What were the characteristics of your favorite teacher?

[Cid]

Since I'm a teacher and I want to be memorable, I'd like to know.

For the record, I teach seventh grade World History.

[Yamaneko]

My favorite teachers were the ones that wanted or at least seemed to want to be in the classroom everyday. There were too many of them that were their for the paycheck and it showed.

And speaking from hindsight as a more mature individual, don't be their friends. We had those teachers and that quality was exploited until the entire classroom experience had been stripped away in favor of accommodating the needs of the students instead of the requirements of the curriculum.

Just be there, enjoy it and share that with your students.

[Ramza Beoulve]

First thing, try not to make your class a monotone speech. Try to make it a little interactive.

But about characteristics... well, maybe to be careful, consider your students opinions, don't be so harsh but also don't be so sweet. Also be gentle, with a fair load of homework. In your classes, make your students participate with some questions, opinions about situations in history, and maybe sometimes recreate the situations. But yeah, don't try to be friends with them, they'll become lazy if you do.

Well, to tell you the truth, that were the characteristics of my favorite teacher. So yeah.

[Yamaneko]

How closely do you have to follow the curriculum, Sean? I know that at the middle school level there's still a tendency to skip over some historical details in favor of the larger picture which sometimes tends to highlight European accomplishments while portraying other societies only in relationship to European history.

The reason I ask is because currently I'm doing a project for one of my classes that's going to make it into a middle school or high school class. Our professor is pretty adamant about including alternative history arguments and keeping out the established stuff found in middle or high school textbooks. I don't know how I feel about it, but I would like to know what your thoughts are about teaching something verbatim. Do you plan on interjecting some of your own knowledge into lectures and perhaps augmenting anything you think is particularly incorrect?

[Ouch!]

I know my seventh grade history teacher was quite a hard-ass. He was hard to like, but his insistence on teaching us not only history, but also proper methods to study the material, has proved really useful over the years. I wouldn't call him my favorite teacher, but he's certainly a very memorable one.

I had this long rant written, but, when I got to the end, I realized I could sum it up very simply. Be approachable. Give your students some credit and don't be the teacher that just throws the material out there. Don't let the professionalism of the student-teacher relationship restrict you from showing your own personality. I know too many teachers who didn't let their own feelings into the classroom. Certainly, there are standards that must be met, but I rather liked a teacher who showed his quirky traits that made him less of an absolute authority figure and more a person that one could get along with. I was friends with all my favorite teachers, and I think I liked them so much because they allowed and encouraged that (at least to an extent).

Edit: Seems I took too long to post and Yams completely disagrees. I do think being friends is okay, but you still have to know when to put your foot down. Being friends with students doesn't mean you have to be a pushover in the classroom.

Also, don't throw in meaningless busy work. Homework assignments are alright, but give your students some credit. Homework for the sake of homework is useless. There's something to be said for repetition and memorization, but crossword puzzles, word searches, and other similar activities don't really help much. I know those can pop up in middle school, 'cause I was still getting them through my senior year. I know your hands will probably be tied as far as the core curriculum goes, but I have no idea if that extends to what assignments you have to give. I doubt it does.

[blackmage_nuke]

Know your subject, explain it well. Dont give out a large workload and most importantly dont give pointless work which wont be benificial.

[Rengori]

No banner ads on the front page.

Really though, you have world history, so that means you have a lot more room to be leniant than say math or science.

My favorite teachers were the ones that did really fun stuff, like for our US History class for every war we would "reenact" it by having a paper war with some rules (like for the Revolutionary War we all lined up, shot at the same time, and could only shoot once every 30 seconds).

Also, projects like every 2 or 3 chapters with long deadlines, but without stuff like "If you don't have 1 note card with your entire speech on it and if you don't follow it word by word you lose a grade on your project." I'm not gonna go out of my way and get note cards for a lousy 10 points. Also, remind your students when they have projects due before the last day or two, but don't overdue it or they'll tune out. Also make sure that the project itself allows for some freedom and creativity.

Long or hard homework on Fridays is a no. Half the class will have a horrible tendency to put it off 'till Sunday and forget later that day until 9 or 10.

Time in class to do homework is also really nice. Reviews are pretty good too, do it once in class and give an easy packet for homework due in a day or two. Don't overdo the review or you'll seem boring.

