Anonymous
03/23/2023 09:11
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
Anonymous wrote:OP I strongly recommend you get your dd a tutor.
+1. OP, what the teacher can provide clearly isn't enough for your daughter at this point. Sometimes teaching style can make a difference- doesn't mean what the current teacher is doing is wrong, it's just not working for your kid. I remember struggling in pre-calc only to have things click in AP Calc the next year and I think the teacher for the latter was just explaining it in a way that made more sense to me. But for other classmates it was the reverse, or they did fine in both.
Anonymous
03/23/2023 09:10
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My daughter's AP Calculus teacher is new to the profession and doesn't seem to do many of the basic things that a teacher should be doing. For example, she spends very little time teaching each new concept and generally teaches them once before testing. She doesn't give practice assignments/homework on the concepts, expecting students to learn them largely from her in-class instruction. When my daughter asks her to re-explain a concept because she didn't understand, the teacher tells her to look at her notes. My daughter feels that the teacher knows calculus as a subject but just cannot communicate it well. As a result, my daughter is not doing well in the class, despite having always earned A's in her math classes along the way and spending a LOT of time on her own trying to study. We've also got her a tutor and that seems to be helping.
I've reached out to the teacher to ask for ideas to help my daughter and she basically says, "have her come in during lunch and work with me." This is something that my daughter already does and it doesn't help. What else can I do at the school level to improve this? Do we just suck it up and accept the fact that she got crappy instruction and will probably end up with a C in the class? (Others are also struggling in th class - I've spoken personally with another parent and also seen many messages on the parent listserv about this class - there is only one teacher who teaches this particular class.)
Could this reflect the current emphasis on limiting the amount of time teachers spend teaching in front of the class and reducing length of homework assignments? As a new teacher, she might be more inclined to listen to in-school advice, whereas more experienced teachers continue to do their own thing even as different pedagogical approaches come and go.
Who came up with this? I'm a math teacher in the same boat.. "15-20 minutes max instruction..." when the already super faced paced version of the lesson is allotted for 30 minutes. The kids need direct instruction, not 70 minutes of small group rotations. They can barely function doing independent work as it is (when they arent meeting with the teacher during that rotation) MCPS is a disaster this year. It is just getting worse.
So how do you teach the remaining 10-15 minutes of the lesson after you hit the the direct instruction limit? Do you have to repeat the remaining part of the lesson to each small group as you rotate through or do you have to compress a 30 minute lesson into 15-20 minutes?
I don’t. “I break the rules.” But it’s absurd this is a thing in the county right now.
Agreed. Glad you keep teaching the lesson. They say they want to encourage "productive struggle". It's not productive if kids sit stumped and frustrated in groups waiting for the teacher to rotate through because insufficient direct instruction time was allotted to teach them the concept before asking them to apply it. This is one reason why there is such demand for outside tutors. Not all teachers do what you do. If a teacher follows the guidance and limits direct instruction, families have to find someone to teach the material to the student.
This is AP Calc though; it's meant to be taught like a college course, for college credits. If your child isn't able to understand the material, perhaps they shouldn't earn the college credit.
Colleges don't set fixed limits on the amount of time allowed for direct instruction. In any case, one of the arguments for having kids take Calculus in high school versus college is that the setting permits (in theory) more instructional time.
Anonymous
03/23/2023 08:57
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My daughter's AP Calculus teacher is new to the profession and doesn't seem to do many of the basic things that a teacher should be doing. For example, she spends very little time teaching each new concept and generally teaches them once before testing. She doesn't give practice assignments/homework on the concepts, expecting students to learn them largely from her in-class instruction. When my daughter asks her to re-explain a concept because she didn't understand, the teacher tells her to look at her notes. My daughter feels that the teacher knows calculus as a subject but just cannot communicate it well. As a result, my daughter is not doing well in the class, despite having always earned A's in her math classes along the way and spending a LOT of time on her own trying to study. We've also got her a tutor and that seems to be helping.
I've reached out to the teacher to ask for ideas to help my daughter and she basically says, "have her come in during lunch and work with me." This is something that my daughter already does and it doesn't help. What else can I do at the school level to improve this? Do we just suck it up and accept the fact that she got crappy instruction and will probably end up with a C in the class? (Others are also struggling in th class - I've spoken personally with another parent and also seen many messages on the parent listserv about this class - there is only one teacher who teaches this particular class.)
