Unreasonable teachers

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough when teachers use AP multiple choice questions and base their grade on the percentage correct. In order to get a 5 you don’t need to get 90% correct.

So for example APUSH, 60-65 percent will have you most likely passing with a 3 on the actual AP Test. 70 percent is 4 territory. 80 percent will get you a 5. It is really rare to get 100% on any AP test. But if teachers give tests from released questions they have access to and use a traditional grading scales, students find getting A’s challenging.

I do this. But then I curve grades. In my AP course a 50% in may is generally a 3 on the exam, so I curve test scores so that 50% becomes a C-, 65% becomes a B-, and an 80% becomes an A-. That is a smidge tougher than college board's scoring (it's pretty close to 50 (3)/60 (4)/ 75 (5) in reality) but I figure my unit tests on a small chunk of limited standards are easier than the test in May with a year's worth of material and a much longer block of time.

The reality is that at the beginning of the year kids don't perform at a "5" level. I am grading on an AP rubric, giving timely feedback, lots of practice, lots of opportunities to clarify, but it takes a couple of units to understand the AP way of responding to FRQs. By November/December I've got them trained and I usually suggest saving retakes on FRQs until then. It's built in spiral review to study for unit 1/2/3 in December, and the content will feel easier at that point anyway.

By May, my gradebook will be 80% As and Bs, 15% Cs, and 1 or 2 Ds. Right now, with 1 test on the books, it's 30% Ds and I have a couple of Fs. Some will drop when they realize the class is hard, but most will rise to the challenge and improve.

Obviously some of my colleagues are lazy (sorry), but some of us are legitimately training your children to perform at a higher level and they just aren't there yet.

If that’s your process then why not be transparent to parents and more importantly, the students about it? It just causes unnecessary anxiety and stress. I think sometimes students just need to understand that they’ll be ok if they keep putting in the work.

To be clear, my DC doesn’t find the material particularly difficult and does know it well. If it were a multiple choice test for example, they’d have 100%. It’s just they don’t understand the subjective grading that dings them for really small things. Meanwhile their peers are breezing thru the same class with other teachers and a fraction of the work.

This teacher seems transparent, probably not the one OP is referring to.

OP here. I appreciate this teacher’s perspective, we just haven’t received that level of transparency and coupled with other AP teachers not being so harsh on the grading, it is easily misunderstood by students. Thus the mad rush by students requesting to switch out or drop down. This was not even brought up at BTSN so why would any of us know what’s standard AP grading practice and not? Is it truly a style of grading that’s recommended by the AP Board or a preference of the teacher? Why then aren’t all the teachers following protocol? I appreciate the openness of the teachers on here but am left wondering if that’s truly the case for my DS’s class.

I think many teachers are in their own echo chamber and do not realize the impact of their style has on their students. When an equivalent class with another teacher does not do this, it begs the question why would a harsh teacher choose to do this. I think transparency from the start would go a long way in calming students stress levels and foster better relations between parents and teachers to help kids. Just be honest and transparent in your system and let students know why you choose to be tough grader vs. the teacher of the same class that chooses a more reasonable path.

Tough grader could equal the good grader. Reasonable could equal lenient with no standards.

Not sure I follow. At the end of the day, the tough grader’s grade will be stacked up against the reasonable grader’s grade on a college app and the kid who worked harder and maybe learned more will look worse on paper. Our AP teacher needs to strike that balance otherwise they are doing a disservice to hard working kids for no reason other than they think they are being tough for the right reasons. You’re just screwing them over

Honestly, teachers do not care if they are unfairly giving your kid an advantage or disadvantage! They see wealthy Asian or white kids and they do not give one hoot which ones goes to T10, T30 or T50. If they are younger they probably went to a third tier state school and barely kept a 3.0 average. They resent the high score grinders and kids killing themselves to get into top schools.

And here’s why I don’t like these threads. OP has a question that can’t actually be answered here. Logically, OP already knows to reach out to the school.

So all this did was open up an opportunity for posters to slam teachers, as if there isn’t enough of that on this site.

And the bad teachers don’t care. They really don’t. The good teachers will take nonsense like the post above personally.

And the good teachers are the ones we should be trying to keep right now. Trust me when I say many of them are already looking for an exit from the profession. Why give more reasons?

How dramatic. Good teacher’s aren’t leaving because someone on DCUM criticizes them. If they’re truly taking an anonymous internet board personally then looking for the exit is a good idea.

Are you a teacher, or just someone who feels comfortable speaking for us?

When you are barraged with negativity ALL THE TIME, it starts to weigh on you. Want to help the good teachers? Stop criticizing all teachers for the perceived actions of one.

And I don’t think you should continue calling for our exit. Who do you think is coming to replace us? Education departments aren’t graduating many teachers these days. Career changers often don’t last.

Unemployment rates are rising among college graduates and plenty will take cast iron job security and significant off time. Recent graduates can teach even without coming from an “education department” and many will be better off for it.

— Sibling of an excellent teacher with a PhD that isn’t in education, who thinks the general state of teaching is very problematic and has more resilience than to get “weighed down” by other parents realizing it .

In the PP. I’m glad your sibling is an excellent teacher. Many of us are.

And some of us are teaching through our planning periods because colleagues already quit. Yes, your sibling is correct: teaching is in ruins. Yet DCUM will find ways to pile more on.

Your causal arrow is flawed. Teaching isn't in ruins because DCUM highlights poor teaching. My sister, being a parent herself, has had plenty to say about weak teaching in her daughters’ schools.

Well, I wasn’t trying to draw a correlation between DCUM posts and weak teachers. I was merely saying targeting/insulting good teachers doesn’t help the profession. Would you disagree with that statement?

Regarding weak teaching: imagine how much stronger teachers could be if they were given time to plan and grade. Just today, I had to comfort a crying teacher because she was overwhelmed by the stack of grading she has to take home for the weekend. She estimates it’ll take her 18-22 hours to get ready for Monday. She’s a strong teacher, but her work ethic is clearly taking a toll. Do you think she’d be a more present, resilient teacher if she had a more reasonable workload? I sure do.

Teaching loads aren’t equal. Ten days to return papers is a BREEZE in some disciplines. It’s nearly impossible in others.

When DCUM goes on its daily anti-teacher attack, it doesn’t hurt the teachers you want it to hurt. It hurts the people like my colleague, who is already giving her all. Should she have to deal with insults, too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough when teachers use AP multiple choice questions and base their grade on the percentage correct. In order to get a 5 you don’t need to get 90% correct.

So for example APUSH, 60-65 percent will have you most likely passing with a 3 on the actual AP Test. 70 percent is 4 territory. 80 percent will get you a 5. It is really rare to get 100% on any AP test. But if teachers give tests from released questions they have access to and use a traditional grading scales, students find getting A’s challenging.