MOST IMPORTANTLY:
Act human, tell a funny story once in a while, just don't be all "WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK."

EDIT: Another thing I want to add, take a break every now and then. Like after a big test watch a movie. And not something like Finding Nemo or some G rated :skull::skull::skull::skull:, every other teacher that watches a movie will kill that halfway through the year. I know because by the end of my 8th grade year I had seen Finding Nemo like 8 times. TOO MANY FUCKING TIMES. I had Try to get something a little more action packed and PG13, the kids will be really excited by something they know will have more action. For the kids who can't get their permission slips signed, say too bad.

[Del Murder]

My favorite teacher had fun projects for us. We got to keep our own fish, we built a lego town, and we did toothpick bridge construction with an economic twist. We also put on a play. But this was 5th grade and I don't know if you can do that stuff in middle school. Oh, and she also had a Super Nintendo in the classroom.

My favorite middle/high school teacher was my government/history teacher. She really loved teaching history and it showed. She got excited when the impeachment hearings were going on and as we watched it in class she would explain all the little things behind what the senators were saying. Her tests were very fair and very good at testing knowledge. There were 20 or so terms and you had to briefly identify what 15 of them were. Then there were three essay questions and you picked two. What made this system so great was the options it gave you to pick what you wanted to answer. It's too much pressure to expect teenagers to remember every little thing. She was also not too strict about classroom policy, but not too lenient. She commanded your attention and respect but if you were whispering to your friend she would just give you the eye, shake her head, and then keep on teaching.

[rubah]

In seventh grade, I think I valued either my science teacher or my english teacher most. Both were very funny individuals and both lead in an organization I was involved with (Christian Student Union)

Be funny and sponsor a club I guess!

You could also be memorable by talking about your son who is a year older than your students ALL OF THE TIME and being a dumshard, but those are not such good memories.

[Zante]

No homework’s, easy exams, good grades. :)

In history classes, something that was always bothering me was that we had to memorize all those years and dates. Not just the big ones, like when did WWII end, but every single one. I always hated that. One teacher we had only required us to know the century, so I liked that.

What I liked were thematic videos (we watched Save private Ryan or some such when we were learning about the battle of Normandy for example), going to a museum when it fit the era that we were learning about, visiting some excavations, stuff like that. Pretty much anything that was fun.

The best teachers where those who could teach us everything we needed to know for the exams in class, so we didn't have to do any studiing at home.

During oral exams, I liked the teachers who allowed us to talk about a given topic freely, and didn't just ask questions.

[Yamaneko]

The point here is not to make it easy, but to make it accessible and fun. Something both the students and the teacher want to do. No homework and tests (besides being against school policy) does nothing to benefit the students. Please have a couple years of hindsight before suggesting such things. :)

[SnoopyG]

when I was in 7th grade, my teacher would give us stories about himself when he was our age or older. Just gotta be not boring and treat 7th graders maturely.

[Wolf Kanno]

My favorite teachers in school were people first, the job second. Don't become their friends but don't hold back your personal opinion either. Students will be able to relate to you better but their general feeling will be respect rather than friendship.

One of my favorite teachers would do historical reenactments of events that happened in people's life that would not follow the book. He also did a class room contest where he split us up in groups and made us into teams. He put a huge map of the world which had tacks in every major city in the world that he felt was relevant. He then used color tacks to represent our teams and started us all in Rome. He would then take time torward the end of class to do a contest where he asked our teams historical questions (he used Trivia Pursuit of all things but being a 7th grader it was quite informative) and the goal was to cross over the whole world and make it back to Rome first. He called it "Rome"ing Around the World... It was cheesy but pretty fun. Competition tends to get student to try harder.

You should also turn classes into discussions sometimes (not all the time but maybe at the end of certain events) and ask the students to voice their opinion about the events.

[Zante]

The point here is not to make it easy, but to make it accessible and fun. Something both the students and the teacher want to do. No homework and tests (besides being against school policy) does nothing to benefit the students. Please have a couple years of hindsight before suggesting such things. :)

The thing is, most people won't ever need the majority of the stuff we learned in school. In most subjects, we just memorized the stuff until the exams and then forgot about it within a week, only to memorize some new stuff and then forget it again.

