My 8th grader is also taking Geometry and most of the kids are challenged by it, including my own. The teacher goes through the material quickly. There are quizzes every week. No hand holding. The teacher got exasperated with how many parents were calling him asking why their kids got low grades yada yada.

It’s a 10th grade class. It takes maturity, high level thinking and determination.

My son failed his first Algebra 1 Honors unit test in 7th grade and ended up with an A as his final course grade (he’s now in 11th grade and BC Calc). I think you need to give her some space before you start panicking.

I would get a tutor for geometry. If she's in 8th grade and gets a low grade she can have it excluded from her HS transcript--she could also opt to retake Geometry in 9th grade.

OP, I’m sympathetic because I’ve dealt with similar issues. I wouldn’t panic or panic your daughter at all but the fact is you can finish the class and decide to retake it in 9th if she doesn’t like the grade. It does go on the transcript so, yeah, that’s d probably suggest retaking if below a B. A B plus or higher I would not think it makes sense to retake by any means.

In the meantime, line up a good tutor if you can afford it, preferably someone who is a teacher in the county or very familiar with the geometry curriculum, I.e, not a student or something although that’s an option if you need something more affordable.

Post the quiz so we can have a better idea of how much help she needs.

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for all the responses. Even the ones that just called me a troll and told me I needed help. I see I jumped the gun but this is new for me. This is my only child. She has always excelled and seeing such a low score freaked her out and it freaked me out. I did not know what my options were and it was disappointing to learn office hours can't start until a certain date, even if a child needs help. We will look at daily Khan Academy as a tool (great suggestion) as well as finding a tutor. She seems to struggle with planes when there are multiple ones involved and intersecting. She got the "always" "sometimes" "never" questions wrong. One question was "Two intersecting lines are ______ coplanar" and she put "sometimes." Stuff like that she got wrong. I don't know if that is a vocabulary issue, an issue understanding planes, or what but we will figure it out and help her.

This is a great lesson to learn in MS. That not everything comes easy and not everything clicks the first time. And to learn how to learn new difficult material. Better now than HS or college. I and many friends aced honors and AP HS classes only to be confronted with challenging material in college and not know how to learn material we did not immediately understand. I failed a class freshman year. Waited too long to drop and it never clicked and i never figured it out and I was devastated

The first time is disconcerting, I remember freaking out in college when a Professor suggested that most people were average and that is why he rarely gave As and most students in his class got a C. I didn’t even get a C and tried to drop the class. My Advisor told me several important things:

1) College was not meant to be easy and I should be prepared to work hard to earn my grades and there was nothing wrong with that.
2) I had no clue what grade I would get and I should accept the challenge and see where I landed
3) I had to have the class to graduate and this was the only Professor who had taught the class in 15 years.

I earned one of the A’s in the class but it wasn’t easy. It did set the tone for the rest of college in that I never tried to drop a class out of fear of earning a C.

Now is a great time for your daughter to appreciate that not everything will come easy and there are times you have to dig in and work. She is going to have to take Geometry so now is the time to figure it out. She is in a safe place to learn that lesson because it is a grade that can be expunged and she can retake the class in summer school if she wants to improve her grade, I think?

This is one of the reasons I like AoPS and RSM approach when Teaching math. They intentionally include problems that they don’t expect the kids to be able to answer because it requires that the kids learn to ask for help and learn that math isn’t always easy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's barely been 5 days in MS if you follow Odd/Even days. How do you know she is struggling? Did they have a unit test already?

Not a unit test. They took a quiz and she scored 15/20. We will look for a tutor. I cannot help her. I was terrible with geometry.

WHAT?!? She took ONE quiz, got a 75% and you want to change classes??? This has to be a troll post. It is so utterly ridiculous. You are literally telling your kid that if anything is the slightest bit challenging, mommy will fix it. I’m embarrassed for you, OP.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

My DD’s middle school teacher basically forced her out after something like this. Kicked from honors to regular. She was the chair of the department and it was very very clear she didn’t want DD in her class after one pre test. We switched, so DD wouldn’t have to deal with such an aggressive and negative teacher. Unfortunately she was totally unchallenged in the regular class. Sigh.

Thank you for all the responses. Even the ones that just called me a troll and told me I needed help. I see I jumped the gun but this is new for me. This is my only child. She has always excelled and seeing such a low score freaked her out and it freaked me out. I did not know what my options were and it was disappointing to learn office hours can't start until a certain date, even if a child needs help. We will look at daily Khan Academy as a tool (great suggestion) as well as finding a tutor. She seems to struggle with planes when there are multiple ones involved and intersecting. She got the "always" "sometimes" "never" questions wrong. One question was "Two intersecting lines are ______ coplanar" and she put "sometimes." Stuff like that she got wrong. I don't know if that is a vocabulary issue, an issue understanding planes, or what but we will figure it out and help her.

It's an anonymous message board, so I will admit that I have been in your shoes. Speaking from experience, you're really overreacting which isn't good for your child. You are freaking out about one less than stellar grade and then jumping to the conclusion that your child is unable to handle a class. Don't say anything remotely negative or even neutral about math to your child and give it some time. Reassess in a few weeks and see if a tutor would be beneficial.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has she talked to her Teacher and asked for help? Has she even contacted her Teacher? Has she asked you for help? Is she even concerned?

She told me when she got the quiz back that she asked the teacher if she could see her during her office hours but was told office hours won't begin until the week of 9/20.

Good, she has a plan for going forward. I would suggest that she follow up and ask about the quiz. Waiting for 2 more weeks to hold office hours is problematic. Does she know what she did wrong on the quiz? Is it something that she can correct?

You could ask her about a tutor.

For the record, we are an effort is what matters. If DS is making his best effort, then the grade doesn’t matter. If she earns a B or even a C, that is ok. She will still go to college, probably a really good college. It is ok for kids to struggle and have to work hard to do well. And a B is a solidly good grade. A C indicates that a kid is average. While not what many of us strive for, it is not the end of the world.

Have her do one lesson of Geometry on Khan Academy every day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's barely been 5 days in MS if you follow Odd/Even days. How do you know she is struggling? Did they have a unit test already?

Not a unit test. They took a quiz and she scored 15/20. We will look for a tutor. I cannot help her. I was terrible with geometry.

WHAT?!? She took ONE quiz, got a 75% and you want to change classes??? This has to be a troll post. It is so utterly ridiculous. You are literally telling your kid that if anything is the slightest bit challenging, mommy will fix it. I’m embarrassed for you, OP.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

This.

Anonymous wrote:Has she talked to her Teacher and asked for help? Has she even contacted her Teacher? Has she asked you for help? Is she even concerned?

She told me when she got the quiz back that she asked the teacher if she could see her during her office hours but was told office hours won't begin until the week of 9/20.

Anonymous wrote:Not OP, but 75% is a pretty low grade. I wouldn't switch classes and can't actually but I'd be concerned if my son got a 75% early in a course when they're likely covering the basics.

It’s one quiz. One misstep on a problem could account for the grade.

Get a grip.