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During my school years, I was fortunate enough to have some amazing teachers-- ones that helped me through some tough times, and had a profoundly positive impact on the rest of my adolescent life. If you've had a similar experience, I ask that you post it in this thread. Teachers have one of the most important and least-appreciated jobs out there, and this way maybe we can recognize them a little bit. Mr. Wollenburg was my 6th grade Math/Science teacher. I had him in the early 1990's, and the man was about 25 years removed from being a hippie. He had the long hair in a ponytail, an easygoing style, and casual dress. Although there was nothing laid-back about his abilities. The man had the ability to simultaneously fascinate and educate you with seemingly minimal effort. When reading aloud from a science text, he would often break into comical voices, or add his own commentary. To this day, when I have to do long division and am without a calculator, I hear his voice "..and now we add a zero from the "Free Zero" store..." Hardly a day went by where he didn't get the class to erupt in uproarious laughter. Mr. W also had a weird fascination with Betty Boop, having various Boop-related trinkets scattered in his classroom. I was a socially awkward kid and he also looked out for me. He didn't allow ANY bullshit like that in his class, so thankfully his classes were pretty stress-free for me. He even bought me a soda and beamed like a proud father when I won the 6th grade Geography Bee and advanced to the school competition. He retired about 10 years ago, but I still see him about town every now and then. Another great teacher I had was Frau Becker for German 101 my Senior year. I didn't need the class and just took it because it filled out my schedule, but I'm glad I had the experience. She was nearing the end of her teaching career, as she retired about 2 years after I graduated, but she was another one who made class fun. Every week we would have 10 new words to learn, and we'd use them in various forms until we were tested on them. She encouraged outside learning, so when she'd ask us to use one of her vocabulary words in a sentence, she'd get very excited when we'd use German that she hadn't yet taught to us. Being the smartass I was, one day I learned how to say "I like to microwave cats" in German, and not only did she incorporate that into that part of her lesson, it made an appearance on the next test. That class also produced my most memorable final project of all time. I was partnered with 2 other kids and we made the absolute worst short film of all time in my garage, completely in German. It made "Manos: The Hands of Fate" look like god damned "Citizen Kane." It was essentially us squirting each other with a garden hose in some weird German game show setting, and it was loving awesome. The entire class sat in stunned silence at how awful the production truly was, but we got a B+ on it and made her laugh a few times, so it was worth it. That year I also missed a week of school due to knee surgery, and she made audio recordings of her classes that week and brought them personally to my house along with all of the work from that week. She even sat in my living room and chatted with me for a few minutes before leaving. For such a small act, it had a huge impact on me. Frau Becker was like the awesome, fun grandma everyone wants. I had other good teachers in school, but those are the two who stick out the most for me. How about yours?
