Who was your favorite teacher?

[Dennis M. Scott]

Would you tell us a story about your favorite school teacher? Share with us an anecdote that illustrates what you like about that person.

[Anne and Dwayne Hood]

Oh my! That would be so hard. I had some wonderful teachers and profs.
One of my 8th grade teachers was "something else." She would get me to sit at the back of the room making a poster she wanted, and tell me that I could choose anyone I wished to help me.
Once, she sent me down to the building for younger kids, to stay with them while a teacher went for a "shot." When I came back, the next class was with her. I went in to get my books. She said, "Anne, we had a spelling test while you were gone, I gave you 100, because I knew that was what you would make." We had two teens living with us, that were sort of like foster brothers. Bill came in that days raging, and in a making fun way said what she had said to me. Ha
Once, she saw me across the street down town. She YELLED, across the street, "Yahoo, yahoo," until I heard her. My mother taught me to not get out in public, anywhere and talk loud. Ha
She called me once, when I was in high school, to ask me where we put something in the storage closet. I told her, but she could not find it.
The first time I noticed the Northern Lights, I called and ask her what they were.
Then, I had her sister of a differant last name, as a homeroom teacher in high school.
You could tell that "she already knew me," so to speak. She was very funny , also. People would come to the door that had had her as a teacher in earlier grades and joke with her.
She said, something like this, "I got your Christmas card, but I just looked at it and read it because, I was afraid it would hurt you if I didn't." I told her that I had just sent it, because I was afraid she would feel bad if I hadn't.

It was fun to slide into homeroom the last minute. One morning she claimed that I was late, and gave me two dentention periods. Detentions did not subtract from your conduct grade like "Study Halls" did. I went to the office where she was working to serve them, as she told me to. After 15 minutes, she said that I could go. I told her that I had two detentions, and that would be an hour for two. She said, "Well, stay 15 more minutes, and you can go." I told her. I am going to stay the whole time. You have already made me miss my ride home. So, I will stay, so you will have to." The other foster brother and I had an old car to go back and forth to school in. She said that she had to stay anyway. So, I went home.
People loved her so much, and had loads of fun with her.
And, you know, of all the years I lived in Rock Hill, S.C., I never once heard one unkind word said about the principal of that school.

[Laurie Florence]

My grade 7 teacher. She believed in me. I had virtually no confidence, and believed I was not very smart. She told me I was smart, and asked me why I did not reflect this in my work. She wouldn't accept anything but my best effort. My marks went from D's to B's and A's that year. They stayed that way for the rest of my school career.
I remember returning to my elementary school, when I was in grade nine, to show the teachers my report card. All the others were surprised. But not my grade 7 teacher. She said "Yes, of course Laurie. It doesn't surprise me at all". She was my inspiration to work with children.

[Joel Merrill]

That would have to be my high school Art teacher, Edd Scheer. Most kids took Art because they thought it would be an easy class and many of them were just there to goof off. Mr. Scheer didn't care if a student had any talent or not but he said if you put forth some effort, you can be better. Right or wrong, he didn't spend much time on the kids who were just there to goof off. But he was a very good teacher to those of us who did try.

We started out with watercolors. I had never used them before and my first painting wasn't very impressive, in fact it went in the trash after class. But the Mr. Scheer could see that I was at least trying and by the time I graduated, I was one of the best in the school.

Twenty years later, I went back to my 20 year reunion. I decided to look him up. I drove up to where he had lived 20 years earlier, not knowing if he even lived there anymore. I parked across the street and as soon as I got out of my car, he recognized me and came out of his house to meet me. We sat in his living room and visited for a long time.

Joel

[Marsha Lynn]

Would you tell us a story about your favorite school teacher? Share with us an anecdote that illustrates what you like about that person.

I don't have any particular illustration, but my 5th-grade teacher Mr. Phil Self would have to be my favorite. He was the first male school teacher I had, but what sets him apart from almost every other teacher I can think of is that I think he may have actually noticed me as an individual and liked me just a little. He even gave me the lead part in a class play!

I think I had three primary characteristics in school. 1) I got the highest grades in the class; 2) I was uninteresting and, thus, easy to overlook; and 3) I was annoying and, thus, easy to dislike. In most of my school memories concerning teachers, I am either an overlooked overachiever lost in the crowd or occasionally singled out for negative attention. (Focusing on my achievements in front of my peers generally fell into the category of negative attention.)

I can remember only a few times other than that 5th-grade year that a teacher gave any indication that they might see me as a person and actually like me just a little for who I was rather than just showing approval for my performance. I've never quite settled in my own mind how much of the disfavor that came my way reflected on me personally and how much traced back to my father, who was a teacher in the school system. But even in college, I can't remember any professor who seemed to take a personal liking to me.

That sounds pretty pitiful, doesn't it? No wonder I'm now warped and friendless and forced to rely on the computer persona I've created to bring me some facsimile of friendship.

