Influential Teachers/Faculty?

[vampiroporvida]

Hello Wfigs, I like to reminisce about the past, and I often think of school and the teachers, as well as faculty, that really changed my life. I am probably like a lot of yall, and I can count probably with two hands the teachers that made a difference for me, including my college years. We all know the bad stories, but maybe it'd be nice to talk about the best ones, those special moments that you recall when you need a boost of support.

Oddly, my best memory is from my Algebra 2 teacher, but from after I graduated. I was attempting to work on a project in college and reached out to him, and he talked to me before he was headed out. He was very supportive of my project I was attempting, and he even told me what I am doing matters to a lot of people. It means something. I think that was the second moment in my life I ever felt supported and like I could do something special. Granted that project didn't pan out, but his respect always has. I am forever grateful for that talk.

I am interested to hear yalls stories as well, of your most important teachers. Grumpyoldman Jack Specific I think yall might have some teachable moments for us all.

Much respect everyone.

VPV

[slappy]

HS Biology teacher. I kept getting 100%s and she kept pushing me with more extra credit. I was the only one in the class too that she did that with. She even wrote me a recommendation letter for college. She was great. Sadly, a few years after I graduated she got cancer and died.

[Scott!]

I had an Art teacher in secondary school, Mr Edgar, that on a Monday last period every week he'd call me over to his desk and we'd sit and discuss the football from the weekend for 10 minutes then I'd go back to my work. He was a Motherwell fan and I'm a Partick Thistle fan so both were quite rare in the area of Glasgow we live in so we had that in common. Guy was a legend and even funnier, he was one of the photographers at my sisters wedding in 2012. He told me he'd retired and was doing photography on the side as a hobby. It was great to catch up with him a few years later and of all places, my sisters wedding haha.

[Mongo Bears]

I remember a lot of teachers but not for impactful educational reasons.
The only one I can say was an influence was my college philosophy teacher. He was my favorite teacher ever so I made sure I took every class he taught and ended up getting a philosophy minor from it.
(Also smoked weed with he and the class at the end of year party at his house) He was also the president of the faculty at my school.

[Jack Specific]

Jan 31, 2022 20:23:07 GMT -5 vampiroporvida said:

Hello Wfigs, I like to reminisce about the past, and I often think of school and the teachers, as well as faculty, that really changed my life. I am probably like a lot of yall, and I can count probably with two hands the teachers that made a difference for me, including my college years. We all know the bad stories, but maybe it'd be nice to talk about the best ones, those special moments that you recall when you need a boost of support.

Oddly, my best memory is from my Algebra 2 teacher, but from after I graduated. I was attempting to work on a project in college and reached out to him, and he talked to me before he was headed out. He was very supportive of my project I was attempting, and he even told me what I am doing matters to a lot of people. It means something. I think that was the second moment in my life I ever felt supported and like I could do something special. Granted that project didn't pan out, but his respect always has. I am forever grateful for that talk.

I am interested to hear yalls stories as well, of your most important teachers. Grumpyoldman Jack Specific I think yall might have some teachable moments for us all.

Much respect everyone.

VPV

There was one who treated me decent and was nice to me. Her name was Mrs. Gaul. She was my teacher for 2nd and 6th grade. I was at her house a couple of times, she had a big house right in front of a creek and she would let me go look for crayfish. That's about it really. Teachers were not very nice to be and least of all gave a damn about me. Hate to sound whiny but it's just the truth. Wish I did have that teacher because, and I don't really like to talk about this, but I didn't have a very good childhood growing up. Back then, no one believed kids, they always took the adults/parents side and considered kids lying. It's just the way it was back then.

[Kill Em' All]

High school it was Mr Daniels
Had him as my civil and criminal law teacher
Philosophy as a junior
Government/Econ as my senior
I Struggled hard toward my bottom sophomore year until my late junior year even my senior year to an extent

His class and my sociology class were the only classes I cared about. And my only motivation and outlet coming to school. I never felt the education system embraced what I was good at and it made me feel stupid. Hell I still feel stupid lol; but his classes were where was at. You sat in class and debated. I had very hard time in algebra 2 and chemistry.
And after my brother dying; my first real heart break; falling out of favor with my family; and years of being bullied; I really was angry with the world by the end of sophomore year. I really didn’t give f*** if I’m being honest; I didn’t start to chill out till I was a senior; and it really didn’t manifest entirely till I started focusing on become correction officer.

