To ask about your best/worst teachers?

[marriedwithhounds]

In light of school starting again in a few days... let's share stories about our best and worst experiences with teachers:

Worst: Geog teacher who would whistle or clap at you instead of using your name. Once told my older sister she had 'swan like grace' creepy fucker!

Best: English teacher who once called me a 'dark horse' when I'd always seen myself as distinctly average. Made me love English and eventually go to uni to study it and become an English teacher (going into my 10th year!)

I didn't mind teachers being strict or even one who would lose her rag at small things like someone not covering their book (we were quite well behaved) but we had one teacher who was kind of inconsistent and unfair about who she would fly off the handle at which i didn't like.
We had lots of nice teachers at primary and secondary and i can't pick a favourite. We had a year 2 teacher though who wasn't the nicest but i remember so, so much that i learned and books she read to us. I don't remember this for other primary teachers so she must have been fab and gone above and beyond.
I loved my sixth form form teacher even though her subject was the only subject i failed at O level!

Best was my chemistry teacher at secondary school, I was 13.
He was gentle and quietly spoken and his daughter was my age so I think he understood me.

Worst was my general class teacher when I was 8. He'd make all pupils stand on their chairs after a test and sit down in order of final mark.
I was undiagnosed dyslexic and always the last one stood on my chair in the middle of the classroom. He'd then encourage the class to mock the last children left standing. His aim was to humiliate us into learning harder. He was evil and should never have been a teacher.

Haven't really got a worst...but the best was undoubtedly my food tech teacher at secondary school. I was fairly academic but didn't really try in her class, I was disorganised and probably a little annoying and disruptive - she didn't expect much from me in terms of results because I just wasn't that bothered

Things changed when my boyfriend at the time became abusive - he broke 3 of my ribs on my 16th birthday because I wouldn't have sex with him. The school weren't interested in making sure he stayed away from me, and he used to spend all his time trying to get to me.

My teacher was absolutely fantastic, she opened her classroom for me to sit in when he was kicking off, and one time when I was meant to be in a lesson with him, she put her foot down and wouldn't let me go, even when my class teacher came down and demanded I go and join the lesson - she stood up and firmly said to this other teacher 'she's not going - and if I have to get into trouble for this then so be it'

I was so grateful that day, I decided there wasn't much I could offer in return except effort. I worked solidly for weeks, getting up to scratch with my coursework and revising for her exam. I was predicted a D and I got an A*. Yes it was 'only food tech' but she backed me that day and I've never forgotten it.

Come across a bit teary now 😂

That's so so lovely Iamclearly.

Worst was my French teacher who went round the A level class and pointed out the best looking girl. In an all girls’ school and with his daughter in the same class! He pointed out the music teacher’s daughter. Awkward! When he spoke, spittle gathered at the corner of his mouth. It was horrible.

Best was my English teacher who made us all love Tess of the Dubervilles by using funny voices, encouraging us and making us feel we could all achieve. I met him again a couple of years back at a family event to which he was invited. I was still in awe of him!

Another in the worst category, PE teacher who’d make you go through the open showers again if you weren’t soaked through, handy for needlework straight after and would pick an unfortunate to turn on the shower-you had to stretch up, naked, obviously. Not nice. If you’re reading this, Miss Macey, there was no need to be such a bitch and throwing a netball into a kid’ s face is not standard pedagogy.

Best: Loads of good ones: I still particularly remember my French teacher would always go off on tangents with life advice. I especially remember her telling us never to accept a mediocre job or mediocre boyfriend. Always strive for the best you can get. I was probably staring blankly out the window during this speech but I've always remembered it.

Worst: Biology teacher. I was very academic at school always got straight A*'s but was very very insecure, felt like an imposter who was going to be found out any minute. For some reason this one teacher must have got it into her head that I was cocky (not sure why as I barely spoke) and took it upon herself to take my down a peg or two. Always coming out with insults which seemed to perfectly fit with my insecurities "Crisps you know you're really not all that clever". "We've all been talking about you in the staff room and there are lots of people who think you really think too much of yourself and you're in for a fall". I was (and probably still am) a massive people pleaser and a bit of a geek who cared a lot about what the teachers thought about me criticising me in the staff room was absolutely horrifying.

Worst- Mrs M- GCSE physics teacher, I admit I was out of my league a bit in top set science, I was good at chemistry and biology but useless at physics, but she would constantly humiliate me in front of the class and when we had tests she would read out all my wrong answers in front of the class so everyone would laugh at me. She would criticise other teachers in front of us as well. She also hated the head of languages and so picked on those of us, myself included who were studying languages and used to make xenophobic remarks to German exchange students when they were over.
Mrs J - Final year primary school teacher. Had us all terrified of starting secondary school. Looking back I think she was trying to make it sound terrible so it wouldn't seem that bad when we got there but she went a bit overboard. She hated the Welsh for some reason and told us all it was okay to them too, humiliated me by telling me my books stank of smoke as my mum used to check my work unknown to me and must have done so while smoking.

Best - Mr O - Head of year throughout my secondary years, been teaching for years but not remotely cynical or jaded, clearly still loved teaching good sense of humour and treated us as individuals. He knew us all really well, so when I was in trouble once for swearing at a fellow student he knew it was out of character for me and handled it really well. I can't really do him justice here he was great. I don't think anyone could have a bad word about him.

