Honors Math classes being poorly taught (Churchill)
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Anonymous
I just found the survey. The subject line was Thankful! It has an entire paragraph talking about Thanksgiving and suggesting we send a thank you note to a teacher before she lists the link for the survey. When I looked at it on my phone I totally missed that there was a survey. I wonder how many parents won't even see it! |
Anonymous
| Churchill parent here, and I have to say that my children and their friends have had amazing opportunities because the Churchill honors classes prepared them so well for advanced math studies. Yes, I have heard a few shocking stories, and I don't have any doubt that families have had bad experiences with some math teachers. At the same time, my DD is thriving thanks to her honors math classes, and yes, talented, dedicated, caring teachers. Dd and her friends scored remarkably well on AP math tests (both calculus and statistics), and friends who graduated last year are killing it in STEM classes at UMD and many of the top programs in the country. The math department isn't perfect, but I don't believe the school and teachers deserve that lambasting that's getting dished by these anonymous posters. |
Anonymous
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"...and I named names of the teachers who I've heard do a bad job. I'd suggest others do the same"
So you bashed teachers you've had no experience with? From ones you've "heard" do a bad job? That's unbelievable. I feel badly for this new principal, and the teachers, who have to deal with parents like this. |
Anonymous
Bet your dd could have done even better with a better program...if you could imagine such a thing. |
Anonymous
I agree, not every math teacher is bad. If your child makes it to BC Calculus - that teacher is amazing. Tough grader but children score well on the AP test. The problem is getting to that level. One of my children had a teacher that would assign problems, tell the children to work in groups to figure out how to solve, then take a nap at his desk. That is not teaching. When we went to Dr. Benz, she refused to let my child transfer out of the class. That was a wasted semester and my child was not taught foundational concepts that had to be refilled in later. I also agree, other departments have good and bad teachers. The only way to find out is to do pop in observances and probably collect student surveys. The students are in the classes everyday. I think they know if they are learning in the classes or not. And to the PP who said the survey was hard to find, yes I agree with you too. I think Mrs. Heckert is being forced from up above to send out the survey. Her message of Thanks is designed to get a positive response vs. criticism. She wants parents to flood teachers with letters of Thanks and cc her to counter act any bad feedback that comes in from the survey. Most parents will miss the survey at a time families are preparing for a family holiday. Odd timing all designed to limit the responses from the community. |
Anonymous
Yes— my dc has given me specific information about teachers’ behavior in class (which I believe) and I passed it on. I also noted the great teachers. No supervisor would take action on anonymous reports. But she can take a look— for instance at the exam grades of one teacher vs another. If she hears the same complaint over and over, she Same complaints over and over, she can also address that either with one teacher or all (“You should never be surfing the internet during class.”) |
Anonymous
Fill out the survey. Don't let the required "grade" and "race" question at the beginning intimidate you. If you are afraid the combination of grade and race would identify you, just put other for race. Except for that it's as anonymous as this message board, except the principal is more likely to see what you write. |
Anonymous
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+1
Who cares what she discloses? The point is to give a new principal insight into where parents see issues. There's a lot of space for you to write your thoughts--use it. This is your best chance to get her attention on issues--particularly if other parents are noting the same issues. |
Anonymous
| First, I have to agree that the survey. It was very easy to miss. In fact, I only found out about it when someone mentioned it to me. I had to take it out of my deleted mail. As far as the math department, I have heard great things about the BC calc teacher though my kids never had him, but personally we have had bad experiences with math department at the school. One kid had a teacher who didn't know the content, another had serious organizational issues, etc. As for AP scores, my oldest ended up with a 3 on the AB calc test which the college would not accept so they repeated the class for their math credit in college and did very well because my kid said the teacher actually knew the material and could teach it. |
Anonymous
I urge you, and everyone else on this thread, to please find the email with the survey link. The email says “Thankful” in the subject line. Please don’t assume that someone else will/has shared your concerns. The more people who respond, the better chance we have of gettting the math problems fixed: teachers who don’t teach, teachers who don’t know the math, teachers who don’t know how to teach honors math, math packets that are out of order logistically, etc. The survey closes tomorrow. While this thread is cathartic and helpful for knowing how many people have had problems with math at Churchill, it won’t help in getting the problems fixed. Please, please fill out the survey. |
Anonymous
| I'm grateful my DC got into the Blair magnet and doesn't have to deal with Churchill's craptastic math program. |
Anonymous
| I did the survey and outed as many teachers as my senior son would tell me about. I listed them and their shortcomings. |
Anonymous
| First period math teacher at Winston is a dud |
Anonymous
My child’s is too. I’m guessing it’s the same teacher. He’s been there for a number of years and has quite the reputation, if it’s the same one. |
Anonymous
Did you put it in the survey? |