My daughter is struggling in a college prep class (she mostly takes honors). I feel like the deck is stacked against the kids.
The teacher didn’t give her an opportunity to make up classwork she missed due to NHS inductions - guidance office is getting involved with this part. She gets quizzed on the chapter, then he “teaches.” One part of her semester exam was on something he never handed back the classwork for so they don’t know if they did it right in the first place.
She has had challenging classes before where she rightly earned what she got. I am just beside myself that this class, junior year, will be the first one she gets a C in. I feel it’s not her - it’s him. It doesn’t help that one of my degrees is in what he teaches, lol.
Please tell me that one outlying grade junior year won’t affect anything. It’s a humanities class, nothing she would take in college for her intended major (nursing). It just sucks that other sections of this humanities subject, with different teachers, had take-home essays for the exam and is run nothing like this.
Or if I need some tough love, please be gentle. I am very sensitive about this for some reason.
We knew that DS would be getting low grades in foreign language and art, and he just dealt with it as best he could. He was a STEMish kid, but he got really steamed about a B in AP US History (long story, but the teacher felt she knew more about how long a concussion would last than the neurologist did).
We offered to intercede, but he said he would take care of it. He got a 5 on the AP test, and a 780 on the SAT Subject Test. He did it to remove any doubt that an AO might have. It worked well enough for him to be accepted SCEA to Yale.
Your D will encounter other PITA teachers. If not in HS, then college. Except in cases of bullying (4 kids, and have had that twice), I prefer to stand on the sidelines, encouraging but not acting directly. I only offered in this particular case because teacher went against doctor’s orders.
Every grade is part of her academic record. No one class is the entirety of her academic record.
Does the teacher have after school extra help sessions? If so perhaps your D should attend.
Perhaps a meeting with the teacher gently discussing your frustration would help. Since you are a bit sensitive I would make sure you have a written agenda for yourself so you stick to the things that are relevant and don’t go off on a rant. If you don’t get satisfaction you can escalate to the department head or AP. I would not go up the chain unless you meet with the teacher first.
Reading checks (quizzes before any lectures) are common in humanities classes. In classes like that the student MUST do the reading very carefully, even taking notes on the reading as she goes along. Skipping the reading so that the student can be taught the material is not a good strategy. Neither is just skimming the material. My oldest son once got a 40 on a reading check and then tried to tell me he did do the reading (I didn’t buy it).
If it makes you feel better my son is having quite a frustrating experience with his AP English Lit teacher. She does not grade major assignments until the very last minute so the kids have no idea how they are doing in the class until the last few days of the quarter. They get no feedback on the tests, essays until is too late to benefit from such feedback. This is a class that is typically taken by the top kids in the school so they are very frustrated with the lack of feedback from their teacher. She does not answer emails from parents or students. My son has gotten an A in this class both quarters but the lack of feedback is frustrating for him and his classmates.
She does do the reading. In the beginning I was “teaching” her the chapter (like I said, this is something I majored in) but she got better at doing the reading. It’s just frustrating that I’m not sure she could do any more in this class than she already is without sacrificing work in others.
It’s not her strongest subject, and I’m okay with that. It’s just frustrating.
I almost always side with the teacher. There was one case when I intervened, but only after D had attempted to resolve it herself. I don’t know if this is your eldest child, but my son now has classes with teachers his older sister had. He routinely comes home and says “this teacher is terrible, everyone in the class is only getting 75, etc…” Because D had those same teachers, I know that he is exaggerating and I tell him “tough, you need to study more and/or do all the work/reading and do extra besides.”
Your daughter is going to have other bad teachers in high school and college. I don’t doubt that this teacher isn’t great, but some students must get A or B grades. How long has this teacher been with the school? If the answer is “years” there isn’t anything you can do. If it is a new teacher, maybe you can document exactly what the teacher is doing and bring it to the attention of the GC.
One thing that proves successful every single time is meeting with your child and the teacher to find out what the student can do to raise her grade. (Be sure to ask that the teacher bring graded work to the meeting.) This serves many purposes. First, both you and your child will realize the teacher isn’t a monster:-). Second, it will help you understand exactly what mistakes your kid is making. Third, the teacher will be able to target his advice directly to your child’s issues and you will be there to hear it, so you can reinforce it at home. Fourth, for probably the first time, there will be a conversation with a teacher that isn’t just about the subject being taught. There will be a bit of idle chitchat that humanzies the teacher. The teacher will learn a little something about your child, and vice versa. It means they both start seeing each other as people, not just teacher and student.
Trust me, this technique works. My son is a sophomore, and I have had meetings with three teachers. After every meeting, my son’s grade has improved for the remainder of the class year, and my son likes the teacher a lot more. Your,child will not want to do this, btw, because what kid does? Again, my answer to him in that regard was “tough, you are going.”
And to reassure you, one C isn’t going to ruin her chances anywhere.
So I found out from several graduates (whose opinions I trust, just stellar kids) that this teacher was the “worst experience they had academically in high school” for several reasons I won’t go into here. I’ve asked for more details on how they dealt with it.
This class could conceivably end up with a D for the semester if some curving on the exam doesn’t happen. I am going to have a long talk with the guidance counselor after break. I am looking to see when/if he puts that third part of the exam in. I think she’ll do okay on that third part - it’s the part he had a class assignment on but then never gave it back so they could look it over - but there is no margin for error here.
A couple kids texted her (why, I’m not sure) in a panic over the exam. Like, serious panic that they have failed it. Ugh.
Having a crappy teacher doesn’t help when you have a crappy grade on the transcript.
My daughter (andI? I don’t remember) met with the principal about a teacher who wasn’t giving assignments, but tested on them, who never read papers and who gave exams on WWII when they had only gotten as far as WW1. He was clever and made that half of the exam “extra credit” so no one would complain. I can’t tell how bad this teacher is, but when it reaches a level that harms learning, it is well worth it to complain.
To balance that, I always wrote a short note to the principal at the end of the year with a comment about a new teacher who seemed excellent.
