Did a Teacher make a tremondous impact on your life

I always hear about people talking about that one teacher that changed their life
and since there are alot of astute, informed, critically thinking people on this board (and some douchebags like myself)
I was wondering how many people have actually had a teacher make a huge difference in their life

I had several that made a significant impact.

It was Mrs. Dupont in 7th grade. I was in Catholic school and she wore mini-skirts. I drilled holes through the top of my desk everytime she dropped the chalk! My worst fear in her class was being asked to go write something on the board. It was just hilarious one day when she asked 3 boys in a row to go write something on the board, and all 3 turned her down!

Billo_Really said:

It was Mrs. Dupont in 7th grade. I was in Catholic school and she wore mini-skirts. I drilled holes through the top of my desk everytime she dropped the chalk! My worst fear in her class was being asked to go write something on the board. It was just hilarious one day when she asked 3 boys in a row to go write something on the board, and all 3 turned her down!

Click to expand...

2 posts before a serious question was turned into a joke
:boohoo:

Originally posted by DeeJayH:
2 posts before a serious question was turned into a joke

Click to expand...

This was no joke, this really happened.

Yes:

I had a teacher named Ms. Chavis (Murray High School, Murray, Utah)
I wish I knew how to get in touch with her and send her a letter letting her know how much she influenced my life.
She was my English teacher and was an incredible teacher. After High School, I went to visit her and she asked me what I was taking. I was a "pre-med" student, mainly because I was "smart" in high school and everyone told me to become a Doctor. I was decent in the "hard" sciences, but my interest was really in psychology, sociology, English, writing...
When I told her, she told me "I am really surprised, is that what you really want to do?"...and I half answered yes. I will never forget the conversation because she told me that she wasn't convinced that that was really what I wanted to do...and she encouraged me to give it some deep thought. She complimented me on my English skills ( Hope I don't have any spelling/grammar errors here)....and told me whatever I wanted to do in life she was certain that I would be successful.

That was the last conversation that I had with her. At the time, I didn't really think that she changed my mind...but in reality she absolutely did.

I ended up majoring in sociology/psychology and went to law school. I am now an attorney and I Love my job. I cannot imagine the course my life could have taken otherwise.

So....if she is out there still, I would love to contact her. I did try calling my high school once but they indicated that they cannot give out personal information. We had an alumni yearbook that listed addresses of people for the last 25 years....but no teachers. I asked the school to forward a letter to her but they said that they wouldn't do it.

If anyone has an idea on how I might contact her....I would love to hear it.

I know in my job, I get little appreciation from my clients, judges, etc....and it is always nice to know that you made a difference. I would love to tell her how big a difference she really made in my life.

Billo_Really said:

This was no joke, this really happened.

Click to expand...

.
which only shows what a joke you are
'a teacher really impacted my life cause she was hot' :roll:
pathetic, but not a surprise

disneydude said:

Yes:

I had a teacher named Ms. Chavis (Murray High School, Murray, Utah)
I wish I knew how to get in touch with her and send her a letter letting her know how much she influenced my life.
She was my English teacher and was an incredible teacher. After High School, I went to visit her and she asked me what I was taking. I was a "pre-med" student, mainly because I was "smart" in high school and everyone told me to become a Doctor. I was decent in the "hard" sciences, but my interest was really in psychology, sociology, English, writing...
When I told her, she told me "I am really surprised, is that what you really want to do?"...and I half answered yes. I will never forget the conversation because she told me that she wasn't convinced that that was really what I wanted to do...and she encouraged me to give it some deep thought. She complimented me on my English skills ( Hope I don't have any spelling/grammar errors here)....and told me whatever I wanted to do in life she was certain that I would be successful.

That was the last conversation that I had with her. At the time, I didn't really think that she changed my mind...but in reality she absolutely did.

I ended up majoring in sociology/psychology and went to law school. I am now an attorney and I Love my job. I cannot imagine the course my life could have taken otherwise.

So....if she is out there still, I would love to contact her. I did try calling my high school once but they indicated that they cannot give out personal information. We had an alumni yearbook that listed addresses of people for the last 25 years....but no teachers. I asked the school to forward a letter to her but they said that they wouldn't do it.

If anyone has an idea on how I might contact her....I would love to hear it.

I know in my job, I get little appreciation from my clients, judges, etc....and it is always nice to know that you made a difference. I would love to tell her how big a difference she really made in my life.

Click to expand...

wish i had had a teacher like that

after reading a post like this i realize that Billo was actually spot on with his response:roll:

I have dyspraxia (a condition that is common in left-handed people, which affects my fine motor coordination and spatial sense).
The teachers who made a positive impact on my life are the ones who realized that I wasn't retarded, after all. Unfortunately, this didn't happen until pretty late in the game, and by then I was pretty much sick of school. But there were a few teachers who made a lasting positive impression.

Originally posted by DeeJayH:
which only shows what a joke you are
'a teacher really impacted my life cause she was hot'
pathetic, but not a surprise

Click to expand...

If you don't like what you see, lower your standards!


I'm sorry my teacher didn't meet your minimum impact standards...

I got another teacher story...

wanna here it?

