Squills Fan Club

keystrings

keystrings · Aug 19, 2019

Thanks for the feedback for the first week's question. This week's question is also school-themed. ^^

The second week wants to know this: Inspiration can come from a lot of places. Did one of your past teachers/professors spark an interest in a class or a subject? Or, the opposite. Did you have a bad enough teacher to dissuade you forever from a certain topic?

Thanks again!

Raindeer Admin

Raindeer · Aug 19, 2019

I don't think I've really had a teacher that's like the "wow I LOVE THIS CLASS" spark. But I'm also not super attached to any of the classes I'm taking/have taken. I've definitely had some bad teachers (maybe more like bad classes). My English class last year made my love for English class dwindle. I used to love English, which was why I chose to take the Honors English class; however, I wasn't a fan of the teacher and the stressful environment just wasn't for me.

My English class this year, though, seems like it's going to be less stressful, so I've very excited about that.

sylrie

sylrie · Aug 19, 2019

I really have a ton of teachers to thank for my current love of writing. The first would have to be my fifth grade teacher; when she was teaching poetry in class, she had us do haikus. When I handed her mine (long before anybody else handed in theirs; haikus are one of my specialties ^~^) she actually brought them to another teacher (and dragged me along, much to my dismay; I was introverted, even then) and while they didn't necessarily gush over them (I'm not that good) they did, at least, appreciate them. It helped boost my confidence a lot.
The second teacher came right after, in sixth grade. He taught writing in a way that I wish other teachers would do more often; he let us sit down, and write whatever we wanted. Literally whatever we wanted (barring 18+ stuff, of course, but we were sixth graders; it would be concerning if one of us wrote stuff like that). I ended up writing fantasy, and not only did he enjoy reading them, he also gave constructive advice on how to improve; that helped too. Plus, they would be passed around the class for everyone to read, and my little short stories were popular, so that was a huge confidence boost.
The third teacher and fourth reason both came sophomore year. The teacher, though it was the dreaded speech year, gave us one speech in which we could read whatever we chose. Most people found something from a poetry site, but I ended up writing my own piece to reach for my class. That was stressful, but again, it helped boost my confidence, and while there are things I would have done differently, it still helped a lot. The fourth reason I mentioned was actually a literary magazine for my school, that was accepting entries from everyone; you could enter anything you want, and while there was no guarantee it would get in, there was a pretty good chance. I ended up entering the piece I wrote for that speech, and it got in; again, confidence booster.
Then (finally) there came junior year; three different teachers, all of whom helped. First was actually my genre study mythology teacher. He had us all write a mythology, one entirely unique, as our first assignment. For me, the toughest part was figuring out what would make sense for a group of humans with only fire, basic spears, and little huts. Writing it was relatively easy. That teacher was also the director of the musical for our school, and he found me while we were tearing down the set and told me that he gave me a 100%, something which he said he never did (a fact verified by how nobody else in the class got that grade). Once more, a huge confidence boost.
The second teacher of my junior year was my AP Language and Composition teacher; she had us write a lot of essays, and while there was one I wasn't so proud of, the others all got pretty good grades. There was one in particular, the "This I Believe" essay, where you had to write an essay about something you believe about life, deities, whatever. I forget what my original idea was, but three days before it was due (which translated to very few hours of work, considering it was musical season) I had an epiphany for something I could do. I planned to turn in my original work along with this new epiphany idea, but in a stroke of blind confidence or stupidity, I turned in the work that I had hardly gotten the time to work on at all. Surprisingly, she loved it. Again, huge confidence boost that was.
Finally, the last teacher; she taught Creative Writing, and the entire course was essentially just writing whatever we wanted with minimal guidelines. The main part here is that the teacher was extremely vocal about things she enjoyed about pieces, and I finished the class with a 100%.
Things like that, they help make a person feel good about what skills they have, and it encourages them to continue on the path they have chosen. With writing, encouragement is especially important, because if you keep on writing, you'll find that you keep on improving as you figure out what works and what doesn't. The confidence in my writing that these teachers gave me has helped me feel as though I could actually make this an eventual career goal, and I really cannot, and could not at the time, thank them enough.

