Great Teachers

It goes without saying there are good teachers, and there are not so great teachers.

A bad teacher can ruin a class by failing to teach the material; being unclear, unorganized, or unprepared; not caring about the students; or any combinations of these. This ultimately drains student's enthusiasm towards the class (if it existed in the first place), and can often lead to a bad grade or less than adequate mastery of the subject.

A good teacher does exactly the opposite. They teach what they test, clearly, care about the students, are organized, well prepared, knowledgeable, helpful, and are enthusiastic about their subject and teaching in general. Their enthusiasm is contagious. Not to mention they are usually just plain nice people. They can make dreaded classes worthwhile, and difficult classes bearable.

Kudos to all the great teachers out there. Here are a few that I've met along the way, and the class(s) I took from them:

Monterey Peninsula College

Keri Toma
Elementary Japanese I
Intermediate Japanese

Elizabeth Bishop
Pre-Calculus

Jamie Dagdigian
Graphic Design: Images & Type

Gary Mekarsky
Introduction to Physics
Science & Engineering Physics II

Ed Migliore
Calculus of Several Variables

Don Philley
Differential Equations

University of California, Los Angeles

Yutao He
Logic Design of Digital Systems

David Smallberg
Introduction to Computer Science II

Anna Draganova
Linear Algebra

I may have forgotten a few over the years, but I thank all those I have mentioned and all those I have forgotten. Even if these teachers didn't have all the attributes of a great teacher I listed above, they made up for it in other ways. Thank you.