I do this. But then I curve grades. In my AP course a 50% in may is generally a 3 on the exam, so I curve test scores so that 50% becomes a C-, 65% becomes a B-, and an 80% becomes an A-. That is a smidge tougher than college board's scoring (it's pretty close to 50 (3)/60 (4)/ 75 (5) in reality) but I figure my unit tests on a small chunk of limited standards are easier than the test in May with a year's worth of material and a much longer block of time.

The reality is that at the beginning of the year kids don't perform at a "5" level. I am grading on an AP rubric, giving timely feedback, lots of practice, lots of opportunities to clarify, but it takes a couple of units to understand the AP way of responding to FRQs. By November/December I've got them trained and I usually suggest saving retakes on FRQs until then. It's built in spiral review to study for unit 1/2/3 in December, and the content will feel easier at that point anyway.

By May, my gradebook will be 80% As and Bs, 15% Cs, and 1 or 2 Ds. Right now, with 1 test on the books, it's 30% Ds and I have a couple of Fs. Some will drop when they realize the class is hard, but most will rise to the challenge and improve.

Obviously some of my colleagues are lazy (sorry), but some of us are legitimately training your children to perform at a higher level and they just aren't there yet.

If that’s your process then why not be transparent to parents and more importantly, the students about it? It just causes unnecessary anxiety and stress. I think sometimes students just need to understand that they’ll be ok if they keep putting in the work.

To be clear, my DC doesn’t find the material particularly difficult and does know it well. If it were a multiple choice test for example, they’d have 100%. It’s just they don’t understand the subjective grading that dings them for really small things. Meanwhile their peers are breezing thru the same class with other teachers and a fraction of the work.

This teacher seems transparent, probably not the one OP is referring to.

OP here. I appreciate this teacher’s perspective, we just haven’t received that level of transparency and coupled with other AP teachers not being so harsh on the grading, it is easily misunderstood by students. Thus the mad rush by students requesting to switch out or drop down. This was not even brought up at BTSN so why would any of us know what’s standard AP grading practice and not? Is it truly a style of grading that’s recommended by the AP Board or a preference of the teacher? Why then aren’t all the teachers following protocol? I appreciate the openness of the teachers on here but am left wondering if that’s truly the case for my DS’s class.

I think many teachers are in their own echo chamber and do not realize the impact of their style has on their students. When an equivalent class with another teacher does not do this, it begs the question why would a harsh teacher choose to do this. I think transparency from the start would go a long way in calming students stress levels and foster better relations between parents and teachers to help kids. Just be honest and transparent in your system and let students know why you choose to be tough grader vs. the teacher of the same class that chooses a more reasonable path.

Tough grader could equal the good grader. Reasonable could equal lenient with no standards.

Not sure I follow. At the end of the day, the tough grader’s grade will be stacked up against the reasonable grader’s grade on a college app and the kid who worked harder and maybe learned more will look worse on paper. Our AP teacher needs to strike that balance otherwise they are doing a disservice to hard working kids for no reason other than they think they are being tough for the right reasons. You’re just screwing them over

Honestly, teachers do not care if they are unfairly giving your kid an advantage or disadvantage! They see wealthy Asian or white kids and they do not give one hoot which ones goes to T10, T30 or T50. If they are younger they probably went to a third tier state school and barely kept a 3.0 average. They resent the high score grinders and kids killing themselves to get into top schools.

And here’s why I don’t like these threads. OP has a question that can’t actually be answered here. Logically, OP already knows to reach out to the school.

So all this did was open up an opportunity for posters to slam teachers, as if there isn’t enough of that on this site.

And the bad teachers don’t care. They really don’t. The good teachers will take nonsense like the post above personally.

And the good teachers are the ones we should be trying to keep right now. Trust me when I say many of them are already looking for an exit from the profession. Why give more reasons?

How dramatic. Good teacher’s aren’t leaving because someone on DCUM criticizes them. If they’re truly taking an anonymous internet board personally then looking for the exit is a good idea.

Are you a teacher, or just someone who feels comfortable speaking for us?

When you are barraged with negativity ALL THE TIME, it starts to weigh on you. Want to help the good teachers? Stop criticizing all teachers for the perceived actions of one.

And I don’t think you should continue calling for our exit. Who do you think is coming to replace us? Education departments aren’t graduating many teachers these days. Career changers often don’t last.

Unemployment rates are rising among college graduates and plenty will take cast iron job security and significant off time. Recent graduates can teach even without coming from an “education department” and many will be better off for it.

— Sibling of an excellent teacher with a PhD that isn’t in education, who thinks the general state of teaching is very problematic and has more resilience than to get “weighed down” by other parents realizing it .

In the PP. I’m glad your sibling is an excellent teacher. Many of us are.

And some of us are teaching through our planning periods because colleagues already quit. Yes, your sibling is correct: teaching is in ruins. Yet DCUM will find ways to pile more on.

Your causal arrow is flawed. Teaching isn't in ruins because DCUM highlights poor teaching. My sister, being a parent herself, has had plenty to say about weak teaching in her daughters’ schools.

Well, I wasn’t trying to draw a correlation between DCUM posts and weak teachers. I was merely saying targeting/insulting good teachers doesn’t help the profession. Would you disagree with that statement?

Regarding weak teaching: imagine how much stronger teachers could be if they were given time to plan and grade. Just today, I had to comfort a crying teacher because she was overwhelmed by the stack of grading she has to take home for the weekend. She estimates it’ll take her 18-22 hours to get ready for Monday. She’s a strong teacher, but her work ethic is clearly taking a toll. Do you think she’d be a more present, resilient teacher if she had a more reasonable workload? I sure do.

Teaching loads aren’t equal. Ten days to return papers is a BREEZE in some disciplines. It’s nearly impossible in others.

When DCUM goes on its daily anti-teacher attack, it doesn’t hurt the teachers you want it to hurt. It hurts the people like my colleague, who is already giving her all. Should she have to deal with insults, too?

If she has kids in FCPS, then she knows there are bad teachers out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough when teachers use AP multiple choice questions and base their grade on the percentage correct. In order to get a 5 you don’t need to get 90% correct.

So for example APUSH, 60-65 percent will have you most likely passing with a 3 on the actual AP Test. 70 percent is 4 territory. 80 percent will get you a 5. It is really rare to get 100% on any AP test. But if teachers give tests from released questions they have access to and use a traditional grading scales, students find getting A’s challenging.

I do this. But then I curve grades. In my AP course a 50% in may is generally a 3 on the exam, so I curve test scores so that 50% becomes a C-, 65% becomes a B-, and an 80% becomes an A-. That is a smidge tougher than college board's scoring (it's pretty close to 50 (3)/60 (4)/ 75 (5) in reality) but I figure my unit tests on a small chunk of limited standards are easier than the test in May with a year's worth of material and a much longer block of time.

The reality is that at the beginning of the year kids don't perform at a "5" level. I am grading on an AP rubric, giving timely feedback, lots of practice, lots of opportunities to clarify, but it takes a couple of units to understand the AP way of responding to FRQs. By November/December I've got them trained and I usually suggest saving retakes on FRQs until then. It's built in spiral review to study for unit 1/2/3 in December, and the content will feel easier at that point anyway.

