What Did You Like about Your Favorite Teachers?

August 2nd, 2010 By: Diane Trim in Articles, Teachers' Corner

One of my favorite teachers was my high school French teacher. I really liked the way he started off the class in our first year of language learning with total immersion for the first quarter. When we finally heard him speak English, we all thought it was the funniest thing. He had a good sense of humor and made learning the language fun. We talked in silly voices, sang, drew pictures, and threw parties. I looked forward to his class every day.

That’s quite a compliment, isn’t it? I looked forward to his class every day.

Another teacher that I really loved was my college botany professor. He was multi-media teacher in an analog world. He illustrated every 60-minute lecture with slides that ran off of four slide projectors. It must have made his teaching assistants nuts. As a student, I loved it. He also demonstrated the objectives using plants we’d recognize. Once he showed us the proper way to brew tea and explained about how important the temperature was to brewing a pot of oolong that wasn’t bitter and had lots of caffeine. Another time he made Caesar salad with dressing from scratch to illustrate colloids. I never missed his class. 

Again, that’s a big compliment, isn’t it? I never missed his class.

My eighth grade algebra teacher had to spend a ton of time with me. I was on the math team, not because I was fabulous at solving equations, but because my dad thought I could use the extra practice. As an alternate, I wasn’t expected to compete, but when one of the real team members was in a bad accident just weeks before the first competition, my algebra teacher gave me the nod. He and the other team members tutored me for hours and told me that they believed I would succeed. And I did. It surprised all of us, I think. I never believed I could do math before. 

What a gift, hey? My teacher believed in me and I believed in myself.

School starts soon and it’s time to get our rooms in order and sent out the first packets for photocopying. While you’re planning and organizing, give some thought to what it would be like to be a student in your class. What compliments would your students give you?

Who was your favorite teacher? What did that person do to earn your respect? Let’s reminisce about the good ones and remind ourselves why we started teaching in the first place.