Honors Math classes being poorly taught (Churchill)

[Anonymous]

I am disappointed to read about the teaching or the lack of at Churchill. My DC goes to a different W school. Never had or needed tutors. I never heard math teachers being bad from my DC. I was very pleasantly surprised to see DC's rapid learners Precalc teacher at last year's Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists' poster presentation in Washington DC so eagerly, appreciatively, and admiringly absorbing the information presented on the posters and discussing with the young high school researches (some topics were very math oriented). In fact, the teacher attends that event every year and encourages the students in the class to attend it. This year my DC is taking AP CalculusBC with a different teacher, came home after the first day of school saying that the teacher is very good, explaining the concepts very well and Dc is excited to have a great learning experience.

I just hope MCPS employs such teachers throughout the school district so that all students can have beneficial education which they deserve and require.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know! The W's continue to slide.

Whatman is a GS 4 and now Churchill math is in the dumps. W's aren't what they used to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At Winston the math is the least of problems, the art program is a joke, kids dont take gym and language like French and Spanish are treated like distant cousins. If anything too much focus on Stem

I certainly agree with you about Math but the Arts department is not a joke. The drama departments puts on several shows a year. Blast is great. Both the band and orchestra leaders are really good and there are several all state players in each section.

The photography teacher is very good.


Taking gym has nothing to do with Churchill. The graduation requirement for MCPS is only one year of PE.. Most kids want the extra room in their schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Winston the math is the least of problems, the art program is a joke, kids dont take gym and language like French and Spanish are treated like distant cousins. If anything too much focus on Stem

I certainly agree with you about Math but the Arts department is not a joke. The drama departments puts on several shows a year. Blast is great. Both the band and orchestra leaders are really good and there are several all state players in each section.

The photography teacher is very good.


Taking gym has nothing to do with Churchill. The graduation requirement for MCPS is only one year of PE.. Most kids want the extra room in their schedule.

+1 not sure what the PP was talking about. Just came from BTSN and were really impressed by all my kid’s teachers...except for math.

[Anonymous]

Is MCPS crumbling from the core? Is the county done bashing the W schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they at least had textbooks, the tutors could work much more efficiently with the kids. This ridiculous worksheets are SHAMEFUL.

My DD is at Blair (in Functions, which is Alg 2/Pre Calc all together) and has a text book (2, actually). She also had one for Geometry at TPMS. How does Chruchill not have textbooks of other MCPS schools do? Totally agree with the poster who said it would be hard for a tutor to help b/c there would be no sense of direction of the material. Sounds horrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they at least had textbooks, the tutors could work much more efficiently with the kids. This ridiculous worksheets are SHAMEFUL.

My DD is at Blair (in Functions, which is Alg 2/Pre Calc all together) and has a text book (2, actually). She also had one for Geometry at TPMS. How does Chruchill not have textbooks of other MCPS schools do? Totally agree with the poster who said it would be hard for a tutor to help b/c there would be no sense of direction of the material. Sounds horrible.

PP, I assume your kid is a freshman. Will all pre calc be covered in functions or will some of the pre calc spill over to next year? Just curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they at least had textbooks, the tutors could work much more efficiently with the kids. This ridiculous worksheets are SHAMEFUL.

My DD is at Blair (in Functions, which is Alg 2/Pre Calc all together) and has a text book (2, actually). She also had one for Geometry at TPMS. How does Chruchill not have textbooks of other MCPS schools do? Totally agree with the poster who said it would be hard for a tutor to help b/c there would be no sense of direction of the material. Sounds horrible.

The Churchill math department writes their own worksheets and assessments. My child survives by looking up concepts on Kahn Academy and YouTube.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know! The W's continue to slide.

Whatman is a GS 4 and now Churchill math is in the dumps. W's aren't what they used to be.

This is patently incorrect and you are delusional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they at least had textbooks, the tutors could work much more efficiently with the kids. This ridiculous worksheets are SHAMEFUL.

My DD is at Blair (in Functions, which is Alg 2/Pre Calc all together) and has a text book (2, actually). She also had one for Geometry at TPMS. How does Chruchill not have textbooks of other MCPS schools do? Totally agree with the poster who said it would be hard for a tutor to help b/c there would be no sense of direction of the material. Sounds horrible.

