Top 5 Worst Teachers I've Had

Good Morning (or night or day, wherever you are, whenever you read this)! This post / email is for those who want something fun to read. Hope you stick until the end!

Teachers are arguably the most important part of the school system, as well as the student’s experiences in school. They also play a part in the student’s favoritism towards a subject. In this two-part newsletter, I will be discussing my top 5 best and worst teachers I’ve had, and what I liked or disliked about them, as well as what I’ve learned by reflecting on them (no names included BTW). I hope you enjoy!

First, I would like to put it out there that these teachers in my ‘worst’ teachers list are not bad people. Simply, in my opinion, bad teachers.

The first on my list (again, chronological order), is my math teacher from Grade 6 and 7. She was my math teacher for two years, and it felt more like a year that she taught me as she took half the year off to do god knows what. She taught us…not well? It’s hard to remember, however, she taught from the textbook so I am not quite sure whether to credit my teacher or the textbook for my knowledge in math in those grades (what did I even learn?). She had a bad teacher personality, and I remember her as being rather inflexible. I also remember that the majority of the class hated her and that I also didn’t like her teaching style. Or how she was unable to explain things. Either way, she was a pretty bad teacher in my opinion, though I question my list as I can never evaluate a teacher properly. A bad teacher, though she was, I do remember that outside of school, she seemed reasonable and easy-going. As I’ve mentioned in last week’s post, she was one of the older teachers that had developed a bad teacher’s persona.

Next on my list is my Grade 10 science teacher. The first thing I will say: that woman cannot teach. Half of our semester was used up learning chemistry, a third learning biology, the rest learning physics. And, not only could she not teach, she didn’t even start attempting to teach the last unit we were supposed to learn, which was “not really important for future learning”. True, but still. Climate Change seemed cool to learn. I learned from the textbook, not from the teacher. This was okay for me, but my classmates were so confused, I doubt most of them actually learned anything from her lessons. She couldn’t teach so much, she referred to the textbook half the time. Now, she was a fairly sweet old lady, I admit, but she could not teach to save her life. Yes, she was old, and yes, she had a high education in chemistry or biology or both, but no, she could not teach. Which is why she is listed in my worst teachers list. To be fair, half my classmates were people I would not want to be alone with for longer than 10 seconds so…

Okay, now this teacher is a rather hard teacher to place. He was my tech teacher for 4 years (all of high school), meaning I could put him pretty much anywhere on my chronological order if I wished to (except the first). He was a good person, but due to the fact that he cannot exactly teach, encouraged procrastination, and was one of the slowest marking teachers I’ve ever had, he is listed in my list of worst teachers. He spoke rather slowly, and some of his lessons were too boring and confusing to listen to (though to be fair, it was a hands-on course). He spoke in a sort of drawl, which was too slow for me, and the content of which he spoke was, half the time, not even about work so I found it hard to concentrate on him speaking. I am not quite sure whether he was forgetful or procrastinating on posting assignments, however, he forgot a lot of stuff (perhaps due to his old age) and made us confused where and when to hand things in. To be fair, his classes were sort of fun most of the time. It was interactive most of the time (in subjects that did not contain work information), and some of my classmates were awesome (and if not, I ignored them). We had loads of work time, so we chatted with each other, had fun, and (rarely) if we had questions, we would ask, only for the explanation to drag on for 30 minutes. I am not a professional in evaluating a person’s personality, so I will not, however, he seemed to be fairly kind and a rather fun teacher. Though his cons outweighs his pros.

Next was my Grade 11 math teacher whom I had during summer school. I don’t believe that I didn’t have him long enough to know whether I liked his teaching style or not. He spent a lot of time checking to see whether we were listening or not, and, though it is my fault, I could not understand half the things he said (he had an accent. A really thick one). He skipped things he thought were unnecessary, and I learned close to nothing. His explanations went over my head, and I couldn’t tell you why the arithmetic sequence existed. I don’t remember there ever being any homework, which is kind of…listen: math is about understanding math, and applying it, so if your idea of ‘homework’ is being quizzed on the subject after no real homework, well, R.I.P. that will not work. Ever. Which is probably why it didn’t work for me either. I don’t think he was a bad person; only that he was a bad teacher. Thinking back on it, I should’ve asked YouTube questions, and the internet for homework, but, you know. I wasn’t too resourceful (and was lazy). Oh well. At least I passed…

Again with the math is my Grade 12 math teacher. I don’t know what is up with math teachers, but the majority of them sucked in my high school, but I think it’s partly because 99% is theory and is not a teachable subject. There is no fun way of implementing math to students that are not excited about math (or because the majority of them had an accent or spoke irregularly and could not be understood half the time). She was a bad teacher, my Grade 12 math teacher. She was great at math herself, don’t get me wrong, but her lessons would never finish because she tried to explain too much unneeded stuff. She also mixed in some jokes here and there, which is probably why 80% of class was her teaching us how to do one exercise out of 5 we had to do. She also practically did the work for us, which is by far one of the most useless teaching style for kids that have to learn this stuff for university. She told stories of life, and didn’t substantially add to my wisdom, but she did teach us a little about her life (not that any of it stuck). I can hear her saying, “You know, the thing about [whatever the subject is] is that…” She gave pity marks (which is probably why I passed), and some say she’s an easy marker (though she marked at a snail’s pace, it was even worse than my Tech teacher’s pace). I say she’s a bad teacher so none of that (how she’s an easy marker) matters because I prioritize my learning over marks that I could care less about. Don’t get me wrong: she was a sweetheart. But it makes it hard to like her as a teacher when her teaching is so bad. Though it is an easy task to like her as a person.

Upon reflection, I have concluded that the teachers I disliked were all either: bad at teaching, had a horrible teacher’s persona, or encouraged procrastination. These are all traits I dislike in general, which makes sense somewhat, and I hate that some of my classmates in those classes were procrastinating so much, they were finishing an assignment 2 weeks after the due date. I also find it frustrating that I never got to learn some of the material because of the teacher. However, though they were bad teachers, I do believe that none of them were bad people.

If you haven’t read last week’s newsletter, I encourage you to do so as this is a two-part newsletter 😄 .

An inspiring YouTuber with more content and more knowledge on Identity Shifting, which is the bigger picture of this newsletter (if you like and want to expand on this idea) 😀 I encourage you to check him out. Link → https://www.youtube.com/@clarkkegley.

I want some feedback: Do you like this topics? Anything else you want to send me is much appreciated. Thanks for reading, and I hope it was worth your while 😄 Please tell me something about your worst teachers (if you want), and remember, you’re awesome! If you want, sign up to my weekly newsletter (if you haven’t already). Link down below! Email: [email protected]