By May, my gradebook will be 80% As and Bs, 15% Cs, and 1 or 2 Ds. Right now, with 1 test on the books, it's 30% Ds and I have a couple of Fs. Some will drop when they realize the class is hard, but most will rise to the challenge and improve.

Obviously some of my colleagues are lazy (sorry), but some of us are legitimately training your children to perform at a higher level and they just aren't there yet.

If that’s your process then why not be transparent to parents and more importantly, the students about it? It just causes unnecessary anxiety and stress. I think sometimes students just need to understand that they’ll be ok if they keep putting in the work.

To be clear, my DC doesn’t find the material particularly difficult and does know it well. If it were a multiple choice test for example, they’d have 100%. It’s just they don’t understand the subjective grading that dings them for really small things. Meanwhile their peers are breezing thru the same class with other teachers and a fraction of the work.

This teacher seems transparent, probably not the one OP is referring to.

OP here. I appreciate this teacher’s perspective, we just haven’t received that level of transparency and coupled with other AP teachers not being so harsh on the grading, it is easily misunderstood by students. Thus the mad rush by students requesting to switch out or drop down. This was not even brought up at BTSN so why would any of us know what’s standard AP grading practice and not? Is it truly a style of grading that’s recommended by the AP Board or a preference of the teacher? Why then aren’t all the teachers following protocol? I appreciate the openness of the teachers on here but am left wondering if that’s truly the case for my DS’s class.

I think many teachers are in their own echo chamber and do not realize the impact of their style has on their students. When an equivalent class with another teacher does not do this, it begs the question why would a harsh teacher choose to do this. I think transparency from the start would go a long way in calming students stress levels and foster better relations between parents and teachers to help kids. Just be honest and transparent in your system and let students know why you choose to be tough grader vs. the teacher of the same class that chooses a more reasonable path.

Tough grader could equal the good grader. Reasonable could equal lenient with no standards.

Not sure I follow. At the end of the day, the tough grader’s grade will be stacked up against the reasonable grader’s grade on a college app and the kid who worked harder and maybe learned more will look worse on paper. Our AP teacher needs to strike that balance otherwise they are doing a disservice to hard working kids for no reason other than they think they are being tough for the right reasons. You’re just screwing them over

Honestly, teachers do not care if they are unfairly giving your kid an advantage or disadvantage! They see wealthy Asian or white kids and they do not give one hoot which ones goes to T10, T30 or T50. If they are younger they probably went to a third tier state school and barely kept a 3.0 average. They resent the high score grinders and kids killing themselves to get into top schools.

And here’s why I don’t like these threads. OP has a question that can’t actually be answered here. Logically, OP already knows to reach out to the school.

So all this did was open up an opportunity for posters to slam teachers, as if there isn’t enough of that on this site.

And the bad teachers don’t care. They really don’t. The good teachers will take nonsense like the post above personally.

And the good teachers are the ones we should be trying to keep right now. Trust me when I say many of them are already looking for an exit from the profession. Why give more reasons?

How dramatic. Good teacher’s aren’t leaving because someone on DCUM criticizes them. If they’re truly taking an anonymous internet board personally then looking for the exit is a good idea.

Are you a teacher, or just someone who feels comfortable speaking for us?

When you are barraged with negativity ALL THE TIME, it starts to weigh on you. Want to help the good teachers? Stop criticizing all teachers for the perceived actions of one.

And I don’t think you should continue calling for our exit. Who do you think is coming to replace us? Education departments aren’t graduating many teachers these days. Career changers often don’t last.

Unemployment rates are rising among college graduates and plenty will take cast iron job security and significant off time. Recent graduates can teach even without coming from an “education department” and many will be better off for it.

— Sibling of an excellent teacher with a PhD that isn’t in education, who thinks the general state of teaching is very problematic and has more resilience than to get “weighed down” by other parents realizing it .

In the PP. I’m glad your sibling is an excellent teacher. Many of us are.

And some of us are teaching through our planning periods because colleagues already quit. Yes, your sibling is correct: teaching is in ruins. Yet DCUM will find ways to pile more on.

Your causal arrow is flawed. Teaching isn't in ruins because DCUM highlights poor teaching. My sister, being a parent herself, has had plenty to say about weak teaching in her daughters’ schools.

Well, I wasn’t trying to draw a correlation between DCUM posts and weak teachers. I was merely saying targeting/insulting good teachers doesn’t help the profession. Would you disagree with that statement?

Regarding weak teaching: imagine how much stronger teachers could be if they were given time to plan and grade. Just today, I had to comfort a crying teacher because she was overwhelmed by the stack of grading she has to take home for the weekend. She estimates it’ll take her 18-22 hours to get ready for Monday. She’s a strong teacher, but her work ethic is clearly taking a toll. Do you think she’d be a more present, resilient teacher if she had a more reasonable workload? I sure do.

Teaching loads aren’t equal. Ten days to return papers is a BREEZE in some disciplines. It’s nearly impossible in others.

When DCUM goes on its daily anti-teacher attack, it doesn’t hurt the teachers you want it to hurt. It hurts the people like my colleague, who is already giving her all. Should she have to deal with insults, too?

I think the problem is some view any constructive feedback as an attack. The entire post was about tough grading by some teachers and its impact on students. Respectfully, if one cannot handle constructive feedback, maybe they should read an anonymous blog? Nobody gave a teachers name, school or even subject. Feeling attacked on something that isn’t even directed at you necessarily is easily solvable…stop scrolling and take care of yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough when teachers use AP multiple choice questions and base their grade on the percentage correct. In order to get a 5 you don’t need to get 90% correct.

So for example APUSH, 60-65 percent will have you most likely passing with a 3 on the actual AP Test. 70 percent is 4 territory. 80 percent will get you a 5. It is really rare to get 100% on any AP test. But if teachers give tests from released questions they have access to and use a traditional grading scales, students find getting A’s challenging.

I do this. But then I curve grades. In my AP course a 50% in may is generally a 3 on the exam, so I curve test scores so that 50% becomes a C-, 65% becomes a B-, and an 80% becomes an A-. That is a smidge tougher than college board's scoring (it's pretty close to 50 (3)/60 (4)/ 75 (5) in reality) but I figure my unit tests on a small chunk of limited standards are easier than the test in May with a year's worth of material and a much longer block of time.

The reality is that at the beginning of the year kids don't perform at a "5" level. I am grading on an AP rubric, giving timely feedback, lots of practice, lots of opportunities to clarify, but it takes a couple of units to understand the AP way of responding to FRQs. By November/December I've got them trained and I usually suggest saving retakes on FRQs until then. It's built in spiral review to study for unit 1/2/3 in December, and the content will feel easier at that point anyway.

By May, my gradebook will be 80% As and Bs, 15% Cs, and 1 or 2 Ds. Right now, with 1 test on the books, it's 30% Ds and I have a couple of Fs. Some will drop when they realize the class is hard, but most will rise to the challenge and improve.