Just kidding. I have been richly blessed in my relationships through the years as a combination of maturing and the grace of God have taught me some important life lessons. As I mentioned recently in another thread, these are the best days of my life.

Marsha

[Dennis M. Scott]

Well Marsha, I guess ever since that first male teacher, men have been noticing your winning ways, and liking you for it! You certainly are loved around here, and I'm not just kidding. :fav18

So what did your dad teach?

[Barb Bouldrey]

My high school biology teacher was also the leader of the local Youth For Christ. He was such a wonderful man. His face carried the light of Christ in his smile and he was a kind, gentle Christian man.

I waited until my senior year to take biology because of scheduling problems.

The night before my final exam in biology, one of the senior girls from my church group was killed in a car accident as she and her boyfriend were going home from prayer meeting. I had gotten the call late the night before and forced myself to go to school to take my final exam.

I remember going into that classroom, sitting down, being handed the test and just sitting there staring at it. I was numb with grief and could not even think.

Mr. Grimes knew Debbie because she was also in Youth for Christ with me. He knew of her death and of my friendship with her.

He walked to my desk, leaned over, took my test paper and softly said, "Barbara, go on home. You do not need to take this test."

I had an "A" all year long and ended the class with that
"A."

So, Mr. Grimes, high school biology teacher, will always have a special place in my memories.

Barb

[Billie Goodson]

Two People --

My high school football coach (sophomore/junior year)-- he taught me to never blame others for mistakes I made. Hard work would not always make you win, but, it made losing harder (for the record, we only won 5 games under him in two years of varsity football -- so the losses were not just about the scoreboard.) He taught me that I should always respect my opponent, even though I was trying to beat the stuffing out of him. Taught me that succeeding in the classroom was a greater goal than on the field -- but, they shared so many benefits.

The other was my baseball coach (freshman - junior year). He had played under the head coach and he reinforced all of the values. He also taught me to pursue dreams. Not settle for just how good I was, but, how good I could be. Success isn't a happening, it is the culmination of a plan. And, argue with the referee/umpire when you are right -- or he isn't sure if he is.

[Jim Franklin]

Miss Swisdall, fifth grade.

[Paul Whitaker]

Three

Mrs Margaret McReynolds Dawson, a wonderful Christian lady. She was Mrs McReynolds when she taught me geometry. She really did turn me on to mathematics. The logic of it, the beauty of the geometry, the total reliability of the axioms, postulates and theorems. She pushed us hard. Her tests were quite difficult. The tests like multiple choice were given answers of always, sometimes, and never. With geometric shapes and theorems this could be a bugger-bo. We formed a team which did geometric constructions and went to the state contest at Oklahoma State University. We didn't win anything but it solidified my love of geometry and the beauty of it.

Mr Elbert Overholt. He was my Algebra I teacher. He taught well and he loved us. I LEARNED algebra from him. Helped me decide I could 'do' mathematics. The logic of mathematics and the ability to translate the equations and word problems into graphics made it all the more interesting.

Mrs. (Dr.) Jeanne Agnew. Behind her back we called her "The Lady". She taught graduate mathematics at Oklahoma State. Her family was voted outstanding Christian Family in Stillwater during the time of my studies at OSU.

She was the toughest (without doubt) teacher I had during my educational career.
1. She would assign homework, grade it, return it, chide us for 'stupid' mistakes on the homework.
2. She would give pop-quizzes (this is graduate school!) And her exams were horrendous.
3. Her grading scale was 94-100 for an A, 87-93 B and you didn't want a C on your graduate transcript. If you had one you had to have an A on a previous course to proceed.
4. She loved us with a tough love.

She had me to the board MANY times. In the smaller, higher courses our classes were smaller so we could take more time for discussion. On several occasions she would call me to the board to explain a problem which had been requested by other students. In fact, during one course it seemed like she called me up three class-periods straight to put my work on the board and let others tear it apart. These problems would sometimes cover two 12 foot boards and then we would erase and fill the board again. These were formal proofs which required necessarily long discussion at times. When that class was over she had us go to her office to get the grade for the course. You can imagine my surprise when she said I had an A. I asked her why she had me to the board so much. Her reply was that she knew I wanted to be a teacher and she wanted to make me the best she could.

After we had made application to the Mission Board at COTN I met her walking across campus. We stopped to talk. During her conversation she asked me what my plans were since I had finished the MS. I told her of our application to the Mission Board. She thought that was wonderful. She did say that she had hoped I would have stayed to be her student for the pursuit of my doctorate. I think if she would have said that previous to my application to the Mission Board - that would have tempted me greatly and my life path might have been different. God has his ways of working things out.

Those are my three outstanding teachers. Interesting that two of the three were ladies.