Could this reflect the current emphasis on limiting the amount of time teachers spend teaching in front of the class and reducing length of homework assignments? As a new teacher, she might be more inclined to listen to in-school advice, whereas more experienced teachers continue to do their own thing even as different pedagogical approaches come and go.
Who came up with this? I'm a math teacher in the same boat.. "15-20 minutes max instruction..." when the already super faced paced version of the lesson is allotted for 30 minutes. The kids need direct instruction, not 70 minutes of small group rotations. They can barely function doing independent work as it is (when they arent meeting with the teacher during that rotation) MCPS is a disaster this year. It is just getting worse.
So how do you teach the remaining 10-15 minutes of the lesson after you hit the the direct instruction limit? Do you have to repeat the remaining part of the lesson to each small group as you rotate through or do you have to compress a 30 minute lesson into 15-20 minutes?
I don’t. “I break the rules.” But it’s absurd this is a thing in the county right now.
Agreed. Glad you keep teaching the lesson. They say they want to encourage "productive struggle". It's not productive if kids sit stumped and frustrated in groups waiting for the teacher to rotate through because insufficient direct instruction time was allotted to teach them the concept before asking them to apply it. This is one reason why there is such demand for outside tutors. Not all teachers do what you do. If a teacher follows the guidance and limits direct instruction, families have to find someone to teach the material to the student.
This is AP Calc though; it's meant to be taught like a college course, for college credits. If your child isn't able to understand the material, perhaps they shouldn't earn the college credit.
Anonymous
03/23/2023 08:14
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My daughter's AP Calculus teacher is new to the profession and doesn't seem to do many of the basic things that a teacher should be doing. For example, she spends very little time teaching each new concept and generally teaches them once before testing. She doesn't give practice assignments/homework on the concepts, expecting students to learn them largely from her in-class instruction. When my daughter asks her to re-explain a concept because she didn't understand, the teacher tells her to look at her notes. My daughter feels that the teacher knows calculus as a subject but just cannot communicate it well. As a result, my daughter is not doing well in the class, despite having always earned A's in her math classes along the way and spending a LOT of time on her own trying to study. We've also got her a tutor and that seems to be helping.
I've reached out to the teacher to ask for ideas to help my daughter and she basically says, "have her come in during lunch and work with me." This is something that my daughter already does and it doesn't help. What else can I do at the school level to improve this? Do we just suck it up and accept the fact that she got crappy instruction and will probably end up with a C in the class? (Others are also struggling in th class - I've spoken personally with another parent and also seen many messages on the parent listserv about this class - there is only one teacher who teaches this particular class.)
Could this reflect the current emphasis on limiting the amount of time teachers spend teaching in front of the class and reducing length of homework assignments? As a new teacher, she might be more inclined to listen to in-school advice, whereas more experienced teachers continue to do their own thing even as different pedagogical approaches come and go.
Who came up with this? I'm a math teacher in the same boat.. "15-20 minutes max instruction..." when the already super faced paced version of the lesson is allotted for 30 minutes. The kids need direct instruction, not 70 minutes of small group rotations. They can barely function doing independent work as it is (when they arent meeting with the teacher during that rotation) MCPS is a disaster this year. It is just getting worse.
So how do you teach the remaining 10-15 minutes of the lesson after you hit the the direct instruction limit? Do you have to repeat the remaining part of the lesson to each small group as you rotate through or do you have to compress a 30 minute lesson into 15-20 minutes?
I don’t. “I break the rules.” But it’s absurd this is a thing in the county right now.
Agreed. Glad you keep teaching the lesson. They say they want to encourage "productive struggle". It's not productive if kids sit stumped and frustrated in groups waiting for the teacher to rotate through because insufficient direct instruction time was allotted to teach them the concept before asking them to apply it. This is one reason why there is such demand for outside tutors. Not all teachers do what you do. If a teacher follows the guidance and limits direct instruction, families have to find someone to teach the material to the student.
Anonymous
03/23/2023 05:45
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My daughter's AP Calculus teacher is new to the profession and doesn't seem to do many of the basic things that a teacher should be doing. For example, she spends very little time teaching each new concept and generally teaches them once before testing. She doesn't give practice assignments/homework on the concepts, expecting students to learn them largely from her in-class instruction. When my daughter asks her to re-explain a concept because she didn't understand, the teacher tells her to look at her notes. My daughter feels that the teacher knows calculus as a subject but just cannot communicate it well. As a result, my daughter is not doing well in the class, despite having always earned A's in her math classes along the way and spending a LOT of time on her own trying to study. We've also got her a tutor and that seems to be helping.
