The Best and Worst of Teachers

The best teacher I ever had was my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. D. She always made each day of learning interesting and exciting, yet she demanded our best. She encouraged us to explore with hands on activities. She also modified assignments for those of us who were ahead of the curve and for other students who were behind the curve without either group feeling singled out. Our book tells us that well managed classrooms have teachers who spend their time teaching, not dealing with behavior problems (Berns, 261). Mrs. D rarely had discipline problems, she always intervened before a problem developed, redirected the potential offender(s) and had a solution at the tip of her fingers. According to our text, cooperative learning happens when students work together to accomplish a goal (Berns 288). Mrs. D always wanted us to feel accepted, and fostered many cooperative learning activities.

The worst teacher I ever had – and this is hard, because I idolized most of my teachers – was probably Mr. B. He was thirty-something and taught computer class when I was in 10th grade. He had zero classroom management skills. Our book tells us that a competitive goal structure is one where students compete against other students to attain a goal that only a few can reach (Berns, 288). This was Mr. B’s philosophy. Every DOS based project was assigned a grade based on how quickly students turned the work in. His management style was what our book calls, laissez-faire, a permissive style of leadership where students are allowed to do as they please (Berns, 259). I disliked his class because we didn’t learn anything about technology. Our assignments were based on a programming language that was already out of date when we were learning it since our school couldn’t afford new technology they just keeping teaching the old, out of date stuff.

Overall I remember the content of what I learned in fifth grade – states and capitals, the solar system, and the verbs of being – because I have vivid memories of the experiences my teacher used to teach the material.