Favourite and least favourite math teachers

 My least favorite math teacher was a university professor I had for a third year class I took called Continuous Optimization. There is nothing worse than a teacher who cannot take correction or constructive criticism from a student. One class, I pointed out a mistake the teacher made in his proof and calculations. The teacher was defensive, immediately jumping to the conclusion that I was wrong and arguing with me for an extended duration of time. During this time, the professor was extremely condescending and made it seem like I did not know what I was doing. Half an hour later, he realized that he did made a mistake. As a result, he tried to cover that up saying that he knew what he was doing all along. Despite ending the class with an A, the final exam mean was a 42% and the class average was a C (after students has dropped out). Not only was he unable to take constructive criticism, but he never stopped for students and questions, has extremely messy handwriting, and his tests were random and irrelevant to what we were learning in class. 

My favorite math teacher was my high school AP Calculus BC teacher. I liked him as a teacher because not only did he clearly explain the concepts, but he also gave us a lot of time in class to practice them and do group work. For students like me who loves a challenge, he would push me to undestand mathematics relationally and explore topics beyond the scope of the course. I appreciate him as a teacher for his willingness to go out of his way and push his students to meet and perhaps surpass their goals.