Teachers Who Really Rocked!

Mrs. Wilson (not a fake name), the typing teacher from my first high school. At our grade nine opening assembly, I looked over the possibilites for home room teacher and prayed, "Please God, not her." She was old and wrinkled and looked a bit like an evil witch.

The wrinkles were from smiles. She gave us lollipops for good work. I tried hard to please her, even though I hated typing. Thirty six years later, I'm glad I got such a great foundation at something I do every day! And she was the teacher liaison for the ecology club. And she encouraged my writing of poetry.

She was one of two teachers I invited to my wedding, a year after I graduated.

You know how they say 'those who can, do: those who can't, teach'? Dr Bond (yes, really) definitely could. He was my computer science teacher and he spent years in the business doing, among other things, contracts for the MOD, working on missile targeting systems and things.
He wasn't an especially nice guy, I mean he was ok, but he was a bloody good teacher, simply because he really knew his stuff.

My biology teacher, whose name escapes me...she was a real hoot. Every lesson had us giggling. Apparently, she was pretty good for a boy's puberty too - she wore VERY short skirts and the day she demonstrated how to put a condom on (over a broom handle!) several of the boys were walking funny after.

My English lit/drama teacher was superb, with real enthusiasm that rubbed off on everyone. We did a 'This is Your Life' on him, comepletly took him by surprise and he was overjoyed at the shit we made up about him. ('Born in a box in Rotherham sometime in the 17th century...)

My two PE teachers were, against expectation, fab. Very 'Jolly Hockeysticks' type gels, well older gels. All practicality and 'get on with it', but if you had a problem or got injured, they were bloody brilliant. Good at jokes while you wait in A&E.

ETA: How could I forget my history teacher! Superb, really made the history come alive. Tended to end the lesson with cliffhangers. 'Will the British Expeditionary Force make it back from Dunkirk? Turn up next week to find out!' Even people who played truant went to his classes. Plus, if you made a comment re politics, he'd rant on for ages and then forget to set homework

Mr. Rodriguez: My science teacher 7th & 8th grade. He was amazing, always making fun at us, making jokes. He was sarcastic and wasn't afraid to tease the kids. Also, he made science easy and really fun to learn. He helped me realize that I wanted to be a scientific journalist

Mr. Johnson: My US History and World Geo teacher for 7th and 8th grade. The way he talked baout politics, he made them seem so interesting. We ended up being really far behind at the end of the year because we stopped him so much with side-conversations 9that were relevant). He really loved the US. Great teacher.

Mr. Thornberry: My first Spanish teacher. Once again, so much fun! He made spanish easy to learn, he connected it really closely to English. Plus, he helped me learn some Latin too.

Ms. Block: Fifth grade teacher. She was fun, more like a friend than a teacher. And she was hands on. Somehow, she got us all to like learning.

Ms. May: Sixth grade teacher. taught me so much about writing. I loved her.

I've been pretty blessed with amazing teachers. It wasn't until High School came around that I had some horrible teachers.

My grade 10 English teacher saved my life. Literally. That's all I wish to share.

... a special education teacher in my elementary school who wasn't actually my teacher. I used to hang out with her in the playground during recession along with another kid. She was the only one who ever seemed to have been okay with me as I was. Hmm.

My 11th grade history teacher was absolutely freaking amazing. An absolutely hilarious guy. He made history incredibly exciting (even for me, and it was American history, which I reallyreally hate, so that was something!). He teased the class, and somehow it always seemed to tie in with the lesson.

My 9th grade English teacher was incredibly amazing. Loved her! She was a total dork, and very exuberant about it. She *almost* made Great Expectations not quite gag-worthy. (I say almost, but then again, I don't know anyone who COULD make G.E. anything less than a block of pure unadulterated whinefest...)

My English teacher now is pretty awesome, too. Just a very fun lady, and really good at making poetry fun. (Also, she had us read "My Last Duchess," which is hands-down my favorite poem ever. And "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," which was pretty cool.)

My physics teacher last year was superlatively awesome. Cracked jokes like crazy, pretty disorganized, but everything he taught made perfect sense. A great person and a great teacher.

My chem teacher rocks. She's crazy, in a good way. Blew a hole in the ceiling of my junior high many years ago, in fact, and may possibly have been responsible for killing off a lakeful of fish for a season when she was in high school.

