<p>Mathson: Really had a bunch of teachers who really got him. His Pre-K teacher who told me he was gifted and used to give him words and math problems when other kids in circle time had letters and numbers. He’d come home gleefully chortling “Mrs. Curley tried to trick me!” His first grade teacher fought with our principal and finally got a double skip into 3rd grade math. Kudos to the 3rd grade teacher as well, who made the arrangement work. Later when he was in 3rd grade, his teacher let him write computer programs and work ahead from a different math book. His freshman physics teacher who recommended him for various Saturday enrichment science programs.</p>
<p>For S2: Second grade teacher who got every kid in the class reading above grade level. He loved American history and when his kids came to Reading is Fundamental every year kids came looking for books on the subject. He was the most low key guy imaginable - you’d never tag him for a wonderful teacher until you observed his class. 4th grade gifted teacher was wonderful too. She had the kids reading Poe’s The Raven - the entire class got so excited about it, they ended up reading the whole poem (not the original intention). They fiercely debated the meaning of it, with kids sure Lenore wasn’t dead! They ended up having a much longer poetry unit with all the kids writing poems. There was a districtwide poetry festival that spring that many kids participated in. Then there was the pre-calc teacher who finished the curriculum and taught them all calculus - the final exam was the AP Math AB exam. He actually appreciated that my son thought like a mathematician even though he forgot formulas and often ran out of time on exams. (He was busy deriving everything from first principles!) My son adored him, and math is really not his strong suit. AP Euro teacher was great he taught what he wanted, while also getting everyone well prepared for the exam. One of their papers was an art history type painting critique. He had them write a lot, not just DBQs but several longer research papers.</p>
<p>frazzled, that teacher who taught history backwards sounds so interesting!</p>
<p>My favorite teacher was a high school teacher I had twice. She let a small group of us with scheduling issues study the Middle Ages instead of Ancient History which we had all had multiple times before. That’s where I learned that there were disputes about when the Middle Ages even started. When she later agreed to teach us a year of British history, she insisted we take a few weeks off to learn about Ireland so that we could understand The Troubles.</p>