I have many.
First I'll explain one thing: In high school each year, for each subject there was always more than one class. There were classes at different levels and there were classes for "good kids" and "troublemakers" (but nobody said this out aloud, you just knew going by the classes they were very different from each other in terms of behaviour - it was easier for the teachers that way). Always too, there would be the odd good kid got dumped in the bad behaviour classes and the odd bad behaved kid got dumped in the good behaviour classes to make it seem as if this system was not in place to please the parents. I was, unluckily, the good kid that always ended up in a bad behaviour class and it basically ruined my high school education because the teachers never really nurtured the bad behaviour classes as much as the good behaviour ones.
2nd year high school art teacher. We learned hardly anything. It was a bad class I'll admit, full of troublemakers. The teacher wasn't very good though. First he gave us child-like assignments to do (glitter and glue) while the class next door got to do high school level art (still life drawing, design, landscape painting, light and shade with chalk and charcoal, etc). Nobody except me and maybe one other girl really cared. Class was always disruptive and the teacher only yelled and threw things - yes, threw things, usually just rulers and folders, but one time it was a pair of scissors. He was never disciplined or kicked out because nobody could prove it and nobody wanted to take the word of even an entire classroom of kids. One time he got the head of department round and said "Some of the boys and ALL the girls are (doing something disruptive I can't remember)" and I just stared and went "AHEM!" because I was one of the few actually trying to get on with their work, but I'd been lumped along with the rest of the girls. He didn't take the hint. Every time we always got held back because it was before home time and before lunch breaks. By time we got to lunches there was no food left except chocolate bars. By time I got home I was so late my parents had a fit.
My physics teacher one year wasn't very good but not quite as bad. He actually taught us what we needed to be taught, but he did it in such a way it was difficult for many of us to understand - you know, like he couldn't relate to us not understanding certain things because it was second nature to him. At the start of the year he said "don't be afraid to ask questions" so one time I did. Guess what? I got yelled at for "not listening" and "talking to the girl next to me". You know what I had been saying to her? "Do you understand this?" and she shook her head. That's the conversation we had, nothing more. But he refused to explain it to me the whole time. From then on I started to fall further and further behind because he never helped me again since that incident and the piece of information I was missing out on was crucial to understand the rest of the work.
A year earlier, for broad science (before we could pick a science subject) I had another teacher ho was much like the art one where it was a very badly behaved class and he just couldn't control it and I got punished along with the rest of them just for happening to be in the same classroom. Again, more missed lunches, more late journeys home, and this was on top of art. Yeah, no wonder I'm so short and frail and was always in a dizzy daze, I was missing out on my lunches and dinners due to these two idiots.
Then there was a maths teacher in college (over here college is just high school for adults and university is something separate). It took a lot to muster up the courage to go back into education due to the bad experiences and bullying from both teachers and students in high school (I won't go into that though, those are separate incidences from the bad teacher ones I've posted so far) but I wanted to get my entry qualifications to go to university.
I needed maths. So I started out in a very noisy class and I couldn't concentrate on the work. I made a formal complaint, but my only response was that "most" of the students worked better if they were allowed to chat so I was told I'd either have to put up with it or move to another class that were slightly further ahead with the work. So I moved to the other class. I wish I hadn't. The teacher was one of those maths teachers that sped through the examples using their advanced terminology of maths and I found that really confusing. Everyone else in the class seemed to understand which I found even more confusing! I frequently asked for help. I managed (struggled) up to a point when we got to something really confusing.
After 4 explanations of the same thing (he didn't even try to vary the explanations and wasn't really answering my specific questions such as "why does (this) result in (this)?"), after I told him I still didn't understand he just went "well I can't help you any more" and started getting up and I was like "hey but what am I supposed to do?" and he just said it wasn't his problem! He said if his explanations didn't help then I'd just have to figure it out on my own!
Then he just handed me a bunch of home study materials. By the way, they didn't really help me, though they were all I had so I used them. He never really helped me in class again after that even when I asked for help. What a stuck-up prat.
Ending on a happier note:
I had to re-sit that maths class because I failed. The maths teacher I got that year was absolutely wonderful. She was so kind and patient! It was a small class I have to admit and that probably helped but every time I had trouble and didn't understand something, it didn't matter how many times she had to explain something to me she didn't give up and she always tried to take a different approach each time until she found one that worked and that I could understand (she always did find a way eventually). Not only that but the way she explained things she didn't just babble on in maths talk as if I was going to understand. She put herself in my shoes and started with the basics before trying to explain to me the harder stuff. I really don't think I would have passed maths if it weren't for her.
