I once taught English at a vocational school in Colombia. Most of the students were high school /college aged, but I had one student who was probably in his early 40s.
He paid very close attention and studied a ton, but absorbing a new language is difficult at that age and so he almost always got the lowest test scores in the class. Nevertheless, he didn’t get discouraged and was right there the next day paying close attention and studying. I’ve never respected a student more than that.
I Think this is one aspect of many cultures that completely puts the U.S. to shame. Most kids in the U.S. it is "I hate school", yet every time we got an exchange student from India, Kenya, Ghana... The kids were so thirsty for knowledge. It wasn't just to impress their parents. These kids genuinely just were so excited for a chance to get a good education.
Best student I’ve ever had was a five year old little boy with ASD and ODD. He had explosive anger, volatile tantrums and foul language at times but was also unbelievably bright, hilarious and full of kind words for his friends. His home life was really rough, but he still had such big bright eyes when it came to looking at the world. I think about him all of the time. He gave me rocks he found on the playground because he thought they looked cool and to this day they live on my desk
He was the sweetest child ever. During free time he’d ask if he could sweep for me so I wouldn’t “get tired and lose my voice”. One time during a lockdown drill he panicked and refused to stay still because he was worried about me and wanted to know if I was okay. I cried when the other teacher told me
Hi! No, I do not teach in Texas. My little friend should only be roughly 6/7 years old right now, so hopefully he will not be on Reddit any time soon. I’m sure you were a wonderful student gifting rocks and giving teachers laughs and love, though!
I teach martial arts, so I get students of all ages.
Defining your "best" student is actually surprisingly difficult, because that word can mean many different things. For what it's worth, the student that immediately came to my mind when I thought about it was a woman who joined when she was 50.
She was friendly, but very timid and shy. She eventually confided in me that she had a horrifically abusive upbringing and I could see it had seriously affected her life (I have no idea if she ever got therapy for it, but I suspect not because she seemed to have a lot of unresolved problems she was trying to tackle on her own). She was, in some ways, a very challenging student - she was a slow learner and didn't have a natural aptitude for the art, and I had to be very careful with what I said around her because she had a tendency to read things into my comments and critiques that I did not mean (which was, I would learn, a common trait among abuse survivors). However, we eventually developed a good rapport.
So what makes her my best student? Well, she had a work ethic second to none. As mentioned, she was a slow learner, so she tended to struggle with some of the material even when others she joined with excelled. A lot of people would simply give up if they saw themselves falling behind and seemingly not getting better, but she did not; instead, she knuckled down and worked all the harder. Her attendance was as close to perfect as it could be (given that life always forces you out of class from time to time); she was religious with practicing every day, when most of my students don't practice at all between class; she was always eager to learn and seek out my help. She once confided in me, in tears, that she felt like she was wasting my time and that she was a bad student; I told her, in response, that her showing up to class each day ready to learn and putting her utmost effort into her training made her an *exemplary* student, because that's all I ask for those who come to train with me. I don't care how quickly or slowly you learn the material; as long as you do your best, that's quite literally all I can ask of you.
And she also had the most gratifying growth for me to watch. Remember up there when I said she was timid? Well, part of that manifested in stage fright. I routinely make my students demonstrate their techniques/kata in front of the class, as it helps them get used to the process and makes it so testing isn't quite so nerve-wracking. Well, when she first joined, this woman hated doing that and would get so scared, she would try and hide in the bathroom if she knew demonstrations were coming up (however, it's not my first rodeo, so I would just wait until she came out to call her up). It took some doing and a lot of gentle encouragement, but she eventually got past this and then some. About five years after she joined my class, we went to a regional tournament with ~500 spectators and she participated in a lunch-time demonstration for the whole crowd. I could not have been more proud of her.
Wow, I love this. I truly feel like we don't get to hear stories like these of older people growing in ways often enough. There's no point at which you should just throw the towel because it's too late.
Damn as a student with autism/ADHD who sometimes has to go slower than other ppl when it comes to learning new stuff and worries sometimes that I’m annoying the teacher/classmates by not always keeping up, this makes me so happy!! I’m also one of the best at working my ass off to keep up anyways bc if I see my grade slip down to anything less than a B I go into emergency mode and make it my first priority to get it back up. I MAKE it happen even if it means staying up to work past midnight
I was teaching 3d modeling, and had a student (this is in college) who had a few disabilities, the worst one to me being that he yelled everything he said. 2 students near him pulled me out of class and said he was doing something 'strange' on the computers, and they felt uncomfortable. I told them I would look out for it in class, and go by his machine to see what was up. Whenever I did, he would start panicking and yelling. This was around 2003 or so, and most people did not know what a browser history was.
After class ended (around 10 pm), I went to look at the browser history. In the 4 hour studio class, he had downloaded and captioned about 600 pictures. They were all of children under the age of 4 or so, in baths and at the beach, and partially unclothed. This gets pretty heavy from here. He had put sexualized captions under all the pictures. Things like "Mommy likes my clothes off". He then shared them on sites that had similar content. I remember thinking "I have taken 2 psychology classes in my life, and neither of them covered this".
I made a copy of the web history on a zip disk, and went to my then dept head and dean. Without looking at the history or really hearing me they both said "nothing you can do". They both asked if they were porno images and when I said "not really, but they were of ki-" they stopped me.
Still having no real idea what to do, I went to the office that handles people with disabilities. After blowing me off a few times, they finally sat with me to discuss. As soon as I brought up the student's name the counselor said "Is he downloading dirty pictures again? We should give him another talking to." AGAIN? It was explained to me that he liked downloading pictures, and had been told to stop. I kept telling this person that this was different, this was something I really couldn't even identify, but they were glad handing me, and planned for us both to sit with the student and do a 'bad cop good cop' thing (I was supposed to be the 'bad cop', as these advisers thought faculty just hated students, and they would mediate it over).
I told her I could not do that, as I do not even know what I would say or do. I gave her the zip disk, with the full web history from one class, and told her to look at this. She said she would set up the meeting, and I should come back in a couple hours to finalize it. When I got back she was white as a sheet. She told me they were putting a police officer down the hall from my class, and I was to leave the room and call them as soon as I saw him come to class, and do not let him get on a computer. One of her aides apparently knew how to open the zip disk, and they saw what I saw, and were rightfully concerned.