The magnet math curriculum is different than the county curriculum. This is especially true for Functions which is not the standard class for Magnet students. I felt that magnet teachers were both mathematicians and teachers. My impression (based on the elementary math curriculum) is that the MCPS curriculum developers are not mathematicians and that they are more concerned with how they teach than what they teach.

Functions covers Precalc and Algebra 2 in one year. When my kids took it, I think most of the students had already had Algebra 2 in the TPMS magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they at least had textbooks, the tutors could work much more efficiently with the kids. This ridiculous worksheets are SHAMEFUL.

My DD is at Blair (in Functions, which is Alg 2/Pre Calc all together) and has a text book (2, actually). She also had one for Geometry at TPMS. How does Chruchill not have textbooks of other MCPS schools do? Totally agree with the poster who said it would be hard for a tutor to help b/c there would be no sense of direction of the material. Sounds horrible.

The magnet math curriculum is different than the county curriculum. This is especially true for Functions which is not the standard class for Magnet students. I felt that magnet teachers were both mathematicians and teachers. My impression (based on the elementary math curriculum) is that the MCPS curriculum developers are not mathematicians and that they are more concerned with how they teach than what they teach.

Functions covers Precalc and Algebra 2 in one year. When my kids took it, I think most of the students had already had Algebra 2 in the TPMS magnet.

I don't think any MCPS schools are using textbooks for math classes below Pre-Calc except the magnets. There just are no textbooks that correlate exactly with MCPS's homemade curriculum. My DD told me that her Pre-Calc class uses an e-book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they at least had textbooks, the tutors could work much more efficiently with the kids. This ridiculous worksheets are SHAMEFUL.

My DD is at Blair (in Functions, which is Alg 2/Pre Calc all together) and has a text book (2, actually). She also had one for Geometry at TPMS. How does Chruchill not have textbooks of other MCPS schools do? Totally agree with the poster who said it would be hard for a tutor to help b/c there would be no sense of direction of the material. Sounds horrible.

The magnet experience really isn't relevant, my DC is in pre-calc at Blair and will be getting a text book, although it hasn't been issued yet. This will be his first math textbook. He didn't have one for Algebra 2, Geometry, or Algebra.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they at least had textbooks, the tutors could work much more efficiently with the kids. This ridiculous worksheets are SHAMEFUL.

My DD is at Blair (in Functions, which is Alg 2/Pre Calc all together) and has a text book (2, actually). She also had one for Geometry at TPMS. How does Chruchill not have textbooks of other MCPS schools do? Totally agree with the poster who said it would be hard for a tutor to help b/c there would be no sense of direction of the material. Sounds horrible.

The magnet experience really isn't relevant, my DC is in pre-calc at Blair and will be getting a text book, although it hasn't been issued yet. This will be his first math textbook. He didn't have one for Algebra 2, Geometry, or Algebra.

\\

My HS DD magnet student didn't have a textbook for Algebra II, Geometry. I think it's terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they at least had textbooks, the tutors could work much more efficiently with the kids. This ridiculous worksheets are SHAMEFUL.

My DD is at Blair (in Functions, which is Alg 2/Pre Calc all together) and has a text book (2, actually). She also had one for Geometry at TPMS. How does Chruchill not have textbooks of other MCPS schools do? Totally agree with the poster who said it would be hard for a tutor to help b/c there would be no sense of direction of the material. Sounds horrible.

The magnet math curriculum is different than the county curriculum. This is especially true for Functions which is not the standard class for Magnet students. I felt that magnet teachers were both mathematicians and teachers. My impression (based on the elementary math curriculum) is that the MCPS curriculum developers are not mathematicians and that they are more concerned with how they teach than what they teach.

Functions covers Precalc and Algebra 2 in one year. When my kids took it, I think most of the students had already had Algebra 2 in the TPMS magnet.

I don't think any MCPS schools are using textbooks for math classes below Pre-Calc except the magnets. There just are no textbooks that correlate exactly with MCPS's homemade curriculum. My DD told me that her Pre-Calc class uses an e-book.

So then MCPS needs to rethink the home made curriculum.

[Anonymous]

We had a negative experience with the DC's math teacher last year at Churchill too.