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After posting on another thread I started thinking about the teachers that I had in school. The ones that commanded my interest and actually made me want to learn.
My favorite was a high school history teacher, we called him 'the Colonel' . Every class was an experience complete with costumes.
Please share a story or two about the teachers that left an impression on you...
My 6th grade teacher...(one of about 5 teachers) Mr. Sinnott!! He had been a police officer and quit to teach. He taught social studies. He was spot on when it came to knowing a classroom. He understood the way people thought and reacted. He told us stories about being a police officer and how he wanted to be a solution to the problem, but that catching folks after the fact did not provide the intervention they needed. So he wanted to teach to influence his community.
He taught us to problem solve. He refused to accept "I don't know" for an answer. He waited until you gave him an answer. Allowed you to consider alternatives.
He shared with us the day his daughter was born and how he felt seeing her and holding her. He not only made me want to learn, he showed everyone in class that they could all learn.
He is the type of person, if there were more, would make this planet a much greater experience.
SORRY I never got to tell him.....
Years later, while I was a late-in-life student at EMU, I just happened to see his daughter when I was working in the business computer lab.
I told her "I know you! I remember the day you were born!"
She looked at me like I was Hannibal Lecter...
I then explained the story and how her dad was my teacher back in 1973 and his telling of her birth..
She relaxed and said her dad was retired from teaching and doing well...that was 1992.
My 6th grade teacher...(one of about 5 teachers) Mr. Sinnott!! He had been a police officer and quit to teach. He taught social studies. He was spot on when it came to knowing a classroom. He understood the way people thought and reacted. He told us stories about being a police officer and how he wanted to be a solution to the problem, but that catching folks after the fact did not provide the intervention they needed. So he wanted to teach to influence his community.
He taught us to problem solve. He refused to accept "I don't know" for an answer. He waited until you gave him an answer. Allowed you to consider alternatives.
He shared with us the day his daughter was born and how he felt seeing her and holding her. He not only made me want to learn, he showed everyone in class that they could all learn.
He is the type of person, if there were more, would make this planet a much greater experience.
SORRY I never got to tell him.....
Years later, while I was a late-in-life student at EMU, I just happened to see his daughter when I was working in the business computer lab.
I told her "I know you! I remember the day you were born!"
She looked at me like I was Hannibal Lecter...
I then explained the story and how her dad was my teacher back in 1973 and his telling of her birth..
She relaxed and said her dad was retired from teaching and doing well...that was 1992.
Who knows, maybe he's still around and would love hearing from you. If not, i'm sure that he already knows how you felt.
You're lucky to have had a teacher that cared enough to make you think for yourself. We need more like him.
My high school 21st century literature teacher (science fiction). I'm going to butcher his name now. I believe it was Mr. Paschenin. He had a way of telling a story and a rubber face that morphed with each character.
I had a nice English teacher in Junior High, don't remember her name. She was really great. I remember more from her class than most other classes I took in high school and junior high.
I did have a horrible teacher once, she was bad news. I remember her name...a bad teacher is the worst thing that can happen to a child. It colors your entire feeling about school at an impressionable age.
My high school 21st century literature teacher (science fiction). I'm going to butcher his name now. I believe it was Mr. Paschenin. He had a way of telling a story and a rubber face that morphed with each character.
Was he at TC high school on Wick Road? Was he also the debate coach? I can only imagine the stories he could tell about education. I used to talk with him when I subbed back in the day...
How about a current inspirational teacher? My son's current teacher, who teaches k-2 (all together).
He came to her last year in first grade. We had just moved to town--his seventh move--and had just experienced perhaps the worse kindergarten teacher ever. His previous teacher was a type-A perfectionist disciplinarian and brought that trait (perfectionism) out in him. When he started 1st grade, he hated school, stood off from the other kids, interrupted class with his own thoughts (that had nothing to do with the current topic), and we were just happy that he was reading at a 1.1 level (after a year of being continually demoted in reading groups).
His teacher and the staff called us to a meeting within two weeks and came up with a plan to get his behavior readjusted. The plan worked wonderfully, and that alone makes me love her but...
My son loves school now. He loves his teacher and is the warm and outgoing child we knew before. She is the type of teacher that gives out hugs at the door, but is firm in her rules. He now gives hugs and smiles AND respects the rules. His reading? From his 1.1 level and hesitancy to read at all (even though he loves stories) at the beginning--he ended the year at a 5th grade level and now, three months into the 2nd grade, is reading at a junior high level and already met his (inflated) AR goal for the year. And, we sometimes have to tell him to stop reading.
He still has things he needs to work on and sometimes he breaks a rule or two, but my son is now a "normal" student that loves school and loves to read. She will always be remembered in our family--even after our son is graduated--because it was of her hardwork and pure love of her job and her students that helped our son. He had it in him, but he needed an excellent teacher to bring it out.
We know the difference that either a bad or good teacher can make.
Last edited by crazyme4878; 10-11-2010 at 04:30 AM..
Reason: Urgh, mistakes--sorry for any additional ones....
How about a current inspirational teacher? My son's current teacher, who teaches k-2 (all together).
He came to her last year in first grade. We had just moved to town--his seventh move--and had just experienced perhaps the worse kindergarten teacher ever. His previous teacher was a type-A perfectionist disciplinarian and brought that trait (perfectionism) out in him. When he started 1st grade, he hated school, stood off from the other kids, interrupted class with his own thoughts (that had nothing to do with the current topic), and we were just happy that he was reading at a 1.1 level (after a year of being continually demoted in reading groups).
His teacher and the staff called us to a meeting within two weeks and came up with a plan to get his behavior readjusted. The plan worked wonderfully, and that alone makes me love her but...
My son loves school now. He loves his teacher and is the warm and outgoing child we knew before. She is the type of teacher that gives out hugs at the door, but is firm in her rules. He now gives hugs and smiles AND respects the rules. His reading? From his 1.1 level and hesitancy to read at all (even though he loves stories) at the beginning--he ended the year at a 5th grade level and now, three months into the 2nd grade, is reading at a junior high level and already met his (inflated) AR goal for the year. And, we sometimes have to tell him to stop reading.
He still has things he needs to work on and sometimes he breaks a rule or two, but my son is now a "normal" student that loves school and loves to read. She will always be remembered in our family--even after our son is graduated--because it was of her hardwork and pure love of her job and her students that helped our son. He had it in him, but he needed an excellent teacher to bring it out.
We know the difference that either a bad or good teacher can make.
Teachers like that make me wish cloning was legal.
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