Question Of The Day - Tuesday, November 14

[cassiopea]

Greetings!




Who was your craziest/most interesting teacher?



For me it would probably be my second year Roman History professor from my time in University. He was engaging, passionate and humorous. For first example, on the first day in class he showed up completely dressed as a Roman and showed us how various togas were really worn by demonstrating on some volunteers.

Second example, he also put in a couple of creative little fun jokes in our multiple choice exams, poking fun at the Romans as well as how they were portrayed in mainstream TV and Movies. Wouldn't be unusual to get a serious question with serious answers then then suddenly get a D) "They were too busy having orgies" then next question again "D) More Orgies!!"

Again, just brief examples, kinda tricky to explain. Silly but it did help us giggle and relax during a major final! Yet some were trick questions too, some sounded like teases but were actually legit answers.

Really brought the lives of the Romans (From the everyday existence to major stuff) to life in such an authentic yet creative way, as well as simply being good at teaching. Everyone was equally enthralled.

 

[Margret]

For me it would probably be my second year Roman History professor from my time in University. He was engaging, passionate and humorous. For first example, on the first day in class he showed up completely dressed as a Roman and showed us how various togas were really worn by demonstrating on some volunteers.

How cool is that!

There are so many, both good and bad. My first grade teacher was awesome. She had taught remedial reading, and knew that when kids were having trouble with reading the way to help them was phonics, so, in an era when virtually every other first grade teacher in the country was teaching reading the See-And-Say way, she decided to cut out the intermediate failure step and teach phonics from day one. She also taught us how to make change before we'd reached the Subtraction chapter in Numbers class, by counting up from the price to the amount tendered.

My third grade teacher actually told us that a heavier object would fall faster than a light object, which I challenged because I'd read the story about Galileo and the leaning Tower of Pisa. So she said, "Let's test it. Here's a nice, heavy book, and a nice, light sheet of paper. Drop them at the same time and we'll see which one falls faster." Unfortunately, despite having read about Galileo, I had missed the part about wind resistance so I didn't have the sense to insist on wadding up the sheet of paper first, with predictable results.

In college I had a trigonometry teacher who had been a missionary in China and gave us direct translations of the Chinese words for all the trig functions, which made it glaringly obvious what they actually were. He was also the only person I've ever met who could draw an apparently perfect circle on the chalk board, free-hand, in a single step. It appeared that he used his elbow as the center point of a virtual compass. Must have been double-jointed.

And there was one teacher in high school who had come up with an incredibly ingenious way to get the students to listen; I sat there in amazement and watched, and took notes. Whenever the class would try to get the teacher off on a tangent, he allowed the tangent, but steered it towards something else that would be on the test. And he made the class work to keep him on the supposed tangent, so they had to pay attention. When I mentioned this at a class reunion a few years ago everyone said "Why didn't you tell us?!" I've thought about that, and the answer is that it was working. They learned the material better, and got better grades, because of it, and if I'd told them about it they wouldn't have. Besides, they were having so much fun doing it! So I just sat there and took very careful notes whenever that teacher was off on a "tangent." I was enough of an introvert that no one noticed that I wasn't participating in the blitz on the teacher; and they were sufficiently focused on keeping him distracted that they never noticed what I was doing.

Margret

 

[artiemom]

I have been fortunate to have a few great teachers..
1) My 7th and 8th grade Science teacher. He was kind of young, made science interesting, and really took time out to "care" about the students.. He was awesome. I loved him in the 7th grade, and then he switched over to the 8th grade, so I had him 2 years in a row.

He knew I kind of had an interest in Science and lent me a bunch of books to read. Unfortunately, they were a bit too deep..

An awesome person. He even had a 'chess club' and had an outing at the end of school year. We went to an Animal Park where they had a picnic area and you could grill food. He asked for set of parents to act as chaperone. Of course, I loved him so much, that I volunteered my parents; who were not happy when I did.. but....all turned out so well.
All the kids going, about 10-12 of us, had a great time. He, His wife, my parents drove. My dad took his charcoal grill, my mom took a ton of food.. My parents really enjoyed it..

This was in the 8th grade.. by the time Senior Year rolled around, and I was graduating, some of the group still remembered that day.. it was an awesome memory..

I ran into him many, many years later, when he came into the medical office I was working in. I was an Ultrasound Tech, formerly an X-ray Tech. I got talking to him, about things. He was still interested in my life, remembering my parents. I got the feeling he was extremely proud of the path my careers took; as he was an inspiration for it.

Sadly, he had lung cancer and passed away about 10 years ago...

