Did you ever have an inspiring teacher?

Civilian_Target · 02-06-2006 12:42AM

My Irish teacher, Butch, from 2nd year to leaving cert.
A man from Tory, less than 5 ft. tall, with at most 8 out his 10 fingers, and a superb sense of humour.
Extremely easy to get along with, but if he wanted something done he'd make sure you'd get it done.
I went into his class hating Irish and shouldn't even have been in honours, 2 years later I got a B in my Junior Cert honours Irish. We never officially learnt Irish, we certainly never really did any grammar, he'd simply talk to people in Irish, and make us read essays, insult us (in Irish), slag our failings and then improve us! You never had to learn any of that tedious grammar because after 2 years of talking the language, you knew how things should be.

The poor guy passed away last year, but I'll always have him to thank for making a language I used to hate, my most interesting class of the day. What a great guy.

Pet · 02-06-2006 04:47AM

I was lucky in that although I went to a community school where at least half my class were scumbags, I had really great teachers. And once 4th year came, the scum all dropped out.

My English teacher was great. She was a mad yoke, seemed like she was stoned all the time, but she really got us to think outside the box when it came to poetry and literature, and she fostered a love for the English language in me. Also, my Biology teacher never failed to make the subject interesting, and always answered my random questions.

R0ot · 02-06-2006 09:53AM

Had a teacher in secondry school, taught us metalwork and engineering. Always encouraged everyone with any kind of work ethic to further themselves, helped with projects and allowed us to make anything we wanted.

Was a great teacher. About 3 years ago though he was attacked by some drunken yob and he suffered head injuries and has since stopped teaching. :mad:

gracehopper · 02-06-2006 11:04AM

If anyone went to St davids in artane. They'd remember Mr McCarthy or "Whacker" as they call him. I dont mind mentioning his name because it great being in his class. Up until junior cert he was very serious (i can understand his reasons for this) but the minute you got into the senior cycle he was class. I'll always remember the way he taught Shakespere. He brought the plot to a kind of inner city Dublin level and made all the characters and stories relate to funny current topics. It made school bearable.

One example was when teaching King lear he referred to the way Alex ferguson might have outstayed his tenure as manager of Man Utd. It was things like this that made him different to the other teachers.

Whacker i salute you!

LikeOhMyGawd! · 02-06-2006 11:31AM

We had a gym teacher and coach, Mr. Coleman who was a bit of a character. He always growled and seemed to have a heart of stone. He always was in his tracksuit and had a whistle, which he blew shrilly when he spotted someone messing around. He had a nervous tick and the rumour
was that he crashed his motorbike at a drive-in movie trying to impress some doll-face, but it turned out that he was a Vietnam war hero who had been caught in a landmine which resulted in some titanuim plates in his cranuim. He was awarded a purple heart for that. Noone knew of this until the high-school basketball finals when we came from 2 points down by scoring a 3-pointer against the dying milliseconds of the shot clock to beat the state champions. One of the jocks in a fit of pure joy threw the ball in the air and it came down on Coleman's head knocking him out. When he came 'round he was a different man and smiled for the first time we had known him. Last I heard was he fell in love with and married the severe spinster French teacher, Miss Kowalski . Turns out she was once a can-can dancer in Paris. ShHucks, I had a great time in high school.

funky penguin · 02-06-2006 03:14PM

Civilian_Target wrote:

Extremely easy to get along with, but if he wanted something done he'd make sure you'd get it done.
I went into his class hating Irish and shouldn't even have been in honours, 2 years later I got a B in my Junior Cert honours Irish. We never officially learnt Irish, we certainly never really did any grammar, he'd simply talk to people in Irish, and make us read essays, insult us (in Irish), slag our failings and then improve us! You never had to learn any of that tedious grammar because after 2 years of talking the language, you knew how things should be.

The way it should be taught IMO.

Civilian_Target · 02-06-2006 08:10PM

gracehopper wrote:

If anyone went to St davids in artane. They'd remember Mr McCarthy or "Whacker" as they call him. I dont mind mentioning his name because it great being in his class. Up until junior cert he was very serious (i can understand his reasons for this) but the minute you got into the senior cycle he was class. I'll always remember the way he taught Shakespere. He brought the plot to a kind of inner city Dublin level and made all the characters and stories relate to funny current topics. It made school bearable.

lol! Our LC English teacher - "Daffy" was the same. A genius of the man, he'd miss nothing, and throw subtle hints at you that you wouldn't even pick up on for hours later. Moments of genius included punishing a 17 year old guy, not with an essay, but simply by making him stand up in front of the class and say "I have been a bad boy," or going through an ad for a piece of real estate before asking what was being sold - turned out it was a caravan in the town car park!

Red Alert · 02-06-2006 09:44PM

In secondary it's definitely my higher level Irish teacher, Mr. Mc Carthy. A true legend, who many lived in fear of because he was also our year head. Very sound and down to earth if you had a chat with him.

In primary it's got to be my sixth class teacher, Mr. Sweeney (father of Nicky the olympic jumper). He made 5th and 6th class the best i could have imagined!

Larianne · 02-06-2006 10:11PM

Nah, I don't think any of them did... I had good teachers and bad teachers. I don't think anyone of them wanted to inspire us. Just hope that most would stay in school and finish the leaving cert. That's it.

My Art teacher told me I was gonna to fail the subject. I ended up getting the highest in my class in the Leaving cert, got into an Art course that is extremely hard to get into and got a distinction in my finals. Two fingers to her!!!:p

spurious · 02-06-2006 10:18PM

My Art teacher told me I was gonna to fail the subject. I ended up getting the highest in my class in the Leaving cert, got into an Art course that is extremely hard to get into and got a distinction in my finals.

So, maybe there was method in her madness.

Best teacher I ever had was a Ms O'Kelly in Manor House who taught us Irish - as mentioned before by not really doing grammar but just speaking it to us constantly. She would come in to us with lumps out of her hands from weekend camogie matches. I thought she was marvellous.

We were bewildered of course for the best part of a year and a half but then it all clicked into place. She was the reason I went into teaching.

Did you ever have an inspiring teacher?

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