The only people who really bothered with biology and chemistry were the ones who wanted to be doctors or pharmacist, only future lawyers really cared for history, and so on. For the rest of us, having to learn all those things was just keeping us from concentrating on the subjects we would actually need later on.

Noone liked the teachers who acted like their subject was the most important of all, and everyone loved those who took it easy. :)

[Loony BoB]

I don't know how anal people in America are about politically correctness, but I found in NZ that the ones who didn't just "be a teacher" but actually added in some personality were the best ones. Telling the odd weird story, being able to break ice or have trade some banter with the students were by far more attractive when it came to which classes I wanted to go to and which I didn't. The teachers which simply taught were the most boring and, in the end, I was put off certain classes (and dropped them later on) almost entirely due to the way the teacher had no personality and just stuck to teaching, never being able to laugh. The teachers that were big on discipline obviously never fared well with the smartasses. Anyway, on to the points...

Witty retorts. Being able to insult the smartass students quickly when they're being disruptive is wonderful. If you can outdo them, then you win and can get back to the work at hand. It helps avoid a crappy situation where you have a student taking over the class, too. If you're not good with witty retorts, then being dismissive and talking to the student like a five year old seems to work. So long as you can grin and take the stuff they throw at you, they should do the same when you fire stuff back at them.

Willing to chase students around the room with a lengthy ruler while student is going "AAAARGH, MISS, LEAVE ME ALONE!" or something to that extent. Jokingly, of course. Basically able to have fun for a minute if it allows the students to all laugh and keeps YOU at the center of attention, so you can get back to teaching once it's over.

Says the odd controversial thing in a way that doesn't get them into trouble. A lot of students will enjoy that you can trust them with such open statements - they don't have to be that bad, just politically incorrect. It's like you're handing out cookies from the principal's cookie jar or something... do you think they'll tell? Hell no, they just got a cookie. Students enjoy being involved in light 'misbehaviour', I'm sure you know that.

Speaks with the classroom as much as they speak to the classroom, if not more. Always asks the class to see if people know something already instead of just getting straight into telling them how it works. Also speaks with the classroom about random things on occasion.

Buy something for the students. It shows you're really trying to get on their good side and are willing to put your money out for them, and money talks. More to the point, students (as with most non-students) are greedy and love people who give things to them for free. Our teacher would, on the odd occasion (once a month or so), bring in chocolate-coated marshmallow fish or possibly cookies and hand them out to people once they finished their work.

My maths teacher gave us logic puzzles or some kind of more amusing work if we finished our main coursework for the lesson. For a nerd like me, I loved that. It kept me occupied, gave me motivation to finish my work before the end of the lesson, and allowed the teacher to focus on students that actually needed help since they weren't sitting there yakking with the students who had already finished.

Almost anything unorthodox that doesn't require much effort is wonderful. Also, avoiding homework is great, too. Try your best to give the students the possibility of doing homework in class instead of requesting they do it at home at the end of the lesson. Telling them about the homework at the start of the lesson is probably better than telling them at the end of it.

I was never a huge fan of teachers who tried to cramp too much learning into a lesson with (seemingly) the intention of finishing with five lessons to spare. What's the point in finishing early if you haven't had the chance to learn it properly?

If you want the attention of the entire class, do it in a way aside from clapping or shouting. Think of something else you can do - it's more amusing for them that way. Shouting only makes the students feel like the teacher is angry and is fed up with them. Write it up on the black/whiteboard and draw a funny picture. Do something really stupid. Anything that might make them laugh or at least make them want to watch you. People are more likely to pay attention to a comedian than a teacher. Teach once you've got their attention. Be more entertaining than the class clown.

[Sergeant Hartman]

Turning up drunk :monster:

[Captain Maxx Power]

My favourite teacher told us about how he started up a forum to talk about RPG's. :cool:

[Rocket Edge]

3 things. The ones who listened, the ones who were passionite, & the ones I got along with. It was great to look back at my graduation and say that I sat down to have a beer with my favourite teacher, and talk about the English course as if I was talking to one of my mates. I don't think he knew it, nor do I certainly think how he knew just how good a teacher he was, but feeling comfortable to express yourself in front of a class & teacher that is open to your opinion, rather than a stuck-up prick worked wonders for my results. Richie Flattery represent!

