Wow... I only had the usual, the teacher who came to class soused, and one guy who talked to his dead mother during class...expressing to her his deep disappointment in us, his students. He was not a good guy, though...while folks used to joke about his eccentricities, he had some rather dark and questionable goings on with male students. I never quite knew what happened with that (it was junior college...).

I used to tell my students that sometimes I would grade by putting their papers on the floor, and whichever one the cat sat on, that one got an A -- unless she licked her butt, in which case, they failed.

I never actually did that...well, not really... *G*

Sam

My teachers were mostly pretty normal. (Well, some of them were nuns, so...pretty normal for nuns.)

But I was also shot at by a fireplace. Who knew this was such a common occurrence? (Ours only shot firecrackers, but they were the big kind!) Wiz! Pow! Blam!! Holy 4th of July, Batman!

;-)

She used to pull hair to discipline us. And she would pull hard. She left the room one day and left another student in charge. A bunch of us acted up, we got tattled on, and then the teacher lined us up and pulled our hair! I remember my friend Patty telling me not to cry.

Hmm... I can't say that I recall any of my teachers being especially strange--I think they all were either "normal" or under the category of "slightly eccentric." My elementary science school teacher was a terrific woman who couldn't help but mix up my siblings' names (our names were very similar), and signed herself with her initials as the "BAT." In high school, I had some stand-out math and science teachers--one chemistry teacher played up the "Tweedledee" aspect of his appearance and opted to wear a bow-tie each day (it didn't really match his hairpiece, but at least no one ever managed to set it on fire either). And our poetry teacher was a tiny woman who always managed to get and hold the class's attention--she was a wonder!

So anyway, I guess I don't really have any strange teacher stories! You have Potato Heads around your classroom? Cool!

Well I've had a few weird ones :P But I'm going to go with a "strange"/fun teacher. He taught 7th grade biology -because he liked kids. Mr. Etling. He could have been a college professor, and did indeed lecture and local universities from time to time.
I think I counted once, and he had 80+ animals in his classroom. (Ok so a lot of them were mice, gerbils, and giant hissing cockroaches from Madagascar.) But he did have a number of snakes, a giant iguana, chinchillas, at one point a flying squirrel, ball python, mourning doves... And we all clamored to be his student aides so his classroom didn't smell at all. He'd cover the blackboard with notes- and we were to copy them while he lectured. It was so fun. Everyone was always enthralled. We got to dissect things. Frogs, but if you had good grades you could dissect something else. A giant frog, a pig embryo, a pregnant shark. My friend and I chose the last one, but thankfully it was male - we found out a pregnant shark was just too much.
He also took us on nature hikes, and would take students rappelling at the local park - and he himself would do survival trips; spending the night in a blizzard outside with like only three things. Wild. And one of my favorite teachers ever.
As for the teacher that graded by astrological signs... I had one. Not so good. She took me out of the top ten. She graded by what she "felt." She'd sit in the teacher's lounge, take up the students in the top 10's paper, look at the name and say "yes" or "no." Clearly I was a "no." I got my first C from her - and thought I might die. I felt better knowing she did that to half the class too, but it didn't help when I found out I graduated #11. (We didn't do a valedictorian etc, we had a "top 10.")

I haven't had a strange teacher, but my oldest son did.
His freshman English teached kept a flask of vodka in her desk drawer and nipped at it all day long.
About 10 years after my son graduated she was caught with it and she retired.

Marcie reminded me of a 2nd grade incident; I was the last in line coming in from recess, hence last in line to get a drink from the bubbler. When the teacher -- Mrs. Fitzgerald -- demanded to know why another girl and I weren't yet seated, we told her that we were hot and wanted a drink of water. She dragged us away from the bubbler and told us that if we wanted to cool off, she'd take care of it. She made us stand on top of our desks and hike our dresses up so that she could slap our bare legs with sopping wet paper towels. I was completely humiliated, but too afraid to tell my parents what had happened because I thought I'd be in more trouble. Incidentally, the other girl is still one of my best friends, and she also writes romance!

In the ninth grade, I had a geometry teacher who'd lost the tip of his index finger in an accident, and used the stub to pick his nose during class....totally grossed us out as much as it fascinated us.

My daughter's science teacher was busted this past year for bringing equipment home from the school science lab, and making crystal meth. She now has a permanent substitute for the rest of the year, and he has a permanent record and jail time.

our principal in high school taught several subjects and he was this short wiry man with grey hair; he would be writing at the chalk board and suddenly spin around to see if he could catch someone talking or whatever. That is about the only 'weird' I knew.

My Dad, on the other hand, had a scar above his one eyebrow until the day he passed away from one of his teacher's throwing a piece of chalk at him and hitting the target. Imagine if it would have hit his eye.

gosh Karen - slapped with wet paper towels? Ouch.

Jeannie - in middle school and high school I didn't wear bangs. Guess that teacher traumatized me from having them. (She also and this is so mean had the flattest biggest butt my 4th grade eyes ever saw). And I believe in karma - so I'm sure she got hers.

I once knew a guy who was a grad student teaching assistant for freshman comp. He'd throw all the papers down the stairs. The ones that reached the bottom got A's. The ones that made the last step, B's...and so on....

He got away with it, too.

Sheesh. I always meant to put that in a book one day, but then, no one would believe it.

Sometimes, I think that's how some web sites write reviews ;-)

I had some strange teachers but the strangest one I encountered was one of my daughter's high school English teachers. This was a few years ago when my daughter wanted to take the day off from school to go somewhere that I can't remember. She was a junior and hadn't missed a day yet. I think this was with her school choir but I insisted she get me her current grades before I agreed. The English teacher calls me at home to apologize for not giving out her grade but tells me that he doesn't have one at this time. His class is an experience and putting a grade on this experience is impossible. He went on to explain his philosophy of teaching and how so many things must be combined to learn. He finally finsihed by telling me that he enjoyed having my daughter in his class and if he was forced to choose a grade he would say she had a B. I don't know what that was based on but I figured I was better off not asking.

Thanks everyone for telling your strange teacher stories. The winner of the book drawing is Marcie R! You can have my newest book or one of my backlist.

Send your snail mail address to jeanniewrites @ gmail . com

Congrats!

Thanks Jeannie!!!