<p>This is a parent posting. My DD2 is first in her class and is a JR. She had 100% average in Trig last year. Her older sister warned her that the Pre-Calculus teacher is a bad teacher. DD2 came home with a grade of 84% on a quiz and said the teacher did not explain the answers. Hoping for good advice.</p>
<p>Do you mean a MATH teacher?</p>
<p>Did she ask the teacher if she has solutions or if she’s able to go over the quiz?</p>
<p>Is this the first quiz that this has happened with no reply or is this a trend that’s been happening for the whole year? If it’s the former then maybe wait a day or so. Typically teachers will go over quizzes/tests the class after they’re handed back. If they don’t then they probably expect students to see them after school to ask for retakes/help for the ones they got wrong.</p>
<p>Use khan academy for help. Or get a tutor</p>
<p>Math - of course - that was a typo. I don’t think my daughter talked to the teacher after she got the quiz back - just was mortified by an 87% when she is high 90s/100 in everything.</p>
<p>DD1 as I wrote said this woman was truly a bad teacher.</p>
<p>All I can do is try to talk to DD2 about being kind to the teacher and asking for help after class going over classwork, homework, and any training tips that can help. Maybe the situation will improve if they work more one-on-one. I’ll look up khan academy. </p>
<p>If you truly are stuck with this teacher for the year, you make the best of it. You can try NICELY asking for help, for explanations on things you don’t understand. Teacher will either help or not help, but don’t antagonize teacher if they are not willing to expend extra effort with your child.</p>
<p>If you realize teacher is useless, than you are on your own to learn this subject. Thankfully, there are one-on-one tutors and also online academics that can be of help to your student. Be sure student is polite and shows a positive attitude in class so the teacher doesn’t have any reason to think negatively when handing out grades.</p>
<p>Don’t waste time trying to get teacher fired. Just work on getting student connected with another way to learn the material. Pre-calc is such a fundamental class, you really need a solid grasp of it to be able to move on to more advanced calculus classes. Top Priority should be LEARNING, second priority is grade.</p>
<p>The good news is that it is early in the year and there is plenty of time to find ways to learn these math concepts.</p>
<p>Thanks Powercropper. In fact we are following all your suggestions,eg, NEVER show frustration, be extra friendly and ask for extra help/explaining carefully any errors, etc. We have whats called a parent portal where you can sign in and see your childrens’ grades. I just looked and for the last few mini-assignments she got 5 out of 5, so things are improving.</p>
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<p>There are two elements to this. </p>
<p>The first to address is the “mortify” part. That part is really wrong. Really wrong because NOBODY should be mortified by such a grade on a quiz, and if one is, that shows all kinds of erroneous expectations. Also, a lower grade on a quiz is GOOD news as it shows that the workload is increasing and that material is getting harder. This is NOT rare in a subject such as Calculus or Chemistry. Students need to adapt and learn from their mistakes.<br>
Too many schools are dealing A and A+ like candy at Halloween and never teach much of anything. Find yourself blessed to finally meet a BAD teacher in terms of grading. </p>
<p>The second part is what to do in terms of finding the answers and supplement “bad” teaching. Calculus is nothing new and there are PLENTY of books available. Start looking for the Teachers’ Edition of the book used by your daughter. If that does not work, there are several books available that come with online classes or DVD. Finding the answers to Calc problems should be a cinch. </p>
<p>Then have your daughter form a study group for this class. There is nothing more helpful than working in a group to “get” the calculus problems. </p>
<p>All in all, this experience will be a positive one. Trust me, it all will work out, and especially if a 87 is a mortifying deal! </p>
<p>Well, I am currently a HS student. Assuming your daughter always gets high grades, lets think logically. The teacher is not going to change the way he or she teaches. So, the best thing would be for your daughter to get someone who she could take the lessons to, to tutor her. If the teacher cant teach her someone else can</p>
<p>I would ask for the help I need as a first step. I am currently taking a statistics class with a bad teacher. I ask for help every day. I explained to him that I have always struggled with math, so I do my best when I can have an explanation of how to do types of problems step by step in words, along with a couple of examples to go-by. He has not come through for me, so I looked at Khan Academy, which was helpful to a point but then got into stuff in a different order than it’s presented in my book so I wasting time watching videos on material that isn’t part of my course. </p>
<p>I think it’s worth looking for other books published on the subject that may offer an explanation that works better for your student. The suggestion to put together a study group is a great one. </p>
