britney go get my purse out of my car. Just dont treat kids like that please . And you sound like the kinda person who wont , Good luck
One of my best teachers was my eigth grade science teacher. She was strict, she expected a lot from you, but at the same time she was available during her office hours to help you with your questions. Since the class started at 7:30 am some days, she would sometimes bring popcorn or hot chocolate and cookies for us. I remember one day we had to take one standarized test and she made us go to her class (before the exam) to see a geology documentary. While there she also gave us a light breakfast and hot chocolate. She cared for us and wanted us to learn and do our maximum.
In college, so far my favorite teacher has been my second semester of chemistry teacher. He prepared the notes beforehand so that you could concentrate more on his lectures without writing everything down. He made the lectures interesting by doing simple experiments and trying to relate the science to everyday life. He answered questions during the class. He was always available in his office hours if you needed help. He didn’t say or imply that you were stupid if you asked for help. He wanted you to do great, to succeed in his class.
Ninth grade general science - Mr. McGuire. He was a tall man, big but not fat, flat-top haircut (this was 1968-69) and he didn’t tolerate any crap. If someone was dozing off in class, he’d kick the trash can - THAT would get our attention!!
He also made science make sense. We studied a topic, then saw it applied. When we studied four-stroke cycle internal combustion engines, we had a lab where we disassembled, then reassembled, lawnmower engines. Then we got to ride a go-cart around campus.
When we studied impact and shock absorption, we threw eggs - your grade depended on how well you packaged the egg. I used popcorn - I got an A!
When we studied acceleration and ballistic motion, we built and launched rockets.
When we studied fermentation, he used a still to distill some orange wine to almost pure alcohol. Those who wanted to got a little squirt from an eyedropper on their tongue - I swear I felt steam coming from my eyes!
He is responsible for my fascination with science and the physical world. I never told him what his class meant to me. He’s probably dead by now. Let that be a lesson - thank the good teachers while you can.
My favorite teacher in high school was Miss Westby, A/P English. A tough, tough old lady with one arm crippled from polio. Miss an assignment? Lose one letter grade on your final grade (this was hard for me, because I never did much homework before - I coasted through most everything). She demanded so much from her students, but kids would lie, cheat or steal to get into her classes.
Most kids want to be challenged, I think. And to be made to think original thoughts, not regurgitating pre-chewed pap. And they want to feel like their teacher is interested in what they think.
Good luck to you!
StG
Octavia, I became a history major, eventually, getting two degrees. History wasn’t anything like my favorite subject in high school, however.
The only glimmering I got in high school was from a teacher, about halfway through the course on American history, who started talking about a subject with passion, as though he knew it back and forward. I sat up in my seat with suspicion, and asked where he’d been in WWII. At first he didn’t want to say. I asked exactly what he’d done… he was a bomber squadron commander. Suddenly, he had a lot of teenage interest going.
Later in college, though, my degree (and career) selection was swayed by teachers who:
- Were enthusiastic, and
- Knew riveting, relevant, things about their field, and
- Didn’t load the class down with long, directionless, poorly written “classics”, but books that actually made a clear, strong statement, and
- Were subtly, but visibly interested in cutting through academic crap in order to give each of us some part of what it was that fascinated us about the subject in the first place.
A good teacher is a wonderful thing.
I had a design teacher in my senior year that was far and away the BEST. Wheras most of the teachers would critique work by being “nice” or have low standards for “excellence,” he had only the highest standards.
He did not put up with shit: If a student didn’t follow the parameters of the project, he yanked (not pulled, YANKED) the piece off the wall and walked over it to move on to the next piece.
He made us get involved and engaged our minds: we had to put up our work in critique arranged from BEST (furthest left) to WORST (furthest right). But it was all up to us, the students. We would all move each others work around and have to articulate the merits or shortcomings of each. Afterwords, he would go through and offer his own comments, but he wouldn’t alter the order.
Finally, he was brilliant. I saw him alter a student’s ad just by moving a few of the existing elements around and made it 2x as effective.
A lot of people hated how tough he was, but my opinion is that those who appreciated his “tough love” performed exceptionally well out in the world.
Boston Globe writer David Shribman recently put out a book called I Remember My Teacher, which has stories about various people’s teachers, from Supreme Court Justices’ to blue-collar guys’. I bet it’s something you’d want to read.
I was just wondering if such a book existed, Kahuna. Thanks for the tip.
Great stuff so far - please keep your thoughts coming.
Mr Davies. 11th grade Psychology.
But he was also, and primarily, a history teacher, and the coach for our knowledge bowl team.
On the way to tournaments, he would talk to us about politics, not as if we were teenagers (the right to smoke outside the gym) but on an adult level. And he could operate on any level. He was friends with the jocks, challenging to the smart kids, and incredibly open and honest about his beliefs.
In Psych, in January, he handed out an assignment that said, “Write a letter to yourself.” He collected the letters, and told us the next time we would see them would be five years later.
I just got mine two weeks ago, almost five years to the date.
Mr. Fullerton, grade 12 Canadian History and Global History.
God, he would sing and dance, tell jokes. He had almost perfect recall, it was amazing, he could just pull stuff out of the air at the drop of a hat. He never catered to the lowest common denominator. He had endless stories that were almost always relevent to the topic. He solidified my goal to become a history professor.
Unlike most of the people in this thread my favorite teacher was the one who never ever pushed. His class was pretty easy, but half of the class was gone by the end of the year due to them just not trying at all. So it was easy to fail but also easy to pass.
It was also a computer networking class and he let us play networked games over the internet if we could set up the LAN ourself. Basically my favorite teacher was the guy who gave us the stuff to learn and do our work and helped us when we needed it, but treated us as equals for everything else.
Mrs. Velarde, 12th grade AP US History teacher. She was young and naturally brought a lot of excitement to the subject. At the same time, she was too good for the job, and I’m glad she’s no longer there.