What were your teachers like in general?

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My kindergarten teacher, Maria De Wolfe, always let me do things my own way as long as I got them done... she was really good. But she wasn't a pushover.


My French teacher in kindergarten, grade 1 and grade 3 was nicebut could get mad though she never yelled. You didn't want to not pay attention to sense with her.


My grade 1 teacher, Karen Walker, was really nice and liked me; she liked how perfect my marks were and how eager I was to learn and how smart and happy and nice was!


My grade 2 teacher, Regine Hadida, would yell at people for little reasons, people were scared of her and she made some kids cry... she could be really nice, though. Once she brought her daughters (one in grade 4 and 1 in grade to class. Sometimes on Jewish holidays (she was Jewish) she brought in matzahs and that.


My 3rd grade teacher Ann Parker thought I was really good, a hard worker and enthusiastic, so quiet compared to the other children. A month into the school year she was replaced by a really nice lady who always joked with us. Allison Brown. She had beautiful handwriting, she got mad sometimes but everyone liked her.


My 4th grade teacher, Nancy Lawand, was sort of old school, and old woman despite the fact that she had kids in high school... she brought us once to see a play at the high school, Guys and Dolls, that one or two of her kids acted in...


My 5th grade teacher, Karen Byrnes, crowed and ranted and raved to the other teachers about my wonderful writing and the wonderful stories I wrote. She gave me a reference for a private school I was slated to go to in grade 7. She was nice and fun to talk to out in the school yard during recess.

My 6th grade teacher, Kelly Ferenz, would yell and throw books, and once she slammed the door and cracked it, because we wouldn't stop talking in class and not doing our work, and being cocky and spoiled and dirty and foul-mouthed and childish and hyperactive! She told us stuff about the real world; she lectured us more than she taught. She told us about what it was like when she was growing up, how her son was much better than us, but she had a fun side. We did all these crazy fun things in class. I think she was a little bipolar. On our trip to Niagara her son, who was our age, came along and hung out with the student she liked least in the class! She moved to Oklahoma the year after she had us; lol. We were the worst class she had. Once she told the other grade 6 classes not to talk to us. She could be heard yelling all the way down at the office; lol.


Sylvie Turcotte, our gym teacher all throughout elementary school, was great when she got her way, but when she didn't she could get annoyed... she conducted gym classes in French; she was pretty fair though and the stuff we did with her was challenging but easy.

Marcie Gutman, my grade 2 French teacher and my grade 4 French, math and science teacher,was nice and had a great sense of humor; read us Wayside School books, but she could get anmoyed and mad... she was mostly nice though.


My 7th grade homeroom teacher, Kimberley Glickman, was a hippie art teacher, or tried to be, but annoying snooty conservatism shone through in some things she said and did, especially when she was stressed.

My grade 8 homeroom teacher, Rorita Gattinger, was really nice when she was my math teacher in grade 7, but she had snooty moments too, though it took longer for her to develop... I think everyone at that school was noticeably snootier each year. She was so nice and jolly and still a little open-minded though! She was also our "life skills" teacher... Life Skills was home ec and computer science combined.


My grade 9 homeroom teacher and English teacher, R. Kostyk, liked me because I was nice and serious and studious. He didn't like the goofballs who made fun of kids. He had a sense of humor but was still old-school. So I liked him.

The resource teacher at that school I went to in grade 9 and 10 seemed to think I was more disaled than I was but was nice and great to talk to.


My grade 10 homeroom teacher and math teacher Mrs. Shadvar was a pushover but so nice and had a sense of humor! She once gave kids candy for showing up for detention. She was foreign and quirky; once she put dry breakfast cereal in Ziploc bags and handed them out to us.


My grade 11 homeroom and drama teacher, Catherine Lightstone, was like Mr. Kostyk. She was tolerant, conservative in a good way. She liked me because I actually tried in drama class and had a talent for acting.

My grade 12 home form teacher and biology teacher (the bio class was actually a grade 11 class), Mrs. Macdonald, was so funny but could get snooty when she didn't get her way.


My grade 11 parenting teacher in grade 12 was fun; we enjoyed talking about parenting and babies and sex with her and she got pregnant herself... she let us party in her class on holidays.