I might say that Margaret McReynolds Dawson is the daughter of the Wimans who were missionaries to China, Japan and Peru. She was born in China but I think most of her remembered days were in Peru. She still resides in Bethany and her age is within an epsilon neighborhood of 90. Wonderful Lady.

There was another lady, Dr. Suzanne K. Damarin of Ohio State who is a fantastic teacher but I won't bother you with that.

[Dave McClung]

Would you tell us a story about your favorite school teacher? Share with us an anecdote that illustrates what you like about that person.

I am not sure I had a "favorite" but I certainly had some teachers I won't forget. The one that comes to mind was my 10th grade English teacher. He was a Baptist Minister, WWII Vet who lost a leg in the war. He had an artificial leg that was hollow. When he wanted to entertain the students, he would lift his pants leg and pass a pencil back and forth through his leg.

I remember that he had a disdain for the principal and didn't try to hide it from the students. He took great pride in the fact that there was no discipline in his class. Students sat where ever they wanted - on the window sills, the radiators, the floor or even on the corner of the teacher's desk.

Our school had a strict rule against students eating in class. The teacher would take orders from the class to buy candy from the machine in the teacher's lounge. He would then stand watch at the door while the students enjoyed their snacks.

Unfortunately, he was fired at mid-term. Rumors were that he went straight to a mental hospital, but that was never confirmed. Some teachers are never forgotten.

[Hans Deventer]

In highschool, I had a physics teacher who was a natural teacher. He never had any problems with order in class, and he was brilliant. He had graduated with an A+ from the most difficult type of highschool there was in his day.

I was lousy in physics, however. So every time we had test, we watched his face when he came in. The bigger the smile, the harder the test. But afterwards, explaining the test, I just couldn't figure out why the stuff that looked so easy then, looked so hard during the test. So I really enjoyed the subject, enjoyed the lessons, but I just wasn't any good in it. Mr. Van der Vlies, I can still see his smile.

Some people you remember.

[BobHunt]

I had an eighth grade teacher, who I always felt very sorry for. You see, there was this tall guy who sat in the first row and he used the whole time of class to give her a hard time. I mean, after a while, it would get on anybody's nerves, but she did a marvelous job of holding her tongue. I am afraid of what I might have said if I was her! He never did his homework, and obviously didnt care if he passed the class or not.

[Doug Kitchen]

Would you tell us a story about your favorite school teacher? Share with us an anecdote that illustrates what you like about that person.

Dr. Moody Sarno was my 11th grade english teacher. He was the high school football coach and was perhaps the best coach in Massachusetts history. He also had an Ed.D. He was a huge man who looked like a football coach and automatically commanded respect. By the time I had him as a teacher he had already taught 30 years, I think. But you would never know that he had taught "A tale of two cities" or MacBeth thirty times. I can still remember him describing all the foreshadowing that Dickens left in his writing. He was always excited about literature. He was passionate about the stories we were reading and therefore he had no trouble keep our attention.

Looking back his discipline as a football coach carried over into the classroom. He was always prepared and concentrated on his job - fully educating students about literature. The minute details were important to understanding and enjoying the story. In football, he only had four offensive plays in his playbook and all based on the T-formation. (4-yards and a cloud of dust). He told us during that particularly bad season that when the team finally learned those plays, maybe he would teach them something new. However, until they understood the basics they couldn't do any better. (One his players is now the coach of that team more than 30 years later and they have one most of the state championships over the last 10 years).

A second example was my 10th grade english teacher who was the first teacher who said to me "you can write!" after a well-written but poorly delivered speech. Until that moment, I had little confidence in my writing abilities. Suddenly I had motivation to work through difficult writing assignments instead of settling for lower grades. He also got me involved in a couple of public-speaking contests. My natural tendency was to say absolutely as little as possible in conversation, but those couple of speeches gave me much more confidence in public settings.

Doug

[Marsha Lynn]

So what did your dad teach?

Mostly math and physics. I suppose I should have listed him as my favorite teacher, since he was my teacher for both 8th-grade math and high school physics. However, I found it uncomfortable to be the teacher's kid. At least my classmates generally liked him. That helped. They liked that he told a lot of jokes. Like most of his peers, he had both strengths and weaknesses as a teacher.

My daughter is now preparing to teach high school math. As I sat across from her tonight at a church fellowship and listened to her exchange jokes with a friend, I was reminded of her grandfather. Personally, I can get into math all right, but I rarely remember jokes long enough to pass them on. She maintains a list of her favorites. I wonder if jokes will be part of her teaching method. And if they are, I wonder if she will realize how much she is following in the footsteps of her grandfather.

In closing, I will share one of her favorite jokes (I would share one of my father's favorites if I could remember any of them):

Two muffins are sitting in the oven and one says to the other, "My, it sure is hot in here." And the other one says ............

"Eek! A talking muffin!"

:fav17

Marsha