Changing teachers with new semester?
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Anonymous
| I was just talking to my 9th grader, and she said she has different teachers in a couple of classes now that they’ve started the second semester. This seems really odd to me. She’s taking a different gym elective this semester, but other than that, all her classes are the same. Is this normal in MCPS, or should I be getting in touch with the counselor? |
Anonymous
| Yes. It doesn’t always happen but it happens enough that there’s no cause for alarm. |
Anonymous
| Extremely common in MCPS. the scheduling software works in semesters. I find it bizarre, but it’s standard here. |
Anonymous
| That’s the way it works in HS. If you want the same teacher in a particular subject you can ask for a schedule change. But that could cause the loss of other positive attributes in the schedule. |
Anonymous
| It's very common, especially in 9th and 10th. I agree it's annoying. My kid has new teachers in 5 out of 7 classes this semester. |
Anonymous
| Depends on the school but at DC's they do it and it's about the same as others have reported in terms of having 5 / 7 new teachers |
Anonymous
| My kid got a sub who is there until a long term sub takes over. She liked her English teacher from semester 1, so not thrilled but oh well. |
Anonymous
| I also find it odd, but it is the norm in MCPS. I don’t get why the software wouldn’t keep the same teacher in — it could definitely be programmed to do so. |
Anonymous
|
It's definitely different than my high school experience, when we had the same teacher all year and sometimes cycled back to have them for a later course in the same subject. There might be benefits when a particular teacher isn't a good fit, but otherwise it seems overly disruptive.
One thing to remember is that your child will need two recommenders from teachers of academic subjects junior year. My kids were lucky to have the same teacher both semesters for a double-period AP science class. (I think there's only one teacher for that particular course at the school.) Since both were on a STEM track, that teacher was a good potential recommender. It was harder for subjects in which they had teachers only for one semester. I definitely advised my kids to make an effort to make connections with junior-year teachers (not just for recommendations, but of course it helped for that). |
Anonymous
This happens frequently in MCPS HS. It was a source of stress for my DD with autism so her counselor makes a point of keeping the same teachers each semester when possible for A/B courses. Electives are usually harder to avoid switching teachers. |
Anonymous
| Op here. Thanks for the answers. This is crazy, but at least I know it’s the norm. |
Anonymous
I am sorry but that is terrible. With limited counselors and no police officers, some of these teens build trust with their teachers. There is absolutely no reason to move a teacher of the same class after a semester. MCPS is just so bad anymore |
Anonymous
|
This isn’t uncommon in MCPS.
I attended a well regarded dc private and we changed English teachers every semester. |
Anonymous
According to our counselor, it happens because of the chosen electives. In order to give kids their preferred classes they can’t always stay with the same teacher. Like I said above, you can ask to change back to the first semester teacher, but you might lose the elective that got you bumped in the first place. |
Anonymous
| Very very common. My kid has 5 new teachers |