Mr. Conlay was one of my favorite teachers in high school, for one reason, and one reason alone – his humor. He accidentally threw markers at students, told funny jokes, and made us all feel comfortable learning Pre-Calculus. What a big contrast to the other math teachers at our school, which I didn’t learn much from. I try to incorporate as much humor as possible into my lesson (where applicable) as a direct result and anminspired to be much like him.
He showed us clips of him on Family Feud once, which were hilarious.
I should note that in high school me and Kevin Kim both ended the class with B+’s, but we aspired to get him to round our grade up to A’s. How did we do so? By writing him a clearly written poem, below:
This year we had the greatest teacher
His name was Mike Conlay
He was a moral preacher
He made us love math all dayHis jokes made us laugh out loud
The class was a bright path
We made him very proud
We are taking Calculus AP MathDo you want two honor students dead?
Because our parents will kill us
They will cut off our heads
So we “cuss and discuss”Kevin Kim and John Tran
Your two biggest fans
Give us a helping hand
And you’ll be “the MAN”.Who has gone so far as to write you a poem
Nobody has except us
Kevin Kim and John Tran, very well-known
Please consider it; it’s a must.
He showed his wife the poem, and even hung it up in the classroom. Sadly, he stuck to his moral convictions, and did not raise our grades.
Needless to say, if a student gave me a poem like that and asked for a grade change, I’d happily do it.
