My dad is a pretty cool guy. He is the biology teacher at the only high school in my hometown, so most everyone knows him as "Mr. Petty" (in fact, Jeff still does and probably always will call him Mr. Petty. We sat by each other in his class for a semester). He is a bug expert extraordinaire - along with being a cornacopia of knowlegde in many other areas, too. He really has a passion for teaching and is great with kids of all ages.
To his credit, my dad was just highlighted on the local news station's "Head of the Class" segment for being a great teacher. You can watch him in action by clicking here.
I took a couple of classes from him and have some good memories. One of my best memories: One afternoon I walked into my dad's room, went to his refrigerator, and proceeded to polish off a bit of apple juice straight out of the jug. My dad came in and said, "Karla! Don't drink that!" I thought he was just upset that I didn't ask if I could have it, so I swallowed the last bit. After doing so, he exclaimed that there had been about 10 mold samples in that apple juice. UGH! Luckily I didn't get sick, but I still didn't feel well after knowing I had just downed someone's extra credit!
I'm sure many, many people out there still have fond memories of my dad's class, whether it be weed field trips, +10, word root quizes, , T time, putting your chair up like a Navy SEAL, charitable service, the plant room...the list goes on!
For those of you who had my dad, what is one of your best memories from his class?
8 comments:
Aww Karla, your dad looks like such a fun guy! What a great teacher! Talk about going the extra mile.
what a sweet post! he sounds like a great man and that must have been so fun to have memories of him as your teacher.
I remember one day when Mr. Petty, in the middle of lecture, started tapping a ditty with a stick on the desks. He kept saying, "Plus 10 to whoever figures out this ditty!" It ended up being skip to my lou.
I remember I once collected seeds/nuts from trees for an extra credit collection, put them in a shoebox, and they all started to decompose. It smelled so gross, I was afraid to turn it in for fear I wouldn't get any points. But it turns out that Mr. Petty gave me extra credit for the seeds/nuts and extra extra credit for the mold.
I also remember the poster: Be Alert. The world needs more lerts.
And the labeled vats of things to dissect. Some were a bit sketchy. Good times.
I've never met your dad, but I'm sure he's awesome, because you are! Also, I have some of his flower pots in my back yard... :)
I don't know your dad, but all I can say is "Thank goodness there are great teachers out there." Tom's was a great teacher, too.
Oh, Mr Petty. His class was so much fun! I loved being a teacher aid for him, too. I got extra credit once for bringing in a t-shirt with pictures of bird poops on it. The shirt was just for fun, but he actually had a book that told you how to identify birds by their poop (splay) pattern! It even included how to account for the trajectory at which it hit the windsheild of your car! But what I am grateful to him the most is for the word roots. They have helped me so much in my chosen fields of cosmetology and veterinary medicine. All those scientific names! Thank you, Mr Petty, for a job well done! And thanks, Karla, for posting such an awesome post about your dad!
I went on a bird watching after school field trip to Hamer Id with Mr. Petty and group of students. On our way there we drove by the Bed Weiser plant just north of Idaho Falls. Well, I saw the large picture of a bald eagle painted on the building and shouted out, "Mr. Petty, a bald eagle!!"... Next thing I know, we are riding the rumble strip on the side of the road and Mr. Petty was trying to find the majestic bird... When I told him where I saw the bird he chuckled and gave me 10% extra credit for the semester. I loved extra credit in his class. From that day on, I was labeled Eagle Eye. Also, on the way to Hamer on that same trip I complained about a runny nose, so we made a stop at Dr. Petty's office and got some Claritin.
You're dad is GREAT!!!
Also, when I was really good friends with Shannon we went fishing with your dad and he made us wear camo and polarized glasses.
Maren
Karla,
I am pretty sure that Blake Griffin and I subtracted 10 years from your dad's life when we had him for Honor's Biology in 10th grade. I was the worst! I had so many "T" marks by my name on the seating chart that our TA started drawing boxes to put T's in on the sides of the paper with arrows pointing to my name. I remember trying to distract him during lectures by asking random questions about the two turtles that I sat next to...let's just say I was a very common visitor to the plant room.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Your dad really is a great teacher!
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