Student Testimonials
"Mr. Derby will trust you. He will make you want to learn a lot in a way that
you do not want to miss a day of school. He is more than a teacher.”
—Adam Turi
“Hi Mr. Derby! Just wanted to let you know that
you came up in conversation today. My boyfriend’s cousin is going to
be a grade 4 teacher this coming year,
and feeling a bit
nervous about it all. I told him that grade 4 was one of the best years for me, and it was because I had the ‘coolest teacher ever,’ and that he’ll be just as special of a teacher to his students as you were to me
(and so many others). I know it has been many years since I sat in your classroom, but although a lot has changed overtime, the fact
that
you played a role in my life never will. Thanks for the memories!”—Lindsay Dreger
“
You are the BEST TEACHER I EVER HAD! You are a funny, awesome, rocker dude, and maybe a little handsome, um .
.
.
anyways
, a great author and a great monkey trainer. It was nice to have you as a teacher. Your students from next year will be very lucky to have you.”
—Sara Filip
“
We all thank you for everything!! When it comes to
learning, jokes, parties, private meetings, and more, we will always remember you in our hearts and brains. We’ll all miss being with you (especially me!) and I’m pretty
sure a lot of the younger kids were begging me to be in your class next year and the year after that and the year after that. You were really
nice and an awesome teacher this year for us.”
—Isabella Franco
“You are like a second father. I will miss you very much. I’ll remember to come up to you on Friday or tomorrow to give you a big hug.”—Isabella Anderson
“Thanks for teaching all that ‘
bath and skience
.’
You’re probably my favorite teacher in the world. I enjoyed spending my school year with my classmates and my teacher, you (aka
Head Gorilla)
. So thanks for being the best teacher and friend in the world. Have a great summer and ROCK ON!!!”—Jack F.
“
I was sitting in my bed this morning looking groggily out the window, home from school. As well as
I could with a fever, I ended up reflecting upon my life and how exactly
I got to be sitting in this bed, in this bedroom, looking out this window. Then I got to wondering how exactly
I arrived at thinking these thoughts (
and by this time I was as confused
as you probably are now)
, and I figured I might as well go back to the very
day I was born and how my life progressed and changed me from there. After re-living several years of my hectic (and almost trivial) little life, I got to the part in the story where I had already successfully adapted to the scary environment of an international school –
AISB, to be precise
. I remember vividly walking into my new 4th Grade classroom, nervously darting my eyes from corner to corner, trying desperately to make myself invisible. I had heard these terrible, terrible tales of an evil Cyclops-type giant residing
in this class. As I was scaring myself with gruesome stories of an insect-devouring boogieman
, I froze. There you were, sitting and relaxing on your chair. You stood up (and by God, were you tall) to greet your new students and I remember thinking (besides, ‘Didn’t Cyclops have only one eye?’), ‘eek!’ Now, throughout the year there were times when
I still wondered whether one of your eyes was indeed
fake
, but I came to realize that you weren’t evil (
though the stories about your arthropod-oriented cuisine were very
true). I realized that you were actually far from evil. You were just. Real. Your very unique
personality quite
perplexed
me, for I had always thought that
all adults were in essence,
the same. They were almost all fed up with life, most of them thinking, ‘
more than half of my life is over, so why not just impatiently wait until the other half finally comes to pass
?’
But then there are some uniquely different adults like yourself (really, how many adults are obsessed
with Fred Durst?)
who still retain
that excited spark of life in their eyes whenever they wake up in the morning. And so I guess it is because of your uniqueness (and, dare I say, oddness) that I came to respect you. And because of this respect, I took your urges for me to write to heart. Little did I know then how much this decision would help me throughout the years, especially through the turbulence of moving from school to school, the general confusion of growing up, and attempts
to carve out a creative space for myself amidst the pressures of academic writing. I wrote poems, short stories, lyrics… I found literature - its production as well as
its consumption - to be a constant comfort, all my own. So sitting on my bed, in my bedroom, looking out my window, I just
thought I would say ‘thank you’ for inspiring me in that 4th Grade classroom, and for helping me discover the meaning, usefulness and pleasure of writing.”
—Naomi
“
Not to insinuate that you don’t have an excellent memory, but I doubt you’ll remember me. That’s okay - because I remember you. You were my 2nd Grade teacher at AISB .
