Monday Memoir - Week 20

Our co-op is beginning the process of deciding who will be back, what will be taught, who will be teaching what, etc. That puts me in the mindset of getting ready for next year as well.  We're starting high school - yikes!  I'm a little nervous.  So, that got me to thinking about teachers - here are the questions for this week:
1.  Do you remember the name of the teacher who had the biggest impact on you?  Who was it?  Tell something about that person and that time in your life.

2.  Do you remember having a teacher that had a negative impact on you?  If so, what happened?  How did you get past it?


1. Do you remember the name of the teacher who had the biggest impact on you? Who was it? Tell something about that person and that time in your life.


The teacher who had the biggest impact on me was my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Genevieve Forbes.  She was amazing.  I had moved to Ft. Collins from Laramie and was grossly under-prepared for fifth grade.  The private school I went to in Wyoming has used a self-learn method that really didn't work.  I didn't have any clue how to write in cursive, do fractions, or understand content at the level they were at.  She worked with me diligently (along with my parents) to get me up to speed.  She could easily have rolled her eyes and let me flouder, but she didn't.  It made all the difference for me!

2. Do you remember having a teacher that had a negative impact on you? If so, what happened? How did you get past it?

I had a professor in grad school my first time around that had a negative impact.  I was young with two children trying to perform my duties as a TA and take courses.  He came up to me one day and asked how I expected to pass grad school while parenting two children.  It was apparent, in his mind, I was doomed to fail.  I left that school and didn't go back to grad school until I had four children and a job.  Straight A's - take that!  :-)

My son had a teacher that told him he could "ruin the best of days".  He's never forgotten that.  Teacher's just don't realize how a single comment can impact a person for life. 

Post your answers to these questions on your bog and then come on back and post your link in the comments.  (Linky tools aren't free anymore, and I don't have them in the budget right now.)  I'd love to hear about the teachers that have impacted your life!