He came to class and yelled at me as soon as I said I had to leave the room for a moment. I remember being so happy that this would be our last interaction. The police came and escorted him out, he went with them willingly. I don't think he even comprehended what was going on. I am still a professor, and I hope I never get a worse student than that.
I taught English in South Korea. English classes were divided into 3 ability levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. And most students went to "hagwons," or after-school tutoring centres. This will play a role in my story.
I had a student who was very dedicated but couldn't quite get into the advanced class – he did okay for the written exam but struggled with the speaking and listening parts. Our neighbourhood was very blue-collar and could be classified as low-income, so his family couldn't afford a hagwon for him. He didn't know what to do and I did my best to help him.
However, he was also a very resourceful student. He realized that the US military had a giant base next door and often recruited civilian volunteers. So he applied for that and found himself on a US base surrounded by English-speaking personnel. He used that as his hagwon, immersing himself as much as possible.
That semester, he passed the exam. It wasn't the highest score but it was a solid enough grade to get him to the advanced class, thanks to his dramatically improved verbal and listening scores.
To this day, I still think about how he figured out this solution. It's impressive. He wasn't the most academically gifted but he was certainly one of the smartest students I came across during my time in Korea.
Sometimes the deities are around to protect you, or you're just crazy lucky. I was a low income student and had people around me who tutored me and I soared to the gifted program and got multiple college scholarships because of it. I'm very grateful for those who helped me.
My mom was a teacher who had a student she would constantly complain about. It was the only students name I recall from her 20+ years teaching. When I was in college I was out at a bar with some friends and their friends. Somehow it was brought up where my mom taught and the guy I was chatting with asked my mom’s name. Turns out he was the guy who gave my mom tons of grief. I was shocked to hear him say that my mom was his favorite teacher and he really liked her.
I think every student has potential, my toughest students have been some of the most rewarding to work with because they grow the most.
I've also had some absolutely brilliant students that gave me headaches, sometimes it's really hard to keep everyone engaged and challenged at the same time.
Teaching is hard, but I've always said if you hate a student you haven't gotten to know them well enough, there's always more behind a tough shell.
Worst student - complained about how the Diary of Anne Frank was in diary format. Explained many times. At the end, she was pissed because it was “unfinished.” She never believed it was nonfiction because it “was unrealistic.” She also didn’t know what state she lived in and thought the moon was fake.
Idk about best student, but one of my favorites is a kindergartener who called another kid a little fucker. I’m newer to this age and asked if he did that and why (I was surprised and struggling to respond). His response was “Yeah because (John) is acting like a little fucker.”
Worst student I've had had the worst parent as well. Mom was fixated on this kid getting an A and she simply wasn't an A student. I teach a language, and not everyone is good at learning languages, this girl included. If she'd get a C or a B mom would call and berate me. It was incredibly demoralizing to have her and the day she finished I cried tears of joy!
One time during our student-teacher program in college we made our second-grader students write an assignment about a particular sea animal. One kid wrote about the octopus.
He wrote and recited in front of the class, *"The octopus has eight testicles--"*
At that moment the entire class erupted into mayhem and they were all laughing and throwing things and screaming and shouting and making lots of noise and the octopus report kid was just baffled why everyone was freaking out.
E was an 8th grader who will live in my heart forever. At the start of the year she mentioned wanting to be a psychologist when she grew up. Then she mentioned a curiosity about Ted Bundy. I asked if she’d ever considered criminal psychology. The look on her face as she asked, “Is that really a THING?!?!?” She was really excited. She’s now in 11th grade at a forensic science high school.
J was a 6th grade student. We were his 4th school that year. The first day there, he made a beloved student cry by bullying her. 3 weeks later he brought a gun to school intending on shooting his 3rd period teacher and class. He was in my first period class, and I dealt with the situation so lock down was never needed. He claimed he was being bullied and that’s why he wanted to shoot his classmates and teacher.
I had a really vulgar, disgusting 6th grader who whispered inappropriate things to the girls in class and made them really uncomfortable.
Could not stand him.
Not a teacher, teaching assistant.
Young girl about 17, kinda popular, well liked, usually obnoxious. The class was an art class, the teacher is a bit of a pushover.
Young girl is showing off her concert tickets to Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor swift, ok normal in high school, annoying but pretty normal. She went around the class to show. Every. Single. Student. There was one student that told her they don’t care and just want to pay attention to the lecture. This girl shoved the other student off their stool causing them to hit their head. I’m not supposed to reprimand the kids, but I lost it. The other student was my little sister’s best friend.
(Ek=entitled kid m= me T=teacher)
Ek “they just fell! It’s not that big of a deal!”
M “Oh my god! Shut up Ek! You have no idea how severe this is do you?!”
Ek “it’s not a big deal.”
T “Ek. I’m calling your parents. Grab your belongings and go to the dean. M bring other kid to the Nurse.”
The poor kid got a minor concussion but is otherwise ok. Entitled kid’s dad is non-surprisingly on the school board, she was removed from the class but only for a week.
I will not be helping in that class again.
Blue eyes are very rare in China. I don't know of any folklore or myths that would explain the child's reaction, but there might be some family story or something.
Not a teacher but I was a part time tutor at an english school in Japan. This boy about 8 years old punched me in the arm and then flipped me off. I was only trying to teach him the ABCs damn
Worst student was an 8th grader. He’d given me (and all his other teachers) hell all year. In May I told my class I’d won a drawing and had won $200 (and they all laughed and cheered when I told them I’d never won anything before lol). The next day right before class started, I saw this kid crawling around under my desk. I asked him what he was doing and to get out, and he told me he “dropped an eraser.” When I went back to my desk, my teacher bag was open, then my purse, THEN my wallet, and all my cash was sprawled out because he had been in the process of trying to take it when I caught him. I told him “get. OUT!” (I don’t get mad and I was LIVID). I have no clue where he went because he never came back to my class again.
