Teen Thursday: Do you (or did you) have any particularly beloved teachers in high school?

We've all seen movies or read books about great teachers--men and women who inspire their students to great achievements or show the extra bit of caring that makes a difference for a struggling child. You know, the type who put themselves on the line and cause kids to want to stand on their desks a la "Dead Poets Society?"



I was lucky to have a few teachers like that. There was Mrs. Ziebert, my grade school music teacher, who recognized my love of performing and took me under her wing when many of the other kids thought I was weird. My senior AP English teacher, Mrs. Adams, created an atmosphere of real critical thinking; I still remember all of the deep, satisfying discussions we had about books in her class. And I pulled more all-nighters studying for Mr. Lamb's Genetics and Human Anatomy classes than I ever did in college.

Then there was the evening when I stayed after play practice to make some script copies. It must have been about 10 p.m. when I walked into the teacher's lounge to find Mr. Lamb sitting there, poring over some books. I asked what he was doing, and he said one of his students had been having some health symptoms and her doctors weren't sure what was wrong. He was looking through his medical books to see if he could help uncover some new information.

How is *that* for an awesome teacher?!

What about you? If you're a teen, do you have a teacher you especially love? If you're older, do you remember any awesome teachers from high school? Tell us about them!

9 comments:

kristen tracy said...

I adored my biology teacher. Even though he made me slaughter hundreds of bugs for my insect collection. He warned the class against trying to freeze them and insisted that we needed to poison them to death in special jars we had to check out from him. But I couldn't do it. So I tried to freeze my bugs. And the day after I pinned them and arranged them in the display box they came back to life--tragically rowing their legs in the air. I loved his class. Even though it damaged me.

Lisa Schroeder said...

I had a couple of favorites, but I think Mrs. Smith, my high school English teacher, was at the top of the list. I recently found a letter she wrote recommending me to Girl's State. :)

Catherine Ryan Hyde said...

Thank you for this topic. I would love to share my story of the teacher who changed the course of my life.

http://www.catherineryanhyde.com/blog/2009/4/3/i-owe-it-all-to-lenny-reprint.html

Anonymous said...

I love that scene from the movie!

My high school creative writing teacher was the *it* teacher for a lot of us. She taught us all the structured type stuff, but also lessons like being true to ourselves and finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Great topic!

Micol Ostow said...

I had a few favorites, none of whom are still there. But I went back to my alma mater last year for a book talk, and the English teacher, though she hadn't been mine, was amazing - remembered me well and was really interested in getting her current students excited about reading. You CAN go home again!

Michael Northrop said...

Oh, wow: I completely forgot that was Robin Williams the teacher in Dead Poets Society. Such a great movie!

I feel like I had a lot of amazing teachers, but the gold star has to go to the first of them. Ms. Lemoine was the one who, in a room full of little kids making mistakes by the bucket-load, picked out the pattern in mine. Being diagnosed as dyslexic so early literally changed my life. Thank you, Ms. Lemoine!

Michael Northrop said...

And of course that wasn't even approximately high school. (Is second grade high school? Maybe it is somewhere.) Because I can't read even the most basic of directions. (So, really, how much good could that diagnosis have done?) ((And how much of this response can I put in parentheses?))

I had some fantastic teachers in high school. Who can pick just one? Right off the bat, Mr. Sinclair devoted close to half of our freshman year English class to Moby Dick. We kept whaling logs, made fake scrimshaw, the works. The next year, Mr. Michels spent a full year teaching a bunch of small-town sophomores about "Mans Inhumanity to Man": Lord of the Flies, Hiroshima, et al. Such good teachers, given so much latitude, and doing so much with it. Amazing.

Melissa Walker said...

A nod to Ms. Pinner, 11th grade English.

aisyahputrisetiawan said...

Banned complain !! Complaining only causes life and mind become more severe. Enjoy the rhythm of the problems faced. No matter ga life, not a problem not learn, so enjoy it :)

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