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 16:06 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 01:31 |
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Back in like Grade 7 or 8 I really got into reading SomethingAwful, I read all the front page updates, the Flash tubs and I was even dipping into FYAD at that time. I basically thought I was hot poo poo and on the first day of English class of the new semester we had to write a short paper introducing ourselves to the teacher (hobbies, interests etc), and I wrote this insane paper just chalk full of hosed up SA catchphrases, basically hoping at the time that I would freak out this old lady English teacher or at least make her go "What the gently caress?" So we're finally getting our papers back, I have this smug look on my face, and then I see on the margin in red ink: Do you have stairs in your house? I look over and this white-haired innocent looking old teacher is just grinneing from ear to ear, turns out she was an OG goon from back when the forums were free to register, she had mainly been posting in the Book Barn in those days. Really made me realize that people can come from all walks of life and you shouldnt assume about people, anyways peace
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 16:10 |
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I had a few awesome teachers that I'd say influenced me. The first is Mrs. O'Boyle (think I spelled her name right). She was my US history teacher and debate teacher. She kicked rear end. Her history class was basically "gently caress the Revolution and Civil war. You learned a ton about that poo poo in 9th grade block. We've only got one semester and are starting at WWI and getting all the way to Vietnam and Watergate. Further if we can. War isn't pretty. Stop romanticising it. We're watching Saving Private Ryan." She's one of the teachers that really got me into history, and I did a report on the Iraq-Iran war for one of my major projects (Analysis of a conflict the US is/was involved in other than major conflicts such as WWI/II, Korea, Vietnam, etc.) Another kick rear end teacher was Mr. Quinn. He was a cool JV soccer coach, but he was also an English teacher and got a friend and I into Shakespeare. We watched Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. All of it. Most students were loath to take a Shakespeare class, especially after doing Julius Caesar and R&J during Freshman English. All but the most stubborn/lazy students loved it by the end. Quinn had a great way of engaging us and getting us interested in what we were reading. It helped that he could translate everything and help us understand what was being said, along with the jokes. His passion about it was great, too. He actually cared about the subject, and it showed. We didn't just read the plays, but talked about Shakespeare's history, the (conspiracy) theories, motivations for certain plays and sonnets and so on. Last is Mr. Wilson, the Chemistry teacher. The experiments we did were always fun, and his teaching style was very engaging to students. The best experimemts/demonstrations were the ones we couldn't do, because they were the most dangerous. "The reaction results in this purple smoke you're seeing. Don't get too close; it's toxic. I hope the hood doesn't fail." "If you'll all follow me, we're going to step outside, watch a thermite reaction and make some molten iron." "Let's go out to the staff parking lot where I'll show you how to make dry ice bombs." The best had to be his liquid nitrogen demos. He made ice cream, shattered various flowers and fruits, froze a hot dog as a comparison to its effects on flesh, etc. Choice quote: "I used to shoot LN2 out of my mouth, but the dentist told me to stop because the extreme temperature change was cracking my teeth." When he was done with everything, he had a styrofoam cooler filled with liquid nitrogen. What do you do with it? Duh, do something cool with it. (heh) Everyone followed him to the commons and stood at the bottom of the stairs while he went to the top. He tipped the cooler over and a waterfall of LN2 cascaded down. That's when we heard the cracking. The commons area was all a glossed/waxed/whatever concrete floor. The stairs were made of the same concrete and had plastic covers. The stairs cracked due to the rapid temperature change. Wilson's response? "That's coming out of the science budget. Oh well, I've got everything I need for next year anyway."
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 17:23 |
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Mr. Burton, my Gr 10 and Gr 12 Biology teacher. He's part of the reason I'm currently in the 3rd year of my PhD in Biology.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 17:29 |
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Meh. The one I would've listed ended up getting busted about 3 years later for fooling around with some girls in one of his classes, so. Yeah.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 17:33 |
