[Yan Wang]

My favorite teacher this year and most Junior's who have her is Mrs. Roselyn Teukolsky. She has been teaching Precalculus BC and AP Computer Science for a long time (26 years). She graduated from "teacher school" in South Africa. She writes the NYS Barron's review book on AP Comp Sci and you can find more of her published works on Amazon, including a fairly interesting one regarding her bridge career (she still plays) and how she married her partner.

She is witty. She thinks faster than any of us and it blows us away. What's more amazing is that she teaches so well and in such an understandable fashion that the topics become incredibly easy. When asked if she ever passed "teacher school" (she references, "In teacher school, ..." every day), she replies, "with distinction." My friends and I have a running database of quotes by her. It is well over 200 since the start of this year. Here are some of my favorites:

Yan, what you said had so many misconceptions and errors in it that it's not 'my bad', it's 'my horrible'.

Don't drop this course based on tonight's homework.

If the hairs on my arm stand up straigh tbecause your graph is so ugly, you lose an ugliness point.

I'm not yelling at you, I'm just taking care of your education.

When I was a little girl, I would line up my dolls and teach them.

... even though I shouldn't penalize you because you're a smartass.

You know I shouldn't be laughing at you.

This is not pure thought. This is showing monkeys how to jump through hoops.

Paul.. you don't have to show me over and over again that you have no soul.

I just made that up. I'm serious.

Ben: Oh my god!
Mrs. Teukolsky: Yes, my son?
[^^ That one goes in the record books... less than one second response time for witty-ness]

The algebra will grown hair on your chest.

I laugh at my students all the time. I'm not supposed to but I can't hold it in.

I got a little senile on this.

I read your mind from here.

A question like that tells you that all the little deers are already damaged...

What is the blurfth term? [blurf is her universal variable]

Maybe this is where it's at.

I never give you a quiz the day after. I always give you a day to figure out that you don't know it.

Yan, just don't look at me like a piece of cheese. Just get your own paper and do it.

Yan, I don't have to look at - he uses up all the air space.

Why am I always saying something nasty to you? Stop it!

Will all the big mouths shut up except mine?

You have to hide your colored chalk. Otherwise other teachers will take them.

It's better to get it wrong now. Tomorrow you get public humiliation.

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Yeah, I have a section in my AIM profile for her quotes. I update new ones fairly often.

Though some things seem mean, they're not. She's constantly makes fun of people who get not-perfect grades or make dumb mistakes, but her attitude is one of someone who loves teaching. "If I wanted to get rich, I wouldn't have been a teacher." It's interesting to note that one of her computer science students in the 80s went to college and made the game Wizards... that game was fun... and that guy became rich.