I've reached out to the teacher to ask for ideas to help my daughter and she basically says, "have her come in during lunch and work with me." This is something that my daughter already does and it doesn't help. What else can I do at the school level to improve this? Do we just suck it up and accept the fact that she got crappy instruction and will probably end up with a C in the class? (Others are also struggling in th class - I've spoken personally with another parent and also seen many messages on the parent listserv about this class - there is only one teacher who teaches this particular class.)
Could this reflect the current emphasis on limiting the amount of time teachers spend teaching in front of the class and reducing length of homework assignments? As a new teacher, she might be more inclined to listen to in-school advice, whereas more experienced teachers continue to do their own thing even as different pedagogical approaches come and go.
Who came up with this? I'm a math teacher in the same boat.. "15-20 minutes max instruction..." when the already super faced paced version of the lesson is allotted for 30 minutes. The kids need direct instruction, not 70 minutes of small group rotations. They can barely function doing independent work as it is (when they arent meeting with the teacher during that rotation) MCPS is a disaster this year. It is just getting worse.
So how do you teach the remaining 10-15 minutes of the lesson after you hit the the direct instruction limit? Do you have to repeat the remaining part of the lesson to each small group as you rotate through or do you have to compress a 30 minute lesson into 15-20 minutes?
I don’t. “I break the rules.” But it’s absurd this is a thing in the county right now.
Anonymous
03/22/2023 22:45
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
You have no power or control here. Nothing you say or do matters. All you can do is supplement.
Anonymous
03/22/2023 22:41
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My daughter's AP Calculus teacher is new to the profession and doesn't seem to do many of the basic things that a teacher should be doing. For example, she spends very little time teaching each new concept and generally teaches them once before testing. She doesn't give practice assignments/homework on the concepts, expecting students to learn them largely from her in-class instruction. When my daughter asks her to re-explain a concept because she didn't understand, the teacher tells her to look at her notes. My daughter feels that the teacher knows calculus as a subject but just cannot communicate it well. As a result, my daughter is not doing well in the class, despite having always earned A's in her math classes along the way and spending a LOT of time on her own trying to study. We've also got her a tutor and that seems to be helping.
I've reached out to the teacher to ask for ideas to help my daughter and she basically says, "have her come in during lunch and work with me." This is something that my daughter already does and it doesn't help. What else can I do at the school level to improve this? Do we just suck it up and accept the fact that she got crappy instruction and will probably end up with a C in the class? (Others are also struggling in th class - I've spoken personally with another parent and also seen many messages on the parent listserv about this class - there is only one teacher who teaches this particular class.)
Could this reflect the current emphasis on limiting the amount of time teachers spend teaching in front of the class and reducing length of homework assignments? As a new teacher, she might be more inclined to listen to in-school advice, whereas more experienced teachers continue to do their own thing even as different pedagogical approaches come and go.
Who came up with this? I'm a math teacher in the same boat.. "15-20 minutes max instruction..." when the already super faced paced version of the lesson is allotted for 30 minutes. The kids need direct instruction, not 70 minutes of small group rotations. They can barely function doing independent work as it is (when they arent meeting with the teacher during that rotation) MCPS is a disaster this year. It is just getting worse.
So how do you teach the remaining 10-15 minutes of the lesson after you hit the the direct instruction limit? Do you have to repeat the remaining part of the lesson to each small group as you rotate through or do you have to compress a 30 minute lesson into 15-20 minutes?
Anonymous
03/22/2023 21:09
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My daughter's AP Calculus teacher is new to the profession and doesn't seem to do many of the basic things that a teacher should be doing. For example, she spends very little time teaching each new concept and generally teaches them once before testing. She doesn't give practice assignments/homework on the concepts, expecting students to learn them largely from her in-class instruction. When my daughter asks her to re-explain a concept because she didn't understand, the teacher tells her to look at her notes. My daughter feels that the teacher knows calculus as a subject but just cannot communicate it well. As a result, my daughter is not doing well in the class, despite having always earned A's in her math classes along the way and spending a LOT of time on her own trying to study. We've also got her a tutor and that seems to be helping.