I'm so glad I've had way more good teachers than bad. Too bad it's the bad ones that are so easy to fixate on...

My fourth grade teacher, who I give partial credit for starting me out on my path as a writer.

The teacher for my gifted and talented class, who taught me that it's okay to be a little different.

Mr. Smilanich - Craziest, zaniest and most spontaneous teacher ever to have. Two words: Buffet Friday? He was one of my grade 12 English teachers. Sadly to say, I had to drop the course as the level was too high for what was at the time, degrading language skills. (My German teacher made me skip the oral exams because of this.)

Mrs. Noerenberg - Grade 11, 12 German teacher. Nice teacher who liked me and my siblings.

Mr. Bratu - Grade 11, 12 Physics teacher. A former Romanian professor of physics, this guy was insane with the level of physics he was teaching at but he knew what he was talking about and you could always use him as a standard.

Mr. MacNab - Grade 11, 12 Math teacher. Like Bratu, he had his PhD but he had it in Math. Knew his stuff and knew how to explain it. Was fun with the extra units we had for IB.

Mrs. Sookochoff - Assistant Principal. PhD's in both Education and Math, she headed the Math Club which I was part of. A further enrichment of the math I saw in high school.

Mrs. Lamoriss - Grade 7 and 8 Language Arts teacher, the one who got me really to start writing and actually helped get me my knack at rhyming and rhythm.

Mr. Elliot - Grade 7 and 8 shop teacher and Grade 8 social studies teacher. Probably one of the few teachers who would likely never get a nervous breakdown from how rough my first junior high school was. The school was awful, but it was largely due to the community, not the school staff. A nice patient teacher in the shop who never rushed me or anything.

Mrs. Yay - year 11 and 12 maths 1 teacher. Nicest person I've ever met. She absolutely adored me, too. Whenever she had a "tough" question which she wasn't sure the class could handle, she'd ask me if I knew the answer, as she knew I was reading ahead of the class and acing every test without studying more than 5 minutes for it.

Mrs. Nay - year 11 and 12 maths 2 teacher. Not quite as nice, but she was a frickin' genius. She would sometimes give me a University handout to get me excited about further study. She was all about the teaching, which I respected.

Mr. Bravo - year 12 physics teacher. Let me do my major assignment on the Big Bang, and gave me bonus marks for pointing out in my oral that whereas people assume the Big Bang would be like a big fireworks fireball, the energy of the matter involved would be so high that it wouldn't be in the visible spectrum. Then at the end of the year, he put his hand on my shoulder (I was sitting) and announced to the class, "This man will be important to the world of physics." Just matter-of-fact like that. He's probably the person I'd most thank (for his belief in me) if I ever DID make a major contribution to physics. And yes, I'm still toying with my physics ideas. He inspired me, believed in me, and I still think about him to this day. Best teacher I ever had.

Mrs. Hidden-Sense-Of-Humour - year 12 English teacher. Renowned for being a total hardarse, she had everyone scared. But she always had nice comments on my short stories. And then she made my year at the end of High School. Back story. In year 9, we did a nation-wide Maths test called Westpac Maths Test. I aced it, getting the highest mark in my school, which was supposed to earn me a moment in the sun at an assembly. HOWEVER - and this is where the funny starts to come in - I had written as my name, "Cliff Sex Machine Face". (I used my real name instead of Cliff Face, but Sex Machine was there in the middle... for reals.) Basically, it was a test where you coloured in circles for everything from answers to your name, and then a machine does the grading/naming without any real person ever seeing any individual piece - until the whole thing gets shipped back to your school, at which point my teacher flipped out and told me I wouldn't receive my moment in the sun. Cue final year of High School, final term. This year 12 English teacher spoke to me out of class and said, "Look, I have your year 9 Westpac Maths certificate. It's yours when you pass all your exams this year." Sure enough, I finished my final exam and went to her office, and she saw me, looked puzzled for a moment to see me, then a light dawned in her eyes. "Ah!" she said. "I have your certificate right here!" She pulled it out and - she'd had it laminated! Possibly the first time I ever saw her smile was when she gave me my laminated certificate certifying that I was, indeed, a Sex Machine.



And I'm sure there were other great teachers, but those are the ones who really stand out in my memory.