Shout Out To My Favourite Teacher

It’s World Teacher Day, so here’s the ones who take us under their wings, educate us, look out for us, and push us to be the best we can be. Writers’ Club member Molly shares her favourite teachers and why they’re so special…

When thinking back on your childhood, for the majority of us those memories include ones from school. Ending friendships and making new ones, the exams you flourished in and the ones you failed. Inevitably, the majority of these memories also include the teachers we had. I think we can all agree that the teacher you have makes a huge difference as to whether you enjoy the subject at all or not. Everyone has their favourite teacher – I am lucky as I have multiple. Each of my favourite teachers throughout high school were my favourites for different reasons, and they each played a different role in my school experience.

MY FORM TUTOR

When I was in high school we had a form tutor that was with us for the full five years. However, this wasn’t the case for my form. Our first form tutor no longer seemed to exist following the induction day in Year 7. Form tutor number two only lasted a year and the third only worked two days a week. By the time it was announced we’d be getting another new form tutor in Year 9, it’s safe to say we were less than pleased. However, by the end of her first month with us she had everyone, from the skivers to the wallflowers, learning sign language every Monday and dancing to Beyoncé in the afternoons. I found that I saw her as more of a big sister role than a form tutor, especially as she was fairly young, and was always there for a chat and to give you good advice. She always came back from the summer with crazy tales of her holidays, and was always interested in what we had to say. Although she didn’t teach any of my academic lessons, she taught me life skills, like how to understand pay slips and what National Insurance is. Most importantly, she showed me that my opinions and thoughts are always valid, and taught me how to believe in myself.

MY CHEMISTRY TEACHER

During my GCSE years at high school I was in the top set, and found myself amongst a lot of extremely clever, high-flying students. They were all lovely people and worked hard – sometimes a bit too hard. It was easy to feel a bit inadequate or like you needed to compete in your studies when the people sat next to you had spent the entire weekend revising and consistently achieved A* grades. My chemistry teacher was the one that taught me that I was allowed to take my studies seriously and have fun at the same time. She was slightly crazy in the best possible way; she used stories and characters when explaining chemical reactions and processes, and she had an alien mascot named Barry. Her lessons were fun and made me fall in love with chemistry, so much so that I took it at A-Level. At the last parents evening I had with her, I remember her telling me to make sure that I took the time to enjoy myself and have fun when I got to university and not to just bury myself under a pile of work. Now that I am starting my university course, I like to think I am taking her advice.

MY MATHS TEACHER

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I’m not the biggest fan of maths. My grades were consistent and fairly good, but I always found that I never quite fully grasped the meaning behind why I had to use this particular method for working out this particular problem – when it came to exams, I struggled figuring out the method I was meant to be using which meant I began to fall behind. I have found that I prefer to know not just what I am doing but why, and this meant I got quite frustrated with myself when I didn’t understand. My maths teacher, however, never made me feel stupid for having to constantly ask for help or when I needed the same thing repeated multiple times to understand it. He was more than happy to offer me extra resources and explain problems in different ways so that I could understand. Although he did manage to teach me maths, he also taught me that asking for help is okay.

All teachers are important – and all teachers aren’t just academic tutors. Teachers can vary from music instructors to sports coaches to family members. I am grateful for each and every teacher that I have had, because even the ones I didn’t like so much still taught me and helped me develop into who I am today. For that reason, I appreciate all teachers on World Teacher Day!