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Most of us were doing really badly in French class back in high school because our teacher would just up and leave the class for no apparent reason for about 50 mins of the 1 hour lesson and never set us any work. This got to be such a big problem that Ms. Campbell, another French teacher who was off sick with loving cancer, wrote up some lesson plans and advice for us and posted it in. When she was feeling up to it, she'd hold extra classes for us. We all ended up aceing the class and buying her a bunch of gifts, she was loving awesome.  Then there was Mr. Hunter. I'm just old enough to have been in school when Section 28 was still enforced, which was a law that stated teachers weren't allowed to "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship". Most people just didn't talk about it, or when you did hear about LGBT issues it was kids calling each other faggots or dykes or something. One day, he stood up in class and said, "Right. I'm sick of the bullying going on in this school. I've seen sexist bullying, racist bullying, and most pervasive of all, homophobic bullying. I don't care if I'm not supposed to talk about it. If someone's gay that's their business, it is not an insult. I hope that's clear." Dude was married with kids, he had no reason to do that other than that he was really angry about how the kids were treating each other. Given that about a third of our class came out after they were finally done with school, it probably helped a lot of people. I only remember one kid who was openly gay at school. He was a total ned and a bit of a hardcase, so he didn't get much stick for it. He'd wear a pink baseball cap and highlighted hair and had his right ear pierced. Kids would go up to him and it would usually go like this: "Oi. Are you gay?" And he'd reply in his gruff Tayside voice, "Aye. I am. I like bumming men." "Oh. Awright then." And they'd leave him to it. There wasn't really much they could say after that.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 17:44 |
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Dr. Eleanor Heginbotham was my favorite teacher ever -- she was filled with so much passion on her subject (she was a professor of American literature, and was an Emily Dickinson scholar in the U.S., among other things) that it was impossible for it not to be contagious. Her father had been the chief physician for Eisenhower during his presidency, which resulted in tons of great anecdotes in class. She still sends me Christmas cards and once sent me a glass trifle dish for my birthday with a note stating that she liked the notion of an English major making a proper English trifle. One of my favorite people I've met in real life, not just as a teacher.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 17:44 |
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I had a math teacher back in college who let me come to his work office to take the final that I missed. I really wish I could remember his name but he was Chinese and awesome.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 18:01 |
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I had 1 (one) good teacher in the 13 years I was in school. His name was Mr Hicken, and he actually got that I was a pretty abnormal teenager. Every other teacher I had treated me like I was basically mentally handicapped, when in fact I am pretty intelligent, I've just suffered from bad anxiety and depression, and ADHD, and on and on, since I was about 8 years old. Instead of making me sit in a corner without the rest of the students like most of my teachers did, he basically let me be his TA. I would get my work done, usually weeks ahead of time, and he would just let me wander around and try and help everyone else out. He was just a really kind person and I feel awful because one time I prank called him.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 18:37 |
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Oh poo poo, I forgot about Mr. Peek, the biology teacher. He was really good to talk to about all kinds of crap, if a kid's assigned guidance counsellor was a bit poo poo (as they often were), he'd always listen to the kids' troubles instead if they wanted to talk. Also he had a tank of giant snails in the back of his biology classroom. One day one of the class neds was sitting next to it and yelled,  Look at these, haw haw they're having sex! John, they are not having sex. They're all girls so that would be a bit difficult.Nerdy little me piped up (god, I was insufferable in school).  But I thought all snails were hermaphrodites? Well I am reliably informed these are girls.We thought no more of it until a few years later when we went into our first class after that year's summer break and found our form teacher with a small tank of baby snails on his desk. Urgh, what the gently caress are those? Mr. Peek's snails had babies! Aren't they nice? He needs a home for them, so I adopted some as pets. They're quite cute once you get used to them.I didn't realise just how prolific snails were. Just about every class we went into that day had a tank of at least five baby snails.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 18:42 |
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Mr. Groatman, my literature teacher the senior year of high school. It was his first year. The man graduated from Princeton. No joke. And he went to teach in a public high school in South Jersey. He was only about twenty-seven or so. Easy to relate to. Encouraged us to write poetry and short stories, and made Shakespeare a lot easier to fathom. Awesome guy all around.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 18:43 |
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Seventh grade, Ms. Nakazaki, the sex-ed teacher. Well, she taught me everything about sex anyway. She was normally the computer lab attendant.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 18:46 |
