Who Were/Are Your Favorite Teachers?
Decatur Metro | May 21, 2013Decatur High graduation is this coming Friday. Macarolina writes in…
Graduation time makes me think of the great teachers who have touched my life. Perhaps a post asking readers about their most impactful teachers would be timely?
Great photo of graduation scarecrow at Green Street off S. Candler courtesy of Leslie
Joanne Bartsch – Biology at Asheville Country Day
This is our first year in the CSD and the bar has been set VERY HIGH for all other teachers because Donna Fortenberry and Pamela Barnes (Winnona Park Kindergarten) are incredible. I’m sad the year is ending; we won’t get to see them everyday.
Love the pic and scarecrow grad!
Mrs. LaForne in 2nd grade encouraged my love of reading for fun, opening up a huge world to a small town girl.
Mr. Berry, high school civics and US history teacher, for teaching all of us to question everything and to have a well thought out opinion. Two crucial skills a lot of people sadly lack- probably for want of teaching.
Miss Ives, Algebra 2, Palm Beach Gardens High School.
No nonsense, hands messy with chalk, sort of prickly personality. But damn, did she know how to teach algebra. That was the first time I realized that mathematics didn’t have to be a complete mystery to me. It’s still not a natural skill, but she taught me how to work through problems.
Ms. Trauner at Clairemont is pretty awesome as is Ms. Wheeler and the whole staff. I can’t even begin to describe how much we love the school!
For myself, Mrs. Valasek, high school music teacher. In a small town, she was one of the first to show me that it’s OK for a guy to get up in front of people for something other that sports and that being “weird” is not only OK, but encouraged. She was “progressive” before a lot of people even knew what that was. I hope CSD never gets rid of arts education as others have done.
Caroline Hughes, 5th grade, Newton Estates Elementary. Could be terrifying to my 10-year old self, but taught me a love of science and nature. And her classes wrote and performed a puppet show every year for the rest of the school. (Hadn’t thought about that in years!)
Sara Taylor, 11th grade English, College Park High. Gave me an appreciation of good writing and why it matters, which has served me well in life.
To all you teachers out there (and one in particular), you never can tell when something you say or do will make a difference to someone, so keep at it. And thanks.
We love Mr. P at DHS!
But there are so many awesome educators in our City Schools of Decatur system. Both my boys have been very blessed with great teachers over many years at many schools.
Stacey Daniel gets my vote as far as teachers of our kids.
+100 & I can speak for the other 99
Revealing our favorite teachers would be breaking anonymity for sure. But there are so many talented and hard-working teachers in CSD, going way beyond the call of duty, way beyond the salary and credit that they get. It’s amazing to me what a difference it makes for my children to have a teacher who genuinely cares about them as students and cares about whether the material is being learned. It makes more difference than anything else–state standards, curriculum, grading, facility, location of school, lunch menu, condition of field for recess, whiteboards, gym, stadium, bus schedule, etc. Class size is up there too but only because it impacts the ability of the teacher to give meaningful attention and high quality instruction to every student.
I’m glad we’re not being our usual hypercritical selves on this topic. It always cracks me up how differently students can feel about the same teacher. Parents will all be moaning and groaning about a particular teacher who’s mean and one of my children will love them because they are funny and interesting. Or another teacher will be much touted and one of my children will find them to be lazy. Some of the best teachers are too busy with the kids to be keeping up with email and will frustrate some parents no end.
But I am curious how it would come out if we did “Best Teacher for the Money….” or “Best CSD Administrator for the Money….” ! It would probably be biased towards the young, enthusiastic, and cheapest teachers.
Tessa!