<p>(And I’d say she’s doing okay so far!)</p>
<p>^^ A lot of excellent students feel uncomfortable about study groups, but in fact they are an excellent way to learn. I have noticed that it’s the BEST students in college, graduate, and professional schools who join study groups, so it’s actually a good practice to begin now.</p>
<p>I had a useless math teacher for pre-calculus as well. It was his first year of teaching the subject - and on top of that, he was preoccupied with football responsibilities as he was one of the coaches. He played cards with the other teachers at lunch, so when I asked him for help at lunchtime he refused. I confronted him about it and he reluctantly agreed to help me. </p>
<p>Anyway, his help still wasn’t fantastic - so I was forced to learn on my own. Khan Academy on YouTube was a lifesaver for me personally. I also had a older friend who was excellent at math that helped me with study guides outside of class. Math is math - even if you learn a different process to get the answer. </p>
<p>I have taken to Facebook to get help on things that my teacher, my textbook, and Khan Academy haven’t helped clarify for me - it helps that my son-in-law is a scientist, he uses Stats all the time, and I have a bunch of friends who are excellent teachers who were able to clean up the problem and present it to me in a way that I was able to process. </p>
<p>My D was in a similar situation in a chemistry class. Assignments and classwork simply didn’t help her really reach mastery. The school has a policy that states that if you get over an 85 on the state regents exam, that score will be your final course grade. So during the last quarter of the school year, she took matters into her own hands and instead of spending time doing the exercises the teacher handed out (and graded), she buckled down with a review book and some textbooks and simply figured it all out. It was a gamble. Her 4th quarter average was in the 60s but she got over a 90 on the regents so it all worked out. </p>
<p>Sometimes it is what it is and there’s nothing you can do but do it yourself. Good life lesson. </p>
<p>DS (now a senior) had a similar problem in a Spanish class when he was a sophomore. DS was concerned that he would not learn enough to do well in the next level of Spanish. It was well known among parents and students that the teacher was ineffective and passed around from school to school every couple years. We approached his guidance counselor with that concern–not learning enough to be successful at the next level–and some examples of why this was a concern. The guidance counselor was helpful in two ways: (1) She put him on “the list” of kids who would not be scheduled with this teacher the next semester (an option because it’s a large school with multiple sections of most courses); and (2) arranged for DS to get help from another Spanish teacher on anything that wasn’t clear to him. This “back-up teacher” was very kind and helped DS quite a bit.While OP’s situation may be a little different, the guidance counselor may have similar suggestions for getting the student extra help. BTW, I agree with xiggi that OP’s expressing “mortification” at an 87% quiz grade is not a helpful attitude for the student.</p>
<p>This does not help in this specific situation, but it’s a good way to take the long view. S1 “discovered” the bad teachers and we dealt with it. A couple years later S2 gets assigned the same teacher, so I simply go to the principal and ask for a schedule change. The reason I give? “I am not dealing with him/her again.” What amazes me is that each time the principal looks at me as if he understands exactly, and makes no effort to argue with me.</p>
<p>1) Get a tutor if possible (I had to do this for my D in one subject for a year when her HS teacher was horrible). 2) look for online help </p>
<p>The teacher has some kind of “extra help”/“Office hours” time before, after, or during school. She should go then and ask about the quiz.</p>
<p>That teacher who used his lunch hour to distress instead of helping students- kudos to him. Teachers need their breaks too.</p>
<p>Good lesson in dealing with a teacher for your D. She needs to figure out how to learn the material in a style she is unaccustomed to. Perhaps more independent learning on her part is needed than she was used to in the past. The good news- she didn’t do that badly and she can use this experience to prepare her for the bad teachers she will encounter in college. No matter where she goes to college it is likely she will encounter less than ideal teaching at some point.</p>
<p>Fortunately math is a straight forward subject and therefore easy to substitute materials for.</p>
<p>Is the teacher truly bad or is your D having trouble being a more independent learner? I would expect the teacher to go over correct answers and methods in solving problems. Your D should learn to figure out where she made mistakes. That skill will help her in future years.</p>
<p>Your attitude means a lot. Do you emphasize learning the material or the grades received? Do you always blame the teacher or consider how well your D studied before the test? Do you problem solve for her or ask her how she can solve this problem? Make this situation a learning one for your D. Get her figuring out how to deal with it before you offer ready made solutions. </p>