School is less than 24 hours away and whether you’re preparing for a year of scholastic endeavors or doing the happy dance that your life no longer includes homework, we can all agree that a great teacher can have a lasting impact. Here are some of our favourite fictional teachers we’d be willing to go back to class for.

Starting today at 4E/1P, watch the Best of the Bell Marathon followed by the premiere of The Unauthorized Saved By the Bell Story at 9E/6P on M3.

Mr. Belding, Saved By The Bell

Over the years at Bayside, Principal Belding had more than a few run-ins with Zack, but in the end he became a father figure for his young students. Go Tigers!

Ezra Fitz, Pretty Little Liars

Okay, okay, so sometimes he has highly illegal sexual relationships with his students. But when he’s teaching, look out! The Scarlet Letter becomes super interesting!

Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter

Wise, inspiring, patient, and can really mess up any wizard that threatens his favourite students.

Charles Xavier, X Men

Professor Xavier fights for the rights of his students, keeping them alive and keeping them educated about their powers. Let’s not pretend to ignore the hubba-hubba factor as well. How you doin, Professor X?

Katerine Watson, Mona Lisa Smile

Ms. Watson taught art, but she also taught about life, especially life in the new wave of feminism creeping into classrooms in the 1950s. Her efforts cost her, but they also saved some of her students from a life of unhappiness.

John Keating

He was our captain.

Walter White, Breaking Bad

Okay, so sometimes he finds old students, turns them into drug dealers and makes their life a living hell. But he’s also really good at explaining chemistry.

Ms. Norbury, Mean Girls

She was a pusher, but in the good ‘join Mathletes and don’t dumb yourself down for boys’ way, not in the ‘here are some drugs’ way, no matter what the Burn Book says. We wish every student could have a Ms. Norbury in their life.

Mr. Feeny, Boy Meets World

Mr. Feeny could make us laugh with his constant exasperation with his young students, particularly Cory Matthews, and make us cry with his incredible life lessons. Just go with the part where he’s Cory’s teacher in every single class, plus college.

Professor McGonagall, Harry Potter

As a teacher you’re not supposed to show favouritism, which Professor McGonagall did towards Harry, but can you blame her? He was the boy who lived and frankly, up until arriving at Hogwarts he’d lived a pretty crummy life. Professor McGonagall kept her students safe from evil and did so by delivering some of the best one-liners in the series.