| Again, I seem to have a problem writing a list. I jumped over to One GalâÂÂs Musingsâ Thursday Thirteen list because she listed 13 possible TT topics. I decided to jump on #9. Because these are fond memories of good people. This week, I present: Thirteen of My Favorite School Teachers and Why I Remember Them So Fondly 1. My first grade teacher. This takes the cake. I was such a voracious reader in first grade that I quickly outgrew the selection of books in our classroom. So, once a week, after school was out, my teacher would walk me down the hall to one of the 2nd grade classrooms. She worked it out with the 2nd grade teacher to let me borrow one book a week from their little class library. At the end of the year, my teacher gifted me with a book of my own, and I have treasured them ever since. (so much I carted almost every single book I own across the ocean to Maui with me. Crazy.) 2. Miss Mitchell, my third grade teacher. She ROCKED. Everyone knew she was the coolest teacher in school. She would read to us in the afternoon and let us sit on our desks to listen. She was very dramatic. One book started with a screech......and she screeched so loud, we all almost jumped off our desks. She also choreographed the 3rd-graders dance for the ice cream social each year (do they still have these?) Everyone knew the 3rd-graders would have the best dance! 3. My seventh grade social sciences teacher. Just a sweet man who taught us very well. His lasting influence on me is from the day he was writing on the board and told us that he always printed - never used handwriting. I HATED my handwriting. I never wrote anything in âÂÂcursiveâ ever again after that day. CanâÂÂt even remember how to write some letters anymore. 4. My 8th grade social sciences teacher. She had weekly game-show type competitions to try and keep our attention. She came up with creative ways to teach and put up with a lot of sass from a bunch of very young teens. 5. My 8th grade physical sciences teacher. Very challenging class, and he frustrated me sometimes by pushing us pretty hard. But hey, I could probably still distill wood if I need to. 6. My 8th grade English teacher. Decorated the room with tons of posters. Changed out the posters on our desks every week. Was very patient while trying to teach poetry to 13-year olds and get us to read Shakespeare plays out loud in class. Was more of a friend to his students then they realized until it was too late to say thank you. 7. Mrs. Moran, one of my high school sophomore P.E. teachers. She wasnâÂÂt crazy bubbly like the ex-cheerleader P.E. teacher. She was a little more sarcastic and calm - much more on my level. She used to crack me up. 8. My 11th grade chemistry and 12th grade physics teacher. OK, he was a little odd sometimes. He went into way too much detail about what a conehead his baby was coming out of the womb. And he became a little addicted to the microphone he needed to use when he almost had laryngitis during class. But he also did cool things like zap students walking down the hall and stay late at school for informal study groups to help us pass our tests. And he loved chemistry. 9. My 9th grade geometry teacher.......oh wait. IâÂÂm just kidding. DidnâÂÂt much get along with her. LetâÂÂs add my high school yearbook instructor because he had to spend soooo many hours outside of the regular class time with us to get that damn book finished. Evenings, weekends, he was there to guide us through our first journalistic endeavors. Tough man. Good guy. 10. Can we include college in this list? - IâÂÂd have to add my major advisor. I took two classes with him my Senior year. The second class was small and an in-depth follow-up to the first class. It was basically a Senior project, as we had to spend a lot of extra time with our professor developing our own policy analyses. It was very challenging and, he made me learn to really get my shi** together before presenting data and hypotheses. And just when I thought he was looking the most disapproving, he would tell me what good progress I was making. That meant a lot. 11. The previously mentioned awesome entomology professor. He spent hundreds of extra hours on his students. He memorized our faces and names from Polaroids taken in our discussion group, and called us by name when no other professor would bother to learn the names of 200 students. His was a GE class that many students took because we had to fulfill the requirements, but we ended up lucking out with a completely engrossing (sometimes gross) class led by someone who truly loved his work and cared about teaching students (not always easy to find at a research university). 12. My 11th grade and 12th grade English teacher. Very sensitive and opinionated, you either loved her or hated her. There was little in between. I loved her. She taught us to really think for ourselves, to think outside the box, and to express those thoughts. She got so nervous the night before our AP exam, she basically stayed up the whole night baking for us. She would laugh, be insanely sarcastic, or cry when a student hurt her feelings (not in front of the student though). 13. My 10th grade and 12th grade biology teacher. Went above and beyond the call of duty. Serious and sometimes tough in the classroom, she opened her home, literally, for her students. For AP Biology, she would lead study groups at her home. Occasionally she would cook dinner for us, but she more often made us cookies or Rice Krispies Treats for us to munch on while we sat together and went over the hardest lessons. I tape-recorded those sessions and listened to them before the AP test. I swear thatâÂÂs the only reason I passed. I suppose teachers canâÂÂt do this sort of thing anymore, but it meant the world to me that she cared about us so much. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Joely 2. Ancsweetnsassygal 3. TabithaDarling 4. JohnH.  | 
