My teacher recently hired a new AP Calculus teacher. He is nice, and it is obvious he understands the material but he can NOT teach it. He simply does not know how to teach. And I promise, I am not a lazy student, I’m always willing to do more work on my part if necessary, but he makes the most simple concepts impossibly complex. I received almost a perfect score in on every test in all my previous, honors math classes. In order to get by in the class, I’ve had to go to the ex-Calculus teacher who soon won’t have time to help me outside of class. My peers all agree that he is incapable of teaching.I don’t want him to get fired, but he really should not be an AP Calc teacher and I’m worried about how prepared I will be for the first assesment, let alone the actual AP Calculus exam.
Advice please?
Some ideas include: get a tutor if affordable, utilize online resources such as Khan academy, see your teacher for one-on-one help.
This actually happened to me in the same subject last year. We went straight to administration and he was removed from teaching calculus for 2nd semester. I agree with getting a tutor and/or using Kahn academy! I know Calc is hard without a competent teacher, but I know you can get thru!
I would assume good intentions on the part of this teacher. It’s just lack of experience at this point. I would keep asking him questions during class, keep going to him for help. He’s learning from you guys as you (try to) learn from him. As the others mentioned, supplement by getting a tutor and using Khan Academy. Good luck. I know it isn’t easy studying under a new teacher (been there with DD), but the good news is that he is probably very open to helping you and leans somewhat optimistic (hasn’t had time to become jaded), so keep the lines of communication open. Be appreciative of his efforts, but be gently honest if his explanation isn’t up to par.
If the teacher is new, why are they teaching an AP class? In my school, the teacher would have to teach comp+honors classes for a certain number of years before they can be considered to teach an AP class.
From what I understand, APs are easy to teach. You’re given a somewhat standard curriculum and you’re teaching to a specific multiple choice (mostly) test. Of course different schools are going to have different policies regarding teacher placement, though.
I don’t think AP Calc can be described as easy to teach. Unfortunately there’s a relative large chunk of excellent teachers who do not like math and another chunk of people who know/understand math but do not know how to teach.
My daughter ended up with a substitute teacher for 12 weeks during the second semester of AP Calc BC. The administration did everything possible to try and find a good option for a long term sub - but their solution was really not successful. Luckily they relatively quickly realized the extent of the problem and the other math teachers offered office hours - still not ideal, but we muddled along.
- Go to the head of the math department and talk to them about this. Ask her/him to observe the class.
- If that doesn’t help, get your parents involved.
- http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/2026961-what-to-do-when-you-arent-doing-well-in-a-hs-class-p1.html