I've reached out to the teacher to ask for ideas to help my daughter and she basically says, "have her come in during lunch and work with me." This is something that my daughter already does and it doesn't help. What else can I do at the school level to improve this? Do we just suck it up and accept the fact that she got crappy instruction and will probably end up with a C in the class? (Others are also struggling in th class - I've spoken personally with another parent and also seen many messages on the parent listserv about this class - there is only one teacher who teaches this particular class.)
Your daughter is in AP calculus and you are still the one speaking for her?
Your daughter and others are struggling in AP calculus, one of the hardest hs courses offered, and you think it is the fault of the teacher?
Maybe the tutor is not very good?
My daughter has spoken to the teacher a million times about this, gone in to her lunch tutoring sessions, etc. My reaching out at the end of the third quarter of the year--after my daughter has been attempting to get help since September--doesn't seem particularly inappropriate to me.
In addition, since my daughter is studying regularly, getting lunchtime help from the teacher, has an outside tutor - yes, I do think that the teacher and her approach to teaching is contributing to this problem. I support teacher autonomy but teachers are not perfect. Obviously we believe my daughter is mainly responsible for her learning, which is why we've addressed this first by getting her outside help. You'll notice that YOU said "it is the fault of the teacher" and I did not.
Oh, and by the way, thanks for the constructive feedback. Glad you spent your time this morning being snarky to someone asking for some help.
Anonymous
03/22/2023 19:30
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My daughter's AP Calculus teacher is new to the profession and doesn't seem to do many of the basic things that a teacher should be doing. For example, she spends very little time teaching each new concept and generally teaches them once before testing. She doesn't give practice assignments/homework on the concepts, expecting students to learn them largely from her in-class instruction. When my daughter asks her to re-explain a concept because she didn't understand, the teacher tells her to look at her notes. My daughter feels that the teacher knows calculus as a subject but just cannot communicate it well. As a result, my daughter is not doing well in the class, despite having always earned A's in her math classes along the way and spending a LOT of time on her own trying to study. We've also got her a tutor and that seems to be helping.
I've reached out to the teacher to ask for ideas to help my daughter and she basically says, "have her come in during lunch and work with me." This is something that my daughter already does and it doesn't help. What else can I do at the school level to improve this? Do we just suck it up and accept the fact that she got crappy instruction and will probably end up with a C in the class? (Others are also struggling in th class - I've spoken personally with another parent and also seen many messages on the parent listserv about this class - there is only one teacher who teaches this particular class.)
Could this reflect the current emphasis on limiting the amount of time teachers spend teaching in front of the class and reducing length of homework assignments? As a new teacher, she might be more inclined to listen to in-school advice, whereas more experienced teachers continue to do their own thing even as different pedagogical approaches come and go.
Who came up with this? I'm a math teacher in the same boat.. "15-20 minutes max instruction..." when the already super faced paced version of the lesson is allotted for 30 minutes. The kids need direct instruction, not 70 minutes of small group rotations. They can barely function doing independent work as it is (when they arent meeting with the teacher during that rotation) MCPS is a disaster this year. It is just getting worse.
In some area districts, teachers are marked down when evaluators sit in their classes and observe that they are relying too much on direct instruction. If you're teaching AP Calculus, you need to be able to teach without these limitations. This is part of the current reform math/NCTM effort to emphasize inquiry learning and making learning student-driven. I do, we do, you do is now strongly discouraged. The current approach is undermining math instruction but it remains popular nonetheless.
Anonymous
03/22/2023 16:31
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My daughter's AP Calculus teacher is new to the profession and doesn't seem to do many of the basic things that a teacher should be doing. For example, she spends very little time teaching each new concept and generally teaches them once before testing. She doesn't give practice assignments/homework on the concepts, expecting students to learn them largely from her in-class instruction. When my daughter asks her to re-explain a concept because she didn't understand, the teacher tells her to look at her notes. My daughter feels that the teacher knows calculus as a subject but just cannot communicate it well. As a result, my daughter is not doing well in the class, despite having always earned A's in her math classes along the way and spending a LOT of time on her own trying to study. We've also got her a tutor and that seems to be helping.
