Most interesting/weirdest teacher you've ever had

[Taualumna]

This could be at any level, from kindergarten (or even pre-school) to college. My most interesting teacher has got to be the music history prof I had in my first year. She's certainly an odd, odd woman! Had an obsession with medieval music, and would bring up Gregorian Chants whenever possible. She was also really tough, and half the class was close to failing at the end of the semester! My philosophy prof from the same year was strange, but not nearly as weird. The guy had an obsession with Foucault and Descartes, and would make weird comments on how undergrads of today are so sloppy in the way we dressed "when I was in school, all young men wore jackets and sometimes, even ties, and the young women were in blouses and skirts" Ummmm, sir, don't you realize that girls wear pants now?

In Grade School:

Mrs. Toscano (fifth grade)-- eccentric old lady that taught me, both my sisters, and about 20 of my cousins. Obsessed with making sure everyone knew how to play the ukulele and followed her way of cutting out letters.

In Junior High:

Mr. Lockwood (Social Studies) -- liked to chalk up erasers and throw them at us. We wore navy blue uniforms so it was a bitch trying to get the chalk out.

High school:

Mr. Plourde (Junior/Senior Religion) -- always had gas bubbles while lecturing. No one wanted to sit in the front row because he was known as the resident pedophile. Those who sat in the front row made sure their legs were crossed at all times. TOTALLY obsessed with skirt length checks.

Mrs. Lockwood, no relation to Mr. Lockwood (British Lit/Debate coach) -- always farted during lectures, had a habit of digging her ass and then rubbbing her finger under her nose. I isht you not.

College:

Professor Henriksen, or Mimi as I called her (World Civ) -- the coolest prof I ever had; taught classes like Viva Las Vegas, America's TV History, Sports in America. Often brought her daughter to class and played boy band music before every lecture. Also had a habit of taking those clip on mics and sticking em in her mouth just so there'd be feedback blaring in the lecture hall. Every Friday I'd hang out with her at the campus bar and we'd down BIG BASTIDS (32 oz. cups o beer) like there's no tomorrow...and eat onion rings.

[MeLikey]

My 8th grade history teacher was kinda odd, but I loved her for the sheer fact that she loved me, she gave me A++++ on projects (plus I'd go all out on them too so I deserved them!)... but she'd throw girls out for a little while because they would laugh, it was just sort of strange.

[sherbertlemons]

High School:
Ms. Doddemeade- One of my favorite teachers ever. She had a Simpsons or a Seinfeld episode for nearly everything we read in AP English. She also was the cause of much of the trouble we had at school, either directly or by encouraging her AP English students. (The APES, as she called them.) Favorite memories include the major Homecoming scandal our English class caused, the Christmas/Hannakah/Festivus party (complete with violent dreidel game), and our Lord of the Flies Homecoming float.

College:
Dr. Pugh- English professor specializing in Chaucer and other Medieval Lit. Very obviously gay, and took great delight in critiquing Diva Invasion (the drag show sponsored by GLBSU held annually at UCF) in class the day after the performance. He also deemed Monty Python and the Holy Grail neccesary for in class veiwing.

Mr. Begley (Tom)-
Started class by saying "Yes, I do bathe, and I do own more than one set of clothing." (H spent a lot of time working in the theater's shop, and would show up straight from class in his shop clothes most days.) Had habit of cursing during his lectures, and would go off on rants smack in the middle of a lecture on film history. Class was always entertaining because he was so volatile.

Dr. Butler-
My speech professor. He has a reputation of being one of the best professors in the school, and I'm really glad I had him. He would let us do speeches on any subect that inspired us, provided we could convince him of its relevance to our class. (He let me do a speech on The Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World!) Also he was really cool in dealing with stage fright, working with us to make us as comfortable as possible. He was also a huge Harry Potter fan.

[Taualumna]

Forgot to add: My Asian history prof once took her entire class to a campus pub for class on the first day of Chinese New Year. She always wore funky boots (knee length, really skinny heels)! Oh yeah, I think she once went out with a guy who is a member of the first BGLO at Cornell (can anyone tell me which one it is?) I saw a keychain in her office, but I don't recall what the letters were.

Another prof, who taught me musical theatre history always gave the class candy.

[AGDee]

highschool: Mr. Eggen who taught Civics. At the time I thought he was totally nuts. He would toss out totally outrageous political beliefs and we'd debate like crazy with him. We watched Harold & Maude in his class.. not sure why. He delighted in telling us stories about how, in the 70s, kids were falling out of their chairs all the time because they were so stoned. Now that I'm older, I think he made his outrageous statements to make us think about our own belief systems and understand why we believed what we did and challenging us to defend them. It is a skill I'm glad I now have.

college: Dr. Smith, creative writing. He'd been a student at Berkley in '68 and was totally a hippy. In 1986, we were a very conservative generation in comparison and it drove him CRAZY. He was always encouraging us to have sit ins or protests over things like the lack of parking on campus. But, our generation was pretty complacent (I think we didn't believe we could facilitate change no matter what) and we really disgusted him. On top of it, he admired modern poets who wrote pretty disgusting stuff and poems that made powerful urban statements, like Howl by Ginsberg, Sylivia Plath, etc. and wanted us to write that way. My sister-daughter and I sat one night thinking of all the grossest combinations of things we could and I formed them into a poem. He made me read it to the whole class because he loved it and wanted to publish it! I just totally wrote to how he wanted us to write but it wasn't my own style at all! My mom found that collection of writings in my room after that class and asked me if I needed to see a counselor because my writings were so disturbed.. LOL. I explained to her that I was just writing what the prof wanted to get the good grade and not to worry, I was not falling into some deep dark pit of depression! He was bizarre!

