French Teacher Issues

Pre-College Issues High School Life
21

“a teacher like this is preparing you for the rigors of college”

This is what I was thinking also, except that this same issue also applies to life after college. The real world is full of people in positions of authority who are not perfect, and are not candidates for sainthood.

I do remember a few professors who were worse than this French teacher. I remember quite a few bosses who were worse than this French teacher. Welcome to life in the real world.

OP, you need to do as well as you can in an imperfect world.

22

OP, you’re getting too mired in the details and missing the simple ways you can meet these challenges. If you personally want to learn more, find a free online course or help/practice site. You aren’t responsible for other students, their complaints, or study habits. Or cheats. These are not your wrongs to right.

It’s not unusual to be given vocab lists to learn on your own, then have no one go over those with you during class. That’s part of your own learning. As you progress through hs, they hold student hands less. Then you hit college where even more is on you to manage. Imagine college, where you’re assigned reading and the next class discussion assumes you did, without discussing in detail.

23

Volunteers come to CC to offer help when people post questions or problems. If you don’t like the answers you are getting you are free to ignore the advice. But your rudeness and snide comments are uncalled for.

24

Focus more on learning the material and less on the grade. I can imagine that a teacher who cares about the material quickly becomes disenchanted with a student who shows no real interest in learning, but simply in getting good test results…

25

Thing is, with OP’s good grades, he needs to be sure he’s not burning his bridges re: college LoRs. Or even support on his college hunt.

It’s probably distracting, to himself and others.

26

@Get00F3D I sympathize with you. The fact that the class average is a D shows that there’s some kind of problem going on. Back when I was in HS I had one teacher who was really terrible and clearly played favorites. My parents basically told me to suck up to her. Not in a horrible way, but as in talking to her and letting her know that my grades were important to me, and what did she think I could do to improve, and that I was looking for guidance from her. And then I did everything precisely as she told me to. Honestly, I didn’t see any difference between doing things her way and the way I wanted to do it, but I just complied, and I complied with a smile and a thank you. Sure enough my grade went up dramatically. To this day I still don’t see the benefit of her way, but I do think that I learned a good lesson that’s helped me in the working world that even if something doesn’t make sense, if your boss wants something a particular way, you do it that way.

So back to you. It sounds like there may be some issues going on with your teacher (low class average, throwing papers). I bet the school administration knows about the grades and has probably heard about the behavior. Any changes that the school is going to make will take a while. And it would be pretty surprising if the school did anything to undermine her authority during the school year,so I don’t think you’re really going to get much help from the school.

I’m suggesting that the most effective thing for YOU, would be to focus not on changing her, but instead on changing you, and what you can do to make the situation better for yourself inside the classroom. You might want to take my parents advice. Don’t fight her and don’t get mad about how unfair she is. Instead let her know you are invested in the class, and you’re disappointed with your grade and want to improve, and can she give you guidance? Start a dialogue with her and let her know some things that are tripping you up. One of the things I think you said was you are given vocab words but don’t practice them in class. Maybe you could let her know that you feel like you need more practice with these words and say that if she doesn’t have time to go over these in class more, does she have some additional practice worksheets so you can work with these words some more on your own? Also, don’t get caught up in the unfairness of the favored girl. The only relevance she could have to you is you might want to figure out why the teacher favors her. Maybe that girl does things to try to make the teachers life a little easier; everyone loves that. I have no idea, but that girl might be doing something that you can actually learn from (not using google translate!).

Good luck and sorry you’re going through a tough time.

27

Story time for OP.

I had a teacher similar to this. Spanish 3. I ended up getting a B-; not what I wanted to get. In my Spanish 2 course, I had a 99% average the whole year, if that gives context…

This teacher would not answer questions when you had them, was very rude, and obviously had no sense of empathy. She wouldn’t teach us what we needed to know, bluntly.

Also, when I say she has no empathy. She made a kid cry in my class. She didn’t apologize, and didn’t have him stay after class TO apologize. He dropped the class the next week.

To give even more context, we had a student teacher the fourth quarter. She would answer questions and teach us what we needed to know. I got a wayyy better grade that quarter than my previous grades.

