teachers

Do you have a past teacher that you think fondly of because they left a big mark in your life? Or do you have a teacher that you just found really fun in general and really miss?

i had 2 super nice teachers at the alternative school i went to. they liked me a lot and i liked them a lot. we joked around a lot and they were 2 of my favorite teachers. they always believed in me and supported me and i miss them a lot.

Yeah there was one teacher who tried to defend me and cheer me up when I got messed with at school even though I always complained about having to take her class since I hated dancing and didn't get my choice of electives.

I've had some pretty cool instructors for courses that I've taken in more recent years too.

my history teacher influenced me enough to want to get into the profession even if he was a massive homophobe lmaooooo

Mr. Nemat, my period zero teacher who taught us general computer stuff and flash animation. He held a meeting with my mother to suggest that I become a graphic designer (I think the term was conflated with web designers at the time) because of my skills in art and programming. He was always very friendly and I looked up to him, but he ended up moving to a different state mid-year and I was crushed. I didn't exactly follow his advice as I just went to school to be an illustrator, it's only now that I'm going back to what he originally believed in me for. I hadn't really considered my future at all, and it wasn't until that point that I took learning anything seriously. I ended up transferring out of that school to one with a better arts program because of it. Even if I didn't really succeed with art specifically, I still learned a lot about general design that is helping me out still.

My old Media Productions teacher.

He was an old man, but that was pretty much the only thing about his age that really showed. He was really passionate, but not only that, but a caring teacher, as well. He always used to be super amazed at my typing skills and constantly remarked that I would be a great court stenographer one day. Sometimes, I still wonder to this day what my life would be in an alternate timeline if I had followed his recommendations to the letter and used my typing skills to my advantage. At the time though, I never really thought much of it and kind of dismissed it as an old man's ramblings somewhat, as I wanted to do something bigger and better rather than spending my life typing shorthand. I dunno.

iirc he had to leave teaching come my 10th or 11th grade year and I was damn sad. While ultimately I had no interest in pursuing a career in the media industry, I'll never forget his expertise and insight into what it's like to be both in front of the camera and behind it and working behind the scenes tech stuff.

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I feel like my situation may be pretty odd here because I don't think a lot of my teachers have had any sort of groundbreaking impact on me whatsoever. Media Productions teacher was impactful in an emotional sense because he was super encouraging and supportive, but I was pretty much on my own when it came to figuring out an overall career path that I wanted to follow. Unfortunately, this has caused pretty much 90% of the teachers that I've had to be pretty much a hazy memory at this point. They've only really done the bare minimum and not really much more than that.

My AVID teacher in 11th and 12th grade. Basically AVID is a class/program that prepares you in getting to college. She can be tough on us at times, but she's very passionate in preparing us for that. She also suggested I take creative writing; I think it's because of how sometimes I would apply to scholarships that are on the creative writing side and how the essay I wrote for a regional thing got honorable mentions. I didn't take the creative writing path as I wanted to do something different back then, but it's still nice how she was very supportive of me there.

My 12th grade AP Government teacher I was fond of also. He's able to explain the subject in a clear manner, has a great sense of humor, and is just nice overall. In one class session he even taught us how to do taxes because of how several classmates had part time jobs.

My third grade teacher. She was really kind and helped me a lot in transitioning to living in a different country & learning English. 20 years later and I still remember and fondly look back on those memories. <3 Am sure I've had a few other notable teachers, but she's really the only one that immediately comes to mind.

I had some very nice English and History teachers - no coincidence that they ended up being my favourite subjects. I've got some third-level teaching experience now, and I think I've improved the college experience for most of my students. Unless they're lying on their feedback forms...

I had some good teachers, two are still teaching somewhere, but all the other teachers I've ever had are all retired now I think. Man I feel old...

My third grade teacher. He was a supportive, kind and not to mention a good-humoured teacher. He encouraged me to do well always and he always treated each of his students really kindly. Also he was super chill. I remember writing a story about a secret agent pig and a guy with a huge head (his name was Fathead), and apparently he loved it so much he still reads it to some of the students he teaches now. Even when 8 year old me was brutal enough to tell him Fathead was based off him. He didn't seem to mind though! He was always supportive of people pursuing their passions and I appreciated that a lot.

I dislike English as a subject but I've had an English teacher who is also an inspiring person. Just her confidence and eloquence are amazing, considering that she is only in the first few years of her teaching career. I hope to be half as cool as her one day.

I've been fortunate enough to have a lot of great teachers through my education, although there were definitely some I don't count in that number. I think if I told you about all the ones I had a great deal of respect for we'd be here for a long time honestly. So I'll just mention a couple.

My social sciences teacher from year 10, who was also my history teacher in year 11. She wasn't the best educator as such, although by no means was she bad. However, she had a real knack for creating a positive work environment. She spent a lot of time joking and teasing with us and sharing little tidbits about her life (and was openly obsessed with banana bread). It humanised her and made her easy to respect and made people actually want to be in her class and listen to her. She was also the only one who tried to find out what had happened to me when I suddenly left for university midway through the year.

My year 11 politics and law teacher also gets a mention. She was a very engaging teacher who was passionate about her coursework and who fostered a lot of debate and discussion about political matters. I was always fairly interested in politics and law but I credit a lot of how invested I am in those topics now to her class. It was by far my favourite subject up until I left. She also gets bonus points for being flexible with me when I was going to be gone for two weeks during a major assignment.

Last one I'll give credit to was my year 8 teacher for non-elective subjects. He was already in the good books because he was friendly to students, tolerated a small degree of fucking around during classes and because he let me work at my own pace. I spent a lot of time in that class just powering through the coursework ahead of my classmates and during that time he remained respectful of my wish not to transfer into the more intense workload of the academic extension class. But largely he gets mention because he played a huge role in changing the way I handled myself and conflict. Talking to him after a particularly nasty incident was very much the beginning of my change from violent lunatic to mostly pacifist.

I guess as a general rule, I have enormous respect for teachers that treat their students like people. Like, that is just not common enough.

I had an English Comp 2 professor in uni. An older woman, little rough around the edges with a 'take no nonsense attitude'. This was right after my mom died and I was in a vulnerable place where writing of any kind would throw me into an emotional tailspin, but being stagnant and not attending any kind of class would be torture. After a particularly heavy breakdown, she confided in me that her husband had also died not long before, and she really related to my grief, anxieties, and struggles. We became good friends as she held my hand through the intricacies of emotional baggage and basic grammar. We still see one another since we go to the same pizza place now and again. :)

I remember most of my high school teachers very fondly, but then again I graduated last year.