Thank my favorite high school teacher

i saw her at the campus library. She is retired from teaching high school and now teaches part time at the University. I thanked her and started to cry a little. I don’t know why this says not worth it..i guess there is no way to change it now. It was definitly worth it!

I am a high school English teacher. I know how incredibly difficult the job is, and after my first year, I sat down and wrote a long letter to a teacher who inspired me. I told her about my life since I’d left her classroom, and I told her about my new job, and what things I could now appreciate about her. I never got a response, but I still feel good about doing it. I have a box (as do most teachers I’m sure) of cards, notes, drawings, and letters that I’ve received from my students over the past five years. When I feel like it’s just not worth it anymore, I look at those letters. Please do this for your teachers. You don’t know how much it really means to them.

Mrs. Ware…I wonder if she still lives in the same house. I could try to come by the high school one day…or look her up. She was my junior year honors english teacher. I had just moved to a small town and wasn’t into school anymore but she really motivated me. I really need to find her.

.. Mr Menzies just before I went off to join the Air Force and told him I thought he was my favourite teacher. I know it wasn’t exactly high school, but close enough.

He just stood out as such a memorable teacher. Grumpy-ish, intelligent, patient, forgiving, dedicated… but overall, just a wonderful teacher. Made a big impression on me.

I grew up without my parents, basically. They were “there” but not, completely devoted to their jobs (full time) and church, workaholics and religious fanatics who later became ministers so it manifested itself tenfold. I was (am) a very talented youngster, but any real parent will tell you it is INTEGRAL that a loving, attentive parent is there to help and guide and develop that talent.

So my dad the super genius musician wouldnt help me with my music or encourage or acknowledge it, and my mother was too wrapped in herself to think much of us kids.

But I had some teachers that really made a difference in my life. To this day I’ve had a hard time accepting that I’m any good at any of my hobbies that I’ve invested so many years into. But if I had not had a few key instructors there for me in middle school and high school, I would be such a mess. I’m learning to have self esteem through the encouragement and support I never got as a teen, by remembering what they passed on to me, and rediscovering it for myself.

When I get nominated for two Oscars in one year, for best adapted screenplay and best original screenplay, I will thank a few people on that podium, and two may be my parents, but four or more would be teachers: Mr. Kevin Magner, a seventh grade English teacher who helped develop my early writing skills and was kind to me. Mr. Tom Saffold, who also helped hone my writing skills and acknowledged my talent, during a time when I was going through a painful diagnosis and was quite troubled. Mrs Linda Crowley, a fantastic English teacher who nominated me for a prestigious writing contest, that I ended up winning and possibly one of the only people in this world who has ever believed in me. Mrs Judith Pasco, who was my #1 cheerleader, taking me under her wing as a protege in her class, properly recognizing and rewarding my flair for the subject she taught, and rallying behind me in my scholastic endeavors, most notably with Mrs Crowley. Mr Boyd Millet, another English teacher who gave me a chance and believed in me.

I’m seriously getting teared up thinking about it. My high school years were so troubled—a quasi genius, but continually running away from home and battling alcoholism. If they’d not believed in me, and supported me, I wouldnt have fought as hard as I did, and as it was, I came out on top, graduating with honors in my class and with many opportunities available to me. I would love the chance to get it through to them how much they really did for me.

and we had this fantastic tutor who was totally mad but brilliant, so on the last day, one of the guys went to Sainsburys and obught a big bag of apples, and one by one, we each went up and put an apple on his desk, with on of the guys finishing it all off by giving him a pineapple. He looked mightily embarrassed but really touched.

Thank you, if your out there!

Can’t say I went out of my way to do it, but it was 5 years or so after High School and there he was, the ever impressive Mr. Napier, standing next to me at a long post office line.

I told him how much fun and memorable his history lessons had been. Told him that his class was the highlight of my day, and the only reason I had perfect attendandance that year. Told him many felt the same back then.

The man’s cheeks turned red as everyone turned around to smile warmly at him, as if saying, “I had a cool teacher just like you, you are one special dude!”.