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Two teachers really stick out to me: Dr. King who taught Comparative Programming Languages was absolutely phenomenal. The dude expected a lot and his tests and assignments were pretty challenging, but he has been one of the few people who truly inspired me to do well. He connects so well with the class and takes what could be an incredibly dry subject and turns it into something interesting with good pacing and relevant information. He clearly was a master of his craft and it was refreshing to see that in a CS program. Dr. Groves who taught an array of Music classes and also was my Piano teacher for a year at the University stood out to me as someone who was not only a phenomenal teacher, but someone who was passionate about his art, possessed the patience of an angel and wanted to his students to see the world of music the way he saw it and he succeeded, at least in me. One of the classes I took under him was the history of Classical and Romantic period music. I went in there thinking it's something I should take because not only was he my private Piano instructor, he was my adviser. I came out of it appreciating the complexities and beauty of the famous pieces of the time. I finally understood why the great composers of the classical era (Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn) are so revered. To this day, I have several pieces of the era on my Grooveshark playlist and have found a special beauty in those pieces that has not been successfully replicated in the past 200 years. I have Dr. Groves to thank for that. I do regret not being committed to Concert Performance in Piano. I was much more interested in composition than performance and I feel that because of that, much of his effort in Piano instruction was wasted and could have been used on someone who was committed to performance. Nonetheless, I came out with a lot more than I started with and he alone convinced me that there exists the kind of teacher that usually exists only in a land of make-believe: where teachers teach because they love it and simply want to share what they know with the world.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 18:49 |
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Mr. Lute, physics teacher and my all-time role model for how to be an awesome old guy. When I worked at K-B toys (when it still existed) at 15 or 16 he used to come in to buy toys for kinomatics demonstrations. Even kids who hated science regarded him as a man made almost entirely of magic.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 18:49 |
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Mrs Williams, my economics teacher senior year. We talked politics a lot during class and just shot the poo poo a lot after class, but in addition she was a fantastic teacher. I did bald for bucks because my hair was dyed and I couldn't do locks of love (female, if that matters). After I was done she said "I know I'm not allowed to do this" with that frowny-proud face and gave me a big ole' hug. The best teacher
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 18:51 |
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I'm so fascinated by this thread already. I start teaching next year and want to actually BE an awesome teacher (I'm certainly not doing it for the paycheck!). Some of these stories are awesome. I had a lot of really awesome teachers. Right now I have a writing professor (Dr. Levy) that has taught me so much about my own writing style it's kind of insane. My 11th grade lit teacher (Ms. Poss) was so knowledgeable yet really cool. I learned how to view film as literature in that class and it really changed my whole viewpoint on literature. Next year I learned to appreciate poetry from another teacher (Ms. Gelston). Some teachers were cool to hang out with but the awesome teachers were the one who really changed the way I thought about things.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 18:56 |
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Shut the gently caress up, Esco.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 19:05 |
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I've always tested well, so despite the fact that I was a miserable, lazy child I found myself in the gifted program called PROBE in middle school. The first year of it was one of the worst of my entire school existence, but the second and third years I had Mr. Short. Honestly, he probably doesn't remember me, or if he does it's as the slacker girl who skated by and was criminally lazy, but he, along with an understanding science teacher named Mrs. Solomon, basically made middle school bearable. It was nice to come into a class and be able to clown around, and legit learn in spite of (or perhaps because of) him. I'm pretty sure I had some kind of undiagnosed issue that I've long since come to cope with but I was a mess back then.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 19:08 |
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Nocheez posted:Shut the gently caress up, Esco. Don't think its him actually.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 19:11 |
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My favourite teacher was probably Mr. Hoffmeister, first in french and later in political science. I sucked horribly in french but he'd never take it personally. He'd even sorta overlook my horrible grammar and give me extra points for reading comprehension (the only thing I was remotely competent at). More importantly though, he managed to tell us about a lot of very interesting stuff about life in france and french culture, as he'd been living there for several years. During the last two years I took a mid-level political science course by him to fulfill some requirements for graduating. Due to some weird regulations very few students ended up taking it. The result was a course that was literally just 8 dudes and a teacher who was in his last year before retirement. While we still had to go through the material for the finals it was an incredibly relaxed and fun class, with plenty of interesting and engaging discussions taking place. Hell, during some of the more stressful