Has any educator had a positive impact on your life?

Yea, I was having a lot of trouble in my Junior year of High School and nearly dropped out. Bonnie was my assigned counselor and also my economics teacher.

I was feeling overwhelmed with life one day and told her I wasn't feeling well. Rather than challenging or doubting me, she showed compassion and said to go home and rest. It was the first time I got the sense that a teacher truly considered my overall well-being.

With me in such an emotional state it was really quite enlightening and I think that small instance had a profound effect on the path that my life took.

 

Do you mean a significant positive impact? Like life changing?

 

Well, I had this English teacher back in high school. She changed my perspective about writing and made me consider that I really should pursue it.
Life changing to me, yes. To others, maybe not so much.
But it was the first encouragement that I received on my writing, and a heck of an encouragement it was indeed. It probably really wasn't much, but it was all I needed.

I'll always thank her for that. <3

 

The teacher I remember the most was Mr. Warren. My academic decathlon coach. I met him when I was a freshman. I was really shy and I didn't like eating lunch in the lunch room with all of the other kids because it was too overwhelming for me. I mean I could have, there was this group of kids I'd gone to jr. high with that liked when I sat with them, I guess you could have called them popular, but I didn't really fit in with them.

So instead, I walked around aimlessly for the 45 minutes until one day I found one of my teachers, my biology teacher in her room during lunch and she didn't mind me hanging out in there with her. She was great, very quiet, and she gave me a space to write and just think. Anyway, Mr. Warren came to her room one day while I was working on a poem. He asked to see it, liked it and then talked to Mrs. Creech for a bit. Well, later he asked me if I would be interested in octathlon. I was. They had already started meeting after school so I was pretty behind, but I caught up pretty quick and ended up medaling bronze in economics and silver in literature. It was nice because I felt like part of a team, and I was doing what I loved... learning.

Anyway, the next year I was the second sophomore ever from our school to get placed in Decathlon. Normally the way it worked for us because of Warren was you had to be a Junior to do Deca, but because he thought I had promise he put me on... I was pretty glad, but I didn't end up getting to compete because my dad took me out of that school and put me in another one. =/ It was a real bummer.

Well, as it goes my dad took me out of school completely for the next two years. I missed school terribly. Eventually, I ran away just to go back to school. I wanted to go back to Burbank so my mom made it happen. I was way behind. I was supposed to have graduated the year before and here I was older than everyone at the school having to do my junior and senior year in one, well I didn't have to but I sure as hell was going to try.

So, Mr. Warren found out I was returning, spoke to my counselor, got me on a schedule that would get me all the credits I needed, and also asked me if I wanted a spot in Deca. It was a very trying time for me. I did my junior/senior year in one year, was practicing until six at night 3 times a week and also for a few hours every Saturday with Deca, and the other nights I was working. But I needed it. I believe I needed the pressure to make it, to help not wallow in self pity, and so that I wouldn't become bored. I also believe that Warren knew and saw that and I will appreciate him for that always. He was an amazing coach and friend.

He always looked out for me, pushed me, listened to me, and saw my potential. <3 I should write to him. Thanks for this thread by the way.

 

Dneecey, that *story* has an incredible impact - I may have to share it with my students.

The right education - and the right educators - will have you running towards them.

It's funny, but the instructors who impacted me most were in areas I did the crappiest. I loved my chemistry teacher in high school - he really pushed me to understand the material, and I loved learning from him. I had to fight for that "B" grade (and man, was it tough) but I don't think I would've done half as well if he didn't encourage me.

 

Please feel free to share it. <3

 

Through negative impact, I had a teacher who was merciless in every respect. She chewed me out a week after one of my family died because my work standard had dropped from its usual consistency. I used to look up to her, but her lack of compassion utterly crushed me - I "tied my laces tight" and went on to achieve a perfect record, but I had lost all heart.

I have always remembered since then that even a hint of compassion or kindness, no matter how frustrated, dissapointed, or angry one may be keeps even a flickering little flame of trust and self-assurance going in others.

 

I still communicate with my high school English teacher. She was the one who helped me find my love of literature, and prompted me to share my writing. I remember her saying something about "what if Vonnegut didn't share his work," and helped me realize that art is only important if it is shared. I'm studying to become a high school English (and History) teacher, and I owe it to her. She critiques my writing, and is allowing me to do my observations in her classroom. She also has said that she will help me get placed for my internship. She is an amazing person, and an outstanding educator.

