To ask you to tell me about your favourite school teacher from your own school days?

[MrsKiplin]

Shamelessly starting a feel good thread!

I used to have a teacher who was crazy about cows! She made every class interesting because she’d get distracted and tell us all about cows and the story about how she came to adore them so much. It was entertaining to say the least; there were over 70 pictures of cows in that classroom I’d say! Never a dull moment when talking about ‘Of Mice & Men’ and the ‘American Great Depression’ turned into how to look after a cow! Needless to say, I didn’t learn much about English literature that year but she was by far my favourite teacher!

I have three favourite teachers: my P6 teacher from primary, and my English and Chemistry teachers from secondary.

The fact that I STILL think of them fondly, at the age of almost 40, should be a lesson to good teachers: we value and love you!

My teacher when I was in year 1 or 2 (it was called something different then), but I was 6. She was the kindest, most patient women I have ever known.
Up until we moved recently, we had been living in the town I went to school in. I regularly saw her out and about and she would always smile at me, so I'm sure she remembered me! Or she just smiles at everyone because she is so lovely

History teacher - real one off love him or loathe him type.

Real passion for the subject. Extremely funny

Mr B, funny, warm, patient, inspirational. As well as all the lessons in my form, he used to run the annual school Talent Show, Easter Parades, Sports Day, you name it. He made school the best place.

Probably my favourite teachers were my Grade 9 science and math teachers and my high school English teacher. My Grade 9 math teacher was an outstanding math teacher. (Dad once said "If we could just clone him and get him to teach all the math courses...") My Grade 9 science teacher had a great sense of humour. I attended Grade 9 and high school online. He once posted a cool science fact and included a picture of Einstein sticking out his tongue and signed the post "Gordo (Science Dude)". My high school physics teacher was also fantastic. Physics is a tough course to start with and ours in Grade 12 was impacted by a teachers' strike. Our physics teacher held weekly online help sessions via webinar. He was very committed to helping students succeed.

I thought my art teacher was ace. We got in well and I babysat her 18 month old daughter. My English teacher was strict and mean, we thought at the time. I've met her since as my sons outreach tutor and she's flippin fantastic. Got through his barriers and actually understood. He did actual writing and maths for the first time in a year with her (he was 12). Sometimes you don't appreciate a good teacher till you aren't the student.

Whenever I read these threads I am always suprised to remember how many awesome teachers I had. Even the bad ones were usually funny in hindsight as characters or for a bit of morbid reminiscing. I suppose I was quite lucky. As for favourites, I had a junior school teacher who ignored reading levels and let us read what we wanted and just encouraged it. She was ace. An English teacher in high school who encouraged me to read widely and discover different genres of literature. Plus used to routinely flaunt the rules about visible tattoos so we loved her. Then an a level teacher who would come in hungover and just tell us to read chapter x then buy a round for all in the local pub. In between were so many others as well.

Didn't have one. I feel quite deprived after reading this thread :-).

Mrs Leaworthy. History.

I had two, both English Teachers:

One was a complete eccentric. She'd ask us to sniff the books we received at the start of the school term, then write a poem about how they smelt musty, they smelt musty.

The other I was scared shitless of, as were most of the other kids in the school. She was the one teacher I didn't dare "forget" my homework for as she could give you a verbal pasting you'd likely never forget. However, she also had a hilariously dry sense of humour and would often say something entirely seriously but with a glint in her eye that I think many people missed. She was also exceptionally intelligent and I still remember many of her monologues verbatim.

I had four brilliant teachers that I'll always remember.

My year 6 (as it is now) teacher was nurturing and supportive and made me feel like I could achieve anything.

Then in secondary my English teacher was the only one to spot how miserable and withdrawn I'd become after being bullied. She created what could only be described as a safe space and encouraged the book worm in me.

My history teacher was just immense. His passion for the subject and the knowledge he had made him worth more than 100 books on the subject. His class was the only one I was excited to attend.

Then there was the quirky maths teacher. He always seemed to be having a laugh and joke which doesn't sound like brilliant GCSE inspiration but behind the laughter was a serious dedication to students. He realised that for whatever reason I was never going to turn in my coursework for GCSE he wasn't as astute to click it was because of bullying that I'd disengaged from learning but he knew I was capable of getting a decent grade so when others were revising and doing mock tests I was doing coursework. I ended up with a B with no revision so it's kind of sad to think what I might have been capable of achieving had I actually tried.

In any case all 4 are teachers that were worth their weight in gold and more.

I had a history teacher who was also a farmer’s wife. She was brilliant at teaching, but would also tell stories of eg as she had Karl Marx on her bookcase it got round the whole village that she was a Communist. She must have gone to uni in the late 50s, so relatively unusual from her background and area. And on a Friday afternoon, she could be diverted by farming stories. “Tell is us about the cow born inside out miss”, “tell us about the five legged sheep”. She taught me in year 9; until that point my teachers had put me off history, as a result of her I did it a GCSE (when she also taught me), chose it at A Level (when my sixth form teacher was The Best Teacher Ever), and then did a degree in it.

Thank you Mrs B.

I can't remember his name but an English teacher who gently nudged me away from shit romance novels (Sweet Valley High) onto good romance novels. Which led to good novels, then Dostoevsky. I wish I could tell him.

Also incredible feminist English teacher who taught me not to write off any writers until I had read them. She also taught the 'worst' students well. One boy in the class was sullen, rude and dismissive. She basically convinced him to read Shakespere out loud and turned it from boring to sex and violence in one move. Thanks Ms Kay.

I had an amazing maths teacher in high school - she was stern, Polish, very dedicated and utterly unflappable.

I went to a not very good school in South London and our grades were NOT good, but she really put the work in for us. She gave some of us extra lessons to ensure that we got the best GCSEs possible and because of her I went on to do maths at A-Level and Degree level.

Her husband died during the time she taught us and she only took one day off. At the time I remember thinking it wasn’t much time to grieve, but now I look back and think she probably wanted to cause as little disruption as possible to her pupils.

@MrsTerryPratchett

Have you seen this?

snarkvalley.wordpress.com/

Sorry - it’s a SVH fansite from the perspective of an adult rereading the books - I realise you might not want to click on an unknown link

sorry for the brief derail OP

What a rabbit hole @Merryoldgoat

Oh yes - it’s giving me some distraction during the sleepless nights with a 7mo baby (currently sleeping on my chest).

My Geography teacher at senior school.

He was so lovely and had a way of teaching that even the odd few
'naughty' kids would do their work, and respect him.

You could have a laugh and joke with him, but you knew when
you had to be serious and knuckle down He never had to shout
or scream to get anyones attention, he was just passionate
about teaching and would always give his time to anyone who
was struggling.

When he moved schools years later, he taught both my nephews,
who also thought he was a fantastic teacher.

I found out that he recently passed away, and it was so so sad.
(but he will never be forgotten)

Aw these are brilliant!

Miss Bennett, my year 8 English teacher. She was so lovely. I remember crying because my first period was so painful and she just hugged me and sent me to read alone for the remainder of the lesson. I've never forgotten how nice she was.

Probably my maths teacher, not only for helping me get A level maths, but also for a trip down a working coal mine, a piece of (now) social history.

I had a primary school teacher called Stan Eaton and he was my godfather but that didn’t sway me in him being the best teacher ever.
Then at senior school I had an English teacher and form tutor called Jackie Carthy I was so sad when she left as she was lovely and the only teacher that didn’t compare me to my siblings before me!