I'm 17, and I have a fair share of experience with teachers. Thankfully, most were good, but there were some okay ones, and some awful ones.

I'm asking the older VGChartz generation who now have jobs to reflect back and decide what were the qualities in the REALLY good and REALLY bad teachers, and which ones prepare you the best for the "real world"

I'm asking this because my Physics teacher is being extremely nit-picky about assignments, and I'm getting a "B" despite showing that I have mastered all of the material. I don't want to complain if that's how the working force works, but it is pissing me off to no end.

So looking back, what benefited? 

- Standing at the whiteboard and cover the material are the best. Too many teachers try to be students' friends, or have fun games or "computer assignments" that get nothing really done.

- Having time for individual students with problems. Set the class off on exercises then walk round, don't wait for students to come to you because they won't.

- Not putting up with disruption in the classroom at all. I've seen far too many teachers give second and third chances until the kids pick up on the fact that the teacher won't ever react and then do what they want and intefere with the good students' learning. The best kind of discipline is where the student feels like they let the teacher down if they don't do their work, so much more effective than detention or something.

- Being regular with setting work and homework, clear about deadlines and what is expected, and returning marked work promptly. That way students can get into a routine. Set just enough homework so that everyone practices the skills but not mindless repetition.

- One one hand, realise your job is not to teach to the exam but instead to get the students excited about the subject so the exam takes care of itself. However when it gets close to the exam spend a lot of time on exam answering technique and short revision summaries, because a little effort there gets a lot of marks.

I guess that would be the worst type of teacher.... O_O

and Soleron described my Algebra 2/Pre Calculus teacher to the dot, and she happens to be my all-time favorite teacher as well.... Maybe all teachers should be that way.....

worst: nagging ones

best:    hot ones

I agree with all but the bold. Minor distractions that aren't noisy and isn't actually disrupting anything can be ignored completely. If a kid is doodling and ignoring the class, let them, just speak to them privately if need be to make sure they aren't lost. A lot of people drift off because they don't understand and there for cannot focus on whats being taught. I tended to do that. I ended up staying after class a few times for extra help in my chemistry and algebra 2 classes. It also helps if you teach multiple ways of solving a problem. Simply yelling at students over every little thing puts the teacher in bad light and makes their students hate them. Only way to get respect is earn respect.

What Soleron said. Also, good teachers can connect with their students. They don't become your friends, but you can talk with them about stuff not related to school. My AP government teacher was my favorite in high school. We used to talk about the news or TV shows (The Simpsons, Its always sunny), and she helped me complete my FAFSA.

Honestly, I can't say that my teachers in grade school really had that much of an impact on my life that I remember ... With that said, I'm certain my parents would have a different response.

I was born with a learning disability and went through school at a time where the school system was very "hostile" (for lack of a better term) to children with learning disabilities. Essentially, learning disabilities were not looked for until a child was in grade 7 and there were no resources available to help deal with these problems until High School; and (as a result) children were typically several years behind their peers before their issues were addressed.

Although I have no memory of my Grade 3 teacher, she apparently recognized that (while I struggled with day to day school work) I significantly outperformed my class in standardized multiple-choice tests and convinced my parents to get me tested. Beyond that, she also helped my parents find a pilot project being run by the University at the local children’s hospital to help "correct" my learning disability.

My best ever teacher was for latin. Latin class sizes always shrunk dramatically by 7th form (down from 30-40 to 5-7) and she would recognize the people who actually tried hard and wanted to do well early on, and really give those people more of her time. People who arsed about ended up getting bad marks.

Worst teacher was an arsehole who tried to be 'cool', in doing so he would join up with the 'cool' kids and pick on a student in the class who was not in the 'cool' group. He was a small markedly unpopular asian kid (and in NZ there is a bit of racism towards asians in any case..) and the last thing the poor bloke needed was a teacher acting like an arsehole to him as well.

The best teacher I had were the most tough ones.. they were never satisfied with my performance.. they annoyed me to do better and better.. I hated them but in the end, looking back, they are the best ones... they wanted to get the best out of me and have a change to fail... they saw potential in me but I wasn't using my talents... I don't need a teacher who is nice when I make a mistake and suger coating it.. I didn't learn anything by that.. blast me with insults worked better for me..

now for myself as a parttime teacher... I'm nice when it's not about schoolwork, but I can be an Ahole about schoolwork and give a student a bad point when the work is bad... I have made 3 girls cry this term.. Most students forget that they are at school to learn, and failure is a part of that process, you won't go through life without failure.. better learn how to handle that at school then in your life after that..