Dee

[tinydancer]

I had a totally weird philosophy prof at UT. While he lectured, he paced back and forth, back and forth. It was like watching a tennis match. While he paced, he held his middle and ring fingers to his forehead, like he had a bad headache.

Only good think about the class was that there were a couple of football players in there.

[MareImbrium]

I had a Sociology professor in college and it was the type where no one wanted to miss his classes and I can't believe that his name has slipped from my memory. Ugh, it's on the tip of my tongue too. He had the most interesting stories that kept the class entertained as well as teaching the subject material. And since his class was in the mornings, he always greeted us by writing Good Morning on the board to the ones who hadn't heard it yet. He once told us the time he went to a party during his college days and ended up eating marijuana laced brownies without knowing it and smoking a bong alternately.

[RedMusiq4U]

I've had so many teachers that were on my cool list ok let me think here ummmmm.........

Elementary School:
Ms. Breckling- my 3rd grade teachers asst. she was so artistic
Mrs. Newsome- old 4th grade teacher
Mrs. Wilson- my new 4th grade teacher
Mrs. Scognomillo- her name was so cool she was real hip- 5th grade
Mrs. Jones- sex education teacher
Mrs. Fuller- she wasn't my teacher but I love her
Mrs. LeGarde- wow she was the one that discovered my incredible singing abilty, I love her too.
Mrs. Kratzer- discovered my art skills, and her famous saying I use today "You mess it up, fix it up"

Middle School:
Mr. Bryant- playa, playa, he was off tha chain and made 6th grade math fun.
Mrs. Morris-Bryant- was macked by Mr. B, she was fiiiiinnnneeee! and she was our new 6th grade social studies teacher
Ms. Murphy- she was really cool and nice and made 6th grade social studies fun, she left though
Mrs. Johnston- she helped me perfect my singing skills by giving me mad solos in Treble Chorus, Honors Chorus, and Magic the Show Choir, I love her so much " Good Better Best never let it rest, until your Good is Better and your Better is Best"
Mrs. Williams- this 8th grade teacher told it like it was, she also played my face in class oneday too, I deserved it though lol.
Dr. Thorsen- art teacher who helped perfect my art skills

High School:
Mrs. Jones- Algebra 1 teacher freshman yr. she was off tha chain
Coach Baker aka Bake- he was one of our gym teachers, he was made cool and loved by the ladies playa, playa. He also went to my new HS too.
Mrs. Holcombe- my 1st High School Chorus teacher, I love her so much she taught me how to read music I'll never forget her.
Mrs.Copley new Chorus after Mrs. Holcombe left, no one liked her I did b/c change is good, and she was a really nice person
Mrs. Brocke and Mrs. Kefler- the greatest art duo ever, they loved my artistic skills and loved the fact that I used music in all my art projects.
Mrs. McKinney- she was the step team leader and helped out alot, she influenced me alot.
Mrs. Norton aka CeCe- my new Chorus teacher when I changed schools junior yr. she was the one that put me in the award winning barbershop quartet called Live Bait.
Ms. Craig- my Spanish teacher my Senior yr. she was really off tha chain, I was exempted from her final exam
Ms. Hood- dance teacher she was mad cool and could dance her a$$ off, made dance class fun I wish I could have been on the dance team but graduated the year before it got started
Mr.Scott- Band director that kept it real and was always cool and could always joke w/ each other, he's the man.
Mrs. Harrison- she was my new step team leader @ my new HS she was off tha chain and was a DevaSTating Diva of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc..

College:
Mrs. Lyons- she 's my fashion professor and she pushes me so hard b/c she says that I'm talented but needs to focus and i love her for that.
Dr.Nelson- she's just a great teacher and she's mad cool
Dr. Gunn- she is by far the best professor I have had in all my 4 yrs of college, she was my communications professor and was real cute too.

High School: Mrs. Murphy ( English Lit.) She was a nut case. She believed in candle light reading. Would turn out the lights in class and light candles and we read in the candle light and the natural light from outside... they made her princpal a few yrs later

[DeltaBetaAGD]

As a teacher I can understand this thread but it also scares me!!!

[aephi alum]

Great thread, hehe

Let's see...

