<p>Please visit my post in the High School forum.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=893255#post893255[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=893255#post893255</a></p>
<p>From a parent’s point of view, who in your children’s schools do you feel had the most impact on their life during their K-12 years?</p>
<p>Well, not exactly school, but my son’s private music teacher of 8 years. He and DS speak at length on many subjects and he is probably one of the most intelligent people I know.</p>
<p>Agreed…private music teacher has had the biggest impact on both of my kids followed by the high school band director. This is the case for both my music major son, and my non-music major daughter. They are able to communicate with these adults on a very different level than with any other adults they know…and all are excellent mentors.</p>
<p>Not in school… …Never in school! Only in the last year did he run into decent teachers. My husband has had the greatest and most obvious impact on the incredible young man my son has already become, thank God.</p>
<p>Goodness, I admit I can’t think of any school teacher that fits the category for good influence. Isn’t that sad? My child’s voice teacher has helped her develop self-confidence and believed in her when her school teachers didn’t. We’ve spent years trying to undo the damage done by her 7th grade math teacher.</p>
<p>Here’s another vote for private voice teacher, tied with choir director at school. One notch below that is dance teacher(s).</p>
<p>If I had to pick teachers at school (besides choir teacher), there was a two teachers that team-taught Humanities her Senior year, and a French teacher. Daughter loved these three teachers. But about the only “impact” they had was self-esteem and teaching the love of learning.</p>
<p>Peg
mother of a Musical Theater student</p>
<p>Inside of school? Music teachers for both Choir and Musical Theatre.</p>
<p>Not for my D. She has had outstanding classroom teachers. She’d have to go through a couple of science teachers, an administrator, a math teacher, and a dual credit history professor from the JC before coming to rest at her pre-calc and calc teacher. All the teachers aforementioned are “tops”. Wonderful people who made the classroom reverberate with their intellect and devotion. They had a spirit of sharing and of wonder. She has said that she “didn’t think any schools had better teachers than (these). Regardless of price.”</p>
<p>That brings me to Tom. This dude is one of those people you hear about that after a successful career in science or industry decides that he is going to teach because he is ticked off at what he has been hiring. And man, did he ever teach. He taught M.W.A… Math With Attitude. He may have never survived in a big school. May have never survived past this year in this one.:eek: His last year. Outrageous, eraser throwing, constantly poking, prodding, cajoling, haranguing a bunch of calf-roping football players and pasture partying cheer-leaders into learning AP Calc, average grade? 4 or 5. Every year.</p>
<p>At the school, you don’t have to take mid-terms if your average is over 90. It says so in the handbook. Not in this guy’s class. Everybody just voluntarily showed up on test day. You stood to recite. You went to the board every day. You defended your answers from challenge. You were expected to challenge. Classroom participation was 30% of your total grade. Many, many assignments were group. Some tests were group. He would intentionally and not randomly select the groups. One smarty , two strugglers (all were capable). D would complain-hey -I got an 87 because Little Johnny didn’t even turn his in.
Response? Welcome to the real world, kid. Learn to motivate your co-workers. Life isn’t about doing it all yourself. You’ll run out of time no matter how smart you are. You have learn to work with others and sometimes they may not be as capable or as diligent. Deal with it and get the job done. That’s what business and industry needs.</p>
<p>She signed up for two straight years of this Hell and had by far the four lowest semester grades of her career. She would like it to be three straight years . And to hell with the grades.</p>
<p>BTW, I met him once. About two weeks before he retired. Just wanted to say thanks.</p>
<p>Heartwarming story of your D’s math teacher. Thanks for sharing.</p>
<p>Elementary gifted teacher. She was absolutely fabulous. I have two very different children and they both had wonderful experiences. She’s responsible for my oldest’s interest in computers. She loves each and every student (or at least she makes you think she does). Learning really was fun. I know her very well and greatly admire and respect her, as do the students who were lucky enough to spend time in her classroom. </p>
<p>My youngest’s 2nd grade teacher and the calculus teacher. The math teacher is never without a smile, seems to really understand teenagers and inspure them to learn math. Sorry, it was hard to leave them out.</p>
<p>My daughter’s riding instructor (from ages 11 until 14) probably had the biggest influence on my daughter. Alice was tough, never brooked with excuses, always pushed D. just a bit farther than she thought she could go. And, she talked with D. a lot about life in general. Although she moved out of the area, I still see much of her teaching in my D’s sheer determination and refusal to give up, even when doing so might be a better course of action. :)</p>
<p>In terms of regular teachers, D. was blessed to have a very special teacher for both 4th and 5th grade who recognized a spark in my D. that even I hadn’t noticed until she pointed it out to me. D. still keeps in touch with her.
