Best and Worst Teachers

My best teacher was the funniest lady I ever met. She was a Chinese American lady under five feet tall and on the first day of class she told us how she always wanted to be a rock star. Talk about going against stereotypes. That first day was my first introduction into opening my mind and not judging a book by its cover. She taught us that the past was in the past and we had a clean slate in her class, our old grades and scores did not follow us into her class. This was refreshing because I always felt like my previous teachers had an expectation of how I would do and they did not push me to do better. My best teacher would have us all work in groups so that we could help each other with our weaknesses. On a bad day in class, my best teacher had us all stand up against the wall in the front of the class and sing the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” We were all smiling and laughing for the rest of the day. My best teacher put herself out there for her students and was always there for us and made class entertaining. Our class performed a Chinese New Year Parade with costumes and a dragon for the whole school. We went on field trips for fun and educational purposes. Class did not get boring and kept us all active and learning through different styles that were meant to grab the entire class’s attention.


My worst teacher was my Math teacher in the sixth grade. I loved math and found it easy. My teacher would give a quick and rushed lecture then turn off the lights and play the movie “Space Camp.” This was class every day. He did not ask if we had any questions, and we did not get to work on our homework in class so if any questions popped up we could not ask him for help. I personally did not need his help, but several of my friends did. I had math late in the afternoon, and some days we could hear the ice cream truck go by. My teacher would let us go get ice cream and most of the students did not come back to class. I think that is what he wanted. It was a very frustrating situation for me because I wanted to learn and felt like my teacher was there to do as little as possible to collect his paycheck. He was lazy, had a monotone voice which made class boring, and I would say his teaching style was similar to a laissez-faire style except that he was not interested in answering questions. He just wanted to be left alone.


My memories of school are my experiences of field trips like the one my mom came on, and cheerleading after school at games and getting to take the bus to different schools. I even remember the bus drills of learning how to evacuate in a safe manner, and our earthquake drills of duck and cover under our desks. I do not remember much academically except that I could not spell aim in our class spelling bee and was the first person to lose. It was embarrassing!