Honors Geometry at Whitman - RANT

[Anonymous]

My DC was in honors geo at whitman in 9th because she came from outside MCPS so was behind in math. In DCs experience the kids who were in geo in 9th were more commonly the kids who struggled in math. So maybe the teacher is having to deal with more remedial issues? That being said DC had a good experience with the class and the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Constructions are kind of a weird offshoot of normal Euclidean geometry. I prefer to see them taught as the different concepts are introduced throughout the year. They stick better in the kids minds that way rather than throwing them in all at once.

That being said, pick up Keys To Geometry. Very good coverage of constructions. (Sadly, I find it light on the other geometry topics). Khan Academy won’t help with this topic as the kid is literally memorizing how to draw particular figures using a compass, straight edge and pencil. You can’t practice that online!

[Anonymous]

I was just reminiscing with a high school friend about how I wished I had slowed down and de-accelerated in math and science. I pushed myself to take Calculus BC and AP Physics and while I scraped by with 3s on the AP exam, I was never confident at all. I say, let her slow down if she wants.

[Anonymous]

geometry Is not easily, DC took in 8th grade and kind of struggled (eventually got 89 but needed to retake all quizzes) also it gets harder later with all kind of proofing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The teacher is far more important than the actual school. Just because you go to a W school, does not mean you will get good teachers, only kids with rich parents.

+1 Parents with means to hire tutors when the teachers are bad. Our W math department has been notoriously bad for years. One teacher passed out packets, told the students to figure it out in small groups, then took naps during class.

[Anonymous]

Here’s the constructions covered, they can all be googled:

? Copy a segment and copy an angle.
? Construct a perpendicular bisector.
? Bisect a segment and bisect an angle.
? Construct a line parallel to a given line through a point not on the line.

One issue my DC had was that at school they used a compass that was also a ruler and protractor. It was then hard to explain that measuring the angle/segment and dividing by two was illegal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You could ask for a meeting with the teacher and department head. They might have some suggestions on what your child can do to improve.

Khan Academy online site helped my child.

The suggestion of working ahead to learn material is also good. Ask the math resource teacher and your child’s teacher how this can take place with the current curriculum. There is not a textbook to know what is coming next but there might be some MCPS resources to help.

How do parents know which teacher is better? Does school assign students into different classes without input of thevparents? In my DC’s ES school, a mom who has been active in PTA has been tried to have her son to go to certain teacher last year and this year but came failed twice already. She complained that she has done so much for the school but no one wants to return her any favor.

[Anonymous]

My second dc is currently in honors geometry (not at Whitman) and I've not found the pace too fast but in both cases, it seems like the teachers don't do much *teaching*. It may be that the subject is such that kids kind of need to figure it out, but both have had the same complaint. The teacher gives them a packet and expects them to do it on their own. The real problem isn't getting the right "answer" but in not having a clue in how the teachers wants them to explain the answer. I've looked at tests as they came home, and the answers seemed quite logical to me, but apparently not what the teacher wanted.

Older one is terrific in math and complained about this constantly. (Had an 'A' all through, so it wasn't an excuse but just an annoyance.) Younger now has same complaints (though different teacher. This one isn't as strong in math and so I'm currently pressure older one to act as tutor, but may break down and hire one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The teacher is far more important than the actual school. Just because you go to a W school, does not mean you will get good teachers, only kids with rich parents.

+1 Parents with means to hire tutors when the teachers are bad. Our W math department has been notoriously bad for years. One teacher passed out packets, told the students to figure it out in small groups, then took naps during class.

I would say we had the same teacher, but ours was on her phone while the kids tried to figure their way through the packet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The teacher is far more important than the actual school. Just because you go to a W school, does not mean you will get good teachers, only kids with rich parents.

+1 Parents with means to hire tutors when the teachers are bad. Our W math department has been notoriously bad for years. One teacher passed out packets, told the students to figure it out in small groups, then took naps during class.

I would say we had the same teacher, but ours was on her phone while the kids tried to figure their way through the packet.

We had the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am beyond disgusted with this class. DD, normally, a good student is totally lost. Math isn't her thing, but with work, she can do it. Material is just shoved at them before they have even had time to digest it. She was recommended for Honors Geometry, but I think for the rest of her high school career, I am going to seek regular math. She has had only 3 days to cover an ENORMOUS amount of material on "Construction" No time to absorb one concept before rushing to the next.