Obviously some of my colleagues are lazy (sorry), but some of us are legitimately training your children to perform at a higher level and they just aren't there yet.

If that’s your process then why not be transparent to parents and more importantly, the students about it? It just causes unnecessary anxiety and stress. I think sometimes students just need to understand that they’ll be ok if they keep putting in the work.

To be clear, my DC doesn’t find the material particularly difficult and does know it well. If it were a multiple choice test for example, they’d have 100%. It’s just they don’t understand the subjective grading that dings them for really small things. Meanwhile their peers are breezing thru the same class with other teachers and a fraction of the work.

This teacher seems transparent, probably not the one OP is referring to.

OP here. I appreciate this teacher’s perspective, we just haven’t received that level of transparency and coupled with other AP teachers not being so harsh on the grading, it is easily misunderstood by students. Thus the mad rush by students requesting to switch out or drop down. This was not even brought up at BTSN so why would any of us know what’s standard AP grading practice and not? Is it truly a style of grading that’s recommended by the AP Board or a preference of the teacher? Why then aren’t all the teachers following protocol? I appreciate the openness of the teachers on here but am left wondering if that’s truly the case for my DS’s class.

I think many teachers are in their own echo chamber and do not realize the impact of their style has on their students. When an equivalent class with another teacher does not do this, it begs the question why would a harsh teacher choose to do this. I think transparency from the start would go a long way in calming students stress levels and foster better relations between parents and teachers to help kids. Just be honest and transparent in your system and let students know why you choose to be tough grader vs. the teacher of the same class that chooses a more reasonable path.

Tough grader could equal the good grader. Reasonable could equal lenient with no standards.

Not sure I follow. At the end of the day, the tough grader’s grade will be stacked up against the reasonable grader’s grade on a college app and the kid who worked harder and maybe learned more will look worse on paper. Our AP teacher needs to strike that balance otherwise they are doing a disservice to hard working kids for no reason other than they think they are being tough for the right reasons. You’re just screwing them over

Honestly, teachers do not care if they are unfairly giving your kid an advantage or disadvantage! They see wealthy Asian or white kids and they do not give one hoot which ones goes to T10, T30 or T50. If they are younger they probably went to a third tier state school and barely kept a 3.0 average. They resent the high score grinders and kids killing themselves to get into top schools.

And here’s why I don’t like these threads. OP has a question that can’t actually be answered here. Logically, OP already knows to reach out to the school.

So all this did was open up an opportunity for posters to slam teachers, as if there isn’t enough of that on this site.

And the bad teachers don’t care. They really don’t. The good teachers will take nonsense like the post above personally.

And the good teachers are the ones we should be trying to keep right now. Trust me when I say many of them are already looking for an exit from the profession. Why give more reasons?

How dramatic. Good teacher’s aren’t leaving because someone on DCUM criticizes them. If they’re truly taking an anonymous internet board personally then looking for the exit is a good idea.

Are you a teacher, or just someone who feels comfortable speaking for us?

When you are barraged with negativity ALL THE TIME, it starts to weigh on you. Want to help the good teachers? Stop criticizing all teachers for the perceived actions of one.

And I don’t think you should continue calling for our exit. Who do you think is coming to replace us? Education departments aren’t graduating many teachers these days. Career changers often don’t last.

Unemployment rates are rising among college graduates and plenty will take cast iron job security and significant off time. Recent graduates can teach even without coming from an “education department” and many will be better off for it.

— Sibling of an excellent teacher with a PhD that isn’t in education, who thinks the general state of teaching is very problematic and has more resilience than to get “weighed down” by other parents realizing it .

In the PP. I’m glad your sibling is an excellent teacher. Many of us are.

And some of us are teaching through our planning periods because colleagues already quit. Yes, your sibling is correct: teaching is in ruins. Yet DCUM will find ways to pile more on.

Your causal arrow is flawed. Teaching isn't in ruins because DCUM highlights poor teaching. My sister, being a parent herself, has had plenty to say about weak teaching in her daughters’ schools.

Well, I wasn’t trying to draw a correlation between DCUM posts and weak teachers. I was merely saying targeting/insulting good teachers doesn’t help the profession. Would you disagree with that statement?

Regarding weak teaching: imagine how much stronger teachers could be if they were given time to plan and grade. Just today, I had to comfort a crying teacher because she was overwhelmed by the stack of grading she has to take home for the weekend. She estimates it’ll take her 18-22 hours to get ready for Monday. She’s a strong teacher, but her work ethic is clearly taking a toll. Do you think she’d be a more present, resilient teacher if she had a more reasonable workload? I sure do.

Teaching loads aren’t equal. Ten days to return papers is a BREEZE in some disciplines. It’s nearly impossible in others.

When DCUM goes on its daily anti-teacher attack, it doesn’t hurt the teachers you want it to hurt. It hurts the people like my colleague, who is already giving her all. Should she have to deal with insults, too?

I think the problem is some view any constructive feedback as an attack. The entire post was about tough grading by some teachers and its impact on students. Respectfully, if one cannot handle constructive feedback, maybe they should read an anonymous blog? Nobody gave a teachers name, school or even subject. Feeling attacked on something that isn’t even directed at you necessarily is easily solvable…stop scrolling and take care of yourself.

Ta this your first day on DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough when teachers use AP multiple choice questions and base their grade on the percentage correct. In order to get a 5 you don’t need to get 90% correct.

So for example APUSH, 60-65 percent will have you most likely passing with a 3 on the actual AP Test. 70 percent is 4 territory. 80 percent will get you a 5. It is really rare to get 100% on any AP test. But if teachers give tests from released questions they have access to and use a traditional grading scales, students find getting A’s challenging.

I do this. But then I curve grades. In my AP course a 50% in may is generally a 3 on the exam, so I curve test scores so that 50% becomes a C-, 65% becomes a B-, and an 80% becomes an A-. That is a smidge tougher than college board's scoring (it's pretty close to 50 (3)/60 (4)/ 75 (5) in reality) but I figure my unit tests on a small chunk of limited standards are easier than the test in May with a year's worth of material and a much longer block of time.

The reality is that at the beginning of the year kids don't perform at a "5" level. I am grading on an AP rubric, giving timely feedback, lots of practice, lots of opportunities to clarify, but it takes a couple of units to understand the AP way of responding to FRQs. By November/December I've got them trained and I usually suggest saving retakes on FRQs until then. It's built in spiral review to study for unit 1/2/3 in December, and the content will feel easier at that point anyway.

By May, my gradebook will be 80% As and Bs, 15% Cs, and 1 or 2 Ds. Right now, with 1 test on the books, it's 30% Ds and I have a couple of Fs. Some will drop when they realize the class is hard, but most will rise to the challenge and improve.

Obviously some of my colleagues are lazy (sorry), but some of us are legitimately training your children to perform at a higher level and they just aren't there yet.

If that’s your process then why not be transparent to parents and more importantly, the students about it? It just causes unnecessary anxiety and stress. I think sometimes students just need to understand that they’ll be ok if they keep putting in the work.