But you know what? I delt with it.

She had a reputation among other teachers and the guidance counselors. I had a friend who went to guidance over her and they said that yes, there were a bunch of complaints against her, but that they basically couldn’t fire her because there’s apparently no other teacher who has as much “experience” as her. No joke.

So, while both staff and students agree that she is generally not meant to be a teacher (given just what she’s like) there’s nothing our school wants to do about it. So we have to deal with it.

Now, back to you…

It’s pretty obvious by your post history that you, quite honestly, are a bit stuck up. People are trying to help you see that grades aren’t everything. You’re being rude to people on this site. Yes, guidance is probably aware of this teacher already. It seems more like you care about your grades and being better than everyone else rather than actually making the problem better for others. Don’t go to gudaince to complain about grades. First talk to your teacher about what you could do to become a more successful student in her class. If the situation worsens, go to guidance. However, I’m sure they’re already aware of her. And, like others have said, she is merely preparing you for college.

Also, I agree re: LoRs. You need to improve the way you come off so you aren’t burning bridges like @lookingforward suggested. LoRs are more important than being #1 in your class at a top school. If your LoR is rotten, you aren’t going to get in, even if you are a top student.

28

OP has said he has a 93 in this class. The D+ is the class average, not his.

29

Be glad you have a 93% in the class. In six months the class is over and you will move on. Lucky you your GPA isn’t destroyed.

If you care about the greater good, you and your parents can write a letter about the class/teacher after your final grade and send it to the appropriate administration.

30

Not a mod, but a high school teacher and the mom of 2 teens and a 20 year old . I agree whole-heartedly with skieurope.

You’re a bright kid, and I assume you’re hoping to get into some competitive colleges. Do you assume they’ll review all of your high school material? Even vocabulary-- that they’ll go back and explain what words mean so that you can understand them? Sorry, you lost me there-- vocab is to be memorized, not explained.

The only part of your rant that I agree with is the swearing issue… and I’m assuming that you meant real “swear” words, and not her exasperation with a group of advanced kids who expect to be handed grades for sub par work. Swearing is never called for.

As to what you should do:
I suppose one option is to drop the class, if that’s still possible in your school.

If not, then your other option is to make it work. You know, the way adults do when they’re in a work situation that they perceive to be less than ideal. The way that college kids do when they don’t see eye to eye with their professors-- they form study groups and find a way to make it work.

Or you can whine and complain that the advice you’ve gotten won’t work, and insult those who try to help you.

And this is incidental, and absolutely not meant to be snarky: Your original post contained some grammar and writing issues-- word usage and at least one run-on early on. Could this be part of the problems you’re having in French? I teach math, not English. But if I can spot the issues, my guess is that they’re probably pretty ingrained. Could they be part of why you need to work so hard to do well in French?

But if you’ve had 3 rant-worthy teachers in 3 years, I don’t see this as a school issue, but as a personal one.

Oh, and maybe rethink those competitive colleges. The profs there will not go back and explain vocab. They’ll hit the ground running and expect the students in their classes to keep up or drop out. The choice will be up to you, as it is now.

31

You did lose me, though, on the whole talking in class issue. Instead of critiquing how she handles your bad behavior, why don’t you simply stop being rude in class?

32

@bjkmom Yes, I shouldn’t be rude in class. But there is not a single student who hasn’t said something when they shouldn’t have. I thought it was a transition time, but it turned out that the teacher was just standing in front of the class for a minute without saying a word, but ‘still talking.’

Obviously, I shouldn’t have said anything, but the teacher does allow students to use their phones during ‘transition time’ (I don’t have a phone) and I just made a small comment to a friend. I really don’t think it was that bad…

33

From your OP: " She takes off points of my homework casually, like they mean nothing, and has even taken summative points away from me from talking during class (not during tests, on completely different days). It just seems disgusting to me that she is taking away points from me for ‘behavior.’ I mean, she obviously thinks screwing over my future and my college app is more important than disciplining me with a detention, which is beyond disgusting."