[Quindiana Jones]

The one that talked to me like I was a human, not just a pupil, is the one that I appreciate most. We could have a laugh, but he also made sure that I did my work, and told me off for being lazy or just a general asshole. Which I can be at times.

[Rye]

My favorite teacher was probably my 8th grade history teacher. He was hilarious. He made History fun for those who hated the subject, and he made it amazing for those like me who liked it as is! And like Quin said, he talked to us as we were human. And I agree that a teacher that shows that they're in simply for the paycheck isn't going to get much symphathy from the students. I get annoyed at teachers who whine all the time, because THEY'RE the ones who chose to teach, not us.

Hmmm... I'm trying to think of other things. Also, I think have a balance between strict and lenient is perfect. My 8th grade history teacher was just that. Having a teacher who goes nuts demanding that you have a 3 ring binder where the rings have a 1 inch circumference exactly in the color black with exactly 300 sheets of lined paper, etc, is really irritating and makes you resent the teacher a little. However, my history teacher last year was so ridiculously lenient, everyone walked all over her. I don't remember even trying in the class, because she lowered her standard so much for the dumb kids in the class. ;[

Also, have a great time being a teacher, Cid. I want to be one (music teacher though) and it's nice hearing about other people becoming teachers.

[Old Manus]

Tell them about EoFF.

[Markus. D]

He and She have awesome hair. :]

Edit: I'm learning Japanese so I can become a Japanese Teacher.

I've (for those who have been victim to my Japanese Culture fanboyisms...) always been interested in learning it.

I had been learning French pre-the year I was MEANT to begin learning Japanese. Only me and about 2 others didn't know the language, we were left out in the cold... It disgusted me!

So I wanna learn it and become a major and teach people who actually have a wish to learn it~ :D

[Fonzie]

My 8th grade History teacher, was also my football coach, so it might be different in my case.

He was always nice, talked to us as we were humans, and before every test we'd sing the secret test song. It was in Old English, so I don't really remember it.

The reason he was so nice, was because when he was younger, he had cancer, and wasn't supposed to survive it, so when he did he decided to treat everything he knew with kindness, and as though everyday was his last day.

[kikimm]

My favourite teachers are usually laid back, approachable people. It was always hard for me to go up and talk to teachers because I was so shy, but when it was very obvious that they were friendly, and open to conversation, it made it so much easier. But of course, being able to discipline when necessary is something I admired a lot. I wanted to respect my teachers, but when they were weaklings it made it difficult if not impossible.

Also, the ones that were really interested in their students. Teachers that asked what we were doing for the weekend, where we wanted to go for college, etc. And following up on those questions. Building a relationship. I mean, if you end up not caring about the kids at all I'm not saying you should fake it, but it was always a REALLY good feeling to know that a teacher genuinely cared.

Anyways, awesome subject :D

[Parker]

A teacher with a good sense of humour and lots of stories to tell.

[Jojee]

My favorite teacher - my sixth grade teacher - was an extremely funny woman who made class fun. ^_^ Humor is good.

[Shoeberto]

I agree wholeheartedly with everything Yams has said.

Do not try to be their best friend and let them walk all over you. I had a teacher (in my psychology class) who did exactly that, except somehow she still was so self-righteous and thinking she was doing a service to the students. The coursework consisted of her giving us a piece of paper with terms on it, us having to define the terms in our notes (using the book), then having to take an open-note quiz the next day. I usually got done with the notes in like five minutes, but often times everyone else would just talk and she'd do nothing, because half the time she was caught up in their stupid ass conversations. And when they didn't have the notes done... she'd just put the quiz off another day for them. She was also the yearbook staff head, so she played favorites like crazy to her yearbook kids. (they always did a horrible job, too, as a minor footnote)

If that last paragraph was tl;dr, be strict on assignments when you say they're due unless there's an overwhelmingly good reason to do so otherwise. Assign homework and assignments in a way that you know is going to help them learn the material, but not in a way that you're just flooding them with things they either don't understand or are just repeats of stuff they've already picked up.