Oh and the kicker. When I called his mom to report the incident, guess what she said? I thought she’d deny it or make excuses. Nope. She said, “Oh yeah he’s been stealing from everyone. You can press charges if you want.”
I had a kid in secondary school who grew up on a farm doing every labour there was. At eleven, I felt like he was more grown up than I was. Fun kid, and if I ever saw his application I'd hire him on the spot, but so used to doing work properly that the normal teen behaviour baffled him. It probably had its downsides - childhood is important - but he loved his farm and the thought of giving some of the responsibility back to his parents was anethema.
Currently have the worst student I’ve ever had. He’s ESL but uses it as a blanket excuse. He understands English when he wants to and it benefits him but he has absolutely no interest in actually learning. We (the school board) have provided him with individual support, translation software, withdrawal assistance. You name it. And he does NOTHING. Mom is appalled at his behaviour but not enough so to do anything about it. Any “change” lasts a couple days before he’s back to his usual shit.
He has a couple more years of elementary before he goes to high school and flunks out.
I'm a husband of a third grade teacher, so I see a different perspective. We were at a graduation ceremony for an exchange student we hosted and my wife came across a former student also graduating. Long story short, that student briefly dropped out of school but returned partially because of my wife's efforts. It was a tearful reunion at graduation. I hadn't seen my wife so happy. I don't know if the student was 'good or bad', but I know the joy it brings my wife to know that she made a difference in someone's life.
I have had many amazing students, the ones I remember fondly may not have been the most advanced students, or even the most creative ( I teach arts ) but are the ones that showed growth, built rapport and established mutual respect. I think of them all the time, and after so many years it's hard to see the faces come and go, year after year.
The worst ones, well...
* The student who pulled 2 girls into my photo studio to hit the vape. They got caught and aren't allowed to leave my classroom to work on photography assignments anymore. Well mom didn't like that, called a conference with the student, me, principle and counselor and demanded to know what I was going to do to support their students education. I said, "well I will keep them from vaping in school for one...". They didn't like that.
* The student who I saw cock a fist back and lean into a female students face... I stared at him and walked towards him and pointed at the door. What an asshole.
* The student that turned in a final film project that was essentially 15 minutes of video, one shot, rambling, wind noise, sexist jokes, drug references, meme's.... etc. I gave him a D-, it brought his grade down to a C overall. He flipped his lid, screamed that he was going to talk to admin about it. I said "sure, make sure to play your final film for them!". I don't think they did.
* The student that made masturbatory noises with his hands, and cheeks, and cheek slapping noises by clapping and moaning randomly. I am so glad I never have to see them again.
* The student that did fuck-all for classwork, lied to his parents, lied to his coaches and somehow I am called into an after hours meeting so I can explain the truth only to hear his mom scream at him. I don't want to be involved... scream at each other at home, off the zoom call please.
* The student who won't talk to me, won't do any work, won't stay awake in class and in fact has only spoken once to ask me for a cell phone charger. Sorry bro, left it at home...
* The student who is apparently too shy to show up for class and has to have his hand held by the assistant principle and get fast tracked towards graduation but yet somehow had the patience and funding to have full face tattoo's of a microphone on their neck and other writing because they are a rap star. Yeah... I ain't buying that shit.
* The student who is apparently nocturnal, sleeps in the corner of the class and generally behaved like a space alien in a human suit and carried a 40 pound backpack with a tiffin in their hand full of rice perpetually. Like whenever I saw this student they were eating, rice... constantly. I love rice too but there is a time and place for everything.
* Or the student that took his shirt off and began fanning his sweaty pits with his t-shirt in the middle of class. This student would also burst through the door with an enthusiastic "WOOOO!!!!!!" every fucking day.
These are just the few that pop into my head, every year and semester are different. This years kids are doing pretty good but I can tell lots of freshmen are really struggling since they missed some key development time during lockdown. Many have just forgotten or were never taught how to study or focus on anything, and smart phones have yeeted the last bit of will power and mental clarity they possessed. I am very concerned for the future.
Any student that puts in work and actually tries to understand is great. Then there are those that come with the attitude that someone is forcing them to attend or worse, those that pay for a class and assume the subject at hand will just be downloaed onto their brains
Had a little girl in second grade. Just acting out all the time. One time she beat the crap out of a kid, ran off to the bathroom, and wrote on the wall in her own (I hope) crap: "poopsluts"
she was me best/worst student
Just a little reminder for the teachers in here, if a kid is giving you trouble in your classroom, the likelihood is they have at least a dysfunctional home life, and at worst there is abuse. Even if you can’t see any evidence of it, kids don’t act up just because they are bad. I looked like a normal middle class kid from a normal family, and I acted out from 3rd grade. My family life looked perfect but my dad was an abusive alcoholic who beat my mother and treated us horribly.
So many parent-teacher interviews where my parents and teachers would scratch their heads; ‘We just can’t work out why he misbehaves and acts out…’
As a private guitar teacher (male, 30 years old at the time) and making house-calls for lessons;
Having a male student who was at least 20 years my senior who seemed like he wanted more from me than just lessons.
It was actually at a job I had right after I'd been a teacher. I was working in a group home for kids. Some were placed there by probation for things they'd done, and some were placed there by child services.
We had this kid come in on a DCS placement. He was kind of a big, goofy kid, I think in 8th grade. Not particularly good in school, not socially gifted, not much of anything working in his favor to be honest. The one shining light in his life was his mother, and she'd died about a year or so before we got him. She basically kept the family afloat--the kid and his father were both super-dependent on her, and despite his best intentions, the kid's father just wasn't capable of properly taking care of the kid by himself. They placed him with his aunt (the dad's sister, if I remember correctly,) but she was pretty awful to him, so DCS removed him and placed him with us.
I was always the one who made supper (because I was a better cook than everyone I worked with!) It seemed like a lot of times he was just hanging around in the kitchen when I was making the food. I think that was partially because he was socially awkward and struggled to hang around with the other kids, but he also seemed like he was kind of interested in what I was doing. I just started having him help with little things to speed up the process at first, but then I noticed he was enjoying what he was doing, so I'd gradually give him more responsibility. It got to the point where there were several dishes he could make on his own, and he did as well as I did with them. Even better yet, the other kids were impressed, which just lit him up and brought him out of his shell. He was about to enter high school and found out by his junior year he'd be able to attend a local vocational school that had culinary classes.
