My high school sociology teacher is hands down the best teacher I ever had. Not only for how she taught the class but mostly for the way she treated me.
Since it was sociology, the class was typically held as more of an open debate. That sounds like a ludicrous idea for a bunch of high school students but it was always handled very well. I have always been a very opinionated person and I have a strong personality that can hold the attention of a room with ease. This teacher saw this in me in the first few days of class and pulled me aside. She gave me a topic and said I would like you to decide how we are going to cover this topic next class. I went home and I studied my ass off, I learned everything I could on the topic from all points of view. Gathered information and examples. And planned out how I would present the topic for everyone. I killed it. It was one of the best and most open minded discussions I have ever been a part of. Pretty amazing when you consider it was about 30 disinterested 16 year olds with a sense of entitlement and varying opinions coming from relatively no life experience.
I have a learning disability and one a month all of my teachers were required to get together with my parents and me and determine how we could do better or whatever. All of the teachers were going around one by one telling everyone else how poorly behaved I was and how I gave no effort in their class and was disruptive.
After 3 of my other teachers went my sociology teacher stood up and literally yelled "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS". She went on to explain how I was a delight in her class and showed them examples of the discussions I had held. She then went on a 15 minute rant slamming all of them for treating me the way they did. Telling them that I was not the problem but instead it was their faults for not putting me in the best position to succeed.
After that all of the other teachers began to allow me to operate in a way that utilized my personality and my high level of intelligence to not only help myself but everyone else learn as well. Unsurprisingly after that I began to succeed in all classes.
I will never forget what she did for me. She stood up for me in a way that no one ever had before or likely ever will again. She is the best teacher that I ever had. And it's not even close.