What has a teacher done for you?

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Is there something that a teacher has done for you in the past that you will never forget or really made a difference for you? If so, can you share your experience?
Thanks!

Man, I had a professor at the University of Washington named James Clowes that I had for some random class my second year.

It was a bad point in my life and I was pretty much always stoned when I went to his class, I couldn't understand a word he said but just listening to him talk and make connections between old classic texts was invigorating and I loved the class just for that. That class was where I got introduced to Plato's Symposium, which is one of my favorite of all times and now have a tattoo on my arm of a quote from it.

He was diagnosed with terminal cancer a few months after I took his class, he was pretty young like mid-late 40s, and it was the most heartbreaking but awesome thing I've ever seen when he gave a speech retiring from his position. It was just a stoic matter-of-fact diatribe on life while the dude was on an oxygen tank, I don't know how best to characterize it because it was like 10 years ago, but it was f*****g outstanding and unlike anything I'd heard before and anything I've heard since. He passed away like 6 months later. I wish I could do it justice.

His class was profoundly influential, more for introducing me to a method of thinking than any of the actual material, but man, his speech on the way out...

One of my professors allowed me to redo my portfolio review of my artwork as I had burnt out of exhaustion the day of it and missed it. Im very thankful.
As well as my Economics professor would give me useful tips on writing my papers in his class on Poverty, Discrimination and Inequality.
Lastly my Professors who taught my Third World Conflicts class and Intro to Global Issues. I am someone who was born internationally I found it humbling that the class could have discussion on policy and consequences in real application instead of just theory as I come from a country that was washed in political upheavals at the time of my birth and adoption.

Looking afterwards at my school times, there were many teachers that made my life complicated, but many teachers that helped me as well.

So in basic school (10-14 years) I had lots of issues with organizing and so on, I rarely brought some homeworks, I often forgot when we had a classroomchange and then went to late into the lesson because I had to search every room for my class and so on. Whenever such thing happens you are receiving a bad education mark, and if you have a certain amount of bad education mark, the teachers are allowed to discuss if you have to leave school. So they could have easily removed me from school, I was one of the leading kids at the amount of bad education mark in school history, but the teachers said on their own that its not because of me "wanting" to disturb school, so there was no bad manners on purpose behind it. Gotta thank them for it.

In the upper school (15-19 years), the problems went on, but my class teacher also was very soft. So when I was exhausted from school I sometimes left between the lessons, because I couldnt stand it anymore and so on. So my classteacher only told me not to leave the school area, because of their responsibility if I got hurt, but as long as my test marks were ok I was "allowed" to do so. (So not official allowed, by the law I had to be forced to visit the lessons.) Without that, I never would have managed that school, never would have got an good education, which would mean I would have far more problems in finding a job, then I have anyway.

So there also were teachers that were angry because of my behaviour and wanted me to leave school and so on, but more then 50% said that its ok, as long as my school marks are ok and the others students are not disturbed by my doing. I am really thankful therefor.

I'll never forget my fifth grade teacher. From kindergarten through fourth grade, I had a lot of problems with authority and connecting with others, but when I got to fifth grade, my teacher showed me what I was doing wrong instead of simply yelling at me. I don't think the rest of my teachers realized that I didn't understand how my actions were hurting others.

I'm also close friends with the head of the special ed department at my high school, who is also my case manager (thankfully, I don't have an aide following me around like I used to in grade school). She is a very smart and logical person, and I go to her whenever I'm confused about something or I just want to have a nice, thought-provoking discussion,

So I had two that stick out in my mind. Not using their real names.

Mrs. Fish (Her last name sounded like a kind of fish, so we all called her this) was my 5th grade science teacher. Every time I raised my hand in class, she would laugh at me, before I even answered. She encouraged the other kids in the class to do so as well. She turned me (and several other kids) off of science (I got better). She taught me that I was an idiot. She taught me that I was weird. She taught me that I had no future in science, and push me to the point of abandoning my first interest (Paleontology) to the point of tearing up my collection of several binders worth of Dinosaur trading cards. She taught me not to bother being an achiever, to abandon my prior straight A record and go for Cs & Ds. She was a pathetic, bitter old woman who thrived from bullying children. Unfortunately, she had tenure.

Mr. Burgess (He did an amazing performance of A Clockwork Orange at one point) was my 12th grade English teacher. Remedial English. He picked me and two others out of the class who enjoyed the subject matter and focused on teaching us. He backed us up, encouraged us, did everything he could to build up our self-esteem and teach us English literature. He would show movies of books, set up performances (just for the class) of Othello and The Crucible, put on a one man show of A Clockwork Orange for us. I later found out that he had been in a running battle with my guidance counsellor to get me put in AP. He was the greatest example of a teacher and mentor I can think of.