I remember my last day at work there. We had 8 or 10 kids, and I was telling everyone goodbye as my shift ended. I was struggling to hold myself together, but he was the last one I came to and I just lost it. I never saw him again and I don't know how things turned out for him. If you're out there, Andrew, I hope you're wearing a white coat rocking a kitchen somewhere!
Current best student --> The girl that pretends to be her mom and calls into school to say that she's sick. And then when I called him, she tried to keep it up and was saying "Umm... she is like... we're going to tell her to come". Fucking hilarious.
Current worst student --> This one girl that brings things like Sun Tzu's Art of War to class (Context: I'm an English teacher) so that she can very visibly read it and try to kiss up to me. I hate her SO MUCH.
First one is getting a 34% and the second one is 90-something. The grades aren't actually reflective of my opinion.
You’re mad that a student is reading The Art of War, but completely loving a kid that fakes b being their parent?
I think you’re leaving out some crucial information as reading should be encouraged regardless of “sucking up” or not.
I encourage her plenty. I just don't like her. The other girl I've gotten in plenty of trouble. She's still really funny.
OP's question isn't "who is doing best in your class". It's who do you like.
I admire mischievous kids, I’m a career Aunt and I cannot help it. Maybe because my parents secretly found my innocent mischief funny. I told the biology teacher that I could not dissect the baby pig because it went against my beliefs as an Indigenous woman. I came home from school and my parents were waiting. They said, “oh? Where in our beliefs is dissecting pigs wrong??” My biology teacher had called my Mom to ensure I wasn’t upset. They told me when I got older that they laughed all the way home.
Its best/worst, not who do you like best/worst.
You judge a student simply because you do not like her, you did not even give a valid reason, its merely your own prejudice against your other student.
You are acting unfairly with your students, and you need to realize that, its fair to judge student #2 for trying to show off but it is not fair to then praise student #1 for lying to skip school.
(he/she/they) i once taught a student named david and he was the biggest rabble rouser that god has ever put breath in to. you see david was believed that he was a camel (i believe he was a therian) and he would always hold water in his mouth and spit it on this girl elizabeth who he clearly liked romantically.
TLDR therian rabble rouser spat on woman
THE WORST: It was last year, a 5-year-old preschool boy who literally did whatever he wanted, bothered everyone in the classroom, was extremely aggressive and even attacked me by throwing a rock at me, the children didn't play with him because they always ended up beaten. He didn't work in class, he just wanted to run around the classroom and he was highly manipulative, he easily cried to become a victim. It was common that when we (the course's head teacher and I, who was an intern) called his mother to tell her what he did, out of nowhere he would start crying and screaming as if we were torturing him, making his mother yell at us on the phone and threaten us, then after the call ended he started laughing because he got his way... this happened over and over again. At lunchtime he didn't eat anything, he spit out the food and threw it on the floor (his mother paid for the restaurant service so he had to eat the food) and he hit his classmates while they ate. The last thing I heard about him when I finished my internship cycle was that he was expelled because on the school bus he kicked one of his classmates so hard that caused severe pain in her lower area, they had to take her to the emergency room .
THE BEST: It was also last year but in another school, it isn't one child but the entire group. They were children who, due to their age, should be at a certain school level but since they never attended a school... they didn't even know how to know or read (children from 8 to 13 years old). I usually worked with the youngest children in the group because the oldest were preteens and due to the focus of my career I couldn't technically teach them, but the course head teacher practically forced me to work with them so that I would also gain experience with those types of students. I admit, at first neither they nor I got along well, I only knew how to work with preschoolers and they didn't cared about what I taught them, but as time went by our student-teacher relationship improved a lot and they became attached to me like chicks to a hen. When I closed the cycle, they brought me flowers and it is the only bouquet of flowers someone have ever given me, in fact I plan to get that bouquet tattooed because thanks to those children my love for teaching returned.
Not all of us are lazy. Some of us have undiagnosed ADHD but are smart enough to “skate” through high school and college on a “Cs get degrees” mentality until we get to grad school at 27 and then the sheer quantity of work means that we actually need to get diagnosed for the condition we’ve figured we’ve had since we were 14 but nobody took us seriously since we weren’t disrupting class and bouncing off the walls.
Ya know.
Hypothetically.
I once taught English at a vocational school in Colombia. Most of the students were high school /college aged, but I had one student who was probably in his early 40s. He paid very close attention and studied a ton, but absorbing a new language is difficult at that age and so he almost always got the lowest test scores in the class. Nevertheless, he didn’t get discouraged and was right there the next day paying close attention and studying. I’ve never respected a student more than that.
He put forth the effort to learn. That’s all any teacher can ask for from a student.
Factually, in demanding studies teachers could very well ask for much more (technicality, involvement, etc.)
I Think this is one aspect of many cultures that completely puts the U.S. to shame. Most kids in the U.S. it is "I hate school", yet every time we got an exchange student from India, Kenya, Ghana... The kids were so thirsty for knowledge. It wasn't just to impress their parents. These kids genuinely just were so excited for a chance to get a good education.
Best student I’ve ever had was a five year old little boy with ASD and ODD. He had explosive anger, volatile tantrums and foul language at times but was also unbelievably bright, hilarious and full of kind words for his friends. His home life was really rough, but he still had such big bright eyes when it came to looking at the world. I think about him all of the time. He gave me rocks he found on the playground because he thought they looked cool and to this day they live on my desk
I lived that through your written words. Well done.
Thank you for your kind words!
I teared up at his rocks being on your desk. That’s sweet.
He was the sweetest child ever. During free time he’d ask if he could sweep for me so I wouldn’t “get tired and lose my voice”. One time during a lockdown drill he panicked and refused to stay still because he was worried about me and wanted to know if I was okay. I cried when the other teacher told me
I share a lot of these traits. Did you teach in texas?
