If I were to ask you to name one teacher from your time at school, which one would receive the honour?

Mr Daniels, who gave me the key to the library because it wasn’t being used but I wanted access to it. Miss Smith who was young enough to be cool and Mr Price with whom I was desperately in love. :)

Mrs. Patterson my kindergarten teacher, only wish all the teachers that followed her were as good at teaching as her, maybe I would have enjoyed school much more.

Miss Shaw (the bitch). For whatever reason I remember fighting her (she must have made me angry). Because of her I was transfered to another school…(bitch).

Mr. Huebner my kindergarten teacher.
“Mrs. Hilter’s daughter”, my (Nazi) German teacher.

Ms. Jeffers the completely clueless teacher
Mr. Rutland, the BEST music theory teacher that ever was. Cool dude

Mr Erwin, music at my school for many years, loved that guy!
Mrs. Currier, biology, funny and memorable.
A bunch of pissy no-hopers who taught me that even the most interesting material can be boring if presented badly.

Mr. Hathaway aka Mr. Asshat was my high school Junior math teacher. He gave me my first D. He was fired two years later for being a piece of shit and not knowing how to teach.

Ms. Aikman was my high school ceramics teacher. I love her! We still talk.

Mrs.F. She helped me get a portfolio together to apply for a scholarship to art school.I won a full scholarship and lived happily ever after. :))

I’d name Mr. K from high school – he was a friend as well as a teacher and was always supportive of me.

I don’t even have to think about it. She was my 6th grade home room teacher, Mrs. Blakley, and I adored her. Hearing a few years ago that she had retired, I wrote her to acknowledge that, to tell her how fondly I thought of her, and to remind her that she had introduced my class to caviar, which she brought for us one day to sample as part of a history lesson. I’ve loved the stuff ever since and always respected her teaching technique.

Mr Zabo, my middle school history teacher. First perked my interest in history, taught me the value of a strong education, and inspired me to succeed, not to mention showed me that being a bit more laid back is an effective way to do things. Vietnam vet… died of alzheimers when I was a freshmen in highschool….. still won the teacher of the year award from my class when we graduated as seniors.

Mr. Tripp (5th grade)

He was tough (would whack a meter stick on the desk, if you were misbehaving. Broke around 5 that year), but, wonderful. Such a cool character.

Mr. Morford in 7th grade. He saw that the shy girl had a lot going for her and drew me out. He even let me recite a poem that was “an oral report” alone to him rather than in front of the paralyzing class. Little does he know what he unleashed on the world!

Mr. Cummins, who was my 8th grade teacher (that’s 2nd year for those who go in with the UK school system; I was 13). He actually cared about me as a person and would call my house to make sure I was OK. I think he realized something was wrong in my house, but in those days, there wasn’t much a teacher could do in my town to interfere.

Then there’s Ms. Kaml, my 2nd grade teacher (that’s Year 2; I was 7). On my first day at a new school for that year (when the local public schools were finally forced to desegregate), she actually ran outside and scooped me up from the 3 or 4 adults who were hovering and surrounding me. I think she was afraid they’d attack me.

Ms. Foley. She was my first music teacher and the reason I got into music to begin with. If it wasn’t for her encouragement, who knows if I would’ve stayed with it as long as I did.

Mrs. Anderson. She was a “Humanities” teacher at my high school.

I was head over heels in platonic love with my Government teacher, Mr. Kemper. I hated Goverment class, but he made it so much fun and he gave us hilarious bonus questions. You could also bribe him with Big Red sodas and Butterfinger candy bars, to get an extra 10 points on a test.

Mr. O’Brien, my geometry teacher. I’ve never had a teacher work so hard to help me understand something. I’m not sure who was sadder, him or I, when I got a 63 on my final.

Mrs. Haferland from the sixth grade who opened the world for me when she opened a can of octopus for us to try.

Mrs. Bleakney.
8th grade English
outstanding woman.

Mr. Sauter. He was my English teacher in 10th & 11th grades as well as the yearbook adviser. Very personable, charming, geeky-cute. We totally connected my senior year when I was yearbook editor. He was fun and supportive and made me believe I had it in me to come out of my shell when I got away from that little town.

Jane Bevel, 6th grade. She fanned my sense of wonder of the natural world.

We built an incubator in that class and hatched chicks (then I did the same thing at home).

She kept a big salt-water aquarium in class and took the kids on an annual collecting expedition to the ocean (50 miles away) where we seined for new creatures to add to the tank (then I did the same thing at home).

She let me spend hours looking through the microscope, small game hunting in drops of pond water, while the rest of the class did other stuff (then I did the same thing at home).

Mr. Siner, my tenth grade history teacher that, instead of making us do homework and other busy work, actually taught us history. The biggest thing was the fall semester project, in which his classes all built a replica 17th century Nipmuc village behind to school. That experience certainly changed my life.

Mr. Hawke, my 8th grade “core” teacher (Reading/Writing/History – had him three times a day for that and four times on MWF or TTh depending on the week because of photography). He was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. He was just incredibly intelligent and it showed through his teaching. For one, he loved grammar and linguistics, like me, and every week he would post some kind of complicated puzzle and he would reward the student who solved it first (I was often that student, not to brag or anything ;) ) and I just felt like I got a superior education from him, better than what the other classes had. He definitely made a lasting impression on me; I know I was one of his favorite students and I’m glad I got to see him last year at open house.

Close seconds would be Ms. Keller, my Art History teacher who was very real (she was the one who swore in class) and incredibly passionate about her field. Then would be Ms. Dehne, my 4th grade teacher who was the nicest and most fun teacher I’ve ever had.