My middle school and high school band directors also played a big role in my formation during high school years. My middle school teacher let me help and observe in his class for 3 years in high school, when I was dead set on becoming a music teacher. He also would come to punk shows when my band played just because. He'd come up after shows and offer advice. He also hooked me up with a kid in middle school who wanted to learn guitar, all so I could get some experience teaching one-on-one. My high school band instructor pretty much hated my guts, because I'd always get in trouble in and outside of his class. I was friends with a lot of druggies, and I didn't take things to seriously. He, on the other hand, was one who always followed the rules, and pretty much just didn't trust me. However, he always pushed me to become a better musician, and gave me countless opportunities to gain experience that would help me in my college auditions. He let me sign up for all of the band classes they had my senior year all so I'd have 2 hours a day, in school, to practice for auditions. He went to one of my auditions, and would call me after all of the others. Although things didn't work out, and he didn't exactly like me, he supported my goals and went out of his way to do so.

My AP Calc teacher was also an amazing man. I'm terrible at math, but he was a great and supportive teacher. Basically, I think he saw a lot of himself in my friends and me. We'd stay in his classroom at lunch time just to shoot the shit, and talk about music. He was always pushing us to keep the band going, and to do bigger and better things. He used to be in a punk band, and ran his own label. He still would get solicited by artists, and had thousands of CDs before they went to market. He gave me a number of CDs over the course of high school, just because he knew I'd like them. He also spent every day, for the last two months of school, in his classroom helping me and two or three other people prepare for the AP exam. We'd stay until 8 or 9pm at least 2 days a week, and he'd stay with us. He went above and beyond to see his students succeed. After my friend Peter and I graduated, he invited us over to his house to watch Spinal Tap because he was flabbergasted that we'd never seen it. We hung out for hours, and ate ice cream sundays with his wife and kids (his wife was also an awesome teacher) Peter and I saw a broken pinball machine on the side of the road on the way over, but it wouldn't fit in either of our cars. Our teacher packed it in the bed of his station wagon, and drove 20 miles across town all so we could work on fixing it over the summer (we never did) He also offered to play bass for us in Detroit for a show that our bassist couldn't make.

There are a number of others that I wish I could mention, but it would take far too much time. In short, I've been lucky to have some amazing teachers along the way. One of the reasons I'm becoming an educator is so I can help kids in the way that my teachers have helped me. Without them, I don't know what I'd be doing, but it probably wouldn't be anything great.

 

Hmm... all the good ones were in College really. Oh, apart from the guy who almost made me get maths! That was a big achievement. And he made it fun to learn about mathsie stuff. Oh, and my history teacher at GCSE level who fuelled the fire for my love for history.

College-wise:
English Lit teacher - inspired me to work hard enough to get full marks on the exam. And encouraged me to write. And gave me a hug when we said bye ;.; (she was like an aunt or something when I left)
Film teacher - made me learn without realising it. Picked the best films for the syllabus. Got me an A. A good friend.
Psychology teacher - like a mother. Very, very kind and understanding. Taught me good ways to revise. (Unfortunately, I still don't do well in Psychology. It's just me.)

Negatives:
History teacher (college) - put me off history. I quit after the first year. Hated him. He was a bad teacher who frustrated and teased his students and then expected us to do well.
Maths teacher (early secondary school) - nice woman, but really, really bad at teaching.

Ah, then Primary school...
Year 5 teacher - I basically skipped that year. The class wasn't taught, he just made jokes all the time and then read us The Hobbit in such a way it made me want to run out the room screaming. Also gave my sis and her friend detention when they talked while he told more jokes. He went on to be a headteacher (there is no justice in the world).
Year 3 teacher - nice guy, bad teacher. Except for teaching me a bit of Italian I then forgot.

I'm really surprised I did as well as I did when I look back

 

dneecey, your story brought tears to my eyes. Thanks for that.

There were a couple of teachers. My junior high orchestra teacher. He really believed in me, and, when my parents weren't willing to pay for it, he paid for my orchestra camp tuition out of his pocket two summers in a row. My senior high school english teacher told me I was one of the most "articulate" students she had ever had. I still carry that word around with me. She called me her "heavy hitter" in discussion group. I find that my self-conception rested a lot on what my teachers thought of me, and they made it possible to believe in myself and attain success in life.

 

So I had a friend tag me on Facebook from when I was a senior in highschool. I got caught being a dork. One of my friends was on year book staff and got me in a good mood while in Drama class. Anyway, you will see me being a dork =X, and then a picture of me with my Deca team nerding it up =) , and my coach/teacher Mr. Warren that I spoke of..