A few years ago, I got annoyed at students using “favourite teacher” like it was some kind of power play. I started to teach my students that the answer to “who is your favourite teacher?” is always the name of whatever teacher is in the room.
I could never have predicted the dizzying heights of amusement students got out of this. It became a game to try and wedge it into interactions. They would ask each other and answer as teachers were going in and out of rooms, always trying to get it right. They once asked each other in front of me, and as I was joking with them, “Good job,” they immediately added, “and Mr. X.” I hadn’t even noticed that another teacher had walked in behind me.
I moved on from this job, but I like to think this is how my legacy lives on, with students baffling new teachers with a weird game of “who is your favourite teacher?” that appears to have a right and wrong answer.
[Photo by Zhu Peng]