My grade 11 or 12 creative writing teacher in grade 12, Brent Robillard, was such a nice guy with a sense of humor, and when he took a liking to you he really took a liking. People took his class over again even though they knew they wouldn't get another credit or a better mark. They just wanted to take his class. He was a popular teacher in the school, but it made him a bit arrogant. He expected you to take his praise or criticism seriously, he gossiped about kids in other classes, he tried or pretended to be openminded but when stressed or depressed his inner conservative snottiness shone through... once he actually made us read something out of the book he wrote (Leaving Wyoming) and used it as an example of how we should write... lol. Some kidswent to this event at the public library where he was present and the public library had at least 6 crisp copies of his book. He was voted teacher of the year in some paper thing, and nominated some kids for student of the week.

My grade 12 English teacher, Mr. Kennedy, was either really quick and witty or rehearsed for his classes. He was so funny but so conservative. He tolerated people when they behaved. I think he liked me because this was in Brockville and we were both from Montreal, and he went to a school that two of my friends went to in Montreal.


I also had more... whatever.

All of my teachers were nice.

Tim

Well... I dont have alot of time to get into detail, but I am still even today in contact with my 2nd and 3rd grade teachers. I also had an art teacher who had a very positive effect on my life. I recently and saw all of them, and it was a very happy moment, especally cause back then I drove them insane!

All of the teachers I remember from Grammar School were great:

Bob Langen who used to be a gym teacher before he fell off the trampoline then he taught math. He was the first math teache I ever had who managed to make me understand the subject.

Edward Turner taught woodwork. The guy was dedicated to his craft and some of his teachings such as "use the right tool for the right job" are still remembered to this day.

Bob Leather taught Latin. This is a subject normally avoided by schoolboys but Bob was a man in love with the language and so he made it interesting. One day we might be translating the instructions for a power drill and the next week it could be a page from Playboy. When he retired he got a standing ovation from the whole school.

Pete Greenwood, head of chemistry. Each year he made fireworks for the November 5th celebrations.

All of them were men who were in love with their subject and they made school fun.

Ed Almos

Most of them were cool, but a few of them were losers.

Wow, that was detailed.

Overall my teachers were good to me. It seems though that I only remember the bad ones.

My only problem in school was the other students. Bullies were allowed to do as they pleased.

The bad ones:
My first grade which then became my second grade. Was a real b***h. She seemed to hate doing what she did and took it out on the kids.

I got paddled in fifth grade for doing my homework before class. I never figured this out.

My seventh grade science teacher hit me with a stick because I wasn't paying attention to her. She was showing the students something that I already grasped and was working on independently. She was only concerned about flirting with the teacher across the hall.

Gym teachers in high school felt the need to humiliate students, including me.

A substitute teacher kicked me in metal shop because I was focused on a running lathe and not paying attention to his ramblings. The school and that idiot should have been sued for that. He was not instructing me at that time.

A history teacher, who happened to be our winning football coach, was senile and an idiot. Fortunately, he was out half of that year.



I found out later that I was well known amongst all of the teachers and staff. Even the ones I didn't have. Apparently they were impressed by the savant.

Most of my teachers were great, except for my kindergarten teacher and fourth grade teacher.

My seventh grade English teacher was excellent, but my eighth grade teacher was awful. She taught a lot of pop psychology garbage that in no way resembled English.

My high school teachers were all great.

College was a different story. While I had some good ones, most of them toed the politically correct line.

All my teachers seemed to like me (that was my strategy before college), so they were all very nice. Except my musical director. She was a complete jerk and drove me away from acting...who knows? I couild have had possibilities in acting, but I was never given the chance.

All my teachers remember me too. Evan my kindergarten teacher...isnt that weird?

All of my teachers were weird.

The rest of mine:


Grade 11 math-- Mr. O'Laughlin. He was a nice, funny guy. Anyone who needed help in his classes were welcome to go to his classroom at lunch to ask questions and be helped. Once someone's cellphone rang in his class and he picked it up. "Shall I answer the phone?" he asked. We said "Yes!" He answered it: "Hello? Math class."


Grade 11 visual communications-- Ms. Yetman. Sense of humor, nice, let some kids who didn't finish their work come in during lunchtime to use the darkroom, even though she had another class in there then who had a different lunch period.


