QotD: Apple For The Teacher

Who was your best (or worst) elementary school teacher?
Submitted by Minnow. 

Definitely Ms. Lang.  I had a lot of good teachers in elementary school, but she was probably the best.  I had her when I first moved back to DC from Puerto Rico in the middle of 2nd grade, and she made me feel right at home pretty quickly.  She was also the first teacher to notice that while I seemed to do well in most areas, certain things seemed to mysteriously trip me up.  Once when I was having so much trouble with multiplication tables, (I still don't know a lot of them very well), she had me stay after school for a few minutes and quizzed me on them while timing me.  I did terribly.  Then she quizzed me on them without timing me.  I did quite a bit better.  She then revealed she had in fact been timing and that I had not only done better at actually remembering them, I had gotten a better time.
She then moved up to teaching 5th grade at the same time I moved up to 5th grade, and I had her again for certain subjects (math, social studies and maybe a few others).  She again noticed that I would really struggle with certain subjects and tasks but seemed to do extremely well on others.  She was the first person to suggest that I might have some sort of learning disability, and talked to my parents at some point about having me tested.

The next year I was tested, and she was absolutely right. I was then able to get the help that I needed all through middle school and high school, learn to deal with the issues I had, and get certain accommodations to help me where I needed it (including being able to take tests un-timed, which again mostly just meant I finished in the allotted time, but the pressure was off) .  This is probably one of the most important things I have ever learned about myself, and is certainly a big factor in my being able to do was well in school as I did.  It was also big confidence booster.  I learned that there was a reason I had trouble with certain things others seemed to be able to easily get, and I learned that there were things I could do to deal with these problems.  I wasn't just stupid.  And it's all thanks to Ms. Lang actually paying close enough attention to notice the problems I was having and actually doing something about it by talking with my parents.