To be clear, my DC doesn’t find the material particularly difficult and does know it well. If it were a multiple choice test for example, they’d have 100%. It’s just they don’t understand the subjective grading that dings them for really small things. Meanwhile their peers are breezing thru the same class with other teachers and a fraction of the work.

This teacher seems transparent, probably not the one OP is referring to.

OP here. I appreciate this teacher’s perspective, we just haven’t received that level of transparency and coupled with other AP teachers not being so harsh on the grading, it is easily misunderstood by students. Thus the mad rush by students requesting to switch out or drop down. This was not even brought up at BTSN so why would any of us know what’s standard AP grading practice and not? Is it truly a style of grading that’s recommended by the AP Board or a preference of the teacher? Why then aren’t all the teachers following protocol? I appreciate the openness of the teachers on here but am left wondering if that’s truly the case for my DS’s class.

I think many teachers are in their own echo chamber and do not realize the impact of their style has on their students. When an equivalent class with another teacher does not do this, it begs the question why would a harsh teacher choose to do this. I think transparency from the start would go a long way in calming students stress levels and foster better relations between parents and teachers to help kids. Just be honest and transparent in your system and let students know why you choose to be tough grader vs. the teacher of the same class that chooses a more reasonable path.

Tough grader could equal the good grader. Reasonable could equal lenient with no standards.

Not sure I follow. At the end of the day, the tough grader’s grade will be stacked up against the reasonable grader’s grade on a college app and the kid who worked harder and maybe learned more will look worse on paper. Our AP teacher needs to strike that balance otherwise they are doing a disservice to hard working kids for no reason other than they think they are being tough for the right reasons. You’re just screwing them over

Honestly, teachers do not care if they are unfairly giving your kid an advantage or disadvantage! They see wealthy Asian or white kids and they do not give one hoot which ones goes to T10, T30 or T50. If they are younger they probably went to a third tier state school and barely kept a 3.0 average. They resent the high score grinders and kids killing themselves to get into top schools.

And here’s why I don’t like these threads. OP has a question that can’t actually be answered here. Logically, OP already knows to reach out to the school.

So all this did was open up an opportunity for posters to slam teachers, as if there isn’t enough of that on this site.

And the bad teachers don’t care. They really don’t. The good teachers will take nonsense like the post above personally.

And the good teachers are the ones we should be trying to keep right now. Trust me when I say many of them are already looking for an exit from the profession. Why give more reasons?

How dramatic. Good teacher’s aren’t leaving because someone on DCUM criticizes them. If they’re truly taking an anonymous internet board personally then looking for the exit is a good idea.

Are you a teacher, or just someone who feels comfortable speaking for us?

When you are barraged with negativity ALL THE TIME, it starts to weigh on you. Want to help the good teachers? Stop criticizing all teachers for the perceived actions of one.

And I don’t think you should continue calling for our exit. Who do you think is coming to replace us? Education departments aren’t graduating many teachers these days. Career changers often don’t last.

Unemployment rates are rising among college graduates and plenty will take cast iron job security and significant off time. Recent graduates can teach even without coming from an “education department” and many will be better off for it.

— Sibling of an excellent teacher with a PhD that isn’t in education, who thinks the general state of teaching is very problematic and has more resilience than to get “weighed down” by other parents realizing it .

In the PP. I’m glad your sibling is an excellent teacher. Many of us are.

And some of us are teaching through our planning periods because colleagues already quit. Yes, your sibling is correct: teaching is in ruins. Yet DCUM will find ways to pile more on.

Your causal arrow is flawed. Teaching isn't in ruins because DCUM highlights poor teaching. My sister, being a parent herself, has had plenty to say about weak teaching in her daughters’ schools.

Well, I wasn’t trying to draw a correlation between DCUM posts and weak teachers. I was merely saying targeting/insulting good teachers doesn’t help the profession. Would you disagree with that statement?

Regarding weak teaching: imagine how much stronger teachers could be if they were given time to plan and grade. Just today, I had to comfort a crying teacher because she was overwhelmed by the stack of grading she has to take home for the weekend. She estimates it’ll take her 18-22 hours to get ready for Monday. She’s a strong teacher, but her work ethic is clearly taking a toll. Do you think she’d be a more present, resilient teacher if she had a more reasonable workload? I sure do.

Teaching loads aren’t equal. Ten days to return papers is a BREEZE in some disciplines. It’s nearly impossible in others.

When DCUM goes on its daily anti-teacher attack, it doesn’t hurt the teachers you want it to hurt. It hurts the people like my colleague, who is already giving her all. Should she have to deal with insults, too?

I think the problem is some view any constructive feedback as an attack. The entire post was about tough grading by some teachers and its impact on students. Respectfully, if one cannot handle constructive feedback, maybe they should read an anonymous blog? Nobody gave a teachers name, school or even subject. Feeling attacked on something that isn’t even directed at you necessarily is easily solvable…stop scrolling and take care of yourself.

The OP themselves used “unreasonable teachers” in the title. That is not constructive feedback. Another PP called teachers racists against Asians. Several teachers explained their policies. Are we reading the same posts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough when teachers use AP multiple choice questions and base their grade on the percentage correct. In order to get a 5 you don’t need to get 90% correct.

So for example APUSH, 60-65 percent will have you most likely passing with a 3 on the actual AP Test. 70 percent is 4 territory. 80 percent will get you a 5. It is really rare to get 100% on any AP test. But if teachers give tests from released questions they have access to and use a traditional grading scales, students find getting A’s challenging.

I do this. But then I curve grades. In my AP course a 50% in may is generally a 3 on the exam, so I curve test scores so that 50% becomes a C-, 65% becomes a B-, and an 80% becomes an A-. That is a smidge tougher than college board's scoring (it's pretty close to 50 (3)/60 (4)/ 75 (5) in reality) but I figure my unit tests on a small chunk of limited standards are easier than the test in May with a year's worth of material and a much longer block of time.

The reality is that at the beginning of the year kids don't perform at a "5" level. I am grading on an AP rubric, giving timely feedback, lots of practice, lots of opportunities to clarify, but it takes a couple of units to understand the AP way of responding to FRQs. By November/December I've got them trained and I usually suggest saving retakes on FRQs until then. It's built in spiral review to study for unit 1/2/3 in December, and the content will feel easier at that point anyway.

By May, my gradebook will be 80% As and Bs, 15% Cs, and 1 or 2 Ds. Right now, with 1 test on the books, it's 30% Ds and I have a couple of Fs. Some will drop when they realize the class is hard, but most will rise to the challenge and improve.

Obviously some of my colleagues are lazy (sorry), but some of us are legitimately training your children to perform at a higher level and they just aren't there yet.

If that’s your process then why not be transparent to parents and more importantly, the students about it? It just causes unnecessary anxiety and stress. I think sometimes students just need to understand that they’ll be ok if they keep putting in the work.