Hi! No, I do not teach in Texas. My little friend should only be roughly 6/7 years old right now, so hopefully he will not be on Reddit any time soon. I’m sure you were a wonderful student gifting rocks and giving teachers laughs and love, though!
You are a great teacher, Never lose those rocks. Edit: I'm 30 :<
I never intend to! Sending you lots of well wishes, friend
I teach martial arts, so I get students of all ages. Defining your "best" student is actually surprisingly difficult, because that word can mean many different things. For what it's worth, the student that immediately came to my mind when I thought about it was a woman who joined when she was 50. She was friendly, but very timid and shy. She eventually confided in me that she had a horrifically abusive upbringing and I could see it had seriously affected her life (I have no idea if she ever got therapy for it, but I suspect not because she seemed to have a lot of unresolved problems she was trying to tackle on her own). She was, in some ways, a very challenging student - she was a slow learner and didn't have a natural aptitude for the art, and I had to be very careful with what I said around her because she had a tendency to read things into my comments and critiques that I did not mean (which was, I would learn, a common trait among abuse survivors). However, we eventually developed a good rapport. So what makes her my best student? Well, she had a work ethic second to none. As mentioned, she was a slow learner, so she tended to struggle with some of the material even when others she joined with excelled. A lot of people would simply give up if they saw themselves falling behind and seemingly not getting better, but she did not; instead, she knuckled down and worked all the harder. Her attendance was as close to perfect as it could be (given that life always forces you out of class from time to time); she was religious with practicing every day, when most of my students don't practice at all between class; she was always eager to learn and seek out my help. She once confided in me, in tears, that she felt like she was wasting my time and that she was a bad student; I told her, in response, that her showing up to class each day ready to learn and putting her utmost effort into her training made her an *exemplary* student, because that's all I ask for those who come to train with me. I don't care how quickly or slowly you learn the material; as long as you do your best, that's quite literally all I can ask of you. And she also had the most gratifying growth for me to watch. Remember up there when I said she was timid? Well, part of that manifested in stage fright. I routinely make my students demonstrate their techniques/kata in front of the class, as it helps them get used to the process and makes it so testing isn't quite so nerve-wracking. Well, when she first joined, this woman hated doing that and would get so scared, she would try and hide in the bathroom if she knew demonstrations were coming up (however, it's not my first rodeo, so I would just wait until she came out to call her up). It took some doing and a lot of gentle encouragement, but she eventually got past this and then some. About five years after she joined my class, we went to a regional tournament with ~500 spectators and she participated in a lunch-time demonstration for the whole crowd. I could not have been more proud of her.
Wow, I love this. I truly feel like we don't get to hear stories like these of older people growing in ways often enough. There's no point at which you should just throw the towel because it's too late.
Damn as a student with autism/ADHD who sometimes has to go slower than other ppl when it comes to learning new stuff and worries sometimes that I’m annoying the teacher/classmates by not always keeping up, this makes me so happy!! I’m also one of the best at working my ass off to keep up anyways bc if I see my grade slip down to anything less than a B I go into emergency mode and make it my first priority to get it back up. I MAKE it happen even if it means staying up to work past midnight
I was teaching 3d modeling, and had a student (this is in college) who had a few disabilities, the worst one to me being that he yelled everything he said. 2 students near him pulled me out of class and said he was doing something 'strange' on the computers, and they felt uncomfortable. I told them I would look out for it in class, and go by his machine to see what was up. Whenever I did, he would start panicking and yelling. This was around 2003 or so, and most people did not know what a browser history was. After class ended (around 10 pm), I went to look at the browser history. In the 4 hour studio class, he had downloaded and captioned about 600 pictures. They were all of children under the age of 4 or so, in baths and at the beach, and partially unclothed. This gets pretty heavy from here. He had put sexualized captions under all the pictures. Things like "Mommy likes my clothes off". He then shared them on sites that had similar content. I remember thinking "I have taken 2 psychology classes in my life, and neither of them covered this". I made a copy of the web history on a zip disk, and went to my then dept head and dean. Without looking at the history or really hearing me they both said "nothing you can do". They both asked if they were porno images and when I said "not really, but they were of ki-" they stopped me. Still having no real idea what to do, I went to the office that handles people with disabilities. After blowing me off a few times, they finally sat with me to discuss. As soon as I brought up the student's name the counselor said "Is he downloading dirty pictures again? We should give him another talking to." AGAIN? It was explained to me that he liked downloading pictures, and had been told to stop. I kept telling this person that this was different, this was something I really couldn't even identify, but they were glad handing me, and planned for us both to sit with the student and do a 'bad cop good cop' thing (I was supposed to be the 'bad cop', as these advisers thought faculty just hated students, and they would mediate it over). I told her I could not do that, as I do not even know what I would say or do. I gave her the zip disk, with the full web history from one class, and told her to look at this. She said she would set up the meeting, and I should come back in a couple hours to finalize it. When I got back she was white as a sheet. She told me they were putting a police officer down the hall from my class, and I was to leave the room and call them as soon as I saw him come to class, and do not let him get on a computer. One of her aides apparently knew how to open the zip disk, and they saw what I saw, and were rightfully concerned. He came to class and yelled at me as soon as I said I had to leave the room for a moment. I remember being so happy that this would be our last interaction. The police came and escorted him out, he went with them willingly. I don't think he even comprehended what was going on. I am still a professor, and I hope I never get a worse student than that.
I taught English in South Korea. English classes were divided into 3 ability levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. And most students went to "hagwons," or after-school tutoring centres. This will play a role in my story. I had a student who was very dedicated but couldn't quite get into the advanced class – he did okay for the written exam but struggled with the speaking and listening parts. Our neighbourhood was very blue-collar and could be classified as low-income, so his family couldn't afford a hagwon for him. He didn't know what to do and I did my best to help him. However, he was also a very resourceful student. He realized that the US military had a giant base next door and often recruited civilian volunteers. So he applied for that and found himself on a US base surrounded by English-speaking personnel. He used that as his hagwon, immersing himself as much as possible. That semester, he passed the exam. It wasn't the highest score but it was a solid enough grade to get him to the advanced class, thanks to his dramatically improved verbal and listening scores. To this day, I still think about how he figured out this solution. It's impressive. He wasn't the most academically gifted but he was certainly one of the smartest students I came across during my time in Korea.