Grade 11 English-- Ms. Nagy. Very nice, you could negotiate with her, fun conversations in class, though she might have been a little jealous of those kids who were going on the trip to europe and missed a lot of her classes-- she marked us way down because of it! I think she was also a bit temperamental, with good days and bad days, which made her empathetic, but also self-centered. Paradox, I know.

Grade 11 gym-- Jack Leighton. He was good, firm but not strict. We learned stuff in his class if we wanted to. He was intimidating in a good way.

Grade 11 French-- Mr. Ali. He was fun, temperamental and no-nonsense middle-Eastern guy who took intellect seriously but had a sense of humor at the same time. Once he told us that if we needed help to go to him at lunchtime: "Mr. Ali has no life." Another time he told us to look at the bristol-board posters he made that were on his classroom walls to help us with French-- "Mr. Ali likes arts and crafts."

Grade 11 social studies (aka trip to Europe)-- Ron Deschamps. He was also the guidance counselor, everybody's acquaintance, sense of humor though I sensed some character rigidity behind it, very experienced at taking people to Europe; took kids to Europe for 20 years or so, every year-- lucky him! Did his homework, very helpful if you wanted help, knew when to leave people alone and when to try to help them, but sometimes was a bit too proactive to the point where someone felt that they were being painted as needing certain stuff they actually didn't (happened once with me).

Grade 11 economics-- I forget his name already! He was fun though. No-nonsense but fun and funny, joked, was friendly and helpful. He knew how to make the class more interesting without detracting from actually teaching, besides that it was sink or swim but he made sure nobody was left behind if they minded being left behind.

Grade 12 gym-- only had her for one day. I switched to math. She gave the impression that she had to be fair in the marking but did like certain students better than others, or just didn't particularly like students in general, I dunno. She was efficient at teaching and since most if not all of us in her class took it seriously, that was fine with us.

Grade 12 math (actually grade 11 math, but I was in grade 12 when I took it)-- Ms. Russell. Very friendly, wanted everyone to pass, believed we could all do it. Since it was math for personal finance she seemed to believe that we all had the potential to do it but it wasn't a life or death thing, she helped us and tried to pass as many of us as possible, gave us LOTS of chances, perhaps more than we deserved... forgiving and reasonable, had a sense of humor. Knew when people were trying to butter her up to let them talk in class, or for marks, but let it pass.

Grade 12 world issues: Randy Givogue. Very very VERY informed. He honestly enjoyed teaching us this, or at least tried to make the very best of it. He was very intelligent, exceptional memory. Aspie without the Aspieness. A nerd, or geek, but not a dork. Made it fun, made jokes, we really learned so much-- I learned more in just a few weeks of his class than I did in all the other classes combined, for the last 2 years! He was a bit sensitive though. He went all funny when I said I skipped some of his classes due to stress (I was admitting I skipped and asking for forgiveness!) He asked if I had a note. I felt so stupid. I should have phrased it a different way. Also, his cousin died in prison from hepatitis-- it was such a sad story, he was schizo and had hepatitis but the drugs for the two problems cancelled each other out, so he had to decide to either live for 5 years without schizophrenia, or live for 10 with it. He chose to live for 5 years and not be schizophrenic. No wonder Randy Givogue spent five classes teaching us about the prison system and a quarter of a class to a class for every other issue!


Child care worker at elementary school-- Carlo C. He sometimes wrote stories with all of my class in it, about a field trip gone wrong or our eccentric teacher and something happening. He went on the Niagara trip with us. He then took pics of us waiting in front of a statue. One or two of us said we needed a bathroom and we were told to wait and all was fine, then later when he took the pics of us waiting around the statue he captioned one "We need to go to the bathroom!" and then the next one "Stick your right foot in... stick your left foot out..." LOL! Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill!

Art teacher at elementary school-- Ann Bird. Also taught enriched (grade 7) math to some grade 6 students, including me. She was really nice, though temperamental. Talked, chatted sometimes, but was strict other times. Once a boy inadvertently used a $75 paint brush for something it wasn't supposed to be used for and she got so mad at him and yelled, the next day she brought us all into the teacher's lounge where we sat around and she explained why she got so mad at him and apologized to him, telling him she knew he didn't mean to do it.


