My Favorite Teachers

This is a paper I recently wrote for a class.

When I am a teacher, I would like to be a combination of some of the awesome teachers and coaches I had as a K-12 student. I was fortunate enough to have enough quality teachers that it would be difficult to choose just one to write about. When I graduate in May 2015 with a degree in elementary education, I will be certified to teach elementary and middle school, or kindergarten through eighth grade. I have a lot of experience with elementary-aged children and am comfortable with them, but I plan to gain experience working with middle school students to better decide if I would like to work with them in my career. So for now, I just know I will teach elementary or middle school.

All of my favorite teachers had a respectable attitude. None demanded respect; students simply respected them because of the aura they gave off. There is a big difference between demanding respect and just being someone who is naturally respected. These exemplary teachers and coaches came across as respectable by having realistic but high expectations for all students and being strict in a fun, motivating way. They did not allow disruptions to distract from teaching or coaching. They hovered on the borderline of scary; I knew that they were caring and eager to help, but they were not to be tested and their cheerful demeanors were not to be taken for granted.

Their teaching abilities were unmatched. They were smart, sometimes brilliant, but able to explain concepts in age- and ability-appropriate terms. Their high expectations kept everyone motivated and working hard.

I really did not notice the appearance of these favorite teachers, at least not consciously. This must mean that they did not wear anything weird enough to catch my attention. They dressed professionally and did not wear flashy styles or other attention-grabbing outfits. They were there to teach or coach, not to show off their fashion sense.

I learned a lot of subject matter from my teachers, but besides my parents, my best teachers and coaches were probably the ones from whom I learned the most life lessons. I was always one of the brighter kids in elementary school but at some point I started telling myself I was stupid. Looking back, I think this was at least partially due to being bullied because I was smart. I was talking to my eleventh grade physics teacher about this outside of class time and she responded by saying that I could either be dumb and be teased or be smart and be teased. She implied that I might as well be smart if I might be teased either way. She saw right through my “stupid” act to the capable student I was and pushed me to excel, and I have always remembered that.

Another act of wisdom was from a basketball coach. During my high school years, the girls’ basketball team at my school was among the best in New Mexico. Still, I had hopes of making varsity, but was cut from the program at tryouts my junior year. I had played on the C-team as a sophomore and had worked during the summer and all fall to be ready for the tryouts, so I was devastated. I decided to talk to my former C-team coach who would be coaching JV that season. After assuring me that cutting me from the team was an extremely difficult decision, he arranged for me to be a sort of team manager, sitting on the bench at all the JV games, keeping stats on a little clipboard. It occurred to me sometime later that he did not need me there; nobody cares about the stats of the JV team, and I had lousy accuracy anyway because I was often distracted. He had me be there because he knew how upset I was over not being allowed to play that year and he made an effort to keep me “part of the team”.

My third and final example of wisdom as an intangible comes from second grade. I was a good writer from a young age, and my second grade teacher noticed this. She told me about a citywide writing contest and gave me the information to enter. I not only entered, but won first place for my age group. My family and I were invited to an awards banquet for the winning writers and my teacher attended. Her job did not require her to encourage me to enter a writing contest, much less show up at an evening banquet to support me, but she did. Placing first in that contest gave me an abundance of confidence in my writing abilities. Thirteen years later, I still have the first place ribbon in my bedroom at my parents’ house.

These instructors had teaching styles were engaging and unpredictable. My physics teacher had us rolling down handicapped ramps on chairs with wheels, running up a flight of stairs as part of a lab calculating power, and dropping objects off a ledge into the courtyard of the school. My basketball coach in tenth grade let us practice making cuts in the gym by playing ultimate Frisbee sometimes during afterschool practices and we bonded as a team when he had us play Frisbee golf around the high school campus just for fun. I hope to also be an exciting, enthusiastic teacher.

Some teachers in my years of school tried to act like counselors and solve everyone’s problems. My favorite teachers were generally not among them. These exemplary teachers cared deeply for their students but did not attempt to intertwine themselves with the teenage gossip that surrounded them. Their number one priority was the education of their students and they expected class time to be used for learning. If approached outside of class time, however, they were happy to interact with students on a more informal basis and even help with personal problems when appropriate. My favorite teachers were approachable but strict, brilliant and engaging, demanding and kind, and I hope to exhibit many of these traits in my future career as a teacher.