I've reached out to the teacher to ask for ideas to help my daughter and she basically says, "have her come in during lunch and work with me." This is something that my daughter already does and it doesn't help. What else can I do at the school level to improve this? Do we just suck it up and accept the fact that she got crappy instruction and will probably end up with a C in the class? (Others are also struggling in th class - I've spoken personally with another parent and also seen many messages on the parent listserv about this class - there is only one teacher who teaches this particular class.)
Could this reflect the current emphasis on limiting the amount of time teachers spend teaching in front of the class and reducing length of homework assignments? As a new teacher, she might be more inclined to listen to in-school advice, whereas more experienced teachers continue to do their own thing even as different pedagogical approaches come and go.
Who came up with this? I'm a math teacher in the same boat.. "15-20 minutes max instruction..." when the already super faced paced version of the lesson is allotted for 30 minutes. The kids need direct instruction, not 70 minutes of small group rotations. They can barely function doing independent work as it is (when they arent meeting with the teacher during that rotation) MCPS is a disaster this year. It is just getting worse.
Anonymous
03/22/2023 16:02
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
C is a good grade for math, if you check out my Tiktok FYP everyone is failing and skipping
Anonymous
03/22/2023 15:49
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
Saturday School or a tutor?
Anonymous
03/22/2023 15:29
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
Anonymous wrote:My daughter's AP Calculus teacher is new to the profession and doesn't seem to do many of the basic things that a teacher should be doing. For example, she spends very little time teaching each new concept and generally teaches them once before testing. She doesn't give practice assignments/homework on the concepts, expecting students to learn them largely from her in-class instruction. When my daughter asks her to re-explain a concept because she didn't understand, the teacher tells her to look at her notes. My daughter feels that the teacher knows calculus as a subject but just cannot communicate it well. As a result, my daughter is not doing well in the class, despite having always earned A's in her math classes along the way and spending a LOT of time on her own trying to study. We've also got her a tutor and that seems to be helping.
I've reached out to the teacher to ask for ideas to help my daughter and she basically says, "have her come in during lunch and work with me." This is something that my daughter already does and it doesn't help. What else can I do at the school level to improve this? Do we just suck it up and accept the fact that she got crappy instruction and will probably end up with a C in the class? (Others are also struggling in th class - I've spoken personally with another parent and also seen many messages on the parent listserv about this class - there is only one teacher who teaches this particular class.)
Could this reflect the current emphasis on limiting the amount of time teachers spend teaching in front of the class and reducing length of homework assignments? As a new teacher, she might be more inclined to listen to in-school advice, whereas more experienced teachers continue to do their own thing even as different pedagogical approaches come and go.
Anonymous
03/22/2023 14:37
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
That’s normal in mcps. Use the free tutoring.
Anonymous
03/22/2023 14:24
Subject: how to address a teacher who cannot teach?
Part of the issue is that we are pushing everyone into AP Calc BC.
Not everyone needs to take it. In fact, most professions rarely go beyond a basic understanding of algebra and statistics.
If she's struggling this much, it may be that the fundamentals before (precalculus, algebra 2, trigonometry) were taught in a rote (procedural) way. I have noticed that it's often taught this way in the schools and some kids can simply get by, by following the method without an abstract understanding. That breaks down in Calculus. If you don't truly understand functions, etc, you are in trouble. So right now, you are complaining about this particular teacher, but it's quite likely she had poor instruction prior to this and you weren't aware.
Op - Khan academy is the best IMO on explaining challenging concepts. She needs to do 5-10 problems a day, on her own.
For everyone else, I highly recommend doing the math level your kid is taking the summer prior using AOPs, Russian Math, etc. It's amazing how taking *one* class over the summer in a dedicated way can help during the school year when it counts.
Not everyone needs to take it. In fact, most professions rarely go beyond a basic understanding of algebra and statistics.
If she's struggling this much, it may be that the fundamentals before (precalculus, algebra 2, trigonometry) were taught in a rote (procedural) way. I have noticed that it's often taught this way in the schools and some kids can simply get by, by following the method without an abstract understanding. That breaks down in Calculus. If you don't truly understand functions, etc, you are in trouble. So right now, you are complaining about this particular teacher, but it's quite likely she had poor instruction prior to this and you weren't aware.
Op - Khan academy is the best IMO on explaining challenging concepts. She needs to do 5-10 problems a day, on her own.
For everyone else, I highly recommend doing the math level your kid is taking the summer prior using AOPs, Russian Math, etc. It's amazing how taking *one* class over the summer in a dedicated way can help during the school year when it counts.