The Mythic Good Teacher

[SYNACK]

I am always up for a spot of teacher bashing given the trials that they put me through but I thought I'd take the time to remember those good teachers that I had met along the way while in school as a comparison.

 

I was lucky enough to have a few good teachers throughout my education which gave me hope for the entire species

 

A physics teacher that had us read and discuss The Physics of Star Trek: Lawrence M. Krauss, Stephen Hawking: Amazon.com: Books and had everyone bake a cake for the class as part of the study of the application of energy to materials.

 

An economics teacher that got us to do reports on the economic impacts of things that actually effected the country as a whole and who randomly taught us gearing with Lego as a parable to economic theory.

 

For every entitled narrow minded teacher that screams about their lack of ability to plug in a power cord there are at least 0.25 ( ) teachers forging the tools for logical and creative thought into their students minds.

 

If only for balance this thread should stand for all those teachers who do a great job and inspire rather than damage the youth under their tutorledge.

 

I hope others can chime in with their own experiences of great teachers, if only to provide a comforting light in the darkness.

[Ephelyon]

Myself, I just make sure they're not forgotten. I've always imagined that for a teacher, some of the best work you do will be the little ways that you inspired or cared for people - but that can be very hard to quantify (almost makes you see the NUT's point about how to objectively evaluate a teacher's performance). So, to honour the ones who were good to me, I remember them.

 

Mike Butler, Paul Barnes, Frances Whitehurst, Jan Jennings, Chris Dennel, Chris Jones, Chris Walker, Diane Waters, Dave Poynton, Zeta Emmett, Tim Lutwyche.

[SpuffMonkey]

Yeah - to Chas Wright for teaching me A Level Maths in 4 months after a great but unproductive lower 6th.

[SYNACK]

There must be more great teachers floating around, I was lucky enough to have two 'that taught me directly' and one or two who helped fill in the gaps left by inferior teaching.

 

I'm trying to build a monument here people

 

A thread that can be pointed to whenever a complaint is levelled that the forum only berates teachers, there is some teacher bashing but I want a counterpoint to emphasise that we generally only bash the bad ones and do have respect for the good ones that we have known.

[Ephelyon]

... aaaand just waiting for the mirror image to appear on TES... :P

 

But seriously, I like the idea! =]

[witch]

Mr Poole who made French make sense to me after a year where I ended up with 30% in the exam. I got a B at O level because of him (even if he did run off with an ex-sixth former)

I had a maths teacher who again made it all make some sort of sense but sadly I cannot remember her name

John Hurrell, my teacher at junior school who made it all fun

[jmak]

Mr Stern, maths teacher, ex-Naval Submarine Commander and inspiration to everyone he taught. Also valued the fact that I thought of different ways of doing things and playing with maths to gain better understanding, rather than being first to finish...

 

Mr Melhouish - Physics A-level. Inspired a joy in understanding the world around us through physics and the value of studying something because it's interesting, not just because it has a practical use. Also managed to get my wife through her physics A-level

 

Mr Haylock - Primary head teacher, and mad musician extroadinaire. I loved his piano and church organ playing so much that I nagged my parents and convinced them to buy a piano when I was 5!

Edited January 15, 2013 by jmak

[LosOjos]

I never found out her first name, but one Miss McKenna deserves a mention from me for seeing through my rage and ego and spending the time to get to know and support me through school - I'd have attended a lot less if not for her.

 

Also, to Mrs Croft, who despite being extremely ill herself (she was only in school for around 25% of my school career) somehow managed to pick up our registration group and motivate us to strive for more. I was in a group for problem children (unofficially, but obvious to everyone) known for skiving, fighting and generally getting up to no good. She made a speech so moving to us all one day, every one of us welled up. It's no mean feat to make a group of 20 15 year olds like that choke, she was that inspiring. Of course we all joked she must have ripped the speech straight from a movie afterwards but we all knew it was real.

 

To Mrs Reynolds - despite only being my tutor/maths teacher for my final year, she was one of the few who 'got' my humour and didn't just send me off to be dealt with by somebody else (Miss McKenna usually!) and made my school life much more bearable for my final year.

 

I'm sure there were others, but what is clear to me is that it was not the teaching that made a difference, it was the caring. It's clear where I work which teachers care, and you can tell the kids have a hell of a lot more respect for them too.

[sonofsanta]

Hmm, let's see...

 

Mrs Sorby & Mrs Benton at primary, for being lovely. Mr Miskell, Mr Perry & Mr Voce in primary for always being a laugh, and proving that you really do need more men in primary education.

 

Mr Wardell, Mr Johnson & Mr Baines from A-level Maths, for making any of that understandable and being a laugh - in 6th form, at least, they were terrifying before then. Found out in my first Yr12 Maths lesson that 5 years of terror from them had all been a big joke and a competition between them as a department.

 

Mr Passam from DT for putting up with me in GCSE, I was a PITA in Yr10 course as the course was so boring, then I got to Yr11 and was allowed to play with the welding kit and was suddenly spending every lunchtime in the workshop.