Grade 7 French-- Jean-Max Pelletier-Burroni. Even the nice kids who were nice to me even when I was picked on, and stood up for me sometimes, teased and made fun of him behind his back but didn't really mean it; they knew he was a nice person. They said he smelled bad and that. He spoke 4 languages-- English, French, Spanish and Italian. He was very nice, firm but kind. No-nonsense.


Grade 7 and 8 music-- Paul Delorme. Really nice, firm but kind. Joked with us, but was no-nonsense. Gave us the marks we deserved, or pretty much. Knew the tricks in the book. Was delighted when one girl wanted to play something on the recorder that she had made up herself.


Grade 7 science and grade 7 and 8 religion-- Isobel Macdonald. Had cognitive flexibility, as you can see by the two subjects she taught. No-nonsense but very nice. Girls would try to charm her with goodies from the bake sale. She was very nice about it but accepted. She knew the tricks. She later volunteered at the vets' hospital, with me! when I heard someone calling her Isobel, after seeing her at the hospital and realizing she looked exactly like my grade 7 and 8 religion teacher and grade 7 science teacher, I was amazed. I got that feeling like I would meet her again before. I get that feeling with some people, and I always run into them again. And guess what? I was RANDOMLY in a certain suburb of Montreal, walking down a random street, and I met her. The day after I saw her at the hospital, I think. She said that I had that familiar look that she couldn't quite place. We were amazed that we met again, we laughed at the small world. I think she had sort of taken a liking to me in grade 7 and 8.

Grade 7 study skills-- Ann Marier. Ironically, she seemed so busy and stressed that she didn't have much time for us. But she was no-nonsense.Nice though.

Grade 7 English-- Pierrette Lavertu. Temperamental. But nice. Okay. Fun.

Grade 7 computer science-- Enza Sasso. Went sort of odd and snobbish and some things I said and did that really weren't my fault-- one was other students' fault and one was due to my nerves... she had bionic movements, even looked like a machine sometimes. Looked and acted like a computer sometimes. Very image-conscious. I think she had Social Anxiety Disorder, though she would rather eat s**t than admit it. She tried to cover it with confidence (superioroty-complex kind). She put really good reports on us, tho... saved her time.

Grade 7 math-- Rorita Gattinger. She had a sense of humor and was no-nonsense, and some of the place's snootiness rubbed off on her, as was apparent in her second year, but she was still too much herself to really get changed. In class we held up our answers to her quetions using flash cards and she said she liked recycling; she made the cards out of posters that had been for something else and we used the back to write the numbers on, she told us to make them all snazzy if we wanted and we decorated them. She was also the head of the drama club and the plays, she was nice, she was fair.

Grade 7 geography-- Ms. Flowers. A bit sensitive, nice person, pretty fair.

Grade 7 gym-- Anna Haller. Nice, okay, fair but some of the school's snootiness may have rubbed off on her, as some people complained, though of course without the school's-snootiness bit.

Grade 8 English-- Ms. McNab (sp?) was temperamental like Lavertu, but she wasn't a stuffer like Lavertu. She exploded, then apologized profusely and was the nicest sweetest teacher (though still fair and no-nonsense). Once she had a bad day and yelled at me so loudly and angrily in the hallway that a bunch of people from my class came up to me and commented on it, saying "Aren't you embarrassed?" and my acquaintances joked about it. My crime: handing in my rough copy because I had to hand in something, when it was the good copy that was due, and she screamed at me that I had a lot of NERVE, handing that in! She later calmed down and thus realized that I had to hand in something, to get SOME mark, to avoid a zero. It was so funny; once she yelled at someone in class, and we were working quietly by ourselves, and then several minutes later made an announcement as to why she yelled, then several minutes later she made another announcement: that just because she yelled and apologized did not mean that that was a sign of weakness! LOL!

Grade 8 French-- Colette Lampron. Very very nice, supportive, said "You can do it!" when you appeared nervous, but she was firm with people who misbehaved and upheld the rules.

Grade 8 science: Christie Brown. Very nice woman. Was a student at that school before she became a teacher. I once saw her name in a fictional book in the school library that I read that she had also taken out! Helpful, sense of humor, fair.