Without him I wouldn’t be as critical of thinker. He also turned into friend and I talked to him everyday for 2.5 years and had such huge impact on my life. We also had very similar senses of humor which always made it fun to engage with him.

I still talk to him every month or so; I had a lot of issues with authority in hs. Him; my sociology teacher; 10th grade English teacher Mr Tubbs; and some of the support staff are all people I hold very dear till the day I die because of what I was going through at the time. And I’m grateful for who I had in my life; in my way I felt abandoned by family during these times and I leaned on the adults I saw at school. I firmly believe these people can do a lot for kids.

I had tons of awesome mid and elementary school teachers I’ll also note

[Scott!]

I'll just throw this in when we're talking school and teachers, but our janitors were so good in my high school. I see Stevie every Saturday, he goes on the same supporters bus as we do for the football. We also had one that would come into the toilets and smoke with us between classes but I don't think he'd like me telling anyone that if he valued his job!

[Kollector_Kombat]

Without getting into too much detail, I went to a live in trade school type of deal. My room advisor Mr King became the epitome of a mentor to me. We bonded quite a bit after my first week settling in. We got to know each other over the years and had a lot of the same interests, hobbies, music and overall ways of going about life.

He always made sure I was in a good spot and had really taken me under his wing. He'd even call me his son to the other faculty and students there and he was my Pops. He was there during hard times and when I needed advice or an ear to vent and I did the same for him. He was 100% the adult I needed growing up as a kid and I wish that I could thank him for that today.

He passed away a couple years ago, but I like to think that he'd be happy with where I'm at in life. We'd also still be friends to this day.

[jason1980s]

Great post, the teachers deserve a lot of credit. Not all have been great for me but the ones that taught me on a more personal level, outside the text books-those are the ones I remember.

As the shortest kid in school, chubby with glasses, school was pretty brutal for me. I'd say 6th grade to junior year of h.s. were the worse. I could only go few places without being confronted and made fun of. Senior year, things changed, I became "popular" but it wasn't a "he's cool" popularity, it was I guess a strange sign of respect that I had survived, I guess like the wrestlers who get tormented and deal with it.

I wasn't a teacher pet as I never really applied myself or studied but I got close to a few teachers. I only did real well in classes that required essays like English classes and normally History.

The ones I really remember were Mr. Ginaitis, Mr. Dutrow, Mrs. Riddle, Dr. Korz, Dr. Laurie, Dr. Cooley and Dr. Smead and Coach Pastrana. Most knew me on a more personal level, just a few more with being the star student because of the essay writing. Mr. Pastrana had two relatives who were famous and he would get me their autographs. We were in the same college math class so we got really close at the time. They all were various years but all basically treated me better than anyone had every treated me in school. They knew me as more than a number or a class. I am currently what is called a "coach" at my job, I don't get paid any more for this but it's what I love and I know it's the influence of these men and women that got me to a really healthy and happy place in life mentally and emotionally. I can't imagine what kids go through now in school with social media being so big and the bullying always going strong. My only retreat from the bullying was normally going to the library in the school or getting to meet with these teachers at some point in the day.

[Deep Figure Value]

I was not an easy student to have. It's the sort of thing you don't necessarily recognize until later in life. In middle school, and effort was made to draft an IEP to try and get me on to a more clear path to success. The first step would be a meeting between myself, my parents, my core subject teachers, and my guidance counselor. The first scheduled date came. I stayed after school, my mother arrived, we met in my guidance counselor's office, and only one teacher, Mrs. Spurrell, who within the last month had replaced my math & science teacher who quit during the first semester, showed up. Without my other teachers on board, the meeting was pointless, so we rescheduled. Again, I stayed after, mom showed up, we met at guidance, and only Mrs. Spurrell came in. We scheduled a third meeting. This time, I stayed back, my mom showed up, we met at guidance, and Mrs. Spurrell arrived with Mr. Worcester, who just that month had come in as a long term sub for my history teacher who had a heart attack during class. A fourth meeting was scheduled, but by then, I threw in the towel and basically gave up on school.

