We don't need no education...
Jun. 24th, 2005 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charliesmumWell my gym class poll got the most responses ever! I feel so loved. Plus it proves my point that like attracts like, and proves another thing as well - even people we consider polar opposites at one point can wind up being friends if we just find common ground.
Anyway, while I'm on the subject - a few people brought up their worst teachers, and I thought it might be fun to find out who everyone's worst teacher was, and why, and also who their best teacher was.
You can break it down by schools, too, if you want - best and worst grade school, etc. Maybe we can even vote for the worst and best overall.
So - I'll start.
My worst teacher hands down was my 4th grade teacher. Her name was Mrs Wood and she was horrible. She hated kids, and, probably because I was shy and quiet, she picked on me more than once. I don't remember much about that year, the woman quite literally drove me to a nervous breakdown at 9 years old. I do remember her teaching methods consisted of writing copious amounts of things on the black boards and having us copy it, and she would reward the kids who got A's and B's by letting them have candy, and telling them they could eat it in front of the rest of us because 'they deserve it'. I also remember her yelling at me in front of the class because I'd lost a work book.
Anyway, she was horrible, and though I probably ought to find some compassion for her, I don't think she deserves it. She was married to a doctor, I don't think she 'needed' to work, so why she did I'll never know.
Fortunately I had more good teachers in the end, I think. My best grade school teacher was probably my third grade teacher, Mrs Adler. She was awesome. She did fun things - we had all this food when we did this bit on colonial times, including homemade bread. We had to take these aptitude tests not long after, and there was food left over, so in between tests we were allowed to eat. It was hard the next year taking those tests and not having yummy homemade bread to break up the monotony. She was also married to a doctor, but it was obvious she taught because she liked to. She encouraged my creative writing, and just made learning fun.
The runner up, and probably tie, for best grade school teacher would be my first grade teacher, Ms Jerome. She was the first Ms I'd ever met, it was 1972, and the whole feminist thing was in its infancy, and she was probably a bit of a hippie as well as we were not allowed to even use the word 'gun' in her classroom.
I'm skipping Junior High School. Not a happy time for me.
High School - worst teacher was probably my sophomore math teacher because, even though it was the 'tart' class, she would rush through the lessons and had no patience for those of us who didn't get it the first time.
Best teacher is hard to narrow down, I had quite a few. For sake of clarity, I'm going to pick Mrs Larson who taught Latin. She looked like your stereotypical school marm, but she was really kind and, while strict, had a great sense of humor. She had one of my friends, Jay, in one of her English classes and would pass notes for us. I'd leave it with her, and she'd give it to him later in the day. She was married to one of the English teachers, who was the kindest guy ever. Rumor was he was an ex-priest, and she was an ex-nun, and I always wanted to know the story behind their meeting.
Worst college professor was Dr Laville. He was my English Literature professor, and disappointed me most bitterly. I'd looked forward to college literature since watching Educating Rita and he had no interest in the subject, and tended to test us on stupid facts alone, and never got into the discussion of literature, which is what I really wanted to do. I wound up reading ahead in the book and memorizing poems instead of listening to him.
I mean come on - we did Coolridge and you know what he asked on the test? Who interrupted him when he was writing Kubla Khan?* I mean, despite the fact it is really more myth than anything - it was a footnote! What about the poem itself?
You've heard me speak of the best teacher - Professor Rich, who is retiring this year. Another good teacher, Dr Rechnitz, was my first English professor and he was everything I'd hoped for in an English Professor - he challenged us, made us think. And he was funny. Our class was in Wilson Hall and his desk stood in front of an ornate fireplace. One day while lecturing, he hopped up on his desk and sat on the mantelpiece without a break in his lecture. He was cool.
*It was the man from Porlock. I know that now. Missed the question on the test, because come on...it was a teeny-tiny footnote. Sheesh.
So I babbled about my old teachers. what about yours?
Anyway, while I'm on the subject - a few people brought up their worst teachers, and I thought it might be fun to find out who everyone's worst teacher was, and why, and also who their best teacher was.