And one of my favorite parts of classes like history and english was when we'd just go on totally tangent discussions and people would throw out what they thought on whatever topic. Make sure you have enough control so that if something like this comes up, you can cut it (but in a nice way) and keep on with the lesson. And also don't fill the kids with misinformation or hearsay - some of my teachers (such as the previously mentioned psychology one) would often answer the kids' questions with bull:skull::skull::skull::skull:, and would present it as if she knew 100% that was the answer. If you're not sure, tell them that.

You're gonna have a hard time going in your first year and automatically being a teacher everyone loves. My favorite teachers were ones that were retiring at the end of the year I had them - this stuff has to have time to develop. Just don't let yourself start off on the wrong foot by letting them push you around. If you do that, they'll tell each other that you're a totally easy teacher, and if you try to break the mold of being easy, you'll be on their :skull::skull::skull::skull:list. Staying firm gives you more wiggle room than being a pushover.

[I Took the Red Pill]

My favorite teacher is/was my Calculus teacher. He always treated us like adults, but still appealed to our younger sides at times. Around Christmas time he always reads his classes a childrens' story, and coming from any other teacher, it would probably be lame, but not from him. On top of that, he actually knew what he was talking about. I've never understood a teacher more perfectly, and if someone in the class had a problem with the material, he'd make sure they understood it before we moved on. On top of that, he's my volleyball coach, and he used to be a hippie and still has a ponytail.

[BardTard]

I had a few favorite teachers.

My english teacher was one of those love her or hate her teachers. Her teaching methods were kind of different and she didn't really care about the rules. Like tardiness and stuff like that. She always said when you have a rule book, the people giving you rules think you're a child. I agree, it's just common sense to show up on time, do your work, pay attention, and bring your materials to class. She never gave detentions or sent anyone to the dean's office. Instead she made a fool of people. I doubt anyone cared though. In that class we didn't have a lot of homework assignments though. It was always open class discussion about important things and sometimes she just gave us a free day cus she needed to get caught up on things. She just thought differently than most teachers and because of that, she developed a better relationship with her students than most teachers do.

My geometry teacher was the most friendly and helpful teacher I've ever had. And she gave extra credit like every day. She also had a great way with words and explaining things that made it easy to undersand things. Even though I forgot most of it now cus it was like 2 years ago, I got it then. She was also probably the youngest teacher in the school, so maybe that's why she was so friendly.

My food services teacher- I don't really know. I was in her class for 2 years, so we just really knew each other I guess. And she was really nice.

So you teach Seventh grade World History. Well in my history class, my teacher was a JERK. That was one of my classes where we all failed and I had to retake the class. But nobody told me that if I took a different class I wouldn't have had to take it, and I got an A in that other class. Jerks!

The best advice I can give you is to NOT give them current events pop quizzes with 40 questions about what's going on in Russia and who owns what makeup companies. It doesn't matter and kids have enough homework as it is. And uh... don't make them take notes on videos about drunken bisexual orgies in Rome. That was weird. I would have passed if it wasn't for those 2 things. The homework wasn't that hard.

[Resha]

My favourite teacher when I was in seventh grade was my Geography teacher. He didn't teach us a thing, and he used to give us utterly useless quizzes which I still remember the questions to. "Name all the countries taking part in the World Cup (2002)." "Who are my favourite members of S Club 7?" Absolutely useless and ungeographical to say the least, but oh, he was such a laugh and such a friend. :p

The best teacher I've ever had though was my old History teacher. Man, she really, really, really loved her subject, and she really, really, really knew it. She was always telling us about how she went here to visit this memorial and how she saw that, and how a friend of hers had told her this about Hitler, and how she bought postcards of war posters in London, and what people in Vietnam said about the war. She travelled, and she knew, and she was always sharing those anecdotes with us. And it just made us feel so much closer to the subject.

She wouldn't make us copy stuff from the board. She wouldn't make us cut out and paste :skull::skull::skull::skull: or colour in maps or write newspaper fucking articles. That stuff I always found useless, anyways. She would just sit down with us, create a little circle in the middle of the classroom, sit down with us, and talk to us. About history. She'd explain it to us. She'd tell us stories. And we'd make notes.

