I was just thinking about this thread the other day! It's such a wholesome one.
My EngLang teacher last year was hands down, one of the greatest teachers I've ever had. He never left anyone behind. One way he did this was by quizzing the whole class with a game called, "What did the person before you just say?"
It was a really great way to drill the metalanguage in. He also had a spreadsheet for himself where he went through what metalanguage each person knew and worked to develop our understanding through tailored activities until we really mastered the content. People often say that teachers can't possibly cater to the learning needs of 25 or so different students, but this teacher worked from the ground up to ensure that everyone was learning and improving their work. Students also had a lot of respect for him as he was very passionate about helping students and there wasn't really ever much of a need to control the class. Whenever we had a CRT, this was not the case. My EngLang teacher made me want to improve my writing and helped me feel more confident in the subject (and many, many other students). Due to his expertise, he must have caused many lightbulb moments throughout his career. So at the end of the year, a few of us in the class got together and got his classes and his former students to write him a message in a book and when we gave him the book, he told us he was going to cry and that the book will be something to help his family remember him with in the future. I almost cried too.
Such an inspiring teacher and person. I hope that if I ever teach in the future, I can be like him.