Mr W - A-level German teacher, very understated sort of teacher and probably not many student's favourite but he clearly loved teaching and knew how to bring everyone's skills out and get the best out of everyone. He had a calm presence, and dry sense of humour and was interesting without being showy.

Worst was actually a good teacher BUT she thought the best way to engage me ( in French) was to single me out in front of the class as I had a good french accent. I was already singled out for having an Irish accent ( moved to England as a child) and was mortified . She later ( years later) apologized, she was a NQT at the time and said that looking back she knew that it was the wrong way to engage me as it had the opposite effect.
Best one? More than one. Maths teacher who was calmness personified but totally in charge of the class.
History teacher who made the syllabus come alive.
Home economics teacher who was always on hand with a cuppa and a friendly ear who really took time to explain things not on the GCSE course like budgeting, bank accounts and how to keep a home clean and tidy. I often think of her when I'm meal planning

Worst: year 6 teacher who humiliated me and others when we couldn't do mental arithmetic on the spot, mocked me by imitation when I said that I hadn't been able to do the homework and my mum and dad weren't able to understand it either and to top it all off she told me I ran like a girl.

Best: had lots of brilliant teachers, a maths teacher in high school who undid all the anxiety I had from aforementioned primary teacher, a class teacher in year 4 who was just lovely and you felt like she genuinely liked everyone in the class.
My GCSE history and English teachers were brilliant as well.
Head of Year in high school was fab too, he bought me mashed potatoes and beans when I'd gone to school after having seen teeth out and I'd only taken sandwiches and crisps with me.

All of them were pretty poor. It was a silly little all-girls school,with teacher like sometnung out of a finishing school in the 1950s. Woeful. The worst? the one who was fond of a pupil who had died of leukaemia, saying, to me 'why didn't you die?'

Best: English teacher who told the popular townie girl who said “this poem is stupid” “no, you’re stupid”. Somebody had to say it.

Worst: computing a level teacher whose “teaching” consisted of handing out textbooks and referring all questions to them with “look it up in the book” and left us to play on the computers, occasionally looking up from his to say “I can see what you’re doing, don’t do anything naughty”. He couldn’t. I didn’t do my coursework so despite an A in the exam I didn’t get that a level.

Best, yr10 English teacher who genuinely was incredible. Lent me books, talked to me about them and about poetry made the head move me to top set.

Worst, history teacher who was always off, constantly got my name mixed up with someone else and told my parents I was getting DS because she didn't know my last name

Actually that's a lie, my worst was my A level Chem teacher who made me feel like it was my fault for not having a clue what she was on about. Turned out they had done a different exam board at the filter schools so I was lacking loads of major basic knowledge. She didn't even try and figure out why I was struggling.

Best: history teacher who adores history and it really came through in his teaching. His enthusiasm was catching and he just assumed that everyone would be interested in history. He also had all the time in the world for pupils - would spend all his lunches and breaks in his room helping kids who came to him with questions. Upshot was that classes behaved and achieved for him even when other teachers thought them unmanageable and difficult to teach. Also the English teacher who in 6th form pulled me up reading ahead under the table and made me join in class discussion and go at the class pace - up until then I had had the view that I didn't need to engage because I could read faster and teach myself (and to be fair from a results perspective I was right but looking back I must have been a smug little shit to try and teach!)

Worst: the music teacher who couldn't control classes and just shouted more and more whilst turning red. Unlike the history teacher above nobody behaved or tried in music lessons

My history and geography teacher in yr 7 were both inspiring. Had the history teacher again in yr 9, this time in a mixed ability class - her ability to engage us was awesome. The physics teacher was great in a different way, very good at jokes and coped admirably well with having two of us who were interested in physics and would question or nitpick over anything we could (all girls' school, non-selective though with an academic reputation; the 2 of us went on to do theoretical physics degrees). The year below us grumbled in fact that he was always qualifying his statements.

Worst - unquestionably my primary headmistress who took a dislike to me and my family when we joined the school. When I was year 5 she gave me several straight out detentions for saying "but" to my class teacher. When that teacher had kept me back after a lesson to engage me in discussion on something, and the "but" was entirely appropriate. That was just one of the worse examples of the kind of pettiness she got up to.

Best was my English teacher in what’re now years 7, 10 and 11. I loved English so it was an easy sell, but she was funny, down to earth, and cared about us. Had a tendency to get caught mildly swearing, and once spent an entire lesson having a fit of the giggles with us (but had us back under control next lesson). Bonus was she clicked with my mum who was a similarly rank-and-file maths teacher in a different school (I think my English teacher referred to them both as ‘minions’).

Worst - special place in teaching hell for the history teacher who described me as ‘dour’ in a report. Yes, that’s a totally appropriate thing to put in writing about a teenage girl. The maths teacher who was also deputy head and therefore late for every lesson - all of which were single periods, 35 minutes each, to fit with his workload. I’d need to go back in time to figure out how culpable we’re the two A-level maths teachers who allowed me to go from grade A GCSE to failing my A-level mock ... but not as culpable as me, to be fair.

Oh, on th good side, another senior teacher, possibly co-deputy, who took three of us into her office when we were whinging about period pains, and taught us some tips on how to deal with them. We were swinging the lead of course, but it was still nice and oddly humbling to have this busy (and usually fiercely intimidating) teacher take some time with us.