Hmm... am I just insane?

[rakuenso]

I've been so far gotten pissed off at every single teacher at my high school. Why? Because they mostly almost always follow a textbook approach towards teaching. This usually involves dishing out tons of overhead notes, homework and more importantly they are teaching facts, not ideas.

 

 

 

For example, my Biology teacher was voted one of the best teachers in the state, yet I have an insane animosity towards him. For one, I can never ever have an intellectual debate with him, for example when I asked him about the possible divergence of telomerase into reverse transcriptase, he simply just gave me the cold shoulder and said "OK. Hm... can't say i know much about that... let me look it up" Then he never gives me a reply. Right now most of the stuff we learn in high school I already know from reading college level biochem and genetics books at home, yet he still requires me to sit in class and re-learn random facts about random parts of the human body that I really really could care and benefit less.

 

My Biology teacher from last year was common known as a pedophile who molested girls and didn't teach anything to his class. Yet last year felt more productive than this year since he pretty much let me read and do whatever I want.

 

thoughts, comments?

[Dave]

It depends on the textbook. Most of my A-level maths was based out of some good textbooks and good exercises to get you into it. However, we recently had a lecture course on differential equations which was textbook based, and it was rather dire.

[brave_new_world]

I feel the same way.

Most of my classes seem to teach little-more than productivity and work ethics. The classes are run out of the textbook, learning useless information rather than concepts and ideas. The teachers assign worksheets that teach absolutely nothing. Every day my english teacher just hands out grammar packets for us to do while she works on her computer. She has only "taught" our class one day this entire marking period.

 

In a few of my classes the teachers do a good job. We will have class discussions and debates on the topics at hand. But for the majority of the school day I feel as if I'm doing work for the simple point of "doing work".

 

If you want to learn you have to teach yourself.

 

" I never let my schooling interfere with my education" -Mark Twain

[ecoli]

I'm lucky enough to be mostly in AP (advanced placement) and honors classes...but my few regular level classes are killer. Their so boring, and do not engage students in learning or challenging ideas. In fact, its all straight memorazation, and little conceptual understanding.

 

I just don't want to do it. I'd rather learn something usefull to my life. I won't study by memorizing terms.

 

My economics class is the worst. He just gives us defininitions and tells us about modified supply and demand curves. Even if I know an answer is right, he won't let me argue it, if it doesn't say it in the textbook.

 

he also makes ridiculous claims about economic factors and doesn't let anyone argue them.

For example: he once said that NASA is useless, and the only reason it's still around, or even created to begin with, was to give people jobs. He said they don't do anything of use for the everyday, average person. Wow. That was a hard one to hold in.

[Nevermore]

That is exactly why I am being homeschooled untill I move to a better school district.

[rakuenso]

I think there are two major flaws in the system:

 

1. Teachers working in state owned schools get paid not by their skill but rather by how long they've been teaching. Usually one would expect that longer teaching would imply longer skill. However, the general trend at my school at least is that the longer someone teaches the less they are about teaching since they still get pay raises. It doesn't matter if his class has only one A student and rest C's and D's, because the school board can't kick off as the teacher's union would start bitching. This is also why teachers at private schools actually work hard to communicate and teach CONCEPTS not FACTS to students.

 

2. This relates to my last point, the problem is that teacher's are not sparking the student's interests in the subject itself. Why? Because it is alot easier to teach a bunch of facts rather than some ambiguous concept that would take days to teach. (personally I know that any concept worth learning takes at least a week to somewhat understand.) The labs that my Biology teachers designates for us I find a bit worthless and elementary, 2 days ago he had us blow into water so demonstrate CO2 and O2 levels. However, he really didn't explain why is it that we're doing it.

 

my 2 cents...

[soulestada]

I feel the same way.

Most of my classes seem to teach little-more than productivity and work ethics. The classes are run out of the textbook' date=' learning useless information rather than concepts and ideas. The teachers assign worksheets that teach absolutely nothing. Every day my english teacher just hands out grammar packets for us to do while she works on her computer. She has only "taught" our class one day this entire marking period.

 

[/quote']

 

I know the feeling. For my Accounting 1 class, we had this "teacher" who would quote the book whenever anyone had a question. She would just say "Oh, but what does it say in the book?", and tell the person to turn to page so-and-so, read it out loud, then she would say "Well, there's your answer."! I was one of the lucky few to pass the class. I mean, shouldn't a teacher who is laying down the foundation for a future accountant do her best to make sure that her students master the basics? She was dismissed the next semester...exactly want she deserved.

[AzurePhoenix]

Does your highschool offer college-level courses? Up until I took those classes in psyche, bio, marine-bio and english, many *but not all* of my teachers that weren't associated with such classes were indeed morons.

