Blair SMACS Teachers Qn.

[Anonymous]

Are they beloved by the students? How strong are they in getting kids engaged with the material?

[Anonymous]

There was a thread about one of the math teachers and it was pretty bad. They also talked about her on the listserv.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was a thread about one of the math teachers and it was pretty bad. They also talked about her on the listserv.

Do you have the listserv link?

[Anonymous]

Overall, my 10th grader has liked both the magnet and non-magnet teachers at Blair. Only exception so far has been a world language teacher.

[Anonymous]

Not a good idea to learn college materials taught by high school teachers. Not to say they aren’t qualified, you just don’t get the breath and depth from a college professor who are at the forefront of the field. I’d rather let DC learn the materials at college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a good idea to learn college materials taught by high school teachers. Not to say they aren’t qualified, you just don’t get the breath and depth from a college professor who are at the forefront of the field. I’d rather let DC learn the materials at college.

So AP is worthless?

College profs who are at the forefront of their field rarely spend time really engaging kids in intro classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a good idea to learn college materials taught by high school teachers. Not to say they aren’t qualified, you just don’t get the breath and depth from a college professor who are at the forefront of the field. I’d rather let DC learn the materials at college.

Most students even in the STEM magnet are going to a college where they will be taught by a professor at the forefront of the field. Mostly, they will be taught by someone who has focused on teaching rather than research. The first couple years, they may have adjuncts. That’s just how university undergrad courses work these days.

[Anonymous]

My 2 kids were in the magnet. My youngest is now in college. As I recall, the magnet teachers all seemed very knowledgeable about their subjects. In terms of teaching quality, some were really great and some were really -- not. As for getting the students engaged in the material, most of these kids start out engaged.

Keep in mind that everything is in flux. Teachers come and go, and get shuffled around to teach other classes, and that’s when things are stable. One year, the biology teacher was on extended leave (maybe maternity, I don’t remember the details), so they had substitutes most of the year and sometimes the magnet coordinator ended up covering the class. I would expect that COVID means there is a greater likelihood of teachers having to take sick-leave, and the pool of effective(?) substitutes will be stretched even thinner than normal.

[Anonymous]

Overall the teachers are fantastic in & out of the magnet. (Obviously there are a few, in & out of magnet less than desirable) but what school doesn’t have that? Fyi, the math teacher that teaches the highest maths, USED to be a UMD math professor. My kids really liked the teachers. English & History is really good too. One of the Spanish teachers is horrible, the rest are good.

[Anonymous]

There are several that are loved and respected.

The thread about the math teacher was mostly BS complaints by parents who wanted them to teach their way. Most kids, including mine, were more than capable of adapting and found their methods effective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a good idea to learn college materials taught by high school teachers. Not to say they aren’t qualified, you just don’t get the breath and depth from a college professor who are at the forefront of the field. I’d rather let DC learn the materials at college.

Most students even in the STEM magnet are going to a college where they will be taught by a professor at the forefront of the field. Mostly, they will be taught by someone who has focused on teaching rather than research. The first couple years, they may have adjuncts. That’s just how university undergrad courses work these days.

Also, AP-level classes are fairly basic. My children and I both have had many great AP teachers. I even had one who taught the exact same subject at one of the US military academies. He wanted to teach HS after retiring from the military because he felt they had more of an impact. Both my kids had several math teachers who had also taught at Universities as well. It's really not uncommon at a certain level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a good idea to learn college materials taught by high school teachers. Not to say they aren’t qualified, you just don’t get the breath and depth from a college professor who are at the forefront of the field. I’d rather let DC learn the materials at college.

So AP is worthless?

College profs who are at the forefront of their field rarely spend time really engaging kids in intro classes.

Seems to me it would be better to take the APs, get the credits to skip the huge intro classes taught by overworked and exhausted TAs (trust me, I was one), and go straight to the upper-level classes in the major. Those are generally taught by better-qualified and more experienced professors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a good idea to learn college materials taught by high school teachers. Not to say they aren’t qualified, you just don’t get the breath and depth from a college professor who are at the forefront of the field. I’d rather let DC learn the materials at college.

So AP is worthless?

College profs who are at the forefront of their field rarely spend time really engaging kids in intro classes.

Just for the record, while many Blair STEM kids will take several AP exams, none of the magnet classes are specifically AP classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are several that are loved and respected.

The thread about the math teacher was mostly BS complaints by parents who wanted them to teach their way. Most kids, including mine, were more than capable of adapting and found their methods effective.

What Math class was this? A magnet class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a good idea to learn college materials taught by high school teachers. Not to say they aren’t qualified, you just don’t get the breath and depth from a college professor who are at the forefront of the field. I’d rather let DC learn the materials at college.

Ok, then you do that.

My Blair SMACS kid was in a math class taught by Mr. Schwartz, who has an advanced math degree (MA or PhD, forget which), and the students got university credit after taking a test created and administered by the math department at the U. of Maryland.

We're good, thanks, but you do you.