Note: All of our minds are on the school closure crisis right now, and I recently completed an on coping with its ramifications. Many more related posts are on their way.
In this time of crisis, reading and thinking about noncoronavirus topics can be a welcome diversion now and then. I put thinking about and reading about our favorite teachers into that 鈥渨elcome diversion鈥� category.
(This is the final post in a five-part series. You can see Part One , Part Two , Part Three and Part Four .)
The new question-of-the-week is:
Who was your favorite teacher when you were attending school and why was she/he your favorite?
shared responses from Elizabeth Villanueva, Jessica Levine, Betty C谩rdenas, and Jenny Vo. You can listen to a I had with the four of them on . You can also find a list of, and links to,
In , Antoinette Perez, Cindy Garcia, Kathleen Neagle Sokolowski, Shaeley Santiago, Rita Platt, Jen Schwanke, and Barry Saide offered their memories.
In , Jeryl-Ann Asaro, Jenny Edwards, Adrienne Donovan, Dennis Griffin Jr., and Dr. John Almarode contributed thoughts on their favorites.
is the all-time most popular post from this column. Keeping that in mind, shared commentaries from some of my present-day students鈥擩enny P茅rez, Lee Xiong, Ariane Jasmin, Michael Hernandez, and Briche鈥� Hardin鈥攁bout their favorite teachers. I distributed to several of my classes at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento.
Today鈥檚 post also includes some of their commentaries.
Listening
Johusemily Torres is a junior at Luther Burbank High School:
One day during math class, Mr. Scott was telling the whole class how we shouldn鈥檛 give up on what we want to accomplish鈥攚e should try instead of giving up. At that moment, I thought about softball because I had wanted to stop playing because I thought it would drop my grades. Mr. Scott鈥檚 words were very inspiring, and I decided to challenge myself to play softball and have good grades.
Another time, Mr. Scott told the entire class that 鈥渨e mattered.鈥� He let us know that if we had any problems that we could go ahead and talk to him. That鈥檚 what made Mr. Scott memorable to me鈥攈e was willing to sacrifice some of his own time and make sure that we were OK. He was a very good listener.
鈥淪he would challenge me鈥�
Jewels Vang is a junior at Luther Burbank High School:
One of my most memorable teachers was Ms. H. in 8th grade. She was my English teacher but also felt like my ideal mom. She taught me things that I was too afraid to talk about. She did much more than teach鈥攕he helped me improve mentally and emotionally. She would challenge me to speak up more and take notice of me when I did something well.
鈥淗e would say it with a smile鈥�
Omar Moreno is a junior at Luther Burbank High School:
A teacher who I feel has made a positive impact on my life is Mr. Johnson. The reasons that I feel he had a positive impact were his relatability and his encouragement. Even if he was in a bad mood, he would still try his best to be patient with students and would still share some good jokes. Almost every time he told us to do something, he would say it with a smile.
When students found something to be difficult in P.E., he would go to the student and help him/her out. Although he seemed easygoing, he never let the classroom get out of control and showed that he should be respected. I think that the teachers who get along with students, talk to them, and give them advice in life are the most memorable ones.
鈥淪he kept it real鈥�
Skyon Hudson is a junior at Luther Burbank High School:
Ms. Hoekstra had a positive impact on my life. She was willing to listen to students. I could talk to her about anything, and she would sit and talk with me. She kept it real and was honest. She knew, too, when it was time to joke around. She cared about her students鈥� grades and their knowledge. If you were stressing, she鈥檇 make sure you were OK by the end of the period.
鈥淪he would make sure we understood鈥�
Viviana Avila-Armenta is a junior at Luther Burbank High School:
My 6th grade teacher has had a positive impact on my life. A memorable quality she had was that she was very helpful. When she would introduce us to a new topic, she would make sure we understood. She would ask around if anyone needed help. She also joked around with us so it would create a good bond between the students and teacher.
鈥淪he helped me become more responsible鈥�
Michelle Xiong is a junior at Luther Burbank High School:
Ms. H. was a teacher I had in grade school. She was the only teacher who asked how I was doing. She encouraged me to join student government, which I did. She helped me overcome my fear of public speaking. She helped me become more responsible and become a leader.
Thanks to Johusemily, Jewels, Omar, Skyon, Viviana, and Michelle for their contributions!
Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it鈥檚 selected or if you鈥檇 prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.
You can also contact me on Twitter at .
Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It鈥檚 titled .
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via or And if you missed any of the highlights from the first eight years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn鈥檛 include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the 鈥渁nswers鈥� category found in the sidebar.
I am also creating a .