 

Mr Saddington in IT for letting us stretch our legs (metaphorically & literally) and being mad enough to just talk about whatever interested him instead of what was on the curriculum. He also got me using Firefox back when it was called Phoenix at version 0.7

 

 

In general, it was always the ones who didn't treat us like children, but spoke to us as people and weren't afraid to have a laugh. Much better than trying to earn respect by just being shouty all the time.

Edited January 15, 2013 by sonofsanta

[LosOjos]

Much better than trying to earn respect by just being shouty all the time.

 

+1! Respect is earned, not demanded.

[GrumbleDook]

Mrs Reilly in my last year at primary who understood what dyslexia was but didn't tell me or anyone else her thoughts because she didn't want to label me. Instead she taught me a range of coping techniques and helped me understand that I wasn't slow, that I was actually bored during lessons and gave me hope again.

Mr Smith, my Biology teacher in secondary and also form tutor ... who gave me kicks up the backside when needed, a love of problem solving and the understanding that education is a vocation ... not a job.

[pcstru]

Well ... err ... ummm ... .

 

My Dad. Striding over hills and into wee Scottish glens, with a pack of dogs and a wee lad (me) in his red welly boots for company, he would talk of numbers, shapes, space, stars, logic, philosophy, song and poetry; filling my head with the wonders of the world and beyond, making me burn with curiosity and an unquenchable thirst for learning. Thanks Dad, rest in peace.

[hardtailstar]

Can only remember my Year 6 teacher but that was Mrs Cox, many fun lessons with her.

 

In secondary there was Mr Cox (Mrs Cox's Husband) a great laugh in PE when I was not the best sports person but he used to encourage myself and everyone to do thier best.

 

Miss Shreeve, Drama teacher who had a lot of enthusiam for our learning and school productions. Did help she was mid 20's and attractive!

 

Mr Swan, PE Teacher such a great laugh when he was insulting Mr Cox during our lessons. was also a great teacher and supported us through everything.

 

Miss Lloyd, Science teacher and form tutor had great fun with her form times, heavily into motorbikes and space so was often talking about those topics

 

Dr Sheppard, Science teacher but was probably one of those who at the time I just thought he was mad and annoying but as I look back he was a great teacher with all the experiments he did and understanding that copying from the board isnt fun.

 

There are a few more but my brain has seemed to have taken a holiday and I cannot remember them.

[Earthling]

So embarrassing, I can't remember most of my teachers' names only their nicknames.

 

Graeme(?) Wiliams, for helping me realise I really didn't want to learn Latin.

 

John Young for making me anally retentive over spelling and punctuation.

 

But most of all, and most important of all, Miss Trueman, for teaching me to read and write.

[akidosaint]

Clyde Banks my A-level maths teacher would crack me up with bad one liners got me through my modules. Awesome to work with him at this place when he was a supply teacher

[DT2]

I remember the names and faces of every teacher I ever had, and I should thank them all. For each and everyone of them gave me the confidence and inspiration to succeed.

Particularly Mrs Penny my IT teacher, who endured my persistent faecetiousness over the lack of real IT curriculum (we got taught desktop publishing!?!) and allowed me to stray somewhat in class, and help out with network problems at lunchtimes.

But the two people from which I learned the most; My dad and grandad, the redneck kings of the hills! Taught me to ride (Th'Horses), shoot, kill it clean it eat it, and just about every other thing you could possibly need in life.

 

And to Barry Jones; the teacher who decided we didn't need religious education "because it's all B****cks". He was right!

 

 

DT

[fairm010]

Will always remember the legendary IT teacher who used to refuse to teach us about editing in paint and tought us vb scripting instead.

Who refused to teach us how to copy and paste but how the path between you typing google.com and getting the page on your screen worked.

 

And come to think of it, the techies hated her. Partly because she thought she knew what she was doing when she logged into the DC and shut it down thinking it was her PC.

[AMLinington]

Meryl King in Geography for supporting me through a difficult time and for not giving up on me and liaising constructively with my mother to get me through the aftermath of my Glandular fever.

 

Ravi Shah in Chemistry for explaining things in a way I understood (even though he was horrible to me). I remember the chalky fingers from all the explanatory diagrams on the board.

 

Margaret (I think) Gravell for NOT disciplining me when I screamed at Rebecca Daly in Maths when her bullying pushed me too far and I snapped.

 

My Year 3 primary school teacher (Beverley Jackson possibly) for understanding that I wasn't disruptive, I was just bright and unchallenged and for challenging me and giving me the most awesome Creative Writing assignment EVER.

 

I've also met some great teachers when I did my teacher training - Tig Williams in IT at Mountbatten for generally being awesome and teaching kids useful stuff and for making the stodgy curriculum content bearable.

[JJonas]

I remember a Mr Anderson who took over our Maths class after we had spent the first term without seeing the same maths teacher twice. It was nice to have a bit of stability. His first lesson he spent teaching us what a square was and I thought this guy is an idiot we know all this, but six weeks before the exam it all clicked into place and I had an understanding of Maths I never had before, without him I would not have GCSE Maths and all the things that came with it.