To be clear, my DC doesn’t find the material particularly difficult and does know it well. If it were a multiple choice test for example, they’d have 100%. It’s just they don’t understand the subjective grading that dings them for really small things. Meanwhile their peers are breezing thru the same class with other teachers and a fraction of the work.

This teacher seems transparent, probably not the one OP is referring to.

OP here. I appreciate this teacher’s perspective, we just haven’t received that level of transparency and coupled with other AP teachers not being so harsh on the grading, it is easily misunderstood by students. Thus the mad rush by students requesting to switch out or drop down. This was not even brought up at BTSN so why would any of us know what’s standard AP grading practice and not? Is it truly a style of grading that’s recommended by the AP Board or a preference of the teacher? Why then aren’t all the teachers following protocol? I appreciate the openness of the teachers on here but am left wondering if that’s truly the case for my DS’s class.

I think many teachers are in their own echo chamber and do not realize the impact of their style has on their students. When an equivalent class with another teacher does not do this, it begs the question why would a harsh teacher choose to do this. I think transparency from the start would go a long way in calming students stress levels and foster better relations between parents and teachers to help kids. Just be honest and transparent in your system and let students know why you choose to be tough grader vs. the teacher of the same class that chooses a more reasonable path.

Tough grader could equal the good grader. Reasonable could equal lenient with no standards.

Not sure I follow. At the end of the day, the tough grader’s grade will be stacked up against the reasonable grader’s grade on a college app and the kid who worked harder and maybe learned more will look worse on paper. Our AP teacher needs to strike that balance otherwise they are doing a disservice to hard working kids for no reason other than they think they are being tough for the right reasons. You’re just screwing them over

Honestly, teachers do not care if they are unfairly giving your kid an advantage or disadvantage! They see wealthy Asian or white kids and they do not give one hoot which ones goes to T10, T30 or T50. If they are younger they probably went to a third tier state school and barely kept a 3.0 average. They resent the high score grinders and kids killing themselves to get into top schools.

And here’s why I don’t like these threads. OP has a question that can’t actually be answered here. Logically, OP already knows to reach out to the school.

So all this did was open up an opportunity for posters to slam teachers, as if there isn’t enough of that on this site.

And the bad teachers don’t care. They really don’t. The good teachers will take nonsense like the post above personally.

And the good teachers are the ones we should be trying to keep right now. Trust me when I say many of them are already looking for an exit from the profession. Why give more reasons?

How dramatic. Good teacher’s aren’t leaving because someone on DCUM criticizes them. If they’re truly taking an anonymous internet board personally then looking for the exit is a good idea.

Are you a teacher, or just someone who feels comfortable speaking for us?

When you are barraged with negativity ALL THE TIME, it starts to weigh on you. Want to help the good teachers? Stop criticizing all teachers for the perceived actions of one.

And I don’t think you should continue calling for our exit. Who do you think is coming to replace us? Education departments aren’t graduating many teachers these days. Career changers often don’t last.

Unemployment rates are rising among college graduates and plenty will take cast iron job security and significant off time. Recent graduates can teach even without coming from an “education department” and many will be better off for it.

— Sibling of an excellent teacher with a PhD that isn’t in education, who thinks the general state of teaching is very problematic and has more resilience than to get “weighed down” by other parents realizing it .

In the PP. I’m glad your sibling is an excellent teacher. Many of us are.

And some of us are teaching through our planning periods because colleagues already quit. Yes, your sibling is correct: teaching is in ruins. Yet DCUM will find ways to pile more on.

Your causal arrow is flawed. Teaching isn't in ruins because DCUM highlights poor teaching. My sister, being a parent herself, has had plenty to say about weak teaching in her daughters’ schools.

Well, I wasn’t trying to draw a correlation between DCUM posts and weak teachers. I was merely saying targeting/insulting good teachers doesn’t help the profession. Would you disagree with that statement?

Regarding weak teaching: imagine how much stronger teachers could be if they were given time to plan and grade. Just today, I had to comfort a crying teacher because she was overwhelmed by the stack of grading she has to take home for the weekend. She estimates it’ll take her 18-22 hours to get ready for Monday. She’s a strong teacher, but her work ethic is clearly taking a toll. Do you think she’d be a more present, resilient teacher if she had a more reasonable workload? I sure do.

Teaching loads aren’t equal. Ten days to return papers is a BREEZE in some disciplines. It’s nearly impossible in others.

When DCUM goes on its daily anti-teacher attack, it doesn’t hurt the teachers you want it to hurt. It hurts the people like my colleague, who is already giving her all. Should she have to deal with insults, too?

Yes, this is true.

I teach high school English, and my admin (not FCPS, but they are all the same) utterly REFUSE to acknowledge that it takes the English teachers much longer to grade.

The highest exam scores I ever had were while teaching at a private school at which I had a very light teaching load. I was able to have my AP Lit kids do timed writing every other week all year, and I gave each essay back with extensive detailed comments/feedback AND an individual "mini writer's conference" at which I met with each student to go over each essay and make a plan for improvement. The majority of the kids got 5s on the exams, with one or two 4s each year. The kids weren't better, I wasn't better, but admin prioritized having the kids write regularly and giving me time to read and write feedback.

In my current schedule, I have two days in a row when I teach every period of the day, no breaks. The other days are not much lighter. Parents often grumble that "the kids don't write enough", but there is no time to do it. I agree, they NEED to do it, and they will NOT do as well on the exams without it, but admin remain unconvinced. Let's not get into the fact that I have 3-4 useless meetings before and after school each week to listen to admin prattle about their latest ego-stroking projects that further waste my time.

"Better teaching" happens when teachers are given adequate planning time to grade and develop lessons. There is no other way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough when teachers use AP multiple choice questions and base their grade on the percentage correct. In order to get a 5 you don’t need to get 90% correct.

So for example APUSH, 60-65 percent will have you most likely passing with a 3 on the actual AP Test. 70 percent is 4 territory. 80 percent will get you a 5. It is really rare to get 100% on any AP test. But if teachers give tests from released questions they have access to and use a traditional grading scales, students find getting A’s challenging.

I do this. But then I curve grades. In my AP course a 50% in may is generally a 3 on the exam, so I curve test scores so that 50% becomes a C-, 65% becomes a B-, and an 80% becomes an A-. That is a smidge tougher than college board's scoring (it's pretty close to 50 (3)/60 (4)/ 75 (5) in reality) but I figure my unit tests on a small chunk of limited standards are easier than the test in May with a year's worth of material and a much longer block of time.

The reality is that at the beginning of the year kids don't perform at a "5" level. I am grading on an AP rubric, giving timely feedback, lots of practice, lots of opportunities to clarify, but it takes a couple of units to understand the AP way of responding to FRQs. By November/December I've got them trained and I usually suggest saving retakes on FRQs until then. It's built in spiral review to study for unit 1/2/3 in December, and the content will feel easier at that point anyway.