.
.
in 1992. Wow - has it been 14 years? Yip, I really wouldn't blame you for forgetting the loud and probably somewhat obnoxious South African kid in class 2D. I just
wanted to thank you for your open-mindedness and acceptance that each child is unique. It’s funny, you know, how kids can pick up things like that. Some teachers were the epitome of winter,
while others like you never stopped encouraging and inspiring.”
—Lynne-Marie Odendaal
“
I’m sure that u
won’t remember me, but i
thought of u
the other day and found ur
web site
. u
were my 4th grade teacher in AISB. I’m doing my last year of college in Spain now, and i'm
moving to England next year to go to university. I think i
was a bit of
trouble when i
was in ur
class but i’m
achieving well, and i
still remember many of the things u
taught me. Especially how to dissect a pigeon. i
really enjoyed ur
books when i
was in school and u
were an excellent teacher. Thank you for everything.”
—Joe Staniforth
“
Thank you so much for being such a good teacher. You were really funny
almost all the whole time, except when
we really had to get stuff finished. But that was also OK! I will really miss you, and I would be really happy
if you could be my teacher for the rest of my life. That would be COOL! I really
like your book called The Top 10 Ways to Ruin the First Day of School. It rocks! I hope you keep on being such a good author. If you write a new children’s book, please let me know because maybe I can order it or something. I will never forget you. I will even tell my new friends in Italy that I had the coolest teacher ever in 4th grade.”
—O. S.
“Thank you for teaching us (5K) so so so so nicely and humorously. I think I learned a lot about reading and writing. (I think because you are an author that loves to read and write!) You are THE BEST TEACHER IN MY WHOLE LIFE!!!”—J. Y. C.
“
Well .
.
.
thank you for teaching me for the whole 4th grade school year. I really liked this year in your class - the CRAZY class! It was very funny
! It was the best year ever! You were the best, BEST TEACHER! I really loved it. So .
.
.
have a nice holiday and I hope to see you soon!!!”
—H. L.
“
I really enjoyed being in your class. You are a good person. I learned a lot from you. I like you because you are very
friendly and very funny
and you made me feel good in your class. Hope to see you again. I will never forget you.”
—D. F.
you do not want to miss a day of school. He is more than a teacher.”
—Adam Turi
“Hi Mr. Derby! Just wanted to let you know that
you came up in conversation today. My boyfriend’s cousin is going to
be a grade 4 teacher this coming year,
and feeling a bit
nervous about it all. I told him that grade 4 was one of the best years for me, and it was because I had the ‘coolest teacher ever,’ and that he’ll be just as special of a teacher to his students as you were to me
(and so many others). I know it has been many years since I sat in your classroom, but although a lot has changed overtime, the fact
that
you played a role in my life never will. Thanks for the memories!”—Lindsay Dreger
“
You are the BEST TEACHER I EVER HAD! You are a funny, awesome, rocker dude, and maybe a little handsome, um .
.
.
anyways
, a great author and a great monkey trainer. It was nice to have you as a teacher. Your students from next year will be very lucky to have you.”
—Sara Filip
“
We all thank you for everything!! When it comes to
learning, jokes, parties, private meetings, and more, we will always remember you in our hearts and brains. We’ll all miss being with you (especially me!) and I’m pretty
sure a lot of the younger kids were begging me to be in your class next year and the year after that and the year after that. You were really
nice and an awesome teacher this year for us.”
—Isabella Franco
“You are like a second father. I will miss you very much. I’ll remember to come up to you on Friday or tomorrow to give you a big hug.”—Isabella Anderson
“Thanks for teaching all that ‘
bath and skience
.’
You’re probably my favorite teacher in the world. I enjoyed spending my school year with my classmates and my teacher, you (aka
Head Gorilla)
. So thanks for being the best teacher and friend in the world. Have a great summer and ROCK ON!!!”—Jack F.
