Favorite teacher

My favorite teacher was Chuck Jurasz. He taught high school biology/oceanography. He was not like any teacher I ever knew. He had a weather station set up over at the boat harbor across the highway from the school. We would go over there every day and take weather readings and observe the birds on the breakwater. My understanding was we were supposed to predict what effect the direction of the wind and other weather conditions had on what direction the birds were facing and weather they were standing on one or two feet or sitting down (or would that be called laying down?) He also had a week long field trip every spring to Glacier Bay. I remember one exercise we did was to use a protractor and string to measure the angle of the beach and the distance from the waterline to the top of the beach in order to determine how high the beach was (what is that, side/angle/side from geometry?) We also had to use a marine chart to plan the route the boat would take the next day. For some reason, they picked my route. While we were out there, students would be dropped off on the beach and we had to make observations about the level of growth at various places along the beach. The purpose of that was to see the difference that the amount of time since the glaciers receded had on the plant life. We were taught skills there that we wouldn't otherwise be exposed to and it got me interested in science. Unfortunately, I was never able to do well in traditional science classes so I never was able to go into teaching science. My favorite type of teacher is one who gives information and lets you take it where you can. Thanks for bringing this up!

For me a great teacher is one with a young mind. A person who understands young people and can communicate proberly with them. I think these kinds of teachers are hard to come by but they are the ones that I gave my respect and cared for during my time in school.