MyTurn/YourTurn: Great Teachers
MyTurn: With a daughter in kindergarten, I’m constantly amazed at how quickly and how well she is learning. She started the school year being able to list and identify the letters of the alphabet, and able to write her name. Now she is sounding out words, recognizing about twenty words by sight, identifying the authors of books, and other amazing things. This is, in large part, due to the fact that she has a wonderful teacher. Eva’s teacher makes kindergarten a blast for the kids and the results speak for themselves.
I am happy to be the product of public schools and state universities. I had a lot of great teachers throughout my career, and I’m very thankful for that. Now that I’m a teacher myself, I see so many echoes of my previous teachers in what I do. On the last day of before Thanksgiving break, for example, I took the last 15 minutes of each class period to play Bingo with my students. They could win “valuable prizes,” choosing from a box of stuff that I’d collected from around my classroom. Props from old plays, used binders, a few new pencils, some batteries that I never used, etc. This is all because I had fond memories of my high school match teacher letting us play bingo before breaks. She also brought us milk and donuts, though. I guess I’m not that cool!
YourTurn: As you look back on your education, can you indentify which teacher(s) had the greatest influence on you? In your opinion, what qualities made them a great teacher?
8 Comments »
Leave a comment
About This Blog
In Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, the central character dies an early death. Emily is given the chance to revisit a day of her life and is advised by those in the afterlife to pick an ordinary day, warning her that she might be overcome otherwise. Still, Emily is overwhelmed with emotion as she recognizes how wonderful the everyday details of her existence were. Her daily routine takes on new significance now that it is gone. Through her tears, she asks:
Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it– every, every minute?
With this blog, I am trying to fully “realize” my life by documenting the things that I love. I want to appreciate and examine my past and present, as well as plan actively for the future.
I hope to accentuate the positive in my life and in the world around me, with the hope that by focusing on the positive, I will draw more positive elements into my life. Or, at least, realize all of the blessings that I do have.
Bob, the author of this blog, is a 33 year old husband, father, son, teacher, Christian, and liberal.
-
Recent Comments
eauk on MyTurn/YourTurn: Great Te… Jaye on MyTurn/YourTurn: Easter B… angelo on Preschool Hip Rob O. on Break Bryan on Thee Beautiful Things: 8/…
I talked about some of my teachers (in person and in books) in Building a Solid Foundation.
My fifth grade teacher did something for me that I never forgot. I had tried out for a play in the fourth grade only to be bluntly told by my pretty, sweet teacher that since I was deaf she didn’t want me in the play because I might not hear when I was supposed to say my line and mess everyone else up.
Giving students self-confidence is one of the greatest things a teacher can do 
In the fifth grade there was another play and Mrs. C. asked me if I wanted a part. I told her that I didn’t think I should since Mrs. L. had said that I’d mess up a play if I was in it. She got a funny look on her face, hugged me (that was back when teachers were allowed to hug) and said, “Mrs. L. had no business saying that…of course you can do this…you can do anything you put your mind to. I BELIEVE IN YOU!”
No other teacher has ever said anything that stuck with me more…that I was believed in, and could do anything
Bob, I think that’s wonderful that you’re contining the Bingo tradition in your class. I, too, have fond memories of playing Bingo with Mrs. C.
Since we had the same teachers in H.S., we had the same influences.
Nancy Durgin, junior high history and drama. Not only was she a fun-loving drama leader, but she was fair and tried hard to make history fun for bored 7th & 8th graders. She took us on the most field trips, everything from plays to all the local maritime and history museums. For one project we were assigned to study a historical character, dress up as that character, and give an oral report. I had fun creating a Benjamin Franklin costume that year. The other great thing about Mrs. Durgin was that if she had study hall, she would often play a game with anyone who didn’t want to study. I can’t remember what she called it, but it was her version of what I later knew as Scattergories. She always won, stumping us with her large volcabulary, but we always begged to play, and she usually complied.
Bob, I liked this one; it’s a good exercise. Here’s my turn.
I remember Mrs. C handing out the mini candy canes for winning the Bingo games before Christmas and Sebrina managing to get one stuck sideways between the teeth of her bottom jaw in P.E. Thanks for the funny memory, Bob. I needed a good laugh!
[...] 29, 2007 by brightdays I’m following up the great My Turn/Your Turn post by Bob at Every, Every Minute. There are so many wonderful teachers out there. I can still remember a [...]
Pingback by Your Greatest Teachers « Brighter Days for you and me! | November 29, 2007
The educator, the late, teacher Orhan Seyfi Ari has been hailed as a great teacher ~click on my name for some of the qualities of the truly great teachers that made him one of the great educators, so popular with pupils & students and parents and people that with teaching skills and educational leadership enabled him to change an educational history with education reforms -it’s informative and inspirational.