2) My High School Chemistry teacher was really brilliant but a bit crazy. Chemistry was beyond me, but I heard that if you joined the Chemistry Club, you would get an automatic pass; so I joined.

Our High school was really in disrepair and falling apart. The walls were atrocious.. So, what did the Chemistry Club do?? We Painted the walls!! YUP, our own money.
But it was not just plain paint. One of the girls was a great artist; so we painted
Charlie Brown and Snoopy on the walls with Chemistry Quotes and sayings.. another member (guy) was so smart and quirky, so he thought of the lines...

3) My 3rd grade teacher was awesome.. He was young, and so 'into' the students. He made learning fun.. This was during the 1960's when folk songs were popular. I remember, he got a record of the song, "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore"; which we learned completely. I remember the principal even came in to hear us sing..
Another one who really cared about his students.

My cousin ran into him, many years later, and this teacher still remembered me.

 

[bodester413]

Without a doubt it would be my high school art teacher. I was in the same grade as one of his daughters and she was one of my closest friends all through grade school and middle school so by the time I reached high school I had pretty much known him my whole life.....hung out at his house etc. I inherited some of my dad's artistic/creative genes so I took art classes every year of high school. He was a super cool teacher....He was kind of an old hippy if that makes sense..Felt like more of a friend than a teacher......easy going and you could talk to him about anything. Every semester he would write me out passes so instead of having to sit in study hall I could hang out in the art room for those periods. I was, and still am shy in person and our study halls were large and unruly.....so being able to hang with the art students instead was very cool. I felt more at home in that environment with those kinds of people.

 

[Margret]

He was kind of an old hippy if that makes sense.

Speaking as an old hippie, it makes perfect sense.

Margret

 

[Winchester]

My most amazing teacher was a woman who taught eighth grade Literature. She was also a German teacher and I joined German Club, specifically because of her. She was a great teacher and, although she had a few detractors, most students really liked her.

I really liked my sixth grade Social Studies teacher. I loved reading about geography and learning about the physical world. For some reason, she took a liking to me and, later on, she met my mother. She told Mom that she was so upset when I got pregnant because I had "promise". Mom said she told her that I was in college and that I was majoring in Geography with an emphasis in Environmental Planning. She was thrilled. I never wrote to her and have often thought that I should have at least sent her a note. She was a great teacher and I thought very much of her.

I had a great Geography prof in college. He taught several classes: Physical Geography, Biogeography and Soils, etc. I think I had 5 classes with him. For our Biogeography class, we all spent a weekend in Chincoteague and we had a blast. We stopped at the Smithsonian on the way down and spent an afternoon looking at wetlands exhibits there. We went out on an oyster boat. We examined dunes. I love going to Chincoteague anyway, so this was a great weekend for me. Bruce (one of my dearest friends in college) and I had such a great time.

 

[bodester413]

Speaking as an old hippie, it makes perfect sense.

Margret

I knew I should have reworded that part. No offense meant at all...actually meant it as the highest complement. Age is relative. I'm older now than he was back then.

Hangs head and shows self out of forum.....

 

[Margret]

No offense taken. I still regularly wear tie-dye, and regularly refer to myself as an aging hippie.

Margret

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

that would be my 10th grade algebra teacher. she had......interesting ways of keeping students attention! and she went the 'extra mile' to help motivate her students too. i was one such math student. after a few years of math teachers who mainly relied on the method of just telling students to read the textbook and then do the homework, i was not learning in that area any longer. i need to know more about the 'why's' in math when i'm learning. that 10th grade algebra teacher actually taught math, and i eagerly learned everything she put in front of me. i'm really very good with math and i enjoy it, and i ended up working mostly in accounting and auditing as an adult.

 

[bodester413]

No offense taken. I still regularly wear tie-dye, and regularly refer to myself as an aging hippie.

Margret

Cool. I was kinda worried that might come off as offensive after I posted it the other day.

Steve

 

[Margret]

that would be my 10th grade algebra teacher. she had......interesting ways of keeping students attention! and she went the 'extra mile' to help motivate her students too. i was one such math student. after a few years of math teachers who mainly relied on the method of just telling students to read the textbook and then do the homework, i was not learning in that area any longer. i need to know more about the 'why's' in math when i'm learning. that 10th grade algebra teacher actually taught math, and i eagerly learned everything she put in front of me. i'm really very good with math and i enjoy it, and i ended up working mostly in accounting and auditing as an adult.

Janet Kagan - Fermat's Best Theorem

It appears to have been scanned in and perhaps not proofread -- I spotted two typos in the dedication -- but still a great math story.

I should mention that it was originally published with a warning not to try the tomato juice trick yourself.

Margret