Rant and Rave - Page 3

zoosermom · 05-09-2008, 09:14 PM

"What could have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back for this teacher? Sounds like quite an overreaction."

I asked her that and she told me that he had given a practice exam and it went very badly and most of the class didn't complete the practice work he assigned.

Lafalum84 · 05-10-2008, 12:24 AM

At least ZS has a teacher who shows up and cares. D has had the worst luck with teachers this year! She has an honors English teacher who is absent about one day per week (she has a sick relative) and is very disorganized. Her honors history teacher was out for 6 weeks on maternity leave. Her Spanish teacher got very sick just before school started, D's class spent the first quarter with an incompetent sub before getting a permanent sub for the rest of the year who has required no work from his students. Her chemistry teacher can barely speak English, and today her Honors Algebra II teacher had emergency open-heart surgery. The kids have statewide pass-it-or-don't-graduate math tests in 2 weeks, and a department-wide final in June, but I'm not optimistic about the school finding a qualified math teacher in the short amount of time we have left. I don't want to sound callous - I feel awful for the teachers with life-threatening medical issues, and clearly most of these problems were out of the teachers' hands and much more serious for the teachers' lives than the students. But how did D end up with all these teachers in the SAME year?

LIMOMOF2 · 05-10-2008, 08:52 AM

Lafalum84 - that's horrible for your D. One of my friend's D's had a similar situation in middle school - and it really is an impossible situation for the kids. It's especially tough regarding math and Spanish because even if the kids pass, they really are not well prepared for the next level of those subjects. With the other subjects, it's a little less of an issue, but it is still frustrating.

zoosermom - I'm glad your D managed to pull herself together for the exam. They finished late, didn't they?

I was looking at the AP Euro thread on CC "Subject Test" section, and the kids there are discussing the exam, but trying to do it in a way so they don't give out many details because they don't want to get in trouble. That's a big difference from last year when D took the Bio SAT II - kids were online discussing specific questions before D even got home from the exam.

Lafalum84 · 05-10-2008, 10:51 AM

LIMOMOF2, D is already worried about Spanish 4 next year. Our high school will be forced to cut a significant number of teachers next year unless the town votes to pass a tax increase, so D's replacement Spanish teacher has been told he's not being brought back. D was counting on getting him again next year, now she's worried that she'll have a teacher who will expect her to have LEARNED something in Spanish 3! I'm not as worried about the math next year, D is stepping back from Honors to college-prep so she'll probably be fine. But this year's final exam in Math may be dicey, she thinks they're going to have to "teach themselves" the rest of the material and she's not strong enough in Math to do that. I have advised her to seek help from her more advanced math friends, but I'm not sure she's motivated enough to do that (can't blame that one on the teacher!).

I wouldn't go so far as to call her teacher situation "horrible" for her, but it's certainly disappointing and not helping her to prepare for college work.

younghoss · 05-10-2008, 12:12 PM

Could it be teachers email has been interpreted too literally? Is there a chance the teacher sent this in an effort to "fire up" students to really be determined, try extra hard, and perhaps do better, if only to make him appear wrong? If student scores great, look how student can rightfully be proud of achievements despite teachers' comments. Those who score poorly, unfortunately, make him appear right.
Not to say that I know teachers intent, and not to say that I like it. I am merely presenting another point of view that hasn't been discussed here as a possible explanation. I had sports coaches in the past that referred to boy athletes as "girls"- not in an effort to demean a girls' athleticism(no girls were present), but in an effort to encourage the guys by ridiculing the guys, to motivate them to try harder. Not a PC coach perhaps by today's standards, but a real-life example.

zoosermom · 05-10-2008, 01:32 PM

Here's the epilogue. You will understand that I'm still picking up my face off the floor.

I got to the school this morning (Saturday) to pick her up from an EC thing. The entire group was there and I said hello and (I swear this is true, I wouldn't take anyone's word if I hadn't heard it myself) one of the classmates was discussing how she cheated on the test yesterday off a boy taking it for the second time. She said this in front of about 20 people, including adults. I thought one of the boys (he is History Boy) was going to assault her. Boy is this the test for drama.

Younghoss, that was a very interesting post. The teacher is a sports coach also, of boys.

wharfrat2 · 05-10-2008, 01:43 PM

One thing for sure (I hope) is that the teacher did not get a peek at the exam. As an A.P. teacher (U.S. History) I am not even permitted to be in the exam area with my students nor to have any contact with them during the exam. There is a break between the MC and the essays. Exam booklets are sealed until the students open them. A teacher viewing the exam prior, not that I think this is the case, would be a serious breach of ethics.

I can't imagine a teacher sending an email like that though. I had 132 students take the exam. Some of them worked extremely hard all year and others worked hard at not working. Still, my parting words to them on Thursday were that I knew they were going to go into the exam on Friday with an effort that would make them and me proud.

zoosermom · 05-10-2008, 01:53 PM

"I am not even permitted to be in the exam area with my students nor to have any contact with them during the exam."

I asked her and she said the teacher was not anywhere in the area, so I don't think anything untoward happened with him. The girl who cheated has a reputation for being a very sophisticated cheater. I'm somewhat ashamed to say that I always took my daughter's stories about that with a grain of salt. I do know independently of an incident of stealing by her, which I learned from someone who has no connection to the school and with whom I have a relationship and she has a relationship, but the two don't overlap.

wharfrat2 · 05-10-2008, 01:57 PM

I wasn't trying to imply that anything untoward did happen, rather to discount the possibility from a previous post that hinted maybe the email was a reaction to having seen the exam.

LIMOMOF2 · 05-10-2008, 03:56 PM

wharfrat - I apologize - I think I was the one who implied that the teacher might have seen the exam ahead of time - but I didn't realize that teachers were not allowed to see the exam. I am not familiar with the rules regarding APs as this was my D's first exam. That thought popped into my head because my D's Euro teacher also had an uncharacteristically harsh response to a student's request for help.

ellemenope · 05-11-2008, 01:56 AM

I'll get a little idea about AP exams this next week. I'm proctoring two of them for the first time. I'll be on the look out for cheaters!

Hunt · 05-12-2008, 01:02 PM

Did your daughter ever say anything to the teacher about the e-mail? I'll bet he would say, "What, surely you didn't think that applied to you?"

zoosermom · 05-12-2008, 01:06 PM

Did your daughter ever say anything to the teacher about the e-mail? I'll bet he would say, "What, surely you didn't think that applied to you?""

THe cheater was reported, so all heck is breaking loose. Stay tuned . . .

ag54 · 05-12-2008, 01:17 PM

zoose-what a crazy story - can't wait to hear the outcome.

I want to tell an opposite story.

My youngest (of 3) is taking his first ap test on Thursday. On Saturday, he got what looked like a thank you note in the mail. After reading it, he left it on the counter and I took a peek. It was a note from his ap teacher thanking him for his hard work this year and wishing him luck on the test.

I'm sure she did it for the whole class (which must have cost her a pretty penny in stamps), but I thought it was a very thoughtful thing to do, and one that I haven't seen before (been through many ap test seasons with the older ones, never seen good luck notes!).

The teacher must either be young and unjaded or a really cool lady who knows how to motivate, either way, I'm glad my son had her. Now, we'll see how he actually does on the test!!

zoosermom · 05-12-2008, 01:22 PM

"My youngest (of 3) is taking his first ap test on Thursday. On Saturday, he got what looked like a thank you note in the mail. After reading it, he left it on the counter and I took a peek. It was a note from his ap teacher thanking him for his hard work this year and wishing him luck on the test"

What a classy lady!