Should I message/Email an old teacher of mine?

[hmmm........]

I was reminiscing about my school days the other day (it was a very, very long time ago) and started thinking about a young teacher I used to fancy A LOT.
Anyway, I found him on friends reunited, but his profile hadn't been updated in years. So I used the "personal" information from there and managed to find him on twitter, but I don't have a twitter account and I can't message him unless he follows me. But he had linked to a Flickr account on his twitter page which, of course, has Flickrmail - which is easy to sign up for with Yahoo!

Anyway, he was newly qualified and used to be my English/Media Studies teacher almost 18 years ago, so there's little chance he will remember me. He has since taken up photography (something I dabble in when the mood takes me) and is now teaching that too.

So now the question is, considering it was so long ago, should I send him a message just to say hi and see how life is treating him? Would it be weird for an ex-student to do this so many years later?
And is there anything that I should put or avoid putting for the "first contact" message?

[Kahili]

If you remember him/her from so long ago, the teacher must have meant something to you at some point. Fire away, message him/her.

[ctsmrvn]

I think contacting the teacher would be a lovely gesture. Because it was a long time ago that you were in his class, and because, try though they may, teachers simply cannot remember all the students who go through their classes, your best bet on the initial e-mail is to make remembering easier for him. You might consider sending a photo as you looked then, along with a recent one, and a little of the detail of things he might remember about the class. You're wise enough to be prepared for the possibility that, even with help, he won't have more than just a vague memory of you, and you know that he can't help that fact. But even if you don't pop right back into his recollections, he'll be pleased to hear from you and will appreciate the fact that you have fond memories of him.