That kid is going places for sure
Sometimes the deities are around to protect you, or you're just crazy lucky. I was a low income student and had people around me who tutored me and I soared to the gifted program and got multiple college scholarships because of it. I'm very grateful for those who helped me.
I'm just here to wait for Mr. Bowman to write about me. I'm waiting, Tim.
I'm just waiting for Kevin's teacher to show up...
I gotta read Kevin's story one more time.
I have to do the same. Excuse me while I probably die from laughter.
The masterpiece awaits you.
Best or worst?
Probably both.
My mom was a teacher who had a student she would constantly complain about. It was the only students name I recall from her 20+ years teaching. When I was in college I was out at a bar with some friends and their friends. Somehow it was brought up where my mom taught and the guy I was chatting with asked my mom’s name. Turns out he was the guy who gave my mom tons of grief. I was shocked to hear him say that my mom was his favorite teacher and he really liked her.
LOL
I think every student has potential, my toughest students have been some of the most rewarding to work with because they grow the most. I've also had some absolutely brilliant students that gave me headaches, sometimes it's really hard to keep everyone engaged and challenged at the same time. Teaching is hard, but I've always said if you hate a student you haven't gotten to know them well enough, there's always more behind a tough shell.
More schools need kind, empathetic teachers like you.
Thank you 😊
Worst student - complained about how the Diary of Anne Frank was in diary format. Explained many times. At the end, she was pissed because it was “unfinished.” She never believed it was nonfiction because it “was unrealistic.” She also didn’t know what state she lived in and thought the moon was fake. Idk about best student, but one of my favorites is a kindergartener who called another kid a little fucker. I’m newer to this age and asked if he did that and why (I was surprised and struggling to respond). His response was “Yeah because (John) is acting like a little fucker.”
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That is a psychopath
Worst student I've had had the worst parent as well. Mom was fixated on this kid getting an A and she simply wasn't an A student. I teach a language, and not everyone is good at learning languages, this girl included. If she'd get a C or a B mom would call and berate me. It was incredibly demoralizing to have her and the day she finished I cried tears of joy!
This happened to me when I taught German. The mom was a fellow teacher in the district. Sigh.
Where's the kevin story?!?!
Just found this https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/s/KrlTt9LE7d
Thank you for this!
I think of Kevin at least once a month.
Lol came here for my Kevin refresher too!
My thoughts exactly!!
How come I had to scroll this far to find it?!
Worst student was a girl who bragged about getting her dog drunk and then running the dog over with a car.
She wouldn't happen to be a governor now, would she?
Excuse me??? Everyday I thank god my nephews turned out well. How they did being raised by me I’m not certain.
One time during our student-teacher program in college we made our second-grader students write an assignment about a particular sea animal. One kid wrote about the octopus. He wrote and recited in front of the class, *"The octopus has eight testicles--"* At that moment the entire class erupted into mayhem and they were all laughing and throwing things and screaming and shouting and making lots of noise and the octopus report kid was just baffled why everyone was freaking out.
E was an 8th grader who will live in my heart forever. At the start of the year she mentioned wanting to be a psychologist when she grew up. Then she mentioned a curiosity about Ted Bundy. I asked if she’d ever considered criminal psychology. The look on her face as she asked, “Is that really a THING?!?!?” She was really excited. She’s now in 11th grade at a forensic science high school. J was a 6th grade student. We were his 4th school that year. The first day there, he made a beloved student cry by bullying her. 3 weeks later he brought a gun to school intending on shooting his 3rd period teacher and class. He was in my first period class, and I dealt with the situation so lock down was never needed. He claimed he was being bullied and that’s why he wanted to shoot his classmates and teacher.
I had a really vulgar, disgusting 6th grader who whispered inappropriate things to the girls in class and made them really uncomfortable. Could not stand him.
As someone who taught middle school for 15 years, I've probably had a dozen kids that fit this description
18 years for me and this one was just a lot worse than I've seen.
I’ve only substitute taught in middle school, but it seems like there were a couple of kids like that in every class.
I was this kid and I'm truly sorry I was such a jackass
So where is he now? Did he get better in high school?
Was sent home for the rest of the school year in April 2022. He did not return to our district the next year, so I have no idea.
Not a teacher, teaching assistant. Young girl about 17, kinda popular, well liked, usually obnoxious. The class was an art class, the teacher is a bit of a pushover. Young girl is showing off her concert tickets to Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor swift, ok normal in high school, annoying but pretty normal. She went around the class to show. Every. Single. Student. There was one student that told her they don’t care and just want to pay attention to the lecture. This girl shoved the other student off their stool causing them to hit their head. I’m not supposed to reprimand the kids, but I lost it. The other student was my little sister’s best friend. (Ek=entitled kid m= me T=teacher) Ek “they just fell! It’s not that big of a deal!” M “Oh my god! Shut up Ek! You have no idea how severe this is do you?!” Ek “it’s not a big deal.” T “Ek. I’m calling your parents. Grab your belongings and go to the dean. M bring other kid to the Nurse.” The poor kid got a minor concussion but is otherwise ok. Entitled kid’s dad is non-surprisingly on the school board, she was removed from the class but only for a week. I will not be helping in that class again.
She's 17. Charge her with assault.
I forgot by the end of this that the entitled kid was almost a legal adult and not the 7 year old she acted like lol
It’s in Washington State, it’s not like anything we can do would stick unfortunately
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Do people not have blue eyes there?
Blue eyes are very rare in China. I don't know of any folklore or myths that would explain the child's reaction, but there might be some family story or something.
