Behind the Blog #21 – Teacher’s Pet

Behind the Blog is a meme to help bloggers connect their life and interests to the content showcased on their blog. The co-hosts, Faye, Kathe, and Melissa will provide a different topic, idea, or question every week that bloggers can relate to themselves and the books, films, or other media they find interesting!

October 5th is the day of the World Teachers’ Day. It is a day to celebrate teachers, to thank your own and to be grateful for all the help you’ve received from your teachers. So this week we’re asking you if there are any teachers you want to thank, or your views on why teaching and teachers are, or are not, important.
In relation to media, are there any films or books that you feel have spotlighted teachers particularly well? What about any that show them negatively?

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In my opinion, one of the most important jobs in society is being a teacher. It is a way to shape young minds and change the way that society runs for each different generation. A good teacher can help students to not only learn math and english, but also how to be decent human beings within our society. A bad teacher can have an extremely negative effect on students and society as a whole – and I don’t mean teachers that you just don’t particularly like, I’m talking about teachers who break the rules for their own selfish means. With teachers being so important in society, I feel that they definitely don’t get enough praise and thank you’s for what they do.

So this week I wanted to write a post about some of my favourite teachers. When I was a lot younger, just a small nine year old, I adored my teacher. She was friendly, good at her job and inspired me to want to be a teacher myself. I found myself listening attentively to everything she had to say and I honestly feel that she has shaped me a lot. Then when I went to secondary school, I found my world thrown upside down. I was all alone and incredibly shy but it was the teachers I met that helped me to feel more comfortable at the school I was at. Some were not the nicest, some had the trouble of having to deal with the horrors of my classmates and then there were the few that were true gems.

I instantly adored my drama teacher, music teacher, gym teacher and english teacher. They were all friendly in their own ways and it was obvious that they truly cared about their students and believed in us. I want to take this moment to thank them all because I know that they helped to make me who I am and really helped me get through secondary school with my head on straight. I worked hard in english, I entered all the music festivals – despite being terrible at singing – and I also entered all the drama festivals and soon was very interested in being an actress, and I found a new love for sports that I never had before – and still have to this day! They taught me more than their subjects had to and they’re teachers I will never forget.

At college I actually had the same drama teacher I had in the first two years at secondary school and he recognised me! He was really great, enthusiastic and supportive and he really helped me to know that I could be whoever I wanted to be and do whatever I wanted to do. I may not have been the greatest actress in the world but he never put me down in horrible ways, he was always encouraging and helpful – but he also recognised the writer in me and helped point me in the direction of a great script-writing tutor and just really helped me realise my dreams. My english teacher in my second year was really friendly and lovely and helped me with my essay writing and building my confidence in my writing. She pushed me to study hard and work my best when my confidence had slipped the year before and I just really enjoyed her classes. And while I didn’t particularly like my film teacher, he inspired me in many ways including my new-found love of Chinese cinema and everything that goes along with it. He’s the reason I did the subject at university and that has shaped my life so much so I can’t really thank him enough!

Finally, there is one teacher – or lecturer – at university who has truly captured my heart. My dissertation advisor was quite simply one of my favourite teachers at university, and perhaps in my whole time in education. She was incredibly lovely, super friendly and really, really supportive and proud. She was full of praise and never stopped trying to help me to better my work and get the grade that she felt I deserved. She understood that motivation was fleeting and continued to try and keep me motivated but she was also someone I could talk to about stuff that wasn’t related to university but were affecting me and my work. She was, without a doubt, my rock during the three years I was there and she is the one who truly inspired me to want to be a lecturer myself. I admire her and her work and was so glad that at my graduation she got a teaching award because we all voted for her because she is simply brilliant. I really wish that she’s having a good year this year and hope that she is continuing to inspire other people like me – even though I know she is!

Teachers are important. There is simply nothing more to say.

I really want to fill this section with hundreds of books with brilliant teachers but that probably wouldn’t be very helpful. Instead I’m going to select just a few – that I can think of right now – and hope that you love them as much as I did.

• Harry Potter Series; How could I not have this one at the top of the list? With brilliant, inspiring teachers such as Professor McGonagal, Dumbledore, Snape and Hagrid, how could this series ever be missed?
• Matilda by Roald Dahl; While most people remember the mean characters in this book, it is Miss Honey who is truly inspiring in this story. A teacher who goes above and beyond for her pupil.
• Witches of the Glass Castle by Gabriella Lepore; This is a recent read, in that I read it this year, but the Headmistress is so calm and wise and really helps Mia without Mia even realising it.

There are many more books I could write about, and so many books that have teacher-like characters who aren’t actually teachers but for now I will leave you with these wonderful books to look up and read – if you haven’t already!

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