Back in my day as a math student...

The best math teacher I had was actually my math teacher for Principles of Math 11, Principles of Math 12, and Calculus AP (sort of). In fact, I gave him the nickname, and have so-called myself, of Math Man. Math Man was the kind of teacher who recognized he didn't need to hold your hand through work, he believed in the strengths of his students. That came across most prominently in Calculus AP. In fact, I couldn't get into the actual AP class block because I had prior commitments. One day, I asked him for a reference letter. He told me, "I'll give you a reference letter, if you register for Calc AP". After explaining my situation, we came to the agreement that I would come in during my D block spare, which was also his prep block, and he would teach me Calculus for half the block. This was monumental for me. He sacrificed half of his prep time because he believed that, even with the accelerated learning pace (half the time means half the instruction), I could learn the material. It motivated me. He believed in me, and I would NOT let him down. And now look at me, I have a Math degree and am going to become a Math teacher! Math Men for life.

I've never had any horrible math teachers in grade school. So long as they didn't get in my way and fostered the speed at which I learnt math, I was happy. In university however, I've had some doozies. Many professors just aren't equipped to teach: messy printing, don't speak clearly, cannot transmit ideas and concepts well, as well as any number of different problems. Most of my university math degree was me teaching the material to myself, which again, comes back to Math Man, and him facilitating the belief that I CAN do this. I owe a lot to him.