Bob Greenberg is a retired teacher who created a mission for himself: He interviews educators and makes short videos about their work. He also asks, in a separate video, which teachers made a difference in your life.
He calls his archive the Brainwave Video Anthology.
Here is a collection of more than 400 educators describing the teachers that mattered most to them.
Scan the list. You will find people you know or authors whose work you have read.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane Thank you for posting this–I have forwarded it to several people who, I know, will appreciate it greatly. It should be “required viewing” and discussion for all departments of education, not to mention any courses that have elements of cognitional theory embedded in them. CBK
From David Maraniss’s “Once In A Great City: A Detroit Story” about the impact of teachers on the musical pioneers from Motown:
“…connecting these was the least appreciated and perhaps most important factor of all: the music teachers and program in the Detroit schools.
“Talk to musicians in Detroit and odds are they will recall—vividly and fondly—the teachers who pushed them along. Paul Riser came to Motown in 1962 as a trombone player straight out of Case Tech, a social naif among the older cool-cat jazzmen of the Funk Brothers house band, but also a musical prodigy with skills at reading, writing, and arranging scores that he had learned in the public schools. Harold Arnoldi, the music teacher at Keating Elementary, plucked him out of the crowd at age seven and become a mentor and father figure to Riser, helping him get instruments at a discount and encouraging his development. Then, at Cass Tech, Riser rose under the guidance of Dr. Harry Begian, who inculcated in his music students the classics and fundamentals. ‘He was like a military drill sergeant, but he did it from his heart,’ Riser recalled. ‘I didn’t understand what he was doing until I graduated years later and got a degree. I was able to laugh about it, his discipline. Harry Begian treat us as ladies and gentlemen and got us ready for the marketplace, attitude-wise, discipline-wise. I sat first chair trombone at Cass Tech, and he saw something in me, again, just as Arnoldi did. That got me ready for Motown.’
“For Martha Reeves, the public school influence traced back to her music teacher at Russell Elementary School. ‘Emily Wagstaff, a beautiful little German lady whose accent was so think I could barely understand what she was saying,’ Reeves later recalled. ‘She pulled me from class five minutes before tick-tock and chose me as a soloist. My public school teachers had the biggest hearts and they were patient, and they could choose. They could pick out the stars and know they can instruct them and fill out their greatness.’ At Northeastern High her music teacher was Abraham Silver, who, much like Begian at Cass Tech, had a capacity to teach music theory as well as direct a choir and infused his students with an appreciation for the classics and fundamentals. Freedom thought discipline: once they learned the fundamentals they could move freely into the genres of jazz, pop, and rhythm and blues.
“Reeves later remembered how Silver singled her out and then nurtured her. ‘He went through the whole choir section to see who could sing Bach arias. My name was Reeves, I was near the end. Some others did pretty good but no one really nailed it. So I stood up with my knees knocking. I nailed it. I had never heard of Bach. Or I had maybe heard it on the radio. One of my favorite pastimes as a teenager was listening to symphonic music and trying to hit some of the high notes.’ Decades later, recalling the scene, Reeves hit those soprano notes beautifully. ‘So I did learn a lot listening to symphonic music. But Bach was a new name to me. Hallelujah! We were the first choir at Northeastern to be recorded. And the first choir from Northeastern to sing at Ford Auditorium. The first time I appeared before four thousand, four hundred people. I was seventeen, about to graduate. And that was one of the biggest thrills I can remember in my teenage life, to hear that applause. It was not just for me but for the entire choir, but I was the soloist. No microphones. You had to throw your voice. Abraham Silver. He taught us not only how to sing but how to read it. That made a big difference. That we learned how to read notes. That we did it correctly.’”
I remember Mr. Abraham Silver at Northeastern. By that time, he was Music Dept. Head, directing the school chorus, choir and the school band. My vocal music teacher was Mrs. E. Johnson, whose facial features and speaking manner reminded me of Leona Horne. But she taught us proper singing enunciation and to read music. I was one of 3 picked to audition for the All City High School Honors Choir and two of us got in and represented our school at Ford Auditorium during the 1970-71 school year. Between Mr. Silver, Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Helen Douglas, piano accompanist, my entire high school time was filled with music of all genres, thanks to Glee Club, Choir, School Chorus and the special ensemble called The Falconaires. It helped continue my lifelong love and appreciation for all types of music. I have to also give a HUGE thanks to Miss Annabelle Miller and Mr. Edwards, who are responsible for introducing me to music and music theory at Williams Elementary and Knudsen Jr. High, respectively, and peaking my interest, beginning at the age of 7.
I was drawn to this one and was not dissappointed.
Nancy Fitz-Hugh Meneely – Teachers Make a Difference – My Students
She reflects on what she learned from her students in three contexts: Her first class, then teaching in a community college (Mike Rose would like this) then teaching poetry to women in prison.
warlier today I was looking at the list of CEOs that Trump has said he will consult with on “re-opening America.” I wonder what these ( mostly men) would say. I would also like to know how many ( mostly men) attended public schools and universities exclusivly.
I watched about ten of them and was very surprised that not a single one said “That teacher helped me to score high on tests”.
Clearly, I must have been watching some anoalous ones because I am sure that’s what most people remember about their best teachers.
Anomalous
I agree. Most the statements focus on the relationships that they had with the teacher, not scores, and sometimes not even academics.
Haaaa!!!!! Oh yes, those incredibly inspiring test prep worksheets!!! Life changers!!!
Thank you, Mr. Schimizzi (5th grade), Mr. Long (11th grade), Profs. Don Gray and Alvin Rosenfeld and James Miller at Indiana University, and many, many others. Hardly a week goes by in which I do not think of you, with enormous gratitude.
Most important lesson ever. Once, in a class at Indiana University, on 19th century American poetry, I made the comment to the professor that I wasn’t a fan of the poetry of Poe, which seemed to me overblown, hyperbolic. He said, “That’s too bad because you have to be willing to go with it, to take the writer’s trip. And then he swept everything off his desk, lay back on it, closed his eyes, and recited ‘Annabelle Lee’ from memory.”
You have be open to taking the author’s trip, and you have to give yourself over to that.
Wow. Key.
These videos are SOOOOOOOOOOO moving!!!!
Thank you, Diane, and thank you, thank you, thank you, Bob Greenberg. What a beautiful project!!!!
And young people, if you want to learn how to be a teacher, watch these.