“
I was sitting in my bed this morning looking groggily out the window, home from school. As well as
I could with a fever, I ended up reflecting upon my life and how exactly
I got to be sitting in this bed, in this bedroom, looking out this window. Then I got to wondering how exactly
I arrived at thinking these thoughts (
and by this time I was as confused
as you probably are now)
, and I figured I might as well go back to the very
day I was born and how my life progressed and changed me from there. After re-living several years of my hectic (and almost trivial) little life, I got to the part in the story where I had already successfully adapted to the scary environment of an international school –
AISB, to be precise
. I remember vividly walking into my new 4th Grade classroom, nervously darting my eyes from corner to corner, trying desperately to make myself invisible. I had heard these terrible, terrible tales of an evil Cyclops-type giant residing
in this class. As I was scaring myself with gruesome stories of an insect-devouring boogieman
, I froze. There you were, sitting and relaxing on your chair. You stood up (and by God, were you tall) to greet your new students and I remember thinking (besides, ‘Didn’t Cyclops have only one eye?’), ‘eek!’ Now, throughout the year there were times when
I still wondered whether one of your eyes was indeed
fake
, but I came to realize that you weren’t evil (
though the stories about your arthropod-oriented cuisine were very
true). I realized that you were actually far from evil. You were just. Real. Your very unique
personality quite
perplexed
me, for I had always thought that
all adults were in essence,
the same. They were almost all fed up with life, most of them thinking, ‘
more than half of my life is over, so why not just impatiently wait until the other half finally comes to pass
?’
But then there are some uniquely different adults like yourself (really, how many adults are obsessed
with Fred Durst?)
who still retain
that excited spark of life in their eyes whenever they wake up in the morning. And so I guess it is because of your uniqueness (and, dare I say, oddness) that I came to respect you. And because of this respect, I took your urges for me to write to heart. Little did I know then how much this decision would help me throughout the years, especially through the turbulence of moving from school to school, the general confusion of growing up, and attempts
to carve out a creative space for myself amidst the pressures of academic writing. I wrote poems, short stories, lyrics… I found literature - its production as well as
its consumption - to be a constant comfort, all my own. So sitting on my bed, in my bedroom, looking out my window, I just
thought I would say ‘thank you’ for inspiring me in that 4th Grade classroom, and for helping me discover the meaning, usefulness and pleasure of writing.”
—Naomi
“
Not to insinuate that you don’t have an excellent memory, but I doubt you’ll remember me. That’s okay - because I remember you. You were my 2nd Grade teacher at AISB .
.
.
in 1992. Wow - has it been 14 years? Yip, I really wouldn't blame you for forgetting the loud and probably somewhat obnoxious South African kid in class 2D. I just
wanted to thank you for your open-mindedness and acceptance that each child is unique. It’s funny, you know, how kids can pick up things like that. Some teachers were the epitome of winter,
while others like you never stopped encouraging and inspiring.”
—Lynne-Marie Odendaal
“
I’m sure that u
won’t remember me, but i
thought of u
the other day and found ur
web site
. u
were my 4th grade teacher in AISB. I’m doing my last year of college in Spain now, and i'm
moving to England next year to go to university. I think i
was a bit of
trouble when i
was in ur
class but i’m
achieving well, and i
still remember many of the things u
taught me. Especially how to dissect a pigeon. i
really enjoyed ur
books when i
was in school and u
were an excellent teacher. Thank you for everything.”
—Joe Staniforth
“
Thank you so much for being such a good teacher. You were really funny
almost all the whole time, except when
we really had to get stuff finished. But that was also OK! I will really miss you, and I would be really happy
if you could be my teacher for the rest of my life. That would be COOL! I really
like your book called The Top 10 Ways to Ruin the First Day of School. It rocks! I hope you keep on being such a good author. If you write a new children’s book, please let me know because maybe I can order it or something. I will never forget you. I will even tell my new friends in Italy that I had the coolest teacher ever in 4th grade.”
—O. S.
“Thank you for teaching us (5K) so so so so nicely and humorously. I think I learned a lot about reading and writing. (I think because you are an author that loves to read and write!) You are THE BEST TEACHER IN MY WHOLE LIFE!!!”—J. Y. C.
“
Well .
.
.
thank you for teaching me for the whole 4th grade school year. I really liked this year in your class - the CRAZY class! It was very funny
! It was the best year ever! You were the best, BEST TEACHER! I really loved it. So .
.
.
have a nice holiday and I hope to see you soon!!!”
—H. L.
“
I really enjoyed being in your class. You are a good person. I learned a lot from you. I like you because you are very
friendly and very funny
and you made me feel good in your class. Hope to see you again. I will never forget you.”
—D. F.