JStew & Cori Celebrate “Favorite” Teachers This Teacher Appreciation Week…

It's Teacher Appreciation Week, so we wanted to know who the coolest teacher in the school was when you were a student. Not even necessarily someone you had for a class, maybe just someone you wanted to have for a class.

JStew: When I was in school, I was lucky. My best subject was English, so I took a lot of extra English classes. In my high school, I always thought the coolest teacher was Mr. David Jackson. He was an odd man in a lot of ways, and that really spoke to me at the time, as I felt pretty odd. It was the 90's, and while everyone was wearing the latest weird 90's fashion, Mr. Jackson wore loud shirts with big 70's ties. His blazers were often at least that old. He drove an old 70's Buick that was about 100 feet long. My sister had him in school too. She one time, he was not happy with the kind of attention that the class was paying, so he stood in the trashcan and taught from there. He was willing to go the miracle mile to teach you if you wanted to learn. As opposed to the other English teacher I had who slapped me across the back in front of the entire class. She sucked, hahaha. Also, I have to give a special shout-out to Pat Michaud, my band director in high school. Extremely patient man who taught me a LOT about playing with other musicians. Can't thank that guy enough.

Cori: There were a few teachers who were the "cool" ones in High School. The only one that I actually had a class with, in my opinion, was the coolest! Dr. Fred Jones taught Honors English at Bapst. He was huge into the stone circles and mounds that pepper England, Ireland, and Scotland. It was fascinating to hear him talk about the subject with such passion. He even wrote a book about them called "Chasing the Sun: A Journey in Neolithic Speculation.” Dr. Jones was also the organist and choirmaster at St. John's Episcopal Church, which was right behind John Bapst. Every Friday he would take us on a walk over to the church, invite us to relax in one of the pews, and proceed to play the organ for us for the duration of that class. I think he knew the power that music had to center and relieve stress, and he knew we were all putting such pressure on ourselves, academically, that it was a way he could help us decompress while sharing his talent. I learned a lot from him. We read everything from The Bible to "Beowulf", to Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" in that class. But I also learned the importance of taking a moment to relax and center yourself when you feel stressed out. That's an important lesson, for sure.

I owe a lot to my elementary school music teacher, Jan Smith and my High School music teacher, Neia Rhodes. They inspired in me a  love of music.

My 3rd-grade teacher, Mr. Rackliff taught me a lot about empathy and patience.

And my kindergarten teacher, Val Kane, who gave me my first crack at public speaking when she cast me as the narrator of the "Three Little Pigs" play.

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There are definitely some cool teachers on this list. Thanks for honoring them with us this week.