teachers we like vs. teachers that make us learn

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not always mutually exclusive.

but characteristics of a popular teacher may include good looks, humor, likability, maybe brings in food for the students every once in a while, gives little homework, has easy tests which are curved.


sometimes these factors are only to supplement the teacher's inability to teach, but thats not to say that teachers without those qualities are always good.

a good teacher in my opinion is a teacher that is likely mainly for their ability to make students understand concepts clearly, and one which stimulates further learning. there are plenty of teachers which are good people, but at the end of the day, everybody got an A or B, but nobody learned anything.

I had a teacher who had a imaginary student. He was not very smart because his mother dropped him on his head when he was a baby so it made him not smart. He told stories about him. But he was also a good teacher, he only allowed fresh snacks, not junk food because he wanted us to be healthy. He even made us work and he was also understanding but lot of kids thought he was mean because he made us work and made us follow the rules. I never thought he was mean but other kids said he was and my mom said it was because he made rules and made them follow them.


I had one student teacher who was bad. She was always losing our school work and she bored lot of students out with her bla bla bla when it comes to teaching. So kids goof off in class while she be teaching class.


I think it's possible for a teacher to be a good teacher but not be a good teacher to all students because they don't know how to meet someone's needs let's say. Or they aren't qualified to deal with their needs or because they have other students in class to teach so they can't give a student the needs they want if they need constant help and attention. That is what IEP's are for and aids and mainstream special ed.

My favourite teachers growing up were the likeable ones who made us learn. Likeable but poor teaching, is-IMO-not a good teacher. Unlikeable but better teaching skills= not a good teacher (how can you TRULY and effectively learn if you despise being in the teacher's class?) Both are important in the same person.

The one way I've experienced where an unlikeable but otherwise effective teacher can teach is if he or she scares the kids to the point of pushing despite out of the kids' heads.

I've had one instructor who was good at tearing kids down with words. He rarely raised his voice, and never out of anger. He never had to in order to make any kid feel all of 1 millimeter high. There was also another one in this high school who was known for occasionally tossing a kid's desk across the classroom due to the kid's inattention.

By and large I was fortunate with the teachers I'd had. Long after I'd finished high school and moved on I always found it vaguely sad that these teachers were responsible for the education of kids that weren't their own, while their own paychecks didn't come close to allowing their own kids to attend schools of the same caliber.

I had a "mean" teacher I adored to the point where I would pray to God that there was a mix up 16 years ago and he was actually my father. Don't get me wrong: all that homework, dry humor, assigned seating and testing was so stressing I lost my mind (quite literally once or twice) and almost failed freshman year.

Still, I (and about half the other kids in my class) loved this man to death. Maybe it was because he had that attitude that made us want to impress him, and we worked hard for that.

So for me, I don't want my teacher to only teach me. I want them to be the kind of teacher that makes me want to learn, whether it's to earn their respect or just because they got me genuinely interested. For Mr. Weakland above, there was NO way he getting me interested in History, because history is an effing anathema created by biased old dead dudes for unending glory and power while I as a student am pulling out chunks of hair over all of it. But hey: I can honestly say I enjoyed every passing grade I got.

I always learned better with a teacher I liked.

Then there's teachers you hated who also didn't teach you squat

The best teachers are the indifferent ones who only teaches you half the concepts and tests you on further untaught applications.

They are the ones who mature you to be cold, independent, and responsible for yourself.

The teachers I liked best were the ones who put a lot of effort into their lessons and a lot of thought, ones who gave out interesting exercises and assignments and gave interesting lectures and encouraged students to read further about the subjects even outside the curriculum. Teachers who were great orators who told wonderful stories about the world and about life, about animal behaviour, great poets, Shakespeare, history, interesting real life applications for dull statistics equations which could get you a little interested in trying out the equation.

Not for me was the hard taskmaster, the teacher who would put their students down, or the teacher who just didnt care and would snippily just write up the lessons (which had had little thought put into them and were extremely boring) and just expect us to sit in a quiet, sterile environment and do the work (I would instead draw pictures).

I think the best teachers are the ones who inspire you to learn.

Me personally though, I like someone who just gets on with it. I can't stand these straight-out-of-university-throw-a-ball-around-in-lessons kind of teachers. I've always found it easier to get along with those older than me, so I like a teacher who I can speak to. My favourite teachers are the ones who push me. I admit it, I'm a nerd, but I just love to learn.

I'd probably love school if I didn't have to cope with all the people.