She really loved her stuff, we knew it, and we loved it too, because she made us love it. And she wasn't like -- a one-sided person or anything. She loved other stuff too, like football, but although she'd let us have miniature debates in class, she wouldn't let us get too side-tracked. She was really awesome :-)

[Zeldy]

You gain more respect being nice, but not too nice as then you're a push over. My History teacher, at times, we can have a right laugh with, but when we work we're silent. We are topset History though, so we actually want to learn :p Once or twice, though, if we work really well she'll pass around cookies, and she once brought in a chocolate fountain and marshmellows. I have to admit though, that just writing pages and pages copied from the board becomes very very tiresome.

When I was younger Id love to have a teacher who couldn't control a class, as it was amusing, or one who wasn't strict enough to make us do any work. We call them "sit offs". Now, though, I hate them. My Physics teacher is such a walk over - I don't think Ive learnt anything all year :(

[Cid]

I'm off to the beach, but I'll return and give some long-winded responses. I really appreciate all the well thought out stuff you guys had to say.

However, I figured you'd all like to know: we throw around a stuffed animal version of Vivi when we do reading out loud in the class ("Throw to who reads next" kind of thing). There are a few kids who know who Vivi is... not surprisingly, all in my honors class :)

[Rye]

That is pretty awesome. xD I always liked that in classes when picking who reads outloud. Popcorn, right?

[Shoeberto]

However, I figured you'd all like to know: we throw around a stuffed animal version of Vivi when we do reading out loud in the class ("Throw to who reads next" kind of thing). There are a few kids who know who Vivi is... not surprisingly, all in my honors class :)
That's super awesome. I'd just be worried about a person who's a fan of FF that's not too, er, honest taking off with the doll. Especially since I'm assuming it's one of those limited edition Play Online Vivis from FFIX's release?

[Shiny]

From my experience, History teachers tend to rule. I remember my seventh grade teacher being one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. She was witty, outgoing and made up games to teach the curriculum. It wasn’t always about work work work with her, but when she did give us work she made sure we understood it.

My favorite teacher by far was my Algebra teacher. One time she stayed after school with me for three hours to make sure I understood everything. I think the best teachers are the ones who aren’t uptight, don’t just stick to the textbooks, and who are willing to help their students instead of just saying, “Well what don’t you get?” And then shrugging it off. You could tell she really cared about the importance of knowledge and wanted her students to learn even if it meant sacrificing her own time.

I also, like teachers who know how to have control over the class and don’t let it get out of hand. That was a huge mistake that my most recent Spanish teacher did. She was an idiot with a lack of sense of humor and got all of her lessons from another teacher, or out of the textbook. We’d learn something and then have quizzes on something entirely different. Not to mention the fact that she didn’t know how to grade fairly, so she gave everyone B’s on the final exam.

[Jessweeee♪]

My Algebra teacher was really nice and gave us candy and she explained everything well and she teached us lots lots more than most math teachers and I never had to do work at home :bounce:

[daggertrepe]

I had a teacher named Mr. Colley, who taught health. (You know, drugs and alcohol. He never used those textbooks either! :)) He was kind, sweet, caring, and was over all a very good teacher. Whenever someone needed something from him, he always was there. Whenever a student had a depressing problem, he was always there talk, ready and willing to help out. He taught his lessons very well and always made sure he got his point across. He helped out with the 8th grade dance every year and was a spectacular track and wrestling coach. He was also very, very funny and made everyone around him feel good. But don't get me wrong! He was no pushover, he had his moments.

He was just the kindest man I've ever met in my life, and I will NEVER forget him. I cried so hard when he retired. His exact words at his last speech were:

"I never did any of this for myself. I did it for the kids-"

But he got too choked up to say anything more. :cry:

If you want to be remembered, kind, gentle, yet funny and strict if needed. Be like Mr. Colley! :love:

[rubah]

vivi :D

[Rengori]

I WANT TO READ IN YOUR CLASS NOW KTHANX

[Værn]

I've had two history teachers so far through Jr. High and High school: Mr. Zuver and Mr. Davis.

Mr. Zuver's classes were always exactly the same, every day: Toss some hand-written notes onto the overhead projector and make us copy them down. Nobody really did too well in his class and they were always bored to death.