I really have a ton of teachers to thank for my current love of writing. The first would have to be my fifth grade teacher; when she was teaching poetry in class, she had us do haikus. When I handed her mine (long before anybody else handed in theirs; haikus are one of my specialties ^~^) she actually brought them to another teacher (and dragged me along, much to my dismay; I was introverted, even then) and while they didn't necessarily gush over them (I'm not that good) they did, at least, appreciate them. It helped boost my confidence a lot.
The second teacher came right after, in sixth grade. He taught writing in a way that I wish other teachers would do more often; he let us sit down, and write whatever we wanted. Literally whatever we wanted (barring 18+ stuff, of course, but we were sixth graders; it would be concerning if one of us wrote stuff like that). I ended up writing fantasy, and not only did he enjoy reading them, he also gave constructive advice on how to improve; that helped too. Plus, they would be passed around the class for everyone to read, and my little short stories were popular, so that was a huge confidence boost.
The third teacher and fourth reason both came sophomore year. The teacher, though it was the dreaded speech year, gave us one speech in which we could read whatever we chose. Most people found something from a poetry site, but I ended up writing my own piece to reach for my class. That was stressful, but again, it helped boost my confidence, and while there are things I would have done differently, it still helped a lot. The fourth reason I mentioned was actually a literary magazine for my school, that was accepting entries from everyone; you could enter anything you want, and while there was no guarantee it would get in, there was a pretty good chance. I ended up entering the piece I wrote for that speech, and it got in; again, confidence booster.
Then (finally) there came junior year; three different teachers, all of whom helped. First was actually my genre study mythology teacher. He had us all write a mythology, one entirely unique, as our first assignment. For me, the toughest part was figuring out what would make sense for a group of humans with only fire, basic spears, and little huts. Writing it was relatively easy. That teacher was also the director of the musical for our school, and he found me while we were tearing down the set and told me that he gave me a 100%, something which he said he never did (a fact verified by how nobody else in the class got that grade). Once more, a huge confidence boost. 
The second teacher of my junior year was my AP Language and Composition teacher; she had us write a lot of essays, and while there was one I wasn't so proud of, the others all got pretty good grades. There was one in particular, the "This I Believe" essay, where you had to write an essay about something you believe about life, deities, whatever. I forget what my original idea was, but three days before it was due (which translated to very few hours of work, considering it was musical season) I had an epiphany for something I could do. I planned to turn in my original work along with this new epiphany idea, but in a stroke of blind confidence or stupidity, I turned in the work that I had hardly gotten the time to work on at all. Surprisingly, she loved it. Again, huge confidence boost that was.
Finally, the last teacher; she taught Creative Writing, and the entire course was essentially just writing whatever we wanted with minimal guidelines. The main part here is that the teacher was extremely vocal about things she enjoyed about pieces, and I finished the class with a 100%. 
Things like that, they help make a person feel good about what skills they have, and it encourages them to continue on the path they have chosen. With writing, encouragement is especially important, because if you keep on writing, you'll find that you keep on improving as you figure out what works and what doesn't. The confidence in my writing that these teachers gave me has helped me feel as though I could actually make this an eventual career goal, and I really cannot, and could not at the time, thank them enough.

Mageheart

Mageheart · Aug 19, 2019

I usually love whatever classes I sign up for, but there was one teacher who made me really love the subject he was teaching. We called the class American Protest - it was actually a college class taught by a high school teacher. It was an English/history class that covered the beat movement and the civil rights movement. I can't really describe how he taught it, but the casualness of the classroom made for an incredibly fun learning experience - I'll probably look more into that time period in the future!