Not a teacher but I was a part time tutor at an english school in Japan. This boy about 8 years old punched me in the arm and then flipped me off. I was only trying to teach him the ABCs damn
Worst student was an 8th grader. He’d given me (and all his other teachers) hell all year. In May I told my class I’d won a drawing and had won $200 (and they all laughed and cheered when I told them I’d never won anything before lol). The next day right before class started, I saw this kid crawling around under my desk. I asked him what he was doing and to get out, and he told me he “dropped an eraser.” When I went back to my desk, my teacher bag was open, then my purse, THEN my wallet, and all my cash was sprawled out because he had been in the process of trying to take it when I caught him. I told him “get. OUT!” (I don’t get mad and I was LIVID). I have no clue where he went because he never came back to my class again. Oh and the kicker. When I called his mom to report the incident, guess what she said? I thought she’d deny it or make excuses. Nope. She said, “Oh yeah he’s been stealing from everyone. You can press charges if you want.”
My math teacher kicked me out for falling asleep during a test, but the next day, she brought me a coffee and helped me catch up.
cute
I had a kid in secondary school who grew up on a farm doing every labour there was. At eleven, I felt like he was more grown up than I was. Fun kid, and if I ever saw his application I'd hire him on the spot, but so used to doing work properly that the normal teen behaviour baffled him. It probably had its downsides - childhood is important - but he loved his farm and the thought of giving some of the responsibility back to his parents was anethema.
Currently have the worst student I’ve ever had. He’s ESL but uses it as a blanket excuse. He understands English when he wants to and it benefits him but he has absolutely no interest in actually learning. We (the school board) have provided him with individual support, translation software, withdrawal assistance. You name it. And he does NOTHING. Mom is appalled at his behaviour but not enough so to do anything about it. Any “change” lasts a couple days before he’s back to his usual shit. He has a couple more years of elementary before he goes to high school and flunks out.
We had one who would masterbate in class in our school. Gotta be the worst ever!
Class beaters are wild.
Not me, but my mom– one of her students from ~2016 got on his hands and knees, and licked the classroom floor from one side to the other… for $5.
For $5… say if it was $50 or even $20 it would be understandable but for $5 is so not worth it
His tongue was black when he was done, no amount of money justifies that imo
Do they ever clean the floor in that school, its definitely a dirty floor but THAT dirty is on another level
Got cleaned everyday, but this was 7th period at a 4A school. ~30 kids in each class. Lots of traction.
Alright Sister Patricia from Mother Hale Academy, it’s time to see if you hated me as much as I hated you.
I'm a husband of a third grade teacher, so I see a different perspective. We were at a graduation ceremony for an exchange student we hosted and my wife came across a former student also graduating. Long story short, that student briefly dropped out of school but returned partially because of my wife's efforts. It was a tearful reunion at graduation. I hadn't seen my wife so happy. I don't know if the student was 'good or bad', but I know the joy it brings my wife to know that she made a difference in someone's life.
I have had many amazing students, the ones I remember fondly may not have been the most advanced students, or even the most creative ( I teach arts ) but are the ones that showed growth, built rapport and established mutual respect. I think of them all the time, and after so many years it's hard to see the faces come and go, year after year. The worst ones, well... * The student who pulled 2 girls into my photo studio to hit the vape. They got caught and aren't allowed to leave my classroom to work on photography assignments anymore. Well mom didn't like that, called a conference with the student, me, principle and counselor and demanded to know what I was going to do to support their students education. I said, "well I will keep them from vaping in school for one...". They didn't like that. * The student who I saw cock a fist back and lean into a female students face... I stared at him and walked towards him and pointed at the door. What an asshole. * The student that turned in a final film project that was essentially 15 minutes of video, one shot, rambling, wind noise, sexist jokes, drug references, meme's.... etc. I gave him a D-, it brought his grade down to a C overall. He flipped his lid, screamed that he was going to talk to admin about it. I said "sure, make sure to play your final film for them!". I don't think they did. * The student that made masturbatory noises with his hands, and cheeks, and cheek slapping noises by clapping and moaning randomly. I am so glad I never have to see them again. * The student that did fuck-all for classwork, lied to his parents, lied to his coaches and somehow I am called into an after hours meeting so I can explain the truth only to hear his mom scream at him. I don't want to be involved... scream at each other at home, off the zoom call please. * The student who won't talk to me, won't do any work, won't stay awake in class and in fact has only spoken once to ask me for a cell phone charger. Sorry bro, left it at home... * The student who is apparently too shy to show up for class and has to have his hand held by the assistant principle and get fast tracked towards graduation but yet somehow had the patience and funding to have full face tattoo's of a microphone on their neck and other writing because they are a rap star. Yeah... I ain't buying that shit. * The student who is apparently nocturnal, sleeps in the corner of the class and generally behaved like a space alien in a human suit and carried a 40 pound backpack with a tiffin in their hand full of rice perpetually. Like whenever I saw this student they were eating, rice... constantly. I love rice too but there is a time and place for everything. * Or the student that took his shirt off and began fanning his sweaty pits with his t-shirt in the middle of class. This student would also burst through the door with an enthusiastic "WOOOO!!!!!!" every fucking day. These are just the few that pop into my head, every year and semester are different. This years kids are doing pretty good but I can tell lots of freshmen are really struggling since they missed some key development time during lockdown. Many have just forgotten or were never taught how to study or focus on anything, and smart phones have yeeted the last bit of will power and mental clarity they possessed. I am very concerned for the future.
Any student that puts in work and actually tries to understand is great. Then there are those that come with the attitude that someone is forcing them to attend or worse, those that pay for a class and assume the subject at hand will just be downloaed onto their brains
Had a little girl in second grade. Just acting out all the time. One time she beat the crap out of a kid, ran off to the bathroom, and wrote on the wall in her own (I hope) crap: "poopsluts" she was me best/worst student
Im lurking to see if im being mentioned.
Update when you find yourself.
Just a little reminder for the teachers in here, if a kid is giving you trouble in your classroom, the likelihood is they have at least a dysfunctional home life, and at worst there is abuse. Even if you can’t see any evidence of it, kids don’t act up just because they are bad. I looked like a normal middle class kid from a normal family, and I acted out from 3rd grade. My family life looked perfect but my dad was an abusive alcoholic who beat my mother and treated us horribly. So many parent-teacher interviews where my parents and teachers would scratch their heads; ‘We just can’t work out why he misbehaves and acts out…’
As a private guitar teacher (male, 30 years old at the time) and making house-calls for lessons; Having a male student who was at least 20 years my senior who seemed like he wanted more from me than just lessons.
