Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a b*stardized version of Harkness, but it requires a really thoughtful and experienced teacher to execute it well. Recent grad of a party school ain’t it. Shocked that Potomac would hire someone like that. Makes it seem like they are looking after their finances more than their students.

Geez talk about jumping to conclusions. Potomacs finances are flush and I can’t imagine one US math hire has anything to do with that. I have multiple kids there and they have all had great experiences. The math issues arise when parents/students (see the one above) push to get their student in a higher level math class than they should be in. I have one very gifted math student and the honors program is perfect for him. I have one strong language arts student who is ok at math but doesn’t want to prioritize it, and that’s just fine. He has alternated between regular and extended, and these are taught in more traditional ways and have been fine for him.
The school does take one subject to do a deep dive and analyze completely and revamp the program for each year. This year it is math so I would expect a lot of improvements beginning next year. They brought in a new academic dean, and she’s wonderful. One of her main focuses this year is math across k-12. It appears she’s hearing the complaints about it and will implement changes.
As far as homework, the regular classes are fine but the honors classes do have a lot of homework. The schedule is a block system which is nice bc it means they can really only have work due in half of their classes any day. Honors math does have a brutal amount of homework.

Ha.
They did that the last time they fired the (same) math chair. All those parents left, they put the same (non-math) guy in charge, and nothing changed. By the time you realize that your kids will be gone and another batch will be subjected to this.

The curriculum is fine. It is the teachers who are terrible. And the administration doesn’t know math either, so they listen to and repeat what the math dept feeds them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a b*stardized version of Harkness, but it requires a really thoughtful and experienced teacher to execute it well. Recent grad of a party school ain’t it. Shocked that Potomac would hire someone like that. Makes it seem like they are looking after their finances more than their students.

Geez talk about jumping to conclusions. Potomacs finances are flush and I can’t imagine one US math hire has anything to do with that. I have multiple kids there and they have all had great experiences. The math issues arise when parents/students (see the one above) push to get their student in a higher level math class than they should be in. I have one very gifted math student and the honors program is perfect for him. I have one strong language arts student who is ok at math but doesn’t want to prioritize it, and that’s just fine. He has alternated between regular and extended, and these are taught in more traditional ways and have been fine for him.
The school does take one subject to do a deep dive and analyze completely and revamp the program for each year. This year it is math so I would expect a lot of improvements beginning next year. They brought in a new academic dean, and she’s wonderful. One of her main focuses this year is math across k-12. It appears she’s hearing the complaints about it and will implement changes.
As far as homework, the regular classes are fine but the honors classes do have a lot of homework. The schedule is a block system which is nice bc it means they can really only have work due in half of their classes any day. Honors math does have a brutal amount of homework.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like lazy teaching to me!

It’s more discussion, guiding students into a deeper understanding also fosters different perspectives.

I don’t see that as lazy.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like lazy teaching to me!

Anonymous wrote:This is common with many of the better high schools. Similar to college approach.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a b*stardized version of Harkness, but it requires a really thoughtful and experienced teacher to execute it well. Recent grad of a party school ain’t it. Shocked that Potomac would hire someone like that. Makes it seem like they are looking after their finances more than their students.

Geez talk about jumping to conclusions. Potomacs finances are flush and I can’t imagine one US math hire has anything to do with that. I have multiple kids there and they have all had great experiences. The math issues arise when parents/students (see the one above) push to get their student in a higher level math class than they should be in. I have one very gifted math student and the honors program is perfect for him. I have one strong language arts student who is ok at math but doesn’t want to prioritize it, and that’s just fine. He has alternated between regular and extended, and these are taught in more traditional ways and have been fine for him.
The school does take one subject to do a deep dive and analyze completely and revamp the program for each year. This year it is math so I would expect a lot of improvements beginning next year. They brought in a new academic dean, and she’s wonderful. One of her main focuses this year is math across k-12. It appears she’s hearing the complaints about it and will implement changes.
As far as homework, the regular classes are fine but the honors classes do have a lot of homework. The schedule is a block system which is nice bc it means they can really only have work due in half of their classes any day. Honors math does have a brutal amount of homework.

Anonymous wrote:It’s a b*stardized version of Harkness, but it requires a really thoughtful and experienced teacher to execute it well. Recent grad of a party school ain’t it. Shocked that Potomac would hire someone like that. Makes it seem like they are looking after their finances more than their students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a b*stardized version of Harkness, but it requires a really thoughtful and experienced teacher to execute it well. Recent grad of a party school ain’t it. Shocked that Potomac would hire someone like that. Makes it seem like they are looking after their finances more than their students.

Geez talk about jumping to conclusions. Potomacs finances are flush and I can’t imagine one US math hire has anything to do with that. I have multiple kids there and they have all had great experiences. The math issues arise when parents/students (see the one above) push to get their student in a higher level math class than they should be in. I have one very gifted math student and the honors program is perfect for him. I have one strong language arts student who is ok at math but doesn’t want to prioritize it, and that’s just fine. He has alternated between regular and extended, and these are taught in more traditional ways and have been fine for him.
The school does take one subject to do a deep dive and analyze completely and revamp the program for each year. This year it is math so I would expect a lot of improvements beginning next year. They brought in a new academic dean, and she’s wonderful. One of her main focuses this year is math across k-12. It appears she’s hearing the complaints about it and will implement changes.
As far as homework, the regular classes are fine but the honors classes do have a lot of homework. The schedule is a block system which is nice bc it means they can really only have work due in half of their classes any day. Honors math does have a brutal amount of homework.

Please review statement about kids who have siblings do better because they already have the curriculum which is a secret curriculum in math. Carry on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a b*stardized version of Harkness, but it requires a really thoughtful and experienced teacher to execute it well. Recent grad of a party school ain’t it. Shocked that Potomac would hire someone like that. Makes it seem like they are looking after their finances more than their students.

Geez talk about jumping to conclusions. Potomacs finances are flush and I can’t imagine one US math hire has anything to do with that. I have multiple kids there and they have all had great experiences. The math issues arise when parents/students (see the one above) push to get their student in a higher level math class than they should be in. I have one very gifted math student and the honors program is perfect for him. I have one strong language arts student who is ok at math but doesn’t want to prioritize it, and that’s just fine. He has alternated between regular and extended, and these are taught in more traditional ways and have been fine for him.
The school does take one subject to do a deep dive and analyze completely and revamp the program for each year. This year it is math so I would expect a lot of improvements beginning next year. They brought in a new academic dean, and she’s wonderful. One of her main focuses this year is math across k-12. It appears she’s hearing the complaints about it and will implement changes.
As far as homework, the regular classes are fine but the honors classes do have a lot of homework. The schedule is a block system which is nice bc it means they can really only have work due in half of their classes any day. Honors math does have a brutal amount of homework.

Anonymous wrote:It’s a b*stardized version of Harkness, but it requires a really thoughtful and experienced teacher to execute it well. Recent grad of a party school ain’t it. Shocked that Potomac would hire someone like that. Makes it seem like they are looking after their finances more than their students.