fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2464 ]

[ SECRET POST #2464 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2464 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Have you had experiences with a teacher that were really good? What about them was what made them good?

Two teachers on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Coach Jenkins my history teacher. Sometimes we would spend entire class periods debating current events instead of learning about history. And I was a very liberal person in rural SC, so it was sometimes me vs. everyone. He also played classic rock in class and he was just so laidback.

Mr. Kelley. I took him for my Honors English classes. He was sooooo hard and I loved it. I took him for two semesters and we had to write two twenty page papers every semester. I once told him I hated reading and didn't understand poetry. He made us read and analyze a piece of poetry every day for four weeks. He always used words that I'd never hear anywhere else (behoove, facetious) that I still use today.

My favorite teacher was Mr Moseley. I had him for homeroom and English in 7th grade, and then for history in 8th grade. As I recall, what was great about him was that he was really intelligent, enthusiastic and interesting, but also always came across as sincere. I feel like, as I recall, with a lot of teachers who were encouraging, you got the impression they were just full of rah-rah bullshit. They would be super up and peppy about everything indiscriminately - which seemed fake and off-putting, and often just made me dislike them when they were rah-rahing about something that was bullshit, and it made me feel condescended to sometimes - like they were talking down to me, not taking my opinions seriously. Mr Moseley was different. He could be sarcastic or harsh about things when necessary, and when he was enthusiastic about something, you really got the sense that it was because it was something that he thought was good. When he praised something that you did, you really got the impression that he thought you had done well. When he criticized something you did, you really got the sense that he was disappointed in you, personally. When he was teaching you something he was excited about it, you got the sense that he really thought it was cool and he was excited about teaching you. If he was joking about something, it was because he thought it was funny.

So, I guess, what I liked most about him - in addition to this intelligence and kindness and interestingness - was that he seemed to be taking things seriously - he seemed like he was treating what he was doing as though it really mattered, whatever it was, and doing so honestly and sincerely, and his opinion of something was what his opinion was, because what he was doing mattered and he wasn't going to mess around or half-ass by treating it insincerely or dishonestly. You know? At the end of the day, the impression I always got was that he thought what he was doing mattered, and therefore it was worth doing well, and it was worth approaching seriously and sincerely. And you appreciate that when you're a kid.

That was a whole bunch of words and I'm not sure it made sense but I guess the takeaway I want to give is that Mr Moseley was rad, he was my favorite teacher when I was in junior high, and I still have an immense amount of respect for him.

My two best teachers in college were for art history and communication, both of which are not my favourite subjects. What they both did was make the class interactive--they encouraged debate, with them and with each other, and gave us a mix of structure and control; like, these are clear instructions of the assignment requirements, but as for subject you can go nuts.

I mean, giving speeches scares me shitless but I enjoyed writing every one because the teacher a) gave clear expectations and b) let us do shit that interested us. I gave a speech persuading the audience that Sci-Fi is awesome, I did a eulogy for my sister's pet demon hamster, I did a speech where the audience was John McClane and I sold them plans to renovate their brownstone into a superhero home base. Also, I wrote a 20-page paper analyzing the small-group dynamics in Galaxy Quest.

There were several really good teachers, but my favorite was an English teacher named Rene (we called our teachers by their first names in my high school). This guy was so good that his was the only after-lunch class that everybody always showed up to - we would almost run out of seats some days.

What made him so great was that he engaged the whole class in discussion about whatever we were reading, encouraged us to think and debate, made the text relevant to our real lives (which can be tricky with a bunch of teenagers and approved literature) and maintained a completely casual atmosphere. He wasn't interested in us writing essays or hardly ever doing homework, he only wanted us to read the books and really understand them; it didn't matter if we cursed or made dirty jokes while talking about it, either, considering he did the same. He had all thirty or so of the kids in that class keeping up with the reading just because the discussions were so much fun. I wish every teacher I had could have been that awesome.

My history teacher for my senior years in HS.

He was really passionate about the subject he taught. He always picked interesting things for focus studies. He made sure to include information on the lifestyles of the different classes in whatever time period we studied, and always spent a lesson speaking about the role of women in that particular culture (so refreshing after going through a billion primary sources that only talk about men).

We also watched silly popular movies based on the events we studied and he challenged us to find all the inaccuracies. We had trivia tournaments at the end of every topic which were always really fun. He never cared how loud and competitive we got.

He was really easy to talk to. He always offered to read and offer feedback on prep essays we wrote before big exams. He even came to the meeting I had with my principal and legal guardian over my attendance and spoke on my behalf so that I wasn't expelled or asked to repeat my entire senior year. He saw that none of my other teachers or anyone at the place I was staying cared if I graduated and he told me that he did and I should too. He took me to the uniform shop and paid for me to get a clean shirt after he heard people saying I's been wearing the same one all week. I had nowhere to wash and dry it properly because I had just turned 18 and my legal guardian had kicked me out.

yeah, a handful of teachers throughout my life made a positive impact and I still remember them fondly. mostly it was that they actually paid attention to me and saw me as an individual. they were tough but with positive reinforcement and encouragement. i felt like they were honest and upfront.

but mostly it's the whole actually acknowledged and saw me as an individual.

My fluid dynamics/hydrology teacher in college. I'll just call him Dr. P, because part of what made him interesting was that he was an ex-gangster from Korea. XD He spoke wonderful English and had no temper to speak of, and he was always really clear and well-spoken, which made him a joy to learn from. Considering the subject, he made it as easy as possible. He was always fair, and even when I felt I my grades weren't up to par, I knew it wasn't because he didn't try to be generous on that front.

Oh, and he sung karaoke on the days before exams sometimes. He was really good at it.

my seventh grade math teacher ms. o'donell. she was the only math teacher I ever had who really made me feel like I could do math as well as anybody else if I worked hard. unfortunately the year after that I had a math teacher from hell who pretty much broke me and now I have trouble with basic addition and subtraction :/

All my high school math teachers.

Mr. Green, my geometry teacher--the laziest man alive. He just sat at his desk--I swear he napped--while we developed proofs at the blackboard and expounded them to the class. The best test of whether you understand something is being able to explain it to others, so this was great practice.

Mr. Waters, advanced algebra, trigonometry, and precalculus, and Ms. Brooks, the calculus instructor, were a little more hands-on, but basically had the same approach; the students taught each other.

And of course before any of them, there was my dad the engineer and natural teacher, who was horrified when he heard me say that girls are good at things like English and art while boys are smart in math and science (I was ten, and I'd heard other girls say it, so I had some excuse here). That day he went out and bought Schaum's Outlines of algebra and geometry, and that evening he sat me down and explained the commutative, associative and distributive properties to me. We had some of our best father-daughter bonding moments at the kitchen table or sitting on the porch over those books.

This is adorable comment.
I never added to this because I had such a fucked up relationship with school, but I also had a dad who was fascinated by math and technology and always wanted to share it with me. Yay for nerd parents!

Parents totally count as teachers!

My dad is still nerdy at 80+, and I'm convinced that it keeps you young.

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[ SECRET POST #2464 ]

Great Teachers

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