 

There are exceptions in both cases though. Regarding my English AP teacher, she's often regarded by the district as the best english teacher in the state, but she's actually a very poor teacher, and a moron, not to mention a fat, annoying young woman.

 

On the other hand, I had an awesome chem teacher who was basically a genius, and one of the greatest teachers I've ever had. He was a former missile engineer for the government, and had done other things. He was recently fired.

[Coral Rhedd]

I know the feeling. For my Accounting 1 class, we had this "teacher" who would quote the book whenever anyone had a question. She would just say "Oh, but what does it say in the book?", and tell the person to turn to page so-and-so, read it out loud, then she would say "Well, there's your answer."! I was one of the lucky few to pass the class. I mean, shouldn't a teacher who is laying down the foundation for a future accountant do her best to make sure that her students master the basics? She was dismissed the next semester...exactly want she deserved.

 

If I were teaching accounting, that is exactly how I would teach it. Why? Because I know absolutely nothing about accounting. I have an English degree. English majors are as common as fleas on stray dog and just about as employable in the public school system.

 

Because teachers are hired to teach in fields they did not major or even minor in, you get these sorts of problems. This is because public schools are in thrall to a system that priortizes a major in education above all else. They seem to think that if you have the basics of teaching down, you can teach anything. Sadly, this is not true. I shudder to think what would happen to students of algebra if they had someone like me teaching them.

[coquina]

She was the best teacher I ever had. She taught me advanced biology. She gave "open book" tests. She said, "Knowing facts isn't as important as knowing how to find them." We soon found out that if we didn't know where to look in the book, we had no chance of finding the answers. 2nd semester we dissected cats. Our final exam question was "Take a ham sandwich through the body of the cat and tell how each part is digested and what tissues are benefitted." I got an "A" (and she only gave 2 in the class - there were 3 of us who fought over them).

 

When took Biology 101 in college, the professor announced that he graded on a curve, and that the highest grade would be set point for the grade. Whoops - I never got anything below a 98. The rest of the class was furious because I blew the curve, but I already knew the material.

 

However - you have to learn to get along with people. Older people generally don't like people who they think are trying to show that they are smarter than the teacher.

 

I think if you can look at school as an opportunity about how to have effective social skills as well as learning knowledge, you will be ahead of the game.

[Coral Rhedd]

She validated the existence of a shy, unpopular, and abused girl and made me feel like I mattered. Because of Mrs. Ryan, I was able to recognize that others' treatment of me did not have to characterize me.

 

Really good teachers teach a great many things.

[RedAlert]

In the schools here they have something called "mini school" programs. They are enriched schools basically, and I have not found any of the problems mentioned in them.

 

Perhaps you should try enriched courses?

[AzurePhoenix]

Whoops - I never got anything below a 98. The rest of the class was furious because I blew the curve' date=' but I already knew the material.

[/quote'] LOL , I've made a few enemies that way.

[MolecularMan14]

to be completely honest, I feel that teachers would do much better (especially in terms of their relationships with their students) if they were to teach less geared towards tests. For example, my World Cultures teacher last semester taught us nothing of importance (or made us believe that it was of no importance, by means of teaching nothing more than what was requires). She bored the class to death with trivia of history and geared every moment of the course towards the tests.

This semester, I have possibly the greatest teacher in the universe, mainly because he is the most learned in the entire history dept (or at least, that I can come across). He gears our class towards the informing and the gathering of knowledge to the students, mainly so we do not repeat history (wars, genocide...ect). He will answer any question (especially "Why?") with a big smile and teach us things that the book, or lesson plan, or dept head would feel are accessory or unneeded, but to be honest, he has made the subject better than anyone would have ever thought possible. *Cheers to you Sherman*

[john5746]

 

I think if you can look at school as an opportunity about how to have effective social skills as well as learning knowledge' date=' you will be ahead of the game.[/quote']

 

Excellent advice. Everyone has teachers, bosses, and peers they don't get along with. But when you find yourself not getting along with EVERY or MANY, then you might want to look internally for the problem. It's called maturity.

[MolecularMan14]

It's called maturity.

true

(I have no further comment, that just made me smile)

[Guest donabene]

Reasons teachers gear instruction to tests:

*they are required to by law - the curriculum is geared to the test, and teachers are mandated by local and state law to convey the curriculum as described - *if they do not they can be fired, irrespective of tenure or any other privileges accrued through service credit

*students' futures depend on passing tests - in my state, students literally cannot get credit for the course if they do not pass the end of course test - regardless of a student's performance in the class - yep, high stakes testing

 

This is just a couple of reasons why the course content might be as it is......as for the methods employed....that's another post