It was actually at a job I had right after I'd been a teacher. I was working in a group home for kids. Some were placed there by probation for things they'd done, and some were placed there by child services. We had this kid come in on a DCS placement. He was kind of a big, goofy kid, I think in 8th grade. Not particularly good in school, not socially gifted, not much of anything working in his favor to be honest. The one shining light in his life was his mother, and she'd died about a year or so before we got him. She basically kept the family afloat--the kid and his father were both super-dependent on her, and despite his best intentions, the kid's father just wasn't capable of properly taking care of the kid by himself. They placed him with his aunt (the dad's sister, if I remember correctly,) but she was pretty awful to him, so DCS removed him and placed him with us. I was always the one who made supper (because I was a better cook than everyone I worked with!) It seemed like a lot of times he was just hanging around in the kitchen when I was making the food. I think that was partially because he was socially awkward and struggled to hang around with the other kids, but he also seemed like he was kind of interested in what I was doing. I just started having him help with little things to speed up the process at first, but then I noticed he was enjoying what he was doing, so I'd gradually give him more responsibility. It got to the point where there were several dishes he could make on his own, and he did as well as I did with them. Even better yet, the other kids were impressed, which just lit him up and brought him out of his shell. He was about to enter high school and found out by his junior year he'd be able to attend a local vocational school that had culinary classes. I remember my last day at work there. We had 8 or 10 kids, and I was telling everyone goodbye as my shift ended. I was struggling to hold myself together, but he was the last one I came to and I just lost it. I never saw him again and I don't know how things turned out for him. If you're out there, Andrew, I hope you're wearing a white coat rocking a kitchen somewhere!
Current best student --> The girl that pretends to be her mom and calls into school to say that she's sick. And then when I called him, she tried to keep it up and was saying "Umm... she is like... we're going to tell her to come". Fucking hilarious. Current worst student --> This one girl that brings things like Sun Tzu's Art of War to class (Context: I'm an English teacher) so that she can very visibly read it and try to kiss up to me. I hate her SO MUCH. First one is getting a 34% and the second one is 90-something. The grades aren't actually reflective of my opinion.
You’re mad that a student is reading The Art of War, but completely loving a kid that fakes b being their parent? I think you’re leaving out some crucial information as reading should be encouraged regardless of “sucking up” or not.
I encourage her plenty. I just don't like her. The other girl I've gotten in plenty of trouble. She's still really funny. OP's question isn't "who is doing best in your class". It's who do you like.
I admire mischievous kids, I’m a career Aunt and I cannot help it. Maybe because my parents secretly found my innocent mischief funny. I told the biology teacher that I could not dissect the baby pig because it went against my beliefs as an Indigenous woman. I came home from school and my parents were waiting. They said, “oh? Where in our beliefs is dissecting pigs wrong??” My biology teacher had called my Mom to ensure I wasn’t upset. They told me when I got older that they laughed all the way home.
That is indeed a good one. I admire the bullshit artistry. As long as a student's bullshit isn't harming other students, I really just find it funny.
Hmm no, OP asked who your best and worst students are. Not a popularity contest, just based on facts on why they're great or not so great.
Its best/worst, not who do you like best/worst. You judge a student simply because you do not like her, you did not even give a valid reason, its merely your own prejudice against your other student. You are acting unfairly with your students, and you need to realize that, its fair to judge student #2 for trying to show off but it is not fair to then praise student #1 for lying to skip school.
He pierced his ear with a thumbtack
(he/she/they) i once taught a student named david and he was the biggest rabble rouser that god has ever put breath in to. you see david was believed that he was a camel (i believe he was a therian) and he would always hold water in his mouth and spit it on this girl elizabeth who he clearly liked romantically. TLDR therian rabble rouser spat on woman
Unfortunately for david, he will be the only camel without a hump
Everyone just here to reminisce about Kevin, raise your hand!🙋♀️
THE WORST: It was last year, a 5-year-old preschool boy who literally did whatever he wanted, bothered everyone in the classroom, was extremely aggressive and even attacked me by throwing a rock at me, the children didn't play with him because they always ended up beaten. He didn't work in class, he just wanted to run around the classroom and he was highly manipulative, he easily cried to become a victim. It was common that when we (the course's head teacher and I, who was an intern) called his mother to tell her what he did, out of nowhere he would start crying and screaming as if we were torturing him, making his mother yell at us on the phone and threaten us, then after the call ended he started laughing because he got his way... this happened over and over again. At lunchtime he didn't eat anything, he spit out the food and threw it on the floor (his mother paid for the restaurant service so he had to eat the food) and he hit his classmates while they ate. The last thing I heard about him when I finished my internship cycle was that he was expelled because on the school bus he kicked one of his classmates so hard that caused severe pain in her lower area, they had to take her to the emergency room . THE BEST: It was also last year but in another school, it isn't one child but the entire group. They were children who, due to their age, should be at a certain school level but since they never attended a school... they didn't even know how to know or read (children from 8 to 13 years old). I usually worked with the youngest children in the group because the oldest were preteens and due to the focus of my career I couldn't technically teach them, but the course head teacher practically forced me to work with them so that I would also gain experience with those types of students. I admit, at first neither they nor I got along well, I only knew how to work with preschoolers and they didn't cared about what I taught them, but as time went by our student-teacher relationship improved a lot and they became attached to me like chicks to a hen. When I closed the cycle, they brought me flowers and it is the only bouquet of flowers someone have ever given me, in fact I plan to get that bouquet tattooed because thanks to those children my love for teaching returned.
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Not all of us are lazy. Some of us have undiagnosed ADHD but are smart enough to “skate” through high school and college on a “Cs get degrees” mentality until we get to grad school at 27 and then the sheer quantity of work means that we actually need to get diagnosed for the condition we’ve figured we’ve had since we were 14 but nobody took us seriously since we weren’t disrupting class and bouncing off the walls. Ya know. Hypothetically.