A general observation
From being 12 to finishing sixth form college 6 years later, I was taught physics by a certain type of teacher. He always made the lesson entertaining in the same way you'd expect if Johnny Ball was your teacher. Performing extravagant demonstrations which usually took up a lot of space and were performed with much gusto and waving of arms.

In fact, it made me want to be a physics teacher. However, other things happened and changed my plans.

Was it just my school/college or is a general trend across the country to have physics teachers that are best described as 'totally hatstand'?
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Thu 29 Jan 2009, 15:32, 8 replies)

Our biology teacher
had no front teeth for a while, so grew his moustache long over his lips. He also had a love of the word "mastication" whenever you were caught chewing. I think it's science teachers in general who are mental...
(mrrenton is an inanimate fucking object, Thu 29 Jan 2009, 15:40, closed)

...
I'd imagine that lessons would be AMAZING if disasterprone was your teacher.



Oh. Wrong Johnny Ball.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 29 Jan 2009, 15:40, closed)

It's because
of all the sciences, Physics is the most interesting. And the closest to raw, unabstracted "How Stuff Works". Plus it works on such huge variations of scale that it's very difficult to be bored by it- there's always something new to learn; always something new to look at.

If you ever get bored in a physics lesson, you're either a bit of a twat or you're being taught wrong.
( uberdeity Wondered why Owen Lars knew of the term "hell" on, Thu 29 Jan 2009, 15:40, closed)

um
my physics teachers were
1. a woman who always wore a suit that looked like an armchair. she was ok.
2. an indian man who couldn't speak english. he was useless.
3. skeletor.
4. a younger guy who hit on all the girls, and got fired for doing so.
and finally, 5. a midget who was obsessed with Egypt, and therefore that is ALL he talked about for the year he taught me.

I hated physics.
( ascorbate, Thu 29 Jan 2009, 15:44, closed)

my other half's sister is a physics teacher
I would've killed to have a physics teacher like her. Not because of the quality of her teaching you understand, in the past I've had to explain to her why things float, but because she is a smoking hottie.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Thu 29 Jan 2009, 15:49, closed)

My physics teacher was brillilant
and very much of the hatstand variety.

I wanted to study physics to A Level.

He persuaded me otherwise.

I think he was worried that I was, however keen, just a bit too thick.
( Moey, Thu 29 Jan 2009, 15:58, closed)

I had two physics teachers...
..one was an utter moron who hated the fact that some people knew the stuff already and didn't need explanations in one syllable words.

The other was, yes, totally and utterly fruitbat insane. Brilliant chap, retired just as I went to uni, was a really good mate actually, despite being one of my teachers. Used to volunteer me for all the 'dangerous' assistant jobs, like holding the end of a ripped pair of jeans whilst he filled them with liquid CO2, and once pretended to stick radium up my nose...

Good times :)
(Celebgil, Thu 29 Jan 2009, 16:28, closed)

A tribute to my teacher Andrew Kerley
He had an unutterably posh accent which disguised the fact he was an enthusiastic pyromaniac with highly michievous destructive tendencies.

Passed away a few years ago in a car accident, but a fine teacher of all the sciences, especially physics. He would demonstrate the fragility of glass by smashing a beaker on the floor. Gas taps would remain on full flow while he popped next door to fetch matches, which he would then light and chuck at the tap, resulting in a spectacular fireball.

He had badly burned hands as a result of a homemade fireworks demonstration that went awry. Once he managed to create a perfect Batman-esque coloured gas in the fume cupboard, generating so much of the stuff that it completely overwhelmed the extractor fan and quickly filled the entire double classroom with acrid purple smoke.

A legendary educator and very sadly missed. RIP Sir!
( chart cat has an itch, Fri 30 Jan 2009, 6:49, closed)