Mr. Davis's class was the bomb. Funny, never went too far out of his way to watch his mouth, plenty of interaction... re-enactments, role-playing, plenty of videos (though mostly just recorded from the History Channel), the occasional movie now and then, and he made the projects quite fun.
He also put notes on an overhead projector, except his were distinctly different from Mr. Zuver's. His were actually computer printed so they were easy to read, far more organized, and he talked through them a lot faster. What would've taken 2-3 weeks to cover in Mr. Zuver's class took 3-4 days in Mr. Davis's. Copying them was far more optional; he gave us worksheets and showed any videos he had related to the present topic that he had, and gave us occasional projects, so there was plenty of opportunity to pick up anything we didn't catch the first time around in the notes.

One movie that I'd suggest for class is Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure for a history class. That's really the only way I remember that Lincoln's birthday is February 12, 1809, and Napoleon's ending up at the Waterloo water park is the only reason I bothered to look up anything about the Battle of Waterloo =)
I find that comedy is very good for learning; people like to laugh, and they're going to want to remember what they were laughing at. As long as a comedy movie is accurately related to history it should be pretty good for teaching.

[Roto13]

My grade 9 Social Studies teacher was the best. I don't even know how to put into words how great he was. Well, how about this. He died a couple of years ago and his funeral was packed full of former students. Hundreds of people. It was like a wedding or something, except everyone was crying. o_o

[Miriel]

I had a History teacher in the 8th grade that was super passionate about his subject. He would like, seriously put on one man shows and reenact battles of the Civil War. The fact that he was so interested in his subject made the students more interested, you know? But even though he sometimes did goofy things in class because of his enthusiasm, he wasn't a goofy sort of guy. He was incredibly well spoken, intelligent, and respected at my school. Pretty much everyone loved him. He wasn't the kind of guy you could fool or mess with. If you didn't turn something in, he'd have no qualms about giving you a F for that assignment. But on the other side of it, he would occasionally bring in donuts for his classes, and he would always always stop and chat with you if he saw you in the halls or at lunch.

A lot of my most "memorable" teachers DID try and be friends with their students. I didn't learn a whole lot from them, but they were definitely memorable, and THOSE were the teachers that I went back and visited after I graduated from middle/high school. The friendly "cool" teachers were the ones that we would buy little Christmas presents for, and take pictures with on the last days of school.

One of the teachers I learned most from, and had the most engaging class in High School was my 11th grade US History teacher. And he was an ass. Sheesh, what a douche that guy was. But he was smart, he knew how to structure his class, and he made sure that pretty much everyone passed the AP exam. But like I said, he was an ass. He would just say the most stupid ultra-right wing conservative :skull::skull::skull::skull: sometimes.

I think it's very hard to find that balance of being likable but also teaching a lot to your students.

I would just suggest that you not lean so far towards being instructive that you're this hardass that no one likes.

[Rye]

I had a History teacher in the 8th grade that was super passionate about his subject. He would like, seriously put on one man shows and reenact battles of the Civil War. The fact that he was so interested in his subject made the students more interested, you know? But even though he sometimes did goofy things in class because of his enthusiasm, he wasn't a goofy sort of guy. He was incredibly well spoken, intelligent, and respected at my school. Pretty much everyone loved him. He wasn't the kind of guy you could fool or mess with. If you didn't turn something in, he'd have no qualms about giving you a F for that assignment. But on the other side of it, he would occasionally bring in donuts for his classes, and he would always always stop and chat with you if he saw you in the halls or at lunch.

That's exactly how my 8th grade History teacher was, and he was definitely my favorite teacher too. xD

[Quindiana Jones]

The history department were definitely the best at my school. They were the least funded of the lot, having only two crappy little huts for classrooms, and the teachers were nutters. I used to constantly have insult fights with both of them.

[Shlup]

My favorite teachers were the ones that I felt liked being there and liked being with us. Also the ones that had a lot of hands-on activities.

Like I remember in 6th grade to sequence The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe we made a board game of it, and mine was super awesome.

[CloudDragon]

I had an American History teacher in high school that everyone idolized because he acted like a gangsta.

My senior theology teacher everyone liked because he was just an awesome and super nice guy.

I had an Astronomy Professor that was weird and nerdy but he could teach and got the students involved.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

In spite of the fact that my school was pretty :skull::skull::skull::skull:ty, we had an awesome faculty. One of my favourites was one of my French Immersion teachers who taught social studies in high school. He was just awesome and passionate about the subject. In my grade 11 class, World Issues, for the latter half we did a mock UN. Basically each person or group were assigned a country and we each had a topic related to that country. For your own topic you had to research your country's position as well as do a presentation to explain the scenario to the class and research everyone else's position. The topics covered varied from whaling to peace in the Middle East. It was quite interesting. With the same teacher the following year we did a similar type thing but in relation to Canada and the provinces.

