Tuesday, June 5, 2007

trendy (teacher) tuesday

The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men. ~Bill Beattie

It's challenge day, y'all. Since it's the end of the school year, I thought it would be fitting to do a little teacher appreciation. I come from a family of teachers...my Mom & my sister both teach. I know that it's one of the hardest jobs in the world. And I know that the teachers who really make a difference are passionate about what they do. Who made a difference in your education? Who is making a difference in your child's education?

Comment, create, or blog...but whatever you do, link it here! There's a lip smackin' RAK involved ::wink::

(ps. here's mine - smith)

7 comments:

jill s said...

my 1st grade teacher mrs. jenkins was awesome. she had a great incentive program for reading. i read 350+ books in first grade! she definetly instilled a love of reading in me!

what a great topic!!

xx
jill
www.jillscripps.typepad.com

Barb said...

Favorite Teacher. . .
Mrs. Davis, 6th grade.

I can't say that I really remember anything I learned in sixth grade, but I do remember Mrs. Davis. This lady had serious energy. She cared about each and every one of us and let us know it all the time. She took us to volunteer at a nursing home. It was more important to her that we were good people than great students.

I might just need to get in touch with her . . .

Jan C. said...

I had a crazy teacher in 7th and 8th grade--Sister Mary. She made us memorize poetry like "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere"; she insisted that we care about grammar and punctuation; she made us all enter an essay contest and I ended up winning. It was a love-hate relationship for sure, 'cause I hated the hard work, but I can still recited "Primer Lesson," by Carl Sandburg and parts of "Midnight Ride," and I became an English major in college.

Several of my kids had a teacher for band who was phenomenal. They were all so inspired to work hard, strive for excellence, work as a team. It has affected their lives in many areas, and I'm very thankful they had John Fecker!

Rori Smith-Koch said...

What a super topic! I have worked in the school systems for about 8yrs and have met some amazing teachers. I think they are under appreciated and deserve more recognition than they get.
I have many clients that have done wonders just from having one caring teacher.
My son has truly been inspired by one of his teachers this year. I am so thankful for him! He has been wonderful with my son and thanks to him and all that we expect of him he has been trying to stay on track for school...he knows its expected of him to go to college. But he is making the plans for his future already. He has his high school career already planned out.
If it weren't for his teacher I don't know that he would have pushed as far as he did this school year.
Kudos to all teachers!!! You ROCK!

angieoh! said...

I had two favorite teachers - Mrs. Judy Fadness, third grade. She loved kids. Made them work hard, have good attitudes and no whining! She taught me some valuable lesssons, especially have a sense of humor and it is ok to have things not turn out perfect.

My second fave teacher was Jim Schmitt - high school chemistry and physics. I hate science but LOVED this guys class. He was fun, only accepted the best and came up with VERY cool experiments. In physics to determine a number of things we had a bungee cord Barbie challenge. You had to design a rubber band bungee cord for barbie to ensure she didn't land in the dunk tank after a 6 foot fall.

AWESOME. plus I had a smart lab partner who brought me a long kicking and screaming!!

Anonymous said...

Although I had several wonderful teachers, the one that stands out in my mind was actually my son's high school vice-principal. Matt had a tragic accident his junior year which sidelined a great soccer career. Depression and a total (and not good) change in friends created a child we did not know or know how to help. Bill Maxwell stood by Matt for a year and a half until he graduated and spent way more time with us than anyone could possibly expect. Although all of us were in counseling, it was Bill's advice that pulled us through. This year Matt graduated from a community college with high honors and is headed to Cornell in the fall. No way that would have happened without the kindness and compassion of Mr. Maxwell.

Great topic! I have taught for 36 years and I still love the job, although the paper work has gotten out of control!

Beth said...

I have so many favorite teachers - Miss Rogers in first grade - she was so nice, but firm and she invited me to her wedding that summer. Miss Nichols - 3rd grade - we did great projects and she taught me cursive. Mr. Burd - 5th grade - made everything very practical. Had a lot of fun while still learning. HS - Mr. Cole - Eng/creative writing - helped me learn that you could actually discuss books instead of just answering question after question from the teacher.

I have taught for 9 years now and I think I try to incorporate some of the personality and things I learned from all my favorite teachers in to my own classroom.