Throwback Thursday: high school teachers

Today I'm linkin' up with Bonnie for her throwback Thursday. Today's theme is a memory of a high school teacher or a high school class.

One of my favorite teachers in high school provided tons of good memories in a place filled with teenage angst. Hi name is Mr. Childers. He was a history teacher and I had him during my junior and senior years. He was hilarious!! He made learning history (an otherwise boring subject) fun and interesting. I don't think I laughed that much in all of my other classes combined. I have so many funny stories from his class. 

One story I have involved the movie Beethoven (you read that word correctly or I will disown you). Because I am ancient, this movie was popular when I was in high school. In Mr. Childers class we played a fun trivia game, usually with history but sometimes we had a fun day and anything could be the subject. Well, on a random fun day, it was this kid, Jack's, turn to answer the question. Poor Jack, he wasn't the brightest bulb in the package and never did well playing the trivia game, even if it was fun day. Well, the question was about the movie Beethoven. Jack got really excited, he actually knew the answer to this question. He blurted out the answer "Beethoven," only he pronounced it wrong (remember the dim bulb thing?). What he actually said rhymed with TEETH OVEN. Jack was confused, he thought that that was how it was pronounced and didn't know what he said that was funny. Mr. Childers started laughing and couldn't stop. We were all aware of poor Jack's dim bulb problem, even poor Mr. Childers. We thought Mr. Childers was going to pass out he was laughing so hard. Of course, everyone was laughing but he was rolling on the floor laughing. He couldn't stop. I'm sure some people would see this as rude but Mr. Childers just found humor in the things that most teenagers did too. 

One of the things that he did that was fun was the projects that we did. In junior year history (US history maybe), we had to do a project on something that had to do with US history. You could make posters, make a speech, make a video (not everyone had a video camera in their back pockets then), do a fun presentation...the opportunities were unlimited!! My BFF and I chose to do a presentation about Jim Jones. We read tons of books (no Google or wikipedia back then kids), checked out the encyclopedia, and went to the public library to watch the news videos. Our project included a speech about what happened back in 1978 and then the best part.....we made a ton of Koolaid in a big bucket and made everyone line up to get their very own Dixie cup of our drink, just like back in the day (only ours wasn't laced with cyanide, you're welcome). Mr. Childers loved the added Koolaid part. We, our course, got an "A" because we were so creative!! I love teachers that do a creative project for their students. I believe there is no better way to get kids engaged in learning than to let them work hands-on.  (If you want to be educated about Jim Jones go here)

Hope you loved my walk down memory lane. I am so thankful for Mr. Childers for making learning fun. Sorry I didn't provide many pictures. I am being super lazy, as evident in my lack of pictures and lack of blog posts since school started. I guess I just need to get back in the swing of things.

FYI: I started this post on my iPad at school and apparently my signature disappears when I use the iPad app. 

Mendy :)