You can break it down by schools, too, if you want - best and worst grade school, etc. Maybe we can even vote for the worst and best overall.
So - I'll start.
My worst teacher hands down was my 4th grade teacher. Her name was Mrs Wood and she was horrible. She hated kids, and, probably because I was shy and quiet, she picked on me more than once. I don't remember much about that year, the woman quite literally drove me to a nervous breakdown at 9 years old. I do remember her teaching methods consisted of writing copious amounts of things on the black boards and having us copy it, and she would reward the kids who got A's and B's by letting them have candy, and telling them they could eat it in front of the rest of us because 'they deserve it'. I also remember her yelling at me in front of the class because I'd lost a work book.
Anyway, she was horrible, and though I probably ought to find some compassion for her, I don't think she deserves it. She was married to a doctor, I don't think she 'needed' to work, so why she did I'll never know.
Fortunately I had more good teachers in the end, I think. My best grade school teacher was probably my third grade teacher, Mrs Adler. She was awesome. She did fun things - we had all this food when we did this bit on colonial times, including homemade bread. We had to take these aptitude tests not long after, and there was food left over, so in between tests we were allowed to eat. It was hard the next year taking those tests and not having yummy homemade bread to break up the monotony. She was also married to a doctor, but it was obvious she taught because she liked to. She encouraged my creative writing, and just made learning fun.
The runner up, and probably tie, for best grade school teacher would be my first grade teacher, Ms Jerome. She was the first Ms I'd ever met, it was 1972, and the whole feminist thing was in its infancy, and she was probably a bit of a hippie as well as we were not allowed to even use the word 'gun' in her classroom.
I'm skipping Junior High School. Not a happy time for me.
High School - worst teacher was probably my sophomore math teacher because, even though it was the 'tart' class, she would rush through the lessons and had no patience for those of us who didn't get it the first time.
Best teacher is hard to narrow down, I had quite a few. For sake of clarity, I'm going to pick Mrs Larson who taught Latin. She looked like your stereotypical school marm, but she was really kind and, while strict, had a great sense of humor. She had one of my friends, Jay, in one of her English classes and would pass notes for us. I'd leave it with her, and she'd give it to him later in the day. She was married to one of the English teachers, who was the kindest guy ever. Rumor was he was an ex-priest, and she was an ex-nun, and I always wanted to know the story behind their meeting.
Worst college professor was Dr Laville. He was my English Literature professor, and disappointed me most bitterly. I'd looked forward to college literature since watching Educating Rita and he had no interest in the subject, and tended to test us on stupid facts alone, and never got into the discussion of literature, which is what I really wanted to do. I wound up reading ahead in the book and memorizing poems instead of listening to him.
I mean come on - we did Coolridge and you know what he asked on the test? Who interrupted him when he was writing Kubla Khan?* I mean, despite the fact it is really more myth than anything - it was a footnote! What about the poem itself?
You've heard me speak of the best teacher - Professor Rich, who is retiring this year. Another good teacher, Dr Rechnitz, was my first English professor and he was everything I'd hoped for in an English Professor - he challenged us, made us think. And he was funny. Our class was in Wilson Hall and his desk stood in front of an ornate fireplace. One day while lecturing, he hopped up on his desk and sat on the mantelpiece without a break in his lecture. He was cool.
*It was the man from Porlock. I know that now. Missed the question on the test, because come on...it was a teeny-tiny footnote. Sheesh.
So I babbled about my old teachers. what about yours?
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no subject
on 2005-06-24 09:11 pm (UTC)Least favorite teacher: Mrs. Baldwin. Algebra, Introductory Calculus. Worst. Teacher. Ever. I don't remember much about her, except that she was the only teacher I never learned anything from. And I'm not a math wiz, so I was pretty much fucked. I got demoted to Geometry where I had a really great teacher who showed us videos all the time...jeez...I'm laughing! But it was so true! I did learn a lot in her class about Geometry, and actually, she got to Algebra and Beginning Calculus by our Senior year.
