Quarterlife Café » Best Teacher EVER?

Best Teacher EVER?

May 9th, 2008 by Kim

When I first started taking Chinese in seventh grade, I absolutely hated it. I remember sinking into my chair as my laoshi (teacher), Mr. Chao, scrawled a tidal wave of characters across the chalk board. The yellow chalk squeaked as he put the final dramatic stroke on the last character — then he turned to us.

“Bu ru hu xue, yan de hu zi!” he said, grinning, as if secretly entertained by the terrified looks on our faces. “If you never enter the tiger’s den, how can you catch any cubs?”

After more than 10 years of Chinese in the classroom, half a year in Beijing and countless Saturday sessions with my Chinese tutor, I am still astounded that my experience with Chinese lasted longer than that first challenging week of class in seventh grade. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I have Mr. Chao to thank for that. He took an incredibly difficult subject and inspired me to stick with it 12 years later.

Wednesday was Teacher Appreciation Day 2008, and tomorrow marks the end of Teacher Appreciation Week. Founded in 1984 by the National Parent Teacher Association, Teacher Appreciation Week is an opportunity to celebrate and thank educators across the United States.

There’s no doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help of my teachers. I had the good fortune to learn from quite a few truly outstanding ones in elementary school, high school and college. They gave me a deep appreciation for Shakespeare, Asian history, sociology and international relations (to name a few) with attentiveness, humor, enthusiasm and passion.

I consider teaching to be one of the most challenging professions out there. For many teachers, the rewards come slowly, and the financial compensation can be low considering the amount of work put in. My dad, who happens to be quite a good teacher, has taught students in the Philippines and Samoa. He often says the job is as much about being an entertainer as anything else.

I’ve had several opportunities in the last year to “teach,” that is, speak to classes of students about my job, even though I’m quite new to the biz. A few weeks ago, I spoke to three separate classes of students at Ilima Intermediate for the school’s Career Day. After several hours of trying to keep their attention with relevant issues about while not losing my voice in the process, I came away with a new respect for their teacher and what she does in the classroom every day.

I constantly marvel at the patience and drive of my friends who are young teachers in their first or second years of instruction. They are working hard to make kids’ lives better at schools around the world — from New York to California to Japan, even here in Hawaii public schools. They work with a variety of students from ultra-hyper, easily-distracted elementary schoolers to more attentive but sometimes more unruly high schoolers; students who come from a range of income levels and ethnic backgrounds.

If there is someone who inspired you when you were in school, or who still inspires you to this day, take some time to look them up and send them a note. Or share your story about them here.

You may not recall exactly how to dissect a frog, label all the countries in Eastern Europe or conjugate a Latin verb, but hopefully there are other life lessons you still remember. I know I personally owe a whole heap of thanks to all the teachers in my life.

They’re the ones who taught me to catch tiger cubs.

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More on Teacher Appreciation Week:

Teacher Thank-You Card Project
Teacher Appreciation News
Teacher Appreciation Blog

Tags: college, education, elementary school, high school, teachers

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 11:23 am and is filed under Quarterlife Island. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Best Teacher EVER?”

MoOgooGuypAN:
May 9th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I guess it all began with Mr. Bradshaw. He was one of my English highschool teachers who was extremely strick. Ever saw the movie “Lean on Me”? He had an attitude just like that principal, and just like that principal he believed in his students. Prior to taking any of his classes I was an average student of B’s and C’s. He had a way of teaching that inspired the mind and challenged the soul. He also began with the theory that everyone in his class starts off with an A, so I was stoked the first day of class. Me an A student? It must have paid off because I received one of my first A’s in highscool other than P.E. and I’ve never got an A in English before. I began to beleive that maybe I wasn’t average, maybe it was cool to be smart and not necessarily a nerd. From that point on my whole outlook on school changed and I began to appear on the Dean’s list and so forth. This very attitude carried on to my University years and helped make me what I am today.

Thanks for reminding me.
just an opinion:
May 9th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
don’t forget our first teachers, mom and dad, especially with this sunday being mom’s day. also, some of us may have been inspired and taught by coaches, just as much or even more.
hemajang:
May 9th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
MoOg…was that Mr. Steve Bradshaw?

I’ve had a number of inspirational teachers. I think a common trait among them were enthusiasm for teaching and caring attitude. In particular, Mr. David Thorne in high school was especially supportive of my school work. I recall during a parent-teacher conference, he said some very nice things about me to my mom. He was haole but spoke a little Japanese that impressed my mother to no end. He was such a positive, cheerful teacher but made me work hard. I didn’t want to disappoint him. I even worked on some projects at his home and got to know his local wife and kids. I still see or talk to him on occasion. I had him as a teacher over 40 years ago. I also see and have lunch with on occasion, a teacher I had even earlier in intermediate school. He later became a principal at McKinley HS. I don’t tell him about being an inspiration to me but as a feared teacher and the times that I got my ears pulled for bad behavior…ha!

I remember feared teachers more that inspirational…not sure which were more effective. I think the scariest teacher I had was Mrs. Blackadoor (sp?) in the 3rd grade. She was old, short white curly hair, kinda hunched over, never smiled, a deep gravely voice and had a reputation of whipping you with the water hose if you were bad. I never saw that but the image stayed with me throughout the year. This was in the 50’s so that fear was real.
Richard:
May 9th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I never had him as a teacher, but I salute my father-in-law, Jack Yuen, who taught Civil Engineering at UH for 25 years. Unlike everyone else in his department, Jack didn’t have a Ph.D.–and was proud of it. What he did have–again unlike everyone in his department–was practical engineering experience. He would keep his classes enthralled with descriptions of his designing dams, or constructing city water systems. Indeed, he was one of the rare breed of professors who actually liked to teach more than perform research, and his students loved him for it. His thousands of students have filled engineering positions throughout Hawaii and the Mainland, and enriched our lives with their contributions. Sadly, he passed away eight years ago. An incredible man. An incredible teacher. Thank you, Jack.
carolyn:
May 13th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
my best teacher was Sister Arlene at St. John Vienney in Kailua. I was only there for first grade but it is where I learned phonics. Sister Arlene had a big sign in her class that said “Think”. I have never forgotten her.