periods that was pretty much the only class I genuinely looked forward to every week. I haven't heard from him since graduation, but I'm certain he made good on his plans to retire to Belgium The other one was Mr. Kraut, he taught most of my chemistry classes. He was just incredibly good-natured. During grades 7 to 13 I have never once witnessed him being seriously angry or annoyed. He was always ready with some silly quip or pun that would have been absolutely groan-worthy if anybody else tried to tell them, but he always made everybody laugh. In addition to that, he was very well-versed in his field and amazingly good at conveying this knowledge to us. He'd usually get us to understand even pretty complex concepts at the first try. Contrast that with one of the other teachers in chemistry who managed to scorch a neat hole into the ceiling during a thermite experiment because she confused copper oxide with iron oxide.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 19:12 |
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Sid Vicious posted:Don't think its him actually. Of course not. I just wanted to brighten the day of some forum veterans. For content: one of my favorite substitute teachers was a guy who looked a lot like Dennis Franz. After getting through the lesson plan for the day, he would do Edgar Allen Poe stories from the first-person perspective of one of the characters. His version of A Cask of Amontillado gave me chills, the way he laughed evilly at building a brick wall around another man.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 19:14 |
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Nocheez posted:Of course not. I just wanted to brighten the day of some forum veterans. Well it worked so hurray. 150 bucks down the drain, what a loving sucker.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 19:15 |
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If you ever get the chance to take a class wherein the professor is from Jamaica, do it. Every Jamaican teacher I've had has the most amazing sense of dark humor. In a history class, we were talking about the JFK assassination, and this one girl who had a habit of always saying and doing dumb things asked,"Ms A, what was Jackie O's reaction when JFK got shot?" Ms. A looked at her over her glasses, saw that she was serious and responded with,"Well you know she was very upset as one can assume, but I'm pretty sure her first reaction was 'Oh no, my dress.'"
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 19:22 |
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My favourite teacher was my science teacher in senior school. He had such a fantasticly chill attitude! My favourite moment was probably when we were being taught about magnesium and how it burns so brightly. With our class being huge for our school (30 of us - the average class sizes were 15-20. Small rural school.) there weren't enough protective goggles for us all to wear. Instead, he just said to the ones without glasses "You gotta look, it's really really cool, but just cover your eyes and squint a bit. And don't tell anyone else that I let you see this without goggles." The other thing with this guy was that at the end of terms he'd get us to let off french-bangers in the air chamber. He was amazing, and everyone missed him when he moved to Cyprus. 
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 19:30 |
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Catgroove posted:My favourite teacher was my science teacher in senior school. He had such a fantasticly chill attitude! My favourite moment was probably when we were being taught about magnesium and how it burns so brightly. With our class being huge for our school (30 of us - the average class sizes were 15-20. Small rural school.) there weren't enough protective goggles for us all to wear. Instead, he just said to the ones without glasses "You gotta look, it's really really cool, but just cover your eyes and squint a bit. And don't tell anyone else that I let you see this without goggles." That sounds like...a terrible teacher I'm not gonna lie. Hey its fine, you could go blind, don't tell anyone. And what's a french banger? I assume a firecracker of some kind? Great teaching.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 19:31 |
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Sid Vicious posted:That sounds like...a terrible teacher I'm not gonna lie. Hey its fine, you could go blind, don't tell anyone. And what's a french banger? I assume a firecracker of some kind? Great teaching. He ddn't do it for a prolonged period of time, we without glasses came away with a few sunspots, nothing damaging at all. And yes, sorry, it's a firecracker.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 19:37 |
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Catgroove posted:He ddn't do it for a prolonged period of time, we without glasses came away with a few sunspots, nothing damaging at all. And yes, sorry, it's a firecracker. Okay well, while he sounds like a "cool" teacher, he sounds like an awful educator honestly.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 19:40 |
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I had a pretty awesome 5/6th grade teacher. Every day after lunch he would read to us, just a few chapters. I remember him reading The BFG and The Cay. He would do different voices for each character and gesture emphatically, sometimes prancing around the classroom, it was really cool. Also my 8th grade science teacher was whacky as hell. He had all these sayings on wooden boards around the room saying poo poo like "Think about what makes sense" and "it's not important until it is." He was a great teacher and really encouraged us. He was all about whacky rear end experiments like the egg drop and that kind of stuff. I think he retired a few years after I graduated jr. high.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 19:47 |
