My high school career was spent at New Caney High School. I know there's no way that I will remember everyone who taught me there, but I will pay homage to all those who made a lasting impression. I had band all four years of high school, so Mr. Aiken and Mr. Wimberly left a lasting impression. There were lots of life lessons learned in the band hall, thank you both for giving me a chance to practice my leadership skills. Also sorry about Atlanta... That wasn't the best idea ever, and I know that it put the two of you in a difficult position.
All of my Freshman teachers were really excellent. I remember them all fondly and I like to think that I got some of my teaching style from them.
Let's start off with Ms. Lemke. She was my English teacher, and she definitely knew how to deal with immature freshmen. I liked her laid back teaching style (also a really sarcastic person), she had the coolest room set up with Christmas lights and colored lamps set up everywhere. I remember we won the Christmas Door Decorating contest that year, or we at least came in second place. It was Santa hanging out on the beach with flamingos (because everything in her room was pink and flamingos). I remember Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey, and The Secret Life of Bees. She also cared on a personal level about her students (maybe because I was friends with her daughter). Not sorry for staking all the things on your desk!!!!!!
Ms. Williford was my World Geography teacher. She was an Aggie, Whoop! and every time we were learning about a new country or continent she made sure she had cultural music to play everyday. We would also spend one day learning about the dancing styles from each place we were studying. Great job getting students engaged. I also remember that on your birthday she would have the class sing and you would have to wear the birthday hat (OMG she also had a hat for every random history day!!) and she would take your picture and put it up on the wall!
Coach Storms the elder (there were two of them) was my Geometry teacher. I remember that this was his first year teaching geometry and he wasn't all that familiar with the content. We watched a lot of the book tutorial from Edward Burger, who is still in charge of writing the math textbooks... It was fun trying to learn along with him, and he tried his best to make it engaging.
My Biology teacher was Ms. Stephenson. I also had her again as one of the coaches for Academic Decathlon. She was one of the best science teachers I've had. She made the content fun, we got to do experiments, and discovery labs. I remember this is when we started to do dissections. We did a squid and she brought in her fryer and she made us calamari after we finished with our specimen. Good job Ms. Stephenson, also congrats of being the Dean of Instruction, you deserve it!
Sophomore year I had Ms. Tussie for English. She was really cool, she made songs, we got to act out the plays (Julius Caesar almost actually died because she almost fell of the screwdriver we were fake stabbing her with). Fahrenheit 451 turned into a research project and that was a cool way to dig in to dystopian societies. Also she was the debate coach and I was on the team that year. It was fun getting to work with her after school!
The OCS (Other Coach Storms) was Algebra 2. He was okay, not as funny as his brother, but he was a good teacher. I remember one time he was absent and the office didn't send down a substitute and we didn't want to get in trouble so we all passed out the papers and just sat and talked quietly. If any adults walked by we just pretended to be working. We were nerds.
When I was a Junior the school was starting to split into New Caney and Porter High Schools so it was a bit chaotic. This is also the time that I started taking Dual Credit courses (I was taking college classes in high school). That's the first year I had Mr. Moore. He had my older brother Patrick so he was familiar with the last name. My brother is currently an engineer so needless to say he understood Physics much better than I did. Mr. Moore was an amazing teacher. We didn't just watch movies or just do book work and long complicated math problems, even though it was a Physics class. He made some jokes and that's what made him relateable. He was also an Aggie, Whoop! and when I was in college I even met up with him after a football game. One thing I remember was his end of the year projects. We made a mousetrap powered car, and to get a 100 you had to get it to hit the far side of the gym wall. Our car was 3 inches away... He said that's the closet he's ever seen one come without hitting it. We also did a soldering project that was cool.
My US History teacher was Ms. Crawford. It was a dual credit class and she made it more of a college lecture than a high school course. She really prepared us for what college was going to be like. She was also one of the most technologically proficient people I've ever seen. She had her own wifi in her classroom, she made all these interactive PowerPoint, the class had its own website where we could all post in our study groups, she had it going on.
Ms. Pipes was my College Algebra and Trig "professor". She was also the National Honor Society sponsor so I spent a lot of time with her because I was an officer. She saved us all lots of money because we didn't have to buy the textbook that was over $200, and she spent her own money copying pages of notes for us. She wanted to make education accessible to everyone, and she's awesome for doing that. You rock Ms. Pipes.
My Senior year was hectic because we moved to block scheduling which is the worst idea in human history... I had some good teachers who's names I can't remember, and some bad ones I will not mention.
I think my English teacher was Ms. Sutton, but I'm totally not sure on that. We did a lot of writing in her class and she was very constructive about her critiquing of our assignments. She read one of my papers to the class, and she said that I had a strong voice, the only reason I got a C on the assignment was because I used the word "you" and that's a no-no... She also said I'm too young to be that cynical, if only she could see me now lol!
I'll talk about Mr. Moore again because I had him two years in a row (AP Physics) plus he was also the head coach for Academic Decathlon. Maaaaaaaany a life lesson was learned on the team. We went to State that year and it was a fun trip to San Antonio. He treated us like adults, and helped shape us into the people we are today. He really influenced me into becoming a teacher, and thank you Mr. Moore for all that you've done for education over the years. I hope retirement is treating you well, you've earned it!
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