Teacher issue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So sick of crappy teachers. If only they raised the pay to attract better candidates.

That's not how it works though, as they don't hire teachers based on intelligence or ability.

So true my friend. But maybe more intelligent people would want to be a teacher if it paid generously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD has an 8th grade teacher who just can’t seem to get it together - she posts assignments with wrong due dates, designs exams that kids can’t complete during the assigned time and then makes them take it through lunch or after school, makes very confusing mistakes in handouts etc. In a recent test, she figured out the class average was too low so she removed questions from the graded test and plans to retest on those sections. DD who is all-A student is falling behind. We waited it out the entire quarter but things don’t seem to be improving. She teaches the Honors Geometry class so it is not easy to request another teacher. DD is understandably frustrated.

How should we handle this? Is it just an issue of managing expectations? Or, should I take it to the principal? Should we just get a tutor and consider it done?

Geometry Honors, if taught properly, is a challenging class. Our child excelled in it (in 7th grade), but many of her classmates struggled, particularly those not-quite-in-the-top-3% but parents-want-them-in-the-top-10% who took Algebra in 7th and Geometry in 8th. In our district, this is due to overacceleration, expected by parents and executed by school policy. Too low of a placement requirement in 6th for 7th grade Algebra, and generally too low of a level of preparedness, and a general lack of math interest by many of the children affected. Combine this with a traditional, textbook-based, daily homework, difficult test, rigorous approach and you end up with a lot of suffering: an estimated 20-40% of students spending 1.5h each day on homework and yet scraping by with B's and C's.

I'm a strong proponent of math acceleration for gifted and motivated kids with a record of math interest and math EC activities (like DC ) and I have always thought that the people warning of overacceleration are just dumb and mean and equity-obsessed libs, but seeing this experience of some of my child's friends has been giving me pause. There I said it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD has an 8th grade teacher who just can’t seem to get it together - she posts assignments with wrong due dates, designs exams that kids can’t complete during the assigned time and then makes them take it through lunch or after school, makes very confusing mistakes in handouts etc. In a recent test, she figured out the class average was too low so she removed questions from the graded test and plans to retest on those sections. DD who is all-A student is falling behind. We waited it out the entire quarter but things don’t seem to be improving. She teaches the Honors Geometry class so it is not easy to request another teacher. DD is understandably frustrated.

How should we handle this? Is it just an issue of managing expectations? Or, should I take it to the principal? Should we just get a tutor and consider it done?

Geometry Honors, if taught properly, is a challenging class. Our child excelled in it (in 7th grade), but many of her classmates struggled, particularly those not-quite-in-the-top-3% but parents-want-them-in-the-top-10% who took Algebra in 7th and Geometry in 8th. In our district, this is due to overacceleration, expected by parents and executed by school policy. Too low of a placement requirement in 6th for 7th grade Algebra, and generally too low of a level of preparedness, and a general lack of math interest by many of the children affected. Combine this with a traditional, textbook-based, daily homework, difficult test, rigorous approach and you end up with a lot of suffering: an estimated 20-40% of students spending 1.5h each day on homework and yet scraping by with B's and C's.

I'm a strong proponent of math acceleration for gifted and motivated kids with a record of math interest and math EC activities (like DC ) and I have always thought that the people warning of overacceleration are just dumb and mean and equity-obsessed libs, but seeing this experience of some of my child's friends has been giving me pause. There I said it.

Is there a point to your post or did you just need a space to humblebrag about your allegedly gifted child?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So sick of crappy teachers. If only they raised the pay to attract better candidates.

That's not how it works though, as they don't hire teachers based on intelligence or ability.

So true my friend. But maybe more intelligent people would want to be a teacher if it paid generously.

It does pay generously when you consider the number of work days (2/3 of the year approx.) and benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So sick of crappy teachers. If only they raised the pay to attract better candidates.

That's not how it works though, as they don't hire teachers based on intelligence or ability.

So true my friend. But maybe more intelligent people would want to be a teacher if it paid generously.

It does pay generously when you consider the number of work days (2/3 of the year approx.) and benefits.

Well, there’s obviously no problem then.

[Anonymous]

OP here: since we have solved my problem and are talking salaries, this teacher was paid 99K in 2023 in FCPS. I’d curious how this compares to other areas.

[Anonymous]

FCPS has added many, many extra responsibilities this year; teachers who may have managed everything seamlessly in the past now have more on their plates than they can do effectively. Everything is done in a frenzy these days trying to check all the extra boxes, plus class sizes increased. It’s not really sustainable in the long run. Parents and kids are probably not aware of how much these changes impact teachers’ ability to teach effectively. I’d bet that geometry teacher isn’t happy with his/her instruction either. It’s a tough position to be in.

[Anonymous]

Are you sure it's not just your child? Or have you spoken to other parents?

[Anonymous]

There’s probably blame on both sides— both the teacher and your child. These things are rarely all one-sided. It’s like the teacher is poor at teaching, managing time, and grading. But also, the student could be unable to follow along, read the math textbook, or complete problems with accuracy.