Grade 8 history: Ms. Fitzgerald. Firm but kind. Fair marker. Gives you a chance to do something over again if you did really horrible and were under a lot of stress and didn't have time to do it anyway.

Grade 8 gym: Karen Craigmyle. Very nice, talkative, chatty, sense of humor, fair though. Taught and her niceness was the kind that got you more involved in gym and doing well, not jsut letting you do your own thing in class and fail.

Grade 8 drama and math: Nadia Saroli. Another drama AND math teacher at that school, like Mrs. Gattinger. She was temperamental, though my father liked her because she also agreed that our math book was crap (it was an attempt by the Palideau family and the Palideau corporation in Quebec to politicize high school math! LOL!) It made it really hard for a lot of kids to understand.

Grade 9 geography and drama: Elizabeth Renfrew-Sheldon. Very nice, too lax with a lot of people! But if someone was picked on she stood up for them. Gave marks easily, got stressed, knew some kids she couldn't help and it was up to them to succeed and so she let them do what they wanted in class, though she did try creative ways to interest them with the subjects, especially drama. She played music in class while we worked once, she had pizza parties for us, and once in drama she gave 12 of us marks for playing a game (participation marks) and the game didn't really have anything to do with drama, and the rest just did what they wanted.

Grade 9 French: Mr. Labesse. Hilarious guy. He tried to interest us in French class once by trying to get us to write about something funny that happened to us in French, but people just told it in English, after Labesse told about his funny incident in English. He would sit at his desk staring straight ahead all class and just let us do whatever we wanted. At the beginning of the class he handed us a ridiculously easy assignment which took a few minutes to do and if we handed it in at the end of the class we got marked, and I got them all right, they were the easiest things, I did so well in that class, lol. I got 100% on the exam because it was so easy. I dunno if that was his doing though. Once someone in class tried to set fire to a desk and he wasn't even stopping them, lol, he just told them to stop and they didn't listen, but only eventually, I think there was a time when he didn't tell them to stop at all. LOL. People just did what they wanted in his class: talked, chased each other around, did their makeup, played cards, harassed other students, whatever. During the parent-teacher interview, he told my mother I really should be more outgoing in his class if I didn't want to get picked on. LOL! But I think he liked me because I was his best student and actually did my work.


Grade 10 French in grade 9: Ms. Pelletier. Kids suspected she was on drugs. she would do girls' hair and makeup, I dunno if it was in class or during some free time or extracurricular thing. She once did a girl's hair in class when she didn't like it. I don't know if this is true; this wasn't in my class, but my math teacher Ms. Zeto was telling us of what she did, and the girl then came to our class and said, "Is it true you told them that she did that to me? That didn't happen!" or something like that. Pelletier was very odd... very very nice and then downright unfair. She had favorites. Once I hadn't done my work because I DIDN'T HAVE A CAHIER (a workbook) and she gave me zero and didn't offer me one, I said I didn't have one but she said since I didn't have one, she jsut said "Pas de cahier?" and made a mark, and acted like she thought I was on crack but she was.

Grade 9 English-- besides Kostyk, there was Ms. Ricci, when I changed classes. She flip-flopped, forgot stuff, at least to do with extracurricular things. She was fair. The discussions in class about the books were no-nonsense but fun. She still had a sense of humor.

Grade 9 Spanish-- Mr. Rodrigue. Another hilarious guy, and not just because of his sense of humor. He spent the whole Spanish class just talking about what it means to be in the international program, lecturing us on behavior, going over what we would do the next year in the international program, and barely taught us any Spanish! LOL!

Grade 9 math: Antonino "Tony" Bambace. Nice, diplomatic, empathetic, approachable. Told people in a nice way not to pick on others. If you didn't want to do math in his class, just get him talking about something he cared about. He once asked each of us one by one if we did our own laundry, declaring at the end that we were all spoiled brats. Another time he talked about fights, how he was trapped in a circle of people about to attack him once and the only thing to do is go right through them, he gave us lots of free time to draw on the board or do whatever they wanted, he talked about how NASA Needs Another Seven Astronauts, how a girl who was sexually abused by her stepfather for years and then got cancer and died was raped by him in her hospital bed as she lay dying and her two brothers or stepbrothers held her down, he talked about telling birds to "flock off" among other stuff. He would pull some kids out of gym class to help them with math. He joked, he talked, lots of conversations and he told people in a nice way not to make fun of others.
This was supposed to be math class! If anyone wanted to do math, though, they were welcome.