Billo_Really said:

I got another teacher story...

wanna here it?

Click to expand...

Sure. Why not? :shrug:
Does it involve abusive nuns? Because I've got some of those, too (well, not really "abusive"; just mean!)

Absolutely. The teacher that had the biggest impact in my life was this teacher, who for 44 years taught in the inner city in Newark, NJ. She taught 5th grade for a while, but then moved to 1st grade because she wanted to be the one to teach them to read. She stayed through a mugging, arthritis, and several teacher's strikes. Her students loved her, even though she was quite firm with them.

She also taught me for 37 years, until she died on 9/25/01. She was my mom.

I would have to say the 2 teachers that have made the most dramatic inpact on my life (and are still doing so), are my parents, who home schooled me through high school.

To a lesser extent, at least one of my professors during my time in college had an impact on my life. It was a History professor who, during one class period, spent half the class time giving a lecture on American history. At the half-way point he stopped and told the students to disregard what he had just lectured us about, because he had made the whole thing up.

He then informed us that he had done this to teach us never to take anything as fact without checking on it first.

I must say, however, that it was an interesting lecture, even though it was completely fake. Something involving Russia attacking Alaska using giant combat blimps. :rofl Which I found interesting because I had never heard about it before, and I had always been interested in history. Of course, I completely trusted my professor to tell me the correct facts. Which is what he was trying to teach his students not to do. I considered that one of my more interesting and valuable lessons.

I have remembered this when I am tempted to take something I want to hear as fact without checking on it.

It was also interesting to note that some of my fellow students were upset because they considered the time wasted.

One minor note. When I first saw this poll title, I mis-read it as "Did teacher make a tremendous impact on your life.":lamo

Major difference there.:rofl

Originally posted by 1069
Sure. Why not?
Does it involve abusive nuns? Because I've got some of those, too (well, not really "abusive"; just mean!)

Click to expand...

Okay, I'll tell it.

In my last year of college, I had already taken all my architectural classes and spent the last two semesters as a teachers aid in the Architectural Drafting Class. This teacher (who was now my boss), taught me what was really important in the construction industry as far as the role of a "design professional". Well, it's getting close to the end of the semester and everybody (about 50 students) had turned in their projects. These were a set of drawings showing how they would design their dream house. It had to be as complete a set as possible, however, they were free to let their imaginations run wild with any kind of concept they wanted to do (ie, sunken living room, indoor-outdoor pool, ski lodge type barbacue, etc) as long as they provided the necessary details and elevations and plans to be able to have someone build it. Bottom line, it's got to be buildable.

I had to help him correct these sets. We started at 9:00AM, with red pencils in hand, he took half, I took half, and we started marking this stuff up. And by stuff, I mean these were these kids life works. They poured their heart and soul into these projects.

About 11:30AM roles around, and he turns to me and says, "Hungry?" I said, "Sure!" And he replies, "Let's go to Fiddlers Three." So we go down there and he tells me I can order anything I want. So I told the waitress to give me anything over $10.00 a plate. And that I also wanted desert. He orders 3 double martini's. About halfway through my meal, I started drinking too. By the time we left the resteraunt, we were blitzed! And we still had half the sets to grade.

So we go back to the classroom and starting grading the rest. Only this time, we were a little more vocal when we saw these kids mistakes. It got to the point where we were just openly making fun of their drawings! He'd go, "Oh, look at what this guy did! He's got a 40 foot entrance held up by prayer!" And I'd go, look at this guy, "He's got a round house with no entrance! What's he gonna do, have large windows and when people come over he's going to yell at them, "Go around!""

That was too funny...

Mr. Robert Taylor had a huge impact on my life. He was engaging, entertaining, and intelligent beyond measure. He also had an uncanny sense of what was going on with all of us. I will never forget having to give an oral presentation for his class. I chose to speak about Paradise Lost and the idea that Satan was the hero of the epic. After much flack from the rest of the class, Mr. Taylor stood up and said, "It is a brave man that will break conformity without apology even when his best friends are attacking him. Mr. Allman, you get an A plus plus plus for taking such a creative stand."

I really loved that guy. He didn't teach...he inspired.

jallman said:

Mr. Robert Taylor had a huge impact on my life. He was engaging, entertaining, and intelligent beyond measure. He also had an uncanny sense of what was going on with all of us. I will never forget having to give an oral presentation for his class. I chose to speak about Paradise Lost and the idea that Satan was the hero of the epic. After much flack from the rest of the class, Mr. Taylor stood up and said, "It is a brave man that will break conformity without apology even when his best friends are attacking him. Mr. Allman, you get an A plus plus plus for taking such a creative stand."

I really loved that guy. He didn't teach...he inspired.

Click to expand...

thank you for sharing your story
this is what i was looking for when i started this thread
due to the lack of replies it seems there are not many teachers like this
and in case nobody noticed, i did not put down a story, because i do not have such a story, because i did not have such a teacher

this could be a faulty assumption i know, but....
this i believe is a major threat to our country
and i do not believe it is a matter of money, atleast not mainly
teaching, as far as i was always told, was a calling
especially amongst those that really make a difference