Elementary school:

Mrs. Echausse, religion teacher. We discussed all kinds of things in the context of religion. One day she wrote various swear words on the blackboard and explained that calling someone a sh*thead was saying that they had bowel movements instead of a head. I will also never forget her because I was in her class when the Challenger exploded... we spent the rest of the class period talking about the tragedy.

Middle school:

Mr. Suchmann, who taught 8th grade honors earth science. His lectures were always amusing.

Mr. Sulinsky, 8th grade health teacher. Also a good lecturer. He also coached the girls' basketball team. My class's resident slut joined the b-ball team just so she could hit on him. (He was good looking, to be fair...)

High school:

Dr. Mogul, chemistry and physics teacher. He always had a witty remark (once, a girl came into class 5 minutes late and he said "Was he good?" - she was never late again!) and gave good lectures and demonstrations. He also had a way of picking out a difficult problem from the textbook and solving it on the blackboard - he'd spend the better part of an hour-and-a-half double period futzing with equations and end up with: 5 = 5

Mr. Cavallero, pre-calculus and computer science teacher. He was just cool.

Mr. Wheeler, who taught a class called Integration of Knowledge that was basically senior honors social studies. I had always loathed history until I took that class. We read Plato and Aristotle, Caesar, Cicero, up through Karl Marx. That was an awesome class.

Mrs. Bartholomew (Ms. B), Latin teacher. She was a stickler for punctuality; if you walked in while the bell was ringing, she marked you late. (Which happened often, as her classroom was at the far end of the building, and one year a lot of people were scheduled for driver's ed right before Latin and were always back late.)

Mrs. Pearl, AP English teacher and department head. She looooved Thomas Hardy. Every year we got summer reading, and the rule was that you wrote a paper or took a test or something in the first week of school, and that was the end of studying that book. Summer reading that year was Tess of the D'urbervilles, and for most of the fall semester we reread it and basically went line by line analyzing it. *barf*

College:

Hartley Rogers, calculus prof. According to him, everything was "intuitively obvious." He would demonstrate a problem, futz with the equations, then say "it's intuitively obvious that x=5 and y=3" or whatever. (Add to this the fact that my TA was useless and it's a wonder I passed.) He is a Zeta Psi, and every year on the Friday of All-Zete weekend the pledge class has to give him a six-pack of beer. My year, he started drinking the beer during lecture... Oddly enough, his lecture got more comprehensible.

Hal Abelson, computer science prof. I took two classes from him. He had a way of explaining concepts that just really made them sink in. The second class I took with him was an ethics class where he encouraged class participation - we had some lively debates.

ok, I've put off studying long enough

[ShaedyKD]

Elementary School:
Ms. Irene Vann, Band teacher - it was like mini-Drumline. Our marching band was the best in town. We were the hit of every Memorial Day parade. She also taught afterschool dance, where anyone that wanted to could get up on the stage and she would teach a routine that we would do at the spring recital. We did tap and jazz. Looking back, I realize how generous she was to do that, because 90% of the kids at my school would never have been able to take dance classes at a studio.

Junior High:
Mr. Lewis, Algebra teacher - I was a horrible math student, but I loved his class. He would talk in accents and funny voices all the time, using a different voice when a number was on one side of the equation and he would change voices when he moved it to the other side. He would also have story time where he would turn out the lights, prop his feet up on his desk and ask any of us if we had a story to tell.

High School:
Coach Bill Stewart, Psychology/Sociology - Funny as hell, he cracked on everyone like he was one of our friends. He would let us watch Jerry Springer and tie it into the lessons we were learning, which was pretty easy considering all the guests on the show are crazy He also took us to the jail for a tour when we were learning about deviant behavior, also I think it was to scare us into staying out of trouble!

College:

Dr. J.B. Halsted, Criminal Law: The best teacher I've ever had in my life. I never skipped a class, his lectures were amazing. He made me want to go to law school and was the only teacher I think to adequately prepare me for it. The examples he used in his teaching will be ingrained in my brain forever. One time he went around the entire classroom and asked everyone what he could say to him or her that would provoke them into killing him. He called people every name in the book, shouting obscenities at every single person, and also saying some pretty bad things about a couple guy's moms. After that he told us that words alone are not enough for adequate provocation when it comes to manslaughter. My friends and I still reminisce about that day. Sadly, Dr. Halsted died last year of cancer. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to tell him about the impact he made on my life.

[rainbowbrightCS]

Mrs. Duffey... grad school teacher for ecerything. Also good friends mother. She had a horrible memory so she had you write down what ever you needed and she would stick it to her. So by the end of the day she was a walking yellow posted note. She was very funny.

[CatStarESP4]

Mr. Burke was my Global Studies and American History in high school. He made learning fun and kept the classes interesting. He added humor to his quizzes and tests. In one of his tests, he had this bonus question that asked "What color is George Washington's white horse?". My answer was "white with magenta polka dots".

In college, it was my Shakespeare professor that was one of the most interesting. He made us do a paper listing at least 50 good questions about a play that wasn't covered in class. I did mine on Henry V and got an A+ on it.