Another favourite teacher was my grade 11 English teacher. She was amazing in so many ways, I really wished she did not retire so early so she could have taught my grade 12 year. She is the reason I can write essays so well. She was also crazy, in the good way, like throwing sponge apples at the class or getting a little too enthusiastic as she read a line of one the witches from Macbeth.

The final teacher that was awesome was my grade 11 and 12 math teacher. Though I never needed help in the subject he was always early to school to help anyone, especially before tests. He was approachable and always willing to help you. He even teased his students. Sometimes he would compare the work level we were doing to barn animals, saying that maybe a pig could do it but not the goose, or something nonsensical like that. He teased me too since I always answered the questions too fast to the annoyance of my friend sitting behind me, so he would always promise to get her a metre stick to flick my ear with. :p

[Loony BoB]

Forgot to say, one of the characteristics of a couple of teachers I quite enjoyed was that they were totally hot. You've got that covered already, though, Cid. 8-)

[Hambone]

Make sure you're hot. That way, students will look at you be interested in what you have to say.

My favorite teacher was from last year. He was my 7th grade language arts teacher. He was young (27), and he knew his stuff. Everyone could have a conversation with him. That was probably his best quality. It also helped that I am REALLY good in that sort of class, so I goofed off often.

[stalpho slayer]

she's the only one that thought i could be succsesful

[eestlinc]

I think the best teachers are organized and know what they are talking about. And they have a goal for what they are trying to teach through each lesson. If you teach history, have common themes that you use to tie together various parts of the syllabus.

[Caraliz]

Shout a lot and pound your fists on the podium. Also blame everything that goes wrong on a monkey. (name optional)

My 8th grade science teacher did stuff like that and you ask anyone in any of his classes about him, and to this day, they all remember Mr. Zittnan. What a man. :love:

[fire_of_avalon]

My favorite teachers loved what they did. They came in everyday loving it, even when it hurt them to love it. They treated all students as completely capable of understanding the content. They knew the content. They spoke instead of making us read. We didn't fill out worksheets. They made us think, and through thinking we were able to understand. And they pushed us.

I agree with Yams about not being your students friend all the time. Sometimes you need to be their friend, if they don't have anyone else. But don't make it a point to be all buddy buddy with them every day.

I've seen in LJ before. It seems like you're doing a pretty good job already. :)

[bipper]

Since I'm a teacher and I want to be memorable, I'd like to know.

For the record, I teach seventh grade World History.

BOOBS! GET some!

Naw, My favorite teacher was down to earth and fun as hell to be around. He was older and really took a genuine interest in INDIVIDUAL Students, like myself. HE actually dualed as our computer science teacher as well. He recognized talent, guts, and motivations in a kid. Really put me on my right path. Really, a teacher that can make a single kid feel motivation - as motivation is more important than any prodigal trait.

[Peegee]

It's been discussed in EoEo but it needs to be repeated again.

TEACHERS NEED TO WATCH FOR BULLIES AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION

When I hear stories of teachers being told bullying is happening and they shrug, I get sad.

One time I got strangled during recess. When I told the teacher he pulled the guy out of class and yelled at him for like 20 minutes in front of me. I was like O_o even though he deserved it.

[Harroldo]

its so cliche but make learning fun its that simple once you have that i mean you got em then but to be infamous is way easier than famous but fame is more satisfing (to me)

[Peegee]

Being an effective teacher makes a difference. I taught my math-brain-dead brother how to calculate sales tax by:

- dividing the total by 10 (easy to do)
- adding half of that
- add the two values to the price

So with 20$, we have 7% and 8% sales tax (provincial and government, respectively) = 15% sales tax.

The answer we want is 23% because 3 = 15% of 20.

Anyway if you can't do that in your head, you do this:

10% of 20 = 2
1/2 of that is 1

20 + 2 + 1 = 23.

You can make 'learning' easier by finding easier heuristics or whatever method is easiest for children.