It's a shame that so many of my teachers lacked the passion to help a student in need, but in retrospect, these two teachers - one who I despised at the time, and the other I'd come to really enjoy but didn't know at all - really gave a damn. I know one of them is no longer in education, which seems to be a trend among people I know in that field, and the other eventually became a principal, but I'd like to eventually muster the courage to reach out to them and let them know how much that effort eventually stuck with me.

[Grumpyoldman]

Let's see. This was a long time ago. My elementary school was more like a reform school. We never got any new materials, mostly hand-me-downs from the neighboring schools. Our school was like a step-child. I was a smelly fat kid who talked with a slight accent, lisp & stutter. I was picked on a lot.

My kindergarten teacher in 1975 was Miss Whitehead (yes that was her real name). It was her first year of teaching & she was awesome. She married that summer & became Mrs. Muchanic & was my 1st grade teacher.
2nd grade was Mrs. Gaskins. The only African-American teacher I ever had. She was awesome. In a 98% white school, there were a lot of jokes or names the older students would refer to her as. She played "Bein' Green" by Kermit the Frog for us & said "Replace the color green with the color black. That's how I feel sometimes". She also introduced me to the writings of Shel Silverstein.
3rd grade was Mrs. Parks. She was older & reminded me of Mae Young. She taught me how to correctly tell time & had an easy way for me to memorize multiplication. I found out years later her husband was a drunk & would beat her. She ended up beating him up & leaving him. Good for her. My mom worked at the school for almost 30 years & said she would tell the filthiest jokes.
4th grade was Mrs. Schaeffer. I don't remember much here.
5th grade was Mrs. Hartman. I don't remember much here. Horrible mention goes to the other 5th grade teacher, Mr. Roemmelt. He was a douchebag. If your book bag stuck out a little from under your desk, he'd kick it. Until Mickey Troutweiller wrapped the straps around the desk legs. Mr. Roemmelt went to kick it & fell flat on his face. He was later "relocated to another school" for physically assaulting a student. He later shot himself, but everyone was told he had a heart attack.
6th grade was Mr. Warne. He was a douchebag. He was more like a college professor with how much homework he'd assign & how he ran his class. My only fond memory of this class is when Lisa Reeves threw up all over his shoulder.
7th grade through 12th grade is a blur. Mrs. Kosa was a great English teacher who would challenge anyone to a leg-wrestling match. She was undefeated, but had one draw when Rodger Franklin farted loudly during a challenge. Mr. Romond was my creative writing teacher & a very cool guy. Mr. Scurato was my theater arts teacher. He put me in a few plays. By my senior year, he said "I thought you would get better. You should stick to writing". I was insulted, but now I understand. My acting skills were awful.
In my experience, the enemy of any fat kid is the gym teacher. Every one I had would use the slow/fat/handicapped kids as examples. I sleep better at night knowing that they'd never amount to anything but a gym teacher & not the all-star athlete they hoped they'd become after college. Lousy douchebags.

[D Rock]

I would say my high school Italian teacher. She always made learning fun and we did a lot of projects/plays which helped us learn the language. I was also fortunate enough to travel to Italy with her and my classmates on school sponsored trips which was a blast and trips I still recall with great fondness.

I've been a special education teacher at the elementary level for a decade now and I really feel it's what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. Hopefully, my students will have some good memories of our time together when they're older.

[The Real Valbroski]

I would say I had more good ones than bad ones, luckily. I had one professor in college that was kind of a hardass grader (and I even failed one of his classes and had to retake it) but he was extremely passionate and I just really resinated with a lot of his view points. I still utilize things he taught me years ago in my career today and it's helped me a lot.

[rKoNomad316]

My 6th & 7th grade English/Reading teachers were some what influential. I learned a good deal about creative writing from them.

My High School shop teacher was cool. He was smart man & really into Drafting/Autocad. I had him for Woods & Auto. Learned a lot from him. Oh & BTW he was my dad. I was lucky (if its considered lucky) to actually have a parent as 1 of teachers at the public school I went to.

The rest of my teachers in life…. I didn’t care for.

[JC Motors]

I went to a community college where they had a wonderful thing called a student learning center. There you were able to take retests and get tutoring in subjects you needed help with. I took business classes in college and I always needed help in accounting. There was this wonderful Indian teacher there who tutored me in accounting. Unfortunately she passed away in January of 2021. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't have gotten through my accounting classes. I think about her alot.

Another teacher that I grew close with since the third grade also unfortunately passed away last year from Metastatic breast cancer.