By May, my gradebook will be 80% As and Bs, 15% Cs, and 1 or 2 Ds. Right now, with 1 test on the books, it's 30% Ds and I have a couple of Fs. Some will drop when they realize the class is hard, but most will rise to the challenge and improve.

Obviously some of my colleagues are lazy (sorry), but some of us are legitimately training your children to perform at a higher level and they just aren't there yet.

If that’s your process then why not be transparent to parents and more importantly, the students about it? It just causes unnecessary anxiety and stress. I think sometimes students just need to understand that they’ll be ok if they keep putting in the work.

To be clear, my DC doesn’t find the material particularly difficult and does know it well. If it were a multiple choice test for example, they’d have 100%. It’s just they don’t understand the subjective grading that dings them for really small things. Meanwhile their peers are breezing thru the same class with other teachers and a fraction of the work.

This teacher seems transparent, probably not the one OP is referring to.

OP here. I appreciate this teacher’s perspective, we just haven’t received that level of transparency and coupled with other AP teachers not being so harsh on the grading, it is easily misunderstood by students. Thus the mad rush by students requesting to switch out or drop down. This was not even brought up at BTSN so why would any of us know what’s standard AP grading practice and not? Is it truly a style of grading that’s recommended by the AP Board or a preference of the teacher? Why then aren’t all the teachers following protocol? I appreciate the openness of the teachers on here but am left wondering if that’s truly the case for my DS’s class.

I think many teachers are in their own echo chamber and do not realize the impact of their style has on their students. When an equivalent class with another teacher does not do this, it begs the question why would a harsh teacher choose to do this. I think transparency from the start would go a long way in calming students stress levels and foster better relations between parents and teachers to help kids. Just be honest and transparent in your system and let students know why you choose to be tough grader vs. the teacher of the same class that chooses a more reasonable path.

Tough grader could equal the good grader. Reasonable could equal lenient with no standards.

Not sure I follow. At the end of the day, the tough grader’s grade will be stacked up against the reasonable grader’s grade on a college app and the kid who worked harder and maybe learned more will look worse on paper. Our AP teacher needs to strike that balance otherwise they are doing a disservice to hard working kids for no reason other than they think they are being tough for the right reasons. You’re just screwing them over

Honestly, teachers do not care if they are unfairly giving your kid an advantage or disadvantage! They see wealthy Asian or white kids and they do not give one hoot which ones goes to T10, T30 or T50. If they are younger they probably went to a third tier state school and barely kept a 3.0 average. They resent the high score grinders and kids killing themselves to get into top schools.

And here’s why I don’t like these threads. OP has a question that can’t actually be answered here. Logically, OP already knows to reach out to the school.

So all this did was open up an opportunity for posters to slam teachers, as if there isn’t enough of that on this site.

And the bad teachers don’t care. They really don’t. The good teachers will take nonsense like the post above personally.

And the good teachers are the ones we should be trying to keep right now. Trust me when I say many of them are already looking for an exit from the profession. Why give more reasons?

How dramatic. Good teacher’s aren’t leaving because someone on DCUM criticizes them. If they’re truly taking an anonymous internet board personally then looking for the exit is a good idea.

Are you a teacher, or just someone who feels comfortable speaking for us?

When you are barraged with negativity ALL THE TIME, it starts to weigh on you. Want to help the good teachers? Stop criticizing all teachers for the perceived actions of one.

And I don’t think you should continue calling for our exit. Who do you think is coming to replace us? Education departments aren’t graduating many teachers these days. Career changers often don’t last.

Unemployment rates are rising among college graduates and plenty will take cast iron job security and significant off time. Recent graduates can teach even without coming from an “education department” and many will be better off for it.

— Sibling of an excellent teacher with a PhD that isn’t in education, who thinks the general state of teaching is very problematic and has more resilience than to get “weighed down” by other parents realizing it .

In the PP. I’m glad your sibling is an excellent teacher. Many of us are.

And some of us are teaching through our planning periods because colleagues already quit. Yes, your sibling is correct: teaching is in ruins. Yet DCUM will find ways to pile more on.

Your causal arrow is flawed. Teaching isn't in ruins because DCUM highlights poor teaching. My sister, being a parent herself, has had plenty to say about weak teaching in her daughters’ schools.

Well, I wasn’t trying to draw a correlation between DCUM posts and weak teachers. I was merely saying targeting/insulting good teachers doesn’t help the profession. Would you disagree with that statement?

Regarding weak teaching: imagine how much stronger teachers could be if they were given time to plan and grade. Just today, I had to comfort a crying teacher because she was overwhelmed by the stack of grading she has to take home for the weekend. She estimates it’ll take her 18-22 hours to get ready for Monday. She’s a strong teacher, but her work ethic is clearly taking a toll. Do you think she’d be a more present, resilient teacher if she had a more reasonable workload? I sure do.

Teaching loads aren’t equal. Ten days to return papers is a BREEZE in some disciplines. It’s nearly impossible in others.

When DCUM goes on its daily anti-teacher attack, it doesn’t hurt the teachers you want it to hurt. It hurts the people like my colleague, who is already giving her all. Should she have to deal with insults, too?

I think the problem is some view any constructive feedback as an attack. The entire post was about tough grading by some teachers and its impact on students. Respectfully, if one cannot handle constructive feedback, maybe they should read an anonymous blog? Nobody gave a teachers name, school or even subject. Feeling attacked on something that isn’t even directed at you necessarily is easily solvable…stop scrolling and take care of yourself.

The OP themselves used “unreasonable teachers” in the title. That is not constructive feedback. Another PP called teachers racists against Asians. Several teachers explained their policies. Are we reading the same posts?

“Unreasonable” isn’t a personal insult against your weeping, overwhelmed colleague. If she perceives it that way it’s really better that she find a new website to read.

I also suggest that you broaden your horizons and realize that many many important professions get critiqued on DCUM. Federal employees are villianized, doctors, nurses…life or death professions. And no one chimes in on every thread to remind us theres a critical nursing shortage (there is) or that doctors mental health is in crisis (it is) and that we shouldn’t write anything critical of them or else they’ll take their stethoscope and leave and that will show us!

So the next time you decide you have to be the white knight to defend “good” teachers from DCUM being so mean to them consider whether you really want to keep portraying teachers as so much more fragile than the rest of us. It’s not hurting the bad teachers, but it sure makes the good teachers look whiny and entitled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough when teachers use AP multiple choice questions and base their grade on the percentage correct. In order to get a 5 you don’t need to get 90% correct.

So for example APUSH, 60-65 percent will have you most likely passing with a 3 on the actual AP Test. 70 percent is 4 territory. 80 percent will get you a 5. It is really rare to get 100% on any AP test. But if teachers give tests from released questions they have access to and use a traditional grading scales, students find getting A’s challenging.

I do this. But then I curve grades. In my AP course a 50% in may is generally a 3 on the exam, so I curve test scores so that 50% becomes a C-, 65% becomes a B-, and an 80% becomes an A-. That is a smidge tougher than college board's scoring (it's pretty close to 50 (3)/60 (4)/ 75 (5) in reality) but I figure my unit tests on a small chunk of limited standards are easier than the test in May with a year's worth of material and a much longer block of time.