She’s “screwing over your future” ,and doing so maliciously, and in a “disgusting” manner-- but your choice to “say something during a transition time” is no big deal.

That’s what someone meant by the other side of the story upthread. I would love to hear the teacher’s feedback on this one.

34

If a student doesn’t make mistakes, there are no points to take off. As in many life situations, this boils down to what control an individual does have. So, don’t talk when not appropriate. Or a host of other ideas.

And how is she screwing your future? You have a 93.
What’s the real back story here? You don’t want to work as hard as you do or manage your actions? Or there’s some problem doing that?

What could screw your college chances is if they see an issue with your focus and concentration, attitude in class, etc.

35

Forget A+es,I had a high school French teacher who only once in over 10 years gave a student an A, and that guy went to Yale and later became a UN translator. The teacher explained his attitude as, “An A implies perfection and I won’t give that grade for anything less.” Was he demanding? Yes. Unfair? No.

Your teacher sounds difficult, but honestly you strike me as a difficult student. Most teachers don’t like grade grubbing and you may have alienated her with your demands.

As others have pointed out, work in high school gets progressively harder and students are expected to take the grade they earn the first time without retests or extra credit. Students are also expected to contribute to class in positive ways and that includes not wasting time at the beginning of class.

In my experience language homework is different from other types in that it’s easy to lose points due to small mistakes like awkward wording or a misplaced accent. It’s unlikely someone using Goggle Translate would be able to turn in a fluid essay. I also question how you know so much about another student’s work. Are you trading homework and reading each other’s essays? How do you know the story of the student’s father wasn’t told in the form of a fable or fairy tale?

36

ugghh.
A 93% is a good grade. Congrats. You have received lots of advice here and I am also sense that your reputation with teachers and GCs at your school is a greater concern than this 93. It does sound like the other students in the class could benefit from an advocate but you are not the right person for that job.

37

It sounds like your expectations for the class were different from the teacher’s. It sounds like your French 1-2 classes were taught in a spoon-feeding manner and this class requires a lot of synthesis and autonomous work.
For instance, if you’re handed a text, you’re expected to outline the vocabulary wherein and memorize it on your own. There’s not going to be an explanation, it wastes time - kids can read, they read and memorize the vocabulary, use flashcards or quizlet. It’s quite possible the “Evangeline” song included words and verb tenses you were supposed to pick up upon. In addition, it’s a story about Quebec, so, you had the literary version, then the historical version. Then there was the formal requirement of memorizing those forms and different types of information. Students in the class didn’t see the link between the different pieces. Being able to “piece things together” is going to be increasingly important.

Get English grammar for students of French BTW, it’ll help.
You can look at the CEFR or ACTFL to see where your teacher is coming from and how she’s working.
https://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/actfl-proficiency-guidelines-2012/french
https://www.coe.int/en/web/language-policy
Don’t worry about what others do or don’t do. Ask for advice on what you should do to improve your understanding/reading skills (etc) and be polite. Since you’re doing well, ask whether it might be useful if you tutored some of the struggling students.

38

file a complaint to the school board and make her regret it lol

39

^^^
Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let the whole school board know that you’re misbehaving in class, that you don’t know the vocab your’re supposed to know, and that you’re vindictive.

Then hope that you get a big PTA scholarship in June.

Very possibly the worst advice I’ve ever seen on this site.

40

I hate to tell you this, but you’ll probably need 4 years of language for the schools you want to go to(based off your grades I’m assuming you’re aiming high)- I really hope you don’t have the same teacher next year. I don’t want to say “do nothing”, but honestly, I suggest you just take the A(which is not a bad grade, no AO will fault you for having an A omg). I know it sucks, and your teacher sounds awful, but maybe you can play to her favoritism? Teachers value apologies, so definitely apologize(even if you weren’t doing anything wrong) and ask her how you could improve your performance. While this won’t and you her favorite, it’ll get you off her hit list. It sucks and your teacher doesn’t sound very professional, but at the end of the day, even if you do complain, the administration will likely side with the teacher and not the student. So, hang in there and good luck- I know that you’re high achieving but one A isn’t the end of the world, it’s actually a good grade.