Bad Physics Teacher

Hi,

In grade 11, I had a really bad physics teacher so I ended up having to drop the course. I predicted this would happen during the beginning of the year and tried to change teachers. However, the other physics class was full and due to a schedule conflict, I could not make it work.

Anyways, she often started teaching 10 minutes into the class and she is often away so we made no progress in the course with a substitute. Hence, we were always around 2 units behind the other physics classes (many students who previously had her as a teacher said that many of the outcomes covered in the exam was not taught). Also, she always changed the dates of the test without notifying us until the day of our originally scheduled test. There was no order established in class, and I found this very frustrating. I always did all my work in the class yet still did poorly on the tests because she does not explain anything well. I felt I learned nothing in the 2 months I was in the class.

I am taking both grade 11 physics and grade 12 physics next year and don’t want her as my teacher again. However, it will be hard not to be scheduled in at least one of her classes since he teaches both. Basically what I am saying is should I contact my vice-principal (he makes the student timetables) to request a certain physics teacher for next year? I had this teacher for another class and I really liked her. I am reluctant to try and change after we have received our timetables because it might be too late and it might not work. Not sure what to do…

All advice is very much appreciated!

If it is important to you that you do not have her as a teacher (which I can understand, I’ve felt similar before), then I’d say it wouldn’t hurt to try talking to the vice-principal about it beforehand. At my school they will usually at least make an effort to schedule it as you want. The worst that can happen is that he says no.

Ok. I will definitely talk to him about it. Do you think I should mention that I had a bad experience in this particular person’s class or just say that I had a bad experience in physics class this year and would like so and so next year because she taught me before and I liked her teaching style?

I think it’s important that you let him understand that it’s the specific teacher that you feel is hindering you, otherwise he might come up with some reason like “this course is different from what you’ve taken before” or something like that.