The reality is that at the beginning of the year kids don't perform at a "5" level. I am grading on an AP rubric, giving timely feedback, lots of practice, lots of opportunities to clarify, but it takes a couple of units to understand the AP way of responding to FRQs. By November/December I've got them trained and I usually suggest saving retakes on FRQs until then. It's built in spiral review to study for unit 1/2/3 in December, and the content will feel easier at that point anyway.

By May, my gradebook will be 80% As and Bs, 15% Cs, and 1 or 2 Ds. Right now, with 1 test on the books, it's 30% Ds and I have a couple of Fs. Some will drop when they realize the class is hard, but most will rise to the challenge and improve.

Obviously some of my colleagues are lazy (sorry), but some of us are legitimately training your children to perform at a higher level and they just aren't there yet.

If that’s your process then why not be transparent to parents and more importantly, the students about it? It just causes unnecessary anxiety and stress. I think sometimes students just need to understand that they’ll be ok if they keep putting in the work.

To be clear, my DC doesn’t find the material particularly difficult and does know it well. If it were a multiple choice test for example, they’d have 100%. It’s just they don’t understand the subjective grading that dings them for really small things. Meanwhile their peers are breezing thru the same class with other teachers and a fraction of the work.

This teacher seems transparent, probably not the one OP is referring to.

OP here. I appreciate this teacher’s perspective, we just haven’t received that level of transparency and coupled with other AP teachers not being so harsh on the grading, it is easily misunderstood by students. Thus the mad rush by students requesting to switch out or drop down. This was not even brought up at BTSN so why would any of us know what’s standard AP grading practice and not? Is it truly a style of grading that’s recommended by the AP Board or a preference of the teacher? Why then aren’t all the teachers following protocol? I appreciate the openness of the teachers on here but am left wondering if that’s truly the case for my DS’s class.

I think many teachers are in their own echo chamber and do not realize the impact of their style has on their students. When an equivalent class with another teacher does not do this, it begs the question why would a harsh teacher choose to do this. I think transparency from the start would go a long way in calming students stress levels and foster better relations between parents and teachers to help kids. Just be honest and transparent in your system and let students know why you choose to be tough grader vs. the teacher of the same class that chooses a more reasonable path.

Tough grader could equal the good grader. Reasonable could equal lenient with no standards.

Not sure I follow. At the end of the day, the tough grader’s grade will be stacked up against the reasonable grader’s grade on a college app and the kid who worked harder and maybe learned more will look worse on paper. Our AP teacher needs to strike that balance otherwise they are doing a disservice to hard working kids for no reason other than they think they are being tough for the right reasons. You’re just screwing them over

Honestly, teachers do not care if they are unfairly giving your kid an advantage or disadvantage! They see wealthy Asian or white kids and they do not give one hoot which ones goes to T10, T30 or T50. If they are younger they probably went to a third tier state school and barely kept a 3.0 average. They resent the high score grinders and kids killing themselves to get into top schools.

And here’s why I don’t like these threads. OP has a question that can’t actually be answered here. Logically, OP already knows to reach out to the school.

So all this did was open up an opportunity for posters to slam teachers, as if there isn’t enough of that on this site.

And the bad teachers don’t care. They really don’t. The good teachers will take nonsense like the post above personally.

And the good teachers are the ones we should be trying to keep right now. Trust me when I say many of them are already looking for an exit from the profession. Why give more reasons?

How dramatic. Good teacher’s aren’t leaving because someone on DCUM criticizes them. If they’re truly taking an anonymous internet board personally then looking for the exit is a good idea.

Are you a teacher, or just someone who feels comfortable speaking for us?

When you are barraged with negativity ALL THE TIME, it starts to weigh on you. Want to help the good teachers? Stop criticizing all teachers for the perceived actions of one.

And I don’t think you should continue calling for our exit. Who do you think is coming to replace us? Education departments aren’t graduating many teachers these days. Career changers often don’t last.

Unemployment rates are rising among college graduates and plenty will take cast iron job security and significant off time. Recent graduates can teach even without coming from an “education department” and many will be better off for it.

— Sibling of an excellent teacher with a PhD that isn’t in education, who thinks the general state of teaching is very problematic and has more resilience than to get “weighed down” by other parents realizing it .

In the PP. I’m glad your sibling is an excellent teacher. Many of us are.

And some of us are teaching through our planning periods because colleagues already quit. Yes, your sibling is correct: teaching is in ruins. Yet DCUM will find ways to pile more on.

Your causal arrow is flawed. Teaching isn't in ruins because DCUM highlights poor teaching. My sister, being a parent herself, has had plenty to say about weak teaching in her daughters’ schools.

Well, I wasn’t trying to draw a correlation between DCUM posts and weak teachers. I was merely saying targeting/insulting good teachers doesn’t help the profession. Would you disagree with that statement?

Regarding weak teaching: imagine how much stronger teachers could be if they were given time to plan and grade. Just today, I had to comfort a crying teacher because she was overwhelmed by the stack of grading she has to take home for the weekend. She estimates it’ll take her 18-22 hours to get ready for Monday. She’s a strong teacher, but her work ethic is clearly taking a toll. Do you think she’d be a more present, resilient teacher if she had a more reasonable workload? I sure do.

Teaching loads aren’t equal. Ten days to return papers is a BREEZE in some disciplines. It’s nearly impossible in others.

When DCUM goes on its daily anti-teacher attack, it doesn’t hurt the teachers you want it to hurt. It hurts the people like my colleague, who is already giving her all. Should she have to deal with insults, too?

I think the problem is some view any constructive feedback as an attack. The entire post was about tough grading by some teachers and its impact on students. Respectfully, if one cannot handle constructive feedback, maybe they should read an anonymous blog? Nobody gave a teachers name, school or even subject. Feeling attacked on something that isn’t even directed at you necessarily is easily solvable…stop scrolling and take care of yourself.

The OP themselves used “unreasonable teachers” in the title. That is not constructive feedback. Another PP called teachers racists against Asians. Several teachers explained their policies. Are we reading the same posts?

“Unreasonable” isn’t a personal insult against your weeping, overwhelmed colleague. If she perceives it that way it’s really better that she find a new website to read.

I also suggest that you broaden your horizons and realize that many many important professions get critiqued on DCUM. Federal employees are villianized, doctors, nurses…life or death professions. And no one chimes in on every thread to remind us theres a critical nursing shortage (there is) or that doctors mental health is in crisis (it is) and that we shouldn’t write anything critical of them or else they’ll take their stethoscope and leave and that will show us!

So the next time you decide you have to be the white knight to defend “good” teachers from DCUM being so mean to them consider whether you really want to keep portraying teachers as so much more fragile than the rest of us. It’s not hurting the bad teachers, but it sure makes the good teachers look whiny and entitled.

LOL, thanks for proving the point that all FCPS DCUM posts turn into a bashing posts.