Alternatively, my chemistry teacher really discouraged me from pursuing a major in chemistry. I love the idea of chemistry - I have since I was little. But she really wasn't a good teacher. She rushed the units, made labs about error percentages instead of a learning experience, and rarely took time to understand what was going on in the lives of her students. I still think chemistry is an interesting subject, and I'm sure I'll take it as part of my degree in college. But I definitely lost some of the love for it thanks to her.

I usually love whatever classes I sign up for, but there was one teacher who made me [i]really[/i] love the subject he was teaching. We called the class American Protest - it was actually a college class taught by a high school teacher. It was an English/history class that covered the beat movement and the civil rights movement. I can't really describe how he taught it, but the casualness of the classroom made for an incredibly fun learning experience - I'll probably look more into that time period in the future!

Alternatively, my chemistry teacher really discouraged me from pursuing a major in chemistry. I love the idea of chemistry - I have since I was little. But she really wasn't a good teacher. She rushed the units, made labs about error percentages instead of a learning experience, and rarely took time to understand what was going on in the lives of her students. I still think chemistry is an interesting subject, and I'm sure I'll take it as part of my degree in college. But I definitely lost some of the love for it thanks to her.

Lib Officer

Lib · Aug 19, 2019

I did have this one teacher who made class so fun and delightful that I started falling in love with the class. Literally. Not even kidding. That's how I started liking English.

I was in grade 1 and I had this teacher - lets call her Ms English - she realized I hated English because of how much I suffered when we had spelling tests and grammar tests. Then my parents and Ms English had a little meeting. They decided that whenever I improved, I would get a little chocolate kiss. (Those little Hershey kisses.) Anyways, when my parents told me about it, I remember being excited and doing much better in class.

She's my favorite teacher. And we're still int touch. Now I miss her. <3

Ohh... Memories. <3

And then I had this Social Studies teacher in grade six. When I was in grade five, I loved Social Studies and I was looking forward to grade 6 Social Studies. The teacher was absolutely boring and then I started hating that subject. >~< Wasn't quite fun anymore. Lol.

niteowl

niteowl · Aug 20, 2019

Okay, so weirdly enough, I've had a lot of bad teachers over the years, but I don't think any of them were so bad that I got turned off the subject itself. Like I was able to differentiate the subject I loved from the badness of the teacher. I had tons of bad Spanish teachers, but I still minored in Spanish. I had an Earth Science teacher that I hated in ninth grade...then later I majored in geosciences in college.

My ninth grade history teacher was awesome. She clearly loved the subject and teaching us. I'm not sure any teacher inspired me to do anything in particular though because I was already interested in learning anything and everything.

I also feel like there were some teachers I hated at the time, but looking back I got some important lessons out of the whole thing. Not my awful middle school teacher who said we'd thank her later, though. My friend and I still complain about her 18 years later.

Slight aside here...flashcards can be a useful tool, but teachers who make you use them tend to be awful. Ditto for teachers who make you organize things a certain way.

Okay, so weirdly enough, I've had a lot of bad teachers over the years, but I don't think any of them were so bad that I got turned off the subject itself. Like I was able to differentiate the subject I loved from the badness of the teacher. I had tons of bad Spanish teachers, but I still minored in Spanish. I had an Earth Science teacher that I hated in ninth grade...then later I majored in geosciences in college.

My ninth grade history teacher was awesome. She clearly loved the subject and teaching us. I'm not sure any teacher inspired me to do anything in particular though because I was already interested in learning anything and everything.

I also feel like there were some teachers I hated at the time, but looking back I got some important lessons out of the whole thing. Not my awful middle school teacher who said we'd thank her later, though. My friend and I still complain about her 18 years later.

Slight aside here...flashcards can be a useful tool, but teachers who make you use them tend to be awful. Ditto for teachers who make you organize things a certain way.

keystrings

keystrings · Aug 20, 2019

Thank you all so much for the lovely responses! Keep an eye out for the next issue with your very own quotes this weekend ;}

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