Best Teacher: Mr. Loftus. I had World History and Economics with him, Junior Year, and half-term of Senior year, respectively. I got a great grade in World History, and barely squeaked a B- in Economics because that was my last semester, and last class of the day, and I just stopped caring. Sorry, Mr. Loftus! You were a great teacher!
Favorite class: German. First period. Had it with my HS boyfriend, Michael Carter. Dang...I'm lucky that I'm excellent with languages, because I would have failed otherwise.
Oddest class: British Literature with Mrs. Bennet. She was drunk half the time from the JD she poured into her coffee, and she had us read Beowulf and Where The Wild Things Are. Those? Are not British Lit. We did not read any Jane Austen or John Milton or anything like that in there. We did read Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner (fell asleep), and I would have flunked if Brozo hadn't kept yelling, "Albatross!" during that poem, and if I hadn't listened to Monty Python singing the Oliver Cromwell Song. Barely squeaked by, grades-wise, but Mrs. Bennet liked me, so she passed me with flying colors. Very odd. Very odd indeed.
no subject
on 2005-06-25 08:18 am (UTC)She made fun of me because I would be so engrossed in reading and writing that I would miss whatever it was that she did.
Another teacher that disliked me (and I - her) was my language teacher. It really got on her nerves that I didn't listen when she explained the rules (maybe because I already knew them?), didn't do the homework (which she checked each and every time. I just calculated what word would be the one I was supposed to read and do it in class) and still did fairy well in tests.
Teachers I liked:
My first ever crush was on my third grade religious teacher. I don't remember what he taught, actually. I do remember he was very young (barely in his twenties, I think) and that I thought he looked good. I probably didn't understand half of what he talked about anyway. Oh well.
At the same time I had a music teacher who took me into choir and was generally nice to me, so I loved her. It meant the world to be accepted (even though I probably sounded horrible)
My second love was of my Eight grade Literature teacher. She looked good (even if somewhat a slutty way) and generally was my idol for a little while. She also had us read the The Miser by Moliere in class and I was a regular participant. She took us to see Tartuffe in real theater at night.
The next year she taught me and a few others free class (instead of second foreign language. I got lucky). And the new literature teacher had us studying a boring play (which I suppose was in the program, but because it was taught by someone else it left my favourite teacher in unblemished aura)
another great teacher was my Math teacher in HS. He wasn't actually a teacher, he just taught my class. He had some administrative position and I think he was bored. I don't know why. He had third degree in math and wanted us to like math. Each year he would bring and hang on our notice board a picture of some famous mathematician. In tenth grade is was Pythagoras (the one with the triangle theorem - he also said there are more than 160 proofs of it. One by some American President. I don't want to say a name because I might get it wrong); in eleventh year it was Rene Decart, who invented calculus (so he's the guy you all should hate ;).
He was among the not many good things that I had in Hs towards the end of it. He did tell me that with my grades he recommends me to take a lower level, to which I said I'd rather fail a higher level than a lower one. He let me stay. Now when I think about him, he was like Albus Dumbledore (but without the the manipulation and beard. And robe). This nice, kind grandpa.
I also should probably mention my physics teacher from HS who despite me failed each and every exam during my last two years believed in me enough to give me a grade of 85. I think he respected me failing on my own and not copying from the solutions in the book like everyone else did. I did get good grades in the actual external tests, so his belief was justified (my final is 81). I remember crying because I felt I disappointed him when I failed a test once.
more (it said I passed the 4300 limit. wow)
on 2005-06-25 08:21 am (UTC)Another wonderful teacher this year was Amazia (I don't know his last name) who taught Biology of the Cell. He went on and on about the wonderful award winning illustrations in one book and the story behind the discovery of DNA and stem cell research. Anything except what he should have, actually. From a class of about 300 I remember we counted 42 during one lesson, and it dropped from there.
Good teacher this year is Oren x2 from Biochemistry. Both of them were fun and knew what they talked about. Also Dr. Jacov Berg who spent two out of each four hours telling us stories. He claimed it reinforced our memory because you remember by association. I don't know if that is the case, or maybe his questions in the test were really easy, but I felt I knew them. So I suppose that's really what matters with teachers, that when it all ends, you remember what they said. And I remember his material.