Let's hear it for awesome professors

[Hellbent]

All you college kids present or past, let's hear about any and all awesome teachers you had that inspired you or were just plain great!

My Beowulf professor was awesome. He really inspired reverence and awe for the work.

[Technician]

All the profs I had were great.

[Bank]

I spent thanksgiving with my English professor who is an all around interesting great guy. He was a cab driver here in New York in the 70s and was in the army as well and has written a few books and sometimes reads from his old journals. And who else can say they had a couple brews and smoked a cigar with their teacher on Thanksgiving?

[exp(x)]

My Operating Systems professor enjoys talking about killing children.

[AndrewB]

Technician said:

All the profs I had were great.

Same

[Grazza]

Of the professors whose lectures I attended, Prof. Thompson was pretty bad despite being a Fields Medal recipient, while Prof. Hawking was rather inspiring despite his well-known communication difficulties.

[geekmarine]

I will never forget my creative writing professor. Toward the end of the semester, one of the other students in the class badmouthed him in class, or something to that effect. He then turned to said student, and in a very perky and cheerful voice said, "Fuck you! Fuck you very much!" Funniest damn thing I ever heard coming out of a professor.

[Patrick]

My Public speaking prof is very involved with what she does. She doesn't sound like a fucking drone when she speaks, and she's hilarious funny.

[Creaphis]

I've definitely had some that were less than inspiring, but have also had some that steered the course of my life. The first that comes to mind is the professor whose intro psychology course I attended in my first year of university. I can't even count the moments that I was simply thunderstruck by some new revelation about humanity and about myself during those lectures. Of course, that can largely be attributed to the newness of the course material (I didn't know anything about psychology before taking that course) but it also takes a good lecturer to make it fascinating.

This professor, and a few of my other favourites, are all professors at the liberal Mennonite university where I started my post-secondary education. Unfortunately, you can't get a degree there without taking a minor in biblical/theological studies, which I didn't really want to do, so I had to move on.

Of course, as I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm now developing a new, aesthetic appreciation for Christianity, so I sometimes imagine going back. I know it would be terribly embarrassing; I can guarantee that they would welcome me like the prodigal son.

[Hellbent]

Bank said:

I spent thanksgiving with my English professor who is an all around interesting great guy. He was a cab driver here in New York in the 70s and was in the army as well and has written a few books and sometimes reads from his old journals. And who else can say they had a couple brews and smoked a cigar with their teacher on Thanksgiving?

Great replies everyone! Grazza, Technician and others... what schools did you attend?

My Beowulf professor and a bunch of the students had drinks at the local pub... but not on thanksgiving and there were no cigars. still was fun to shoot the shit outside the classroom.

EDIT: I go to Umass, Amherst.

[esselfortium]

edit: nvm, gone now

[Hellbent]

esselfortium quoted:
Great class, but couldn't understand the professor at all.

What an intelligent comment.

I used that website to sign up for my classes next semester. So hopefully it will be win!

One of my best friends went to RIT.

a professor I'm taking next semester: http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=376216

[Bank]

Pratt Institute

[Craigs]

I really liked my English 101 instructor. She didn't have any real due dates. Basically, as long as we turned them in by the end of the quarter we'd get credit for them. She didn't set strict prompts and shit for our essays either. She'd give us a very general prompt and we'd think about what we'd want to write about from there.

[esselfortium]

Hellbent said:

What an intelligent comment.

Oh, damn, the comments I was linking to it for were removed. The guy strangled his wife and all the latest comments were bad puns about it.

[wildweasel]

I don't have any awesome professor stories, but I had a high school English teacher who kept showing us videos and giving them the MST3K treatment as he fast-forwarded through the sex scenes. I still laugh when I imagine a completely deadpan 40-some-years-old guy, narrating in hyperspeed about Coney Island hot dogs, the tensile strength of wooden bedposts, and "I sure hope she knows what The Pill is."

[Phobus]

My Games Design lecturer from last year attends the occaissional student night in the main club on Wednesdays - been there before when he got pretty drunk. He pulled me over to the bar, gave me a shot of sambuca, a straw, and then set the shot on fire and told me to get it up the straw quick as possible. Was pretty fun, and a unique experience in that the lecturer got the student a drink :P

Otherwise... some of them have been pretty cool, others awful, and a few in between.

[Coopersville]

Psychology Teacher - She's a real psychologist and psychiatrist, so she knows her shit. She's a knowledgeable skeptic regarding most things, but somehow believes in 'demons' due to a couple especially crazy patients she's dealt with. Kind of irks me, but whatever; she doesn't include her opinion in her lessons.

Diversity Teacher - An old ass ex-cop who's seen everything. A lot of his lectures split off into fascinating stories about calls he's taken, crimes he's witnessed, and people he's met from all parts of society. I've learned a lot of interesting secret details about police culture through him.

[Dco16]

My Television Production professor got me a job in the tech center on campus that pays handsomely and gives me an obscene amount of free time. For example, I'm babysitting people in the multimedia lab right now making sure no one steals anything, and I have the time to sit and write this post.

[Sharessa]

I spent a horrible two quarters in community college. That's as far as my college education goes. My Recording Technologies II professor and his wife were famous hurdy-gurdy players/makers and I saw them later performing at Folk Life Festival.

[Kirby]

My professor for our university's second required english class was pretty great. I once came in with a late paper and he suggested I make up for the grade by getting him scotch.

The professor I have for my Information Storage and Retrieval Conecepts course is hilarious. He made sure the class know that he will blatantly spurt out vehement jokes in class and that he does not give a crap about whether it offens anyone or not. Very good at explaining what you ne to do if you want to manage databases too