Grade 9 math, in the other class I was in later: Ms. Preston. Nice, fair but firm, Bristish lady. She squashed the rumor going around that she had SARS when she was sick in the hospital, because SARS was going on at the time and she had been in Ontario, I think. Offered help to people.


Grade 9 human biology-- Ms. Kudeki. Been there for a loooong time.


Grade 9 human biology in French-- Mr. Walther (though he taught, or at least talked a lot about biology, in English-- during the war in Iraq he just talked about that all class... he was going to fail me just because I was new and came in the middle of the term but my mother talked him out of it... even on the bus to a field trip that had nothing to do with bio he was talking about bio, about hemherroids, lol. He talked in class about many interesting things-- how rabbits ovulate while having sex, and that's why they have so so so many offspring, the marking of one's territory ("It's like peeing in the bed to make sure no one else sleeps in it"), how the clitoris is an underdeveloped penis and ovaries underdeveloped testicles and once upon a time some poeple could impregnate themselves, stuff like that, to get us, especially the guys, interested in biology!


Grade 9 computer science-- Mr. Aitken. He said stuff like "Passwords are like underwear-- change it often and it should never be seen." funny, nice but fair guy. Tried to get people interested but didn't try too hard. Did fun things with us in computer science; once he actually told us to play Sim City. How is that computer science?

Grade 9 gym-- I forget her name. She was okay, nice and fair I think.

Grade 8 life skills (computer science, home ec, etiquette)-- also Rorita Gattinger.

Grade 10 physical science-- nice woman. Forget her name. Gave me her agenda when mine was stolen, and I only realized afterwards that it wasn't mine she had found and given back, but hers that she wasn't using anyway. She was firm but nice.

Grade 10 French-- Mr. Rodrigue (2nd term except for Ecoute [listening], which we did with another French woman), and another East Indian woman (first term), I think Rodrigue talked a LITTLE less about the MYP/International Bacceloriate Something in this class... he still talked a lot about the personal project we had to do for the program, but that was understadnable-- when else would he get the chance to talk to us about it?

Grade 10 world history-- Ms. Roet. Very nice old-school firm but kind woman.

Grade 10 English-- Mr. Aitken. No matter how much someone wanted to learn, and what awful marks they got in his class, they still learned a lot. He was amazingly nice, tolerant, thought outside the box, encouraged us to voice our opinions using our vocabulary and think outisde the box, by talking about things the kids cared about. He was very hands-on. Everyone liked him. Even the troublemakers. One of the troublemakers who picked on me actually asked him to be his mentor for his personal project.

Grade 10 math-- Ms. Zeto, when I switched to an easier math class. Very nice, a bit gossipy but meant it in an innocent way, did not want to defame anyone. Helped when you needed it.

Grade 11 biology-- my option in grade 10-- Ms. Kudeki was back. She was there a long time, some kids had called her Mr. Kudeki, perhaps because of her short hair, lack of makeup and quasi-male clothes (never a skirt, always pants suits). She had a sense of humor, was no-nonsense in a unique way, liked you if you took her class seriously, didn't if you didn't but always gave you a chance to change. She upheld the rules though. When one boy wore his uniform pants sagging way down she said, "Do you think you look cool with your pants sagging down? No you don't; you just look like someone whose pants are falling down." She made jokes about some other people too. When someone asked o borrow her pen, she would make them give her their shoe first, to ensure they returned the pen. Another time he guy whose pants were falling down came in with a towel draped over his shoulder; he probably thought it made him look cool, like he had just been doing sports and showred. (???) She called it his security blanket... lol! She also fined people... 25 cents here for forgetting matrials or something, 10 cents there for not having your shirt tucked in, 50 cents here for disrupting the class, or whatever. If you wanted to get out of detention fre, you would pay a dollar. LOL. She said she gave it to charity though.

Grade 10 history of Quebec and Canada-- Mr. Nathan. Called himself hands on, very nice, tried to make it fun for us, diplomatic, firm but kind, took me aside once to talk about how a student in the class was treating me and how he was aware of it.