Mr Guy, my year 8 maths teacher, the dude was a trooper. This was a class of rowdy kids that weren’t really interested in math, but somehow he managed to get results out of us.
Treating us like adults and sharing his loss of five close friends and relatives to suicide in a matter of months, really seemed to gain the respect of everyone. An absolute champ, he was a figure you looked up to and really respected and a great math teacher. I wonder what he’s up to these days.

Miss Stubbs, my English teacher, she was hotter than a cat on a tin roof :)

Mme Presello. She taught me French, Italian and Spanish in high school and started me on my love of languages.

The band director…Bob Bischoff

Mrs. Myrick, for being one of the nicest, most considerate, and most intellectual teachers I’ve ever met, whom our entire class hated. During a semester, you would want to throw her in the path of a moving bus whenever she gave us another mountain of assignments, but she was so nice and happy all the time and so eager to get stuff crammed into our freshmen heads that I remember the latter over the former. And that’s a good thing.

I still walk by her room every morning, so don’t tell her the part about the bus if you have the pleasure of meeting her. :)

Mr. T——-. His name is unique so I’d rather not use it here. The best grammarian and English teacher I had in middle school, incredibly strict but incredibly funny. Duct-taped students to their desks and threw erasers at those who misbehaved. A war veteran (Vietnam). He could have been a college professor, he was good enough, but he taught 8th grade. He was the foundation beneath an excellent literary education that followed in high school. I hated diagramming sentences when the year began and I loved it when the year ended. Two hours of class time with him everyday. He introduced me to the power of sarcasm, irony, wit, intellect, contempt… Put those who spoke too frequently on a ‘word diet’; transgressing the diet meant ‘going to the office’. Taught me that questions are more important than answers, taught me intellectually how to be an individual, taught me that toupee’d men can command respect. I could go on and on about this man. He taught for more than 30 years (just looked it up) and now holds a quite high position in the state’s largest teachers’ union.

Mrs. U my 4th grade teacher was the best ever. Many years after college, I ran into the kid who came from the family with 10 kids. He never did very well in school, but he also remembered her as his favorite. He said that he felt so lucky because her son was about his size and Mrs. U would bring some of her son’s clothes so my classmate had some additional choices. What he didn’t realize is that Mrs. U’s son was about 8 years older than we were and, undoubtedly was a completely different size—my guess is that Mrs. U purchased the clothing herself just for my classmate.

Fourth grade was also a year that blind kids were mainstreamed into our classrooms. Mrs. U (a teacher of gifted and talented long before such programs even existed) arranged for those of us who would not have our grades harmed as a result to learn braille. I took every spelling test on a braille writer and wrote most of my schoolwork in braille. The greatly facilitated swapping papers for in-class grading and challenged some of the brighter students to use their talent toward working cooperatively with others.

When I was a senior in high school, I received a card from Mrs. U (I didn’t know she had been keeping track of me as my family moved around the globe). I was delighted to be an invited guest to her 80th birthday party and didn’t, until that moment, realize just how small a woman this mighty teacher actually was.

My primary school teacher, Miss Rattray, known as Fat Rat comes to mind because I want to say sorry. We tormented a decent woman needlessly.

Mrs Stull. Art teacher in high school. She helped me make my Halloween costume, asked me about my momma all the time, and was first to speak to me about being pregnant in high school (I was). I saw her 100 miles from here in the fall on a field trip and she remembered me 30 years later.

Mrs. Ross. She was a really strict teacher and I received lower than my normal grades in her class. I’m pretty sure it was because she knew my dad when they were kids, and they didn’t get along. I’m pretty sure I was graded more strictly after parent-teacher conferences, when she met my dad and realized that they had known each other. I did not like her that much.

Mrs. Duffy, My second grade teacher…She was the greatest. At the end of the year she gave me a spider plant sprout, mom got it growing and she still has it to this day…Im 27!
also, Mrs. Geiger-I remember being afraid I would get her as a teacher in the 5th grade…then I ended up with my worst fear…funny thing is, she was one of the best I have ever had…I still think of her often and used to visit both every once and a while…

Mrs. Miller, my first and second grades teacher.
Mrs. Adams, my kindergarten teacher
My eighth grade math teacher, whose name I have shamefully forgotten.
Mr Finch, my history teacher
Mr. Besse, my Government teacher

These teachers didn’t just teach, they engaged their students. That makes all the difference.

Mrs Black, my Home Economics teacher at secondary school, she was just the most amazing woman. Always had time to chat (and more importantly, to listen) and really, genuinely cared about her students. She went way above and beyond what she was paid to do as a teacher and she really meant a great deal to me. Years later I contacted my old school to see if they were willing to pass on an invitation to our wedding for her (she had retired) and they did. She attended and it made my wedding day so special to have her there.

There was also a Mr Allison (if you’re out there thank you!) who was my 4th year English teacher and introduced me to the joy that is Shakespeare, in particular Macbeth which we studied for O Level that year (1979/80). I can still quote from it some 30 years later, he was THAT good a teacher. He was an inspiration, in so many ways, just a genuinely nice bloke, and exactly what a good teacher should be. This is a lovely question, and has cheered me up today, thanks ucme <hugs> xx

@bunnygrl Thank you too, always a pleasure m’dear :¬)

@ucme <hugs> xx

@filmfann Her name was Miss Baker, you idiot.

It dawned on me after reading @Seelix ‘s answer that I forgot Miss Mead. She was my French teacher. She was tough, but fair. She didn’t take any crap from any of the students! She loved the language and she loved teaching. I went on two trips to Quebec City in high school – with the French club – and she was a lot of fun on the bus. Oh how I wish I had had such a great instructor in college. I probably wouldn’t have switched majors.

And props to Mrs. Jax, my kindergarten teacher. We had half-day kindergarten, we took a nap and I still came out of there able to read. I last saw her at my dad’s funeral 8 years ago. Other than more gray in her hair, I swear she looked the same.