I took Geometry. I realize it isn't the same now as it was umpteen years ago, but these kids don't even have time to absorb one concept before they rush off to the next. Yesterday, she called me at work in tears.

This is teaching? This is a 'good' school?

Give me a break.

Honors math goes really quickly and the schools have a lot of leeway on how to implement the curriculum, which is why I think kids may have issues at one school but not the other. What's been helpful for my son who is in honors geometry this year is going over the classwork and homework everyday to make sure he understands it. That has helped us so far.

But, I do agree that you may want to reach out to the math resource teacher to ask about how they are teaching honors geometry and the pacing of the class. They may not be aware of this.

Does he go over the math stuff on his own, or with your help?

Right now, it's with my help. The geometry is actually pretty straightforward now and I can help him figure anything out he doesn't understand. We may get a tutor as the math gets more complicated (and beyond me!). But he's not having large scale trouble - it's more he misses a concept here and there because the class moves pretty quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The teacher is far more important than the actual school. Just because you go to a W school, does not mean you will get good teachers, only kids with rich parents.

+1 Parents with means to hire tutors when the teachers are bad. Our W math department has been notoriously bad for years. One teacher passed out packets, told the students to figure it out in small groups, then took naps during class.

I would say we had the same teacher, but ours was on her phone while the kids tried to figure their way through the packet.

Sounds like our experience at Churchill.

[Anonymous]

We were told that is 2.0. Kids are supposed to get more understanding from figuring it out rather than being shown what to do..

[Anonymous]

A few years back, at another school, our DC was having a hard time in Honors Geometry mostly because of a long term sub.

We hired a Whitman honors geometry teacher as a tutor.

After several attempts with their own teacher at lunch, DC was blown away with how simple the material was when it was explained well.

DC ended up getting an A on the final after a C in the second quarter. I just looked and the teacher is still at Whitman.

Our second DC is at a different HS and that school has help at lunch where they specifically don't go to their assigned teacher to see things another way.

You might want to look into if Whitman has a similar process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am beyond disgusted with this class. DD, normally, a good student is totally lost. Math isn't her thing, but with work, she can do it. Material is just shoved at them before they have even had time to digest it. She was recommended for Honors Geometry, but I think for the rest of her high school career, I am going to seek regular math. She has had only 3 days to cover an ENORMOUS amount of material on "Construction" No time to absorb one concept before rushing to the next.

I took Geometry. I realize it isn't the same now as it was umpteen years ago, but these kids don't even have time to absorb one concept before they rush off to the next. Yesterday, she called me at work in tears.

This is teaching? This is a 'good' school?

Give me a break.

Honors math goes really quickly and the schools have a lot of leeway on how to implement the curriculum, which is why I think kids may have issues at one school but not the other. What's been helpful for my son who is in honors geometry this year is going over the classwork and homework everyday to make sure he understands it. That has helped us so far.

But, I do agree that you may want to reach out to the math resource teacher to ask about how they are teaching honors geometry and the pacing of the class. They may not be aware of this.

Does he go over the math stuff on his own, or with your help?

Right now, it's with my help. The geometry is actually pretty straightforward now and I can help him figure anything out he doesn't understand. We may get a tutor as the math gets more complicated (and beyond me!). But he's not having large scale trouble - it's more he misses a concept here and there because the class moves pretty quickly.

That's what I've done, with my second DC in calc, I'm now back to speed on a lot of math that had been forgotten. A good tutor could do the same, but so often all they need is one more voice attempting to clarify, and a few minutes here and there is sufficient. I haven't seen any major errors, but on small things sometimes the classroom teacher is just wrong. This curriculum isn't well supported, that's why the students are having trouble, but it also means the teachers don't always have the detail straight. This isn't really an example but, I posted above confusion caused by the compass. This is the compass they were using in class:



Usually a geometry teacher has to repeatedly point out that it's "straight edge and compass" and the straight edge is not ruler, but with this device it's also hard to think of drawing a circle as anything other than choosing the ruled radius. Maybe the teacher explained it well in class, but this was exactly the hang up my DC was having when he was working at home. I didn't remember specific constructions, but I still understood the constraint and so could get DC back on track.