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My favorite high school teachers were Mr Perez and Mr Cromwell. For the life of me I can't remember WHAT Perez taught (I graduated in 1996), but we've stayed in touch over the years and we still bullshit on Facebook from time to time - he's moved on to become a professor at a state university. Awesome guy. Cromwell was my English teacher, also drama (this was a TINY school - 50 students total, 13 in my graduating class - teachers wore many hats). He was funny as hell, and passionate about theatre (and teaching). I know he's now teaching in public high schools in El Paso, but I haven't talked to him since the 90s. He was pretty young at the time, I think he had just turned 29 or 30 when I met him - youngest teacher I had in high school anyway, though I've had university classes led by graduate students (I'm in a class now where I have a good 8-10 years on the instructor, I'd say he's about 25-26). There was another teacher - Steve something (he went by his first name), he was the epitome of burnt out stoner. I was never in any of his classes, but I would BS with him during lunch pretty frequently. Very intelligent guy, hair halfway down his back and a big beard. More recently though, I finally got back in college last spring, and got into a university this spring. I had an awesome government/political science teacher over the summer (Michael Iachetta - anyone at DCCCD/Richland needs to take one of his classes) - one of the nicest guys I've ever met, and the dude is brilliant. Conservative as all hell, while I'm a bit liberal, but it made for some excellent debates. We still talk pretty regularly too.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 20:01 |
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Mrs. Darnall. I had her for 11-12th grade Honors and AP English, respectively. I wish I could articulate how great of a teacher she was for me. I used to spend my study hall in her classroom because it was also her free period. She'd tell me stories about her 95 year old mom while smoking out of her classroom window. She also used to stand on her head randomly in class. When I went to college, her husband, who was a Chemistry professor at a different university, tutored me for free. We lost touch after a while, but a few years ago, I read where he had died. I sent her a card and she replied. We've exchanged Christmas cards every year since. She gave me her number, but I've yet to call. I should do that soon.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 20:24 |
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I have had three teachers in my life that were important to me. Sadly one of them passed away quite suddebly. Andy was a brilliant psychology teacher in college who looked like a hippy straight from the books; 50 odd, pony tail, goatee beard. He didn't suffer fools gladly and would swear quite freely in lectures. He was a brilliant lecturer though and always entertained while teaching. He knew my mother through a previous college course and therefore was happy to talk to me. By about the end of the year we seemed to have a good relationship. Sadly I recall rather too vividly the day he died. Around about end of November and course is finishing up. Class isn't doing anything so I decide to go talk to him and listen to gerry rafferty. We talk a bit and he tells me he hasn't listened to rafferty for ages. The class ends and I say see you later thinking I'll see him in January. Next day I get a call; Andy died yesterday in the pub, while talking to lecture mates. Massive heart attack. The funeral was a miserable affair. He left a wife and two kids. It was supposed to be a fairly closed affair, but I look around and the entire cemetery is filled with people. At least maybe 50 odd people; lecturers, students and others. He was a good man and he didn't deserve the end he got. Took me a while to try shrug off the weird coincidental feeling I got. Like it was my fault or something... Edit: the other two are my history teacher, who was an inspiration and a friend. He retired recently and I hope he's enjoying it. Think that high school was sapping the life out of him. Finally there was Richard Foley. I'm not sure if there are any goons here who went to or are going to Glasgow Caledonian and know what I'm talking about, but Richard is an awesome guy and should be listened to always. A lot of people seemed to dislike the fact he would mock or question you, but he's really a great lecturer.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 21:00 |
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Mr. C, Grade 8 Science and Math. Great teacher, but the most important thing I remember about him was his expectations and his ice-cold stare. I was being an idiot in class one day, and he looked at me and said "You aren't a kid anymore, stop it." That was enough to make me realize that the expectations were different now in high school, and I wasn't a problem after that (aside from my horrible math grades). Another similar memory that sticks out doesn't actually involve me: one of my classmates (I'll call him Brian) had a habit of running out of class when he got in trouble (not sure what it was, but he'd done it all through elementary), and our teachers had always chased him. One day he did something, Mr. C yelled at him, and Brian jetted out of class. Mr. C just stood where he was and watched him run out the door, and simply said to the rest of us "I'm not going to chase him; I don't have to."