[drifter]

There were a few high school teachers that come to mind with this topic. My history teacher in junior and senior year, really got me to understand my love for history. I always kinda like cowboy stuff, but having his class really opened up my mind to realize how I loved the history of the old west, and eventually just history in general. I had him again in senior year for a history class for our town. It became really interesting, as our town is one of the older ones in Connecticut, from the 1670s, and he really made what I thought would just be a throw away class fun. Sad thing is, once he retired, they stopped offering that class.

Next teacher was my math teacher from junior year. Really made going to class fun, he would start every class telling a joke or two that his daughter had emailed him. He's also sometimes use stories or experiences from when he was a kid, in teaching. He ended up retiring in 2002, the same year my class graduated, so it was kinda cool that he ended his career with our class leaving.

The last one was my senior year Spanish teacher. Was his first year teaching at our school, and he was a super fun guy. I had to retake year 2 Spanish after failing it the year before, and the teacher I failed the class with, was the type, where if you weren't getting it, she made you feel like you were an idiot. This teacher though, he made sure to help you get it, and made you understand why it's different than in English. He was another one who would share stories, like living in Spain out of college, and made you really feel almost like a friend, but also doing a job as a teacher. For me he took a class that I dreaded going to junior year, to one I actually liked in my senior year. As far as I know he's still there teaching.

Really, every kid deserves to have great teachers, and thankfully I've had many. And one that comes to mind, not one that I had, but a teacher I know about, from working in the schools in my town now. He used to work in the central office of the town's schools, and he left that job to return to teaching math, I think for 8th grade. He's also one of the two in charge of the drama club. There were countless days, I'd leave work, and he'd be there, by himself, working on some of the stage pieces for up coming shows. He's the type of teacher that had a dedication to the kids. I mean hell, he took a cut in pay, leaving the job in the offices to go back to being a teacher.

[Deleted]

Undoubtedly, education is necessary but I always hated it. I tried to combine work and study, it was not that easy. I often applied to writing services as it was the only option sometimes. Here is BoostMyGrades phone number boostmygrades.pissedconsumer.com/customer-service.html , contact this service if you need help with homework or essay. I am sure it's useful for many students.

[Stuart?]

I had a great Biology teacher for my last two years of school. I'd never taken one of his classes but he was also my basketball coach the year before I started that class so I knew he was a good dude, just didn't know how he was in the classroom. Long story short he was the coolest - he made Biology so interesting that I decided to do my Bachelor's in it and pursue a career in science.

He was also responsible for my coffee addiction (we used to have a double period every other morning and he'd give us a break and brew us some fresh coffee), and he had a great taste in music. Our last class before Christmas break in 2016 was with him and we spent the hour playing 80's metal over the speakers and playing music videos on the projector screen.

I haven't seen him since I graduated, but it'd be cool to tell him how his advice and guidance set me on a path to get my degree and begin my career.

[The Lion's Den]

Cool trip down memory lane!

I had some pretty awful teachers as a kid but I also "wasn't like the rest." I will accept some blame but I went to a very strict private school, very traditional and very regimented. I had some good teachers, none worth mentioning there. After switching to public school where arts and such were more accepted I had some cool teachers that in the moment helped inspired me. Do I look back and think they helped me 20 years later? Not really but I'll always remember the fun and how normal they were. Mr. Stone - Drama, fostered an environment where it was all friends and made it cool to act in plays. And Mr. Braband was our CommTech teacher, was a cool ex-roadie who never put pressure on people and just wanted to help them have fun. Good stuff. I'll always remember how fun high school was.

In all my university/college degrees I can't think of many "standouts" but in my MBA I finally had one that taught a subject I needed to help take myself to the next level. Management. She just had the information I was finally interested in to take myself to the next level and it paid off.

I wouldn't say anyone drastically changed my life, but I had some good times despite hating school the whole way through. Not sure why I'm like that but hey, I'm still here.

[Deleted]

When I was in college, I had a time when I really needed money. I didn't know who to turn to, but my algebra teacher helped me get a good job. I worked there a lot and hard and got a raise. I liked the work and because of that I spent little time studying but I turned to writinguniverse.com/free-essay-examples/impact-of-video-games/ for help. I am very happy because I still work in this job and have a high career growth. It's all thanks to this teacher with whom I meet regularly