And, although it was a mixed experience, her AP Euro teacher last year inspired D. to find the last ounce of strength and keep on going in tough circumstances.</p>
<p>I would guess son’s 1st & 2nd grade teacher. Another teacher who loves all her kids. Mrs. F is grandma age. She had the class in a brand new school for 1st grade, couldn’t give them up and taught 2nd grade. The kids wanted her to continue but she knew they had to go on. She taught them that there was lots to learn, she made them curious, she wasn’t one to praise for no reason but she found a reason to praise each child. She taught them to be nice and considerate of others. She came to son’s graduation party, she laughed that she didn’t give son much music education so she couldn’t take credit for his success. I told her she did because she always encouraged him to try new things.</p>
<p>How funny that music teachers are so often mentioned here. The two teachers that I am most indebted to for their wonderful mentoring and friendships to my now senior son are his private music lesson teacher and his school band teacher. I bought them both nice restaurant gift certificates as a token of my appreciation because I just wanted them to know how great they’ve been.</p>
<p>To you, at the age of 19, I guess I would be a child, but I felt the need to share:</p>
<p>There are two people have made major impacts on my life. I am sure they hold a meaningful spot in the lives of others, too. I am not going to explain the entire thing, because that is a story in itself.</p>
<p>The more important one is a high school social studies teacher that basically started and maintains the school I graduated from last year - a charter school. With the cooperation of the other major person, they were solely responsible for the creation and growth of the school which is now based mostly on projects. He has excellent relations with students, and as we said of him at our graduation, he has a “sixth sense” for when students are not doing their work, or when they simply have a problem. During the last two years of high school, he had a huge impact on my future, and he probably is not entirely aware of it. He started an American History class which allowed students to study anything within reason. I took advantage of this and developed projects on the Korean War and a huge project on World War II. Had he not faciliated this curiousity, I would probably be working to become a computer technician right now. This is not a profession that I look down up, I just found out that it is not for me.</p>
<p>The second teacher I am mentioning had to less of an impact, but I did not get as close to her. She managed to develop a class in which students did a hands-on investigation of their career choice. I chose computers and technology, but found that I did not really fit the mold for a technician- I was really bored. Had she not exposed this flaw, again, I would not be studying history right now.</p>
<p>These teachers combined their talents and desires to spend a tremendous amount of time and energy on creating a school that they still run today. They both experienced repeated problems, but had the perseverance and committment to create an alternative for students who did wanted something else. My friends and I still visit them occasionally, but the chats are typically brief, because they are both quite busy.</p>
<p>D’s 2nd grade teacher. Her style is strict but loving. However, the rest of the parents did not like her and they complained about her to the principals. Needless to say she did not teach again, she switched to a different role in the district. She believed in my child and encouraged her and also taught her the love of reading. Gave D a big boost in her self-esteem and after that I never had to hold D’s hand as much(especially with homework). D still remembers her to this day. However, D did have a lot of good teachers since but this one definitely made a special impact on her.</p>
<p>I haven’t asked my daughter this question yet, but I experienced something last night that relates to this question. The director of the community school pre-school program is retiring this year. My daughter’s first year of pre-school was this teacher’s first year as the director, so the teacher has always had a soft spot for this group of kids.</p>
<p>Yesterday some of the moms put out a last-minute call to all of the students from the 92-93 preschool class, asking them to meet at the middle school for a series of group photos to present to the teacher at her surprise retirement party on Saturday. Amazingly, just about all of the kids showed up (50-60 kids); the only ones missing were kids that moved out of the area and two who couldn’t leave work to make it for the gathering. </p>
<p>It was heart-warming to see these kids together again; some, like my daughter, don’t even go to the local high school, and the rest were the local kids…many of whom don’t normally hang out with each other anymore. It was touching to see this diverse group laughing and remembering together, sharing the common bond of this one very special teacher. </p>
<p>It also had moments of hilarity. They had the kids line up in the same order as they had for their pre-school picture. There was my 5’3" daughter in the first row as usual, next to all the boys who had shared the front row with her in the past…except now she was dwarfed by these 6’+ giants (when did they grow up?) </p>
<p>I will always be grateful to this kind, warm, loving teacher who is still remembered with such fondness by the kids and the parents.</p>
<p>My mother has had the most impact on my d’s life so far. She is an amazing person who speaks 5 languages, plays 4 instruments and is just a fantastic all around person. She has taught my daughter so many invaluable gifts. She showed my daughter to sew and got her her first sewing machine. My daughter makes tons of neat clothing and accessories and many of her theater production costumes. My daughter is so much like my mom (all those talents and gifts must skip a generation…lol) but she has taught my daughter so much.</p>
<p>Nurse Judy</p>
<p>My daughter was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at age 6. We were all very fortunate that our elementary school had a wonderful caring medical professional on staff. She took a real interest in my daughter, and they developed a wonderful loving relationship. Last year my daughter had to write a story about the “hero” in her life. The story brought tears to my eyes. This wonderful lady has been a second Mom to my daughter for the past seven years, and has been a blessing to our family. We all cried when it was time for my daughter to transition in to middle school. (We tried to get Nurse Judy to transfer!) </p>
<p>Nurse Judy has really helped my daughter understand that her illness is not something that should ever stop her from achieving her goals. Nurse Judy helped her understand that it is just something that makes her special. She encouraged and helped her in ways that Mom and Dad couldn’t. For that we will all be forever greatful! </p>
<p>Now we just need Nurse Judy to transfer to the college that my daughter may attend in a few years…</p>
<p>For my boys, their high school football coach and most especially their fellow team members had the largest impact. For my oldest, it was the same team for 4 years and DS#2 for 3 years. They practiced 6 days out of 7, 4+ hours daily and attended football camp together during the summers. Even after we moved to the other side of the country, they are all still friends and talk constantly. There must be something about surviving “Hell Week” every year that brought them all together and taught them so much. After season they all hung out together and had to attend spring training. I watched my boys grow up so much and really change.</p>
<p>My DD (the senior) claims she was most influenced by her high school and private diving coach (same guy). After many years of daily practice, all year long, she truly respected, admired and modeled herself after him. The relationship between coach and diver is one based on trust, since it is such a very dangerous sport, so the role he played in her life was huge. I can only hope she establishes the same type of relationship with her new coach in college this fall.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>I have to say that I feel like downloading this thread and sending it to all of the good teachers I know. It is heartwarming and I wonder how many teachers realize how deep an influence they have. Thank you to any teachers out there! You do make a difference!</p>