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 21:14 |
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I hated Biology, but pretty much my best memory of high school came from Mr Murray's class. He had us for 2nd year Human Reproductive Systems, or sex ed. Most of this was just sitting around watching cheesy 80's educational tapes, I still associate sex with mullets to this day. Mr Murray decided he didn't want half the class giggling through the videos, so in the first class he said "Ok, lets get this out of our systems now, what dirty words do you know to do with sex?" So going by table we all gave suggestions and he wrote them down on the board. "Okay, what about the C-word?" "Cock?" "Thats already there, you know what I'm talking about. A female part" "Clit?" "Oh come on, don't tell me none of you know what a stinkyhole is" Said just as Dr Nichols, the head of the Biology department entered the classroom. Mr Murray standing in front of a memory map with lots of suggestions spanning out from Prick, Tits and Pussy. We got a substitute after that.  Another awesome teacher was Mr Shipman, English teacher and pathological liar. With a little egging on a fairly boring class could be turned into him recalling that one time he chased down a gypsy burglar through the dark alleys of Prague with a stepladder. Edit: WMain00 posted:Finally there was Richard Foley. I'm not sure if there are any goons here who went to or are going to Glasgow Caledonian and know what I'm talking about, but Richard is an awesome guy and should be listened to always. A lot of people seemed to dislike the fact he would mock or question you, but he's really a great lecturer. Oh wow, I missed the open day but managed to get an appointment with Foley to check out the game programming course at Glasgow Cale. Didn't like him at first since he was pretty irritated I showed up 15 minutes early and made me go stand outside the building, but ended up really liking him by the time the tour was over. Nice guy and fairly chaty for a programmer. Didn't go to Caledonian though, the course was laughable compared to Abertay's.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 21:18 |
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Ken, the volunteer science dude at my kindegarten was pretty awesome and really engaging. I remember him doing a whole month on the ocean after I told him about Robert Ballard and his super-cool submarine Alvin. Mr. Gregory in High School was pretty awesome, from Writing to Philosophy, I have never since encountered a more intelligent, caring, and effective instructor. He was a guy who made MILLIONS selling blank space in some magazine but decided to drop that and go teach at a Catholic School. He also helped me through some major issues while I was at school, so I'm grateful on a more personal level.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 21:22 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 01:31 |
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Mr. McKenzie was my high school electronics teacher. We had a special campus in our city that had classes in things like Electronics Engineering, Auto Shop, Machine Shop, all that jazz, and every other day, you'd spend three periods there. In its early days, it was typically used as a dumping ground for trouble students teachers were tired of dealing with (Texas education system). This actually worked out well for me, and was the entire reason I graduated. We had real poo poo there, oscilloscopes, multimeters, everything we needed to learn and start building and repairing electronics. We even got broken PLCs from local businesses that we practiced troubleshooting and repairing on. McKenzie signed me up for a computer competition, despite the fact that I knew poo poo-all about computers, which I actually ended up winning. All of this, of course, was great fun, and it turned me around in school a complete 180. He also required us to refer to each other by last name, and every Friday, we had to do mock job interviews. This went on for three years, and most of us really hated it, but to this day, if I can get the interview, I nearly always get the job thanks to that. I wish I could have appreciated it back then, because I sure can't find him now to thank him.
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| # ? Apr 16, 2012 22:49 |
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