URRGH! VA Teachers are SO clueless (1 Viewer)

[akrinis]

I'm getting sick of my Visual Arts teacher. He's so clueless. I use sophisticated language in my essay then he suspects me of plagiarism because "the manner in you speak is different to how you write" - Well of course, sir! The way we speak everyday and our language used in our writing is always going to be different! What, you expect me to write 'lyke dis' in my essay? PFFT!

I was already accused of plagiarism once by a girl in my English class who took her anger out at me just because she didn't like my personality and because the teacher chose my work as an example of a good analysis for Beneath Clouds, and because she didn't hand in her work in time and got annoyed so she picked a target. It was the biggest waste of my time and I know I'm an honest person, so I wouldn't plagiarize - I'm proud of my work and I'm glad my work is being rewarded. But people like my teacher really make me frustrated.

And I have always used a high degree of sophisticated language in my writing - it's natural for me - can you believe I worte, "Death became a motif in Kollwitz's work" and he didn't understand what MOTIF meant? "Motif means design" - No sir, in the context of literature, motif means a recurring theme. And I wrote, "Kollwitz reproduced her feelings of grief in her works" and he actually CORRECTED 'reproduced' with 'expressed'.

I handed in my essay, and he gave me 15/20. How is that fair, when I know the other teacher of the next class would've given me 18 or 19/20? Aren't all Assessment tasks meant to be marked by ONE TEACHER?

It's amazing how clueless teachers can be, and I'm stuck with one who is lazy, and doesn't doesn't know how to mark work!

 

[-may-cat-]

lol, mad rant

I handed in my essay, and he gave me 15/20. How is that fair, when I know the other teacher of the next class would've given me 18 or 19/20? Aren't all Assessment tasks meant to be marked by ONE TEACHER?

this bit gets me though, how could you know? maybe your work isnt as good as you think it it. 15/20 isnt a heaps crappy mark anyway. and um no, i dont think so- a teacher marks their own classes work, maybe some cross marking is done if its school policy, but not always.

 

[akrinis]

lol, mad rant



this bit gets me though, how could you know? maybe your work isnt as good as you think it it. 15/20 isnt a heaps crappy mark anyway. and um no, i dont think so- a teacher marks their own classes work, maybe some cross marking is done if its school policy, but not always.

The other teacher was my Photography Teacher, and she's always been a good marker, and she tells me how I could improve. My current VA Teacher can't even give me feedback, so that should tell you something. :mad1:

I just think, you know, that it's always been a school policy for just one teacher to mark everyone's assessments, if not, different parts of it. Otherwise, there's a chance there's bias marking.

I mean, what teacher doesn't give feedback? He just tells me "I just feel that you didn't touch on all the points. Read it again, and tell me what you think you should get." - How blatantly RUDE!

 

[-may-cat-]

The other teacher was my Photography Teacher, and she's always been a good marker, and she tells me how I could improve. My current VA Teacher can't even give me feedback, so that should tell you something. :mad1:

I just think, you know, that it's always been a school policy for just one teacher to mark everyone's assessments, if not, different parts of it. Otherwise, there's a chance there's bias marking.

I mean, what teacher doesn't give feedback? He just tells me "I just feel that you didn't touch on all the points. Read it again, and tell me what you think you should get." - How blatantly RUDE!

Was this particular work about photography anyway? you cant really compare the marking of say photography and sculpture, painting etc, the're looking for different stylistic elements.

I'm beginning to wonder if you think this teacher is a good teacher cuz you get good marks from her? Would you feel the same about her marking if she gave you 8/20 but with plenty of feedback?

How about instead of having a winge, recognise that perhaps your work was not as awesome as you thought this time around, take some initiative and actually go talk to your teacher about it? Ask them why you got the marks you did, what parts they think you can improve on and how etc. its not all up to your teacher you know- if you think the mark is unfair, tell them why you think so
(btw "the other teacher would have given me better marks" is not a good reason)

Maybe even recognise a hard marker can be a good thing, forces you to work harder and do better, without spoon feeding you all the answers through feedback. And school policy is school policy, theres nothing you can do about it so just change the things you can.

 

[akrinis]

I just think that if a teacher doesn't understand advanced English and marks you down because they don't understand your Essay, it's the teacher's fault and not the student's, so the student shouldn't have to be penalized for that.

And secondly, I spoke to him about it, and asked him why I got the mark I got and how I could improve, but he refused to give me any advice on how I could improve. Feedback allows us to improve so we can know where we went wrong. Teachers are here for us to improve and maximize our marks. He claims he wants students to always strive to get better marks, but how can I do that if he doesn't give me feedback? I find it almost bias you know, that he sat a lot of students down to talk to them about their work but not mine. Now you tell me if that's fair that some students are given special treatment over others.

One thing I also want to point out is, 2 weeks ago he gave us some questions to answer, and without warning, he told us a week ago, that the answers would go towards our interval report. If we knew we were going to be marked for these answers, the class would've put more effort in their answers. How could you expect the class to do that, when we thought we were merely practicing? The move was sudden and just because the Art Department didn't see it coming, the students shouldn't have to be penalized.

But you know what? I'll have a talk to the Art Teachers about this matter personally, and I'll see what I can do.

 

[-may-cat-]

I just think that if a teacher doesn't understand advanced English and marks you down because they don't understand your Essay, it's the teacher's fault and not the student's, so the student shouldn't have to be penalised for that.

And secondly, I spoke to him about it, and asked him why I got the mark I got and how I could improve, but he refused to give me any advice on how I could improve. Feeback allows us to improve so we can know where we went wrong. Teachers are here for us to improve and maximise our marks. He claims he wants students to always strive to get better marks, but how can I do that if he doesn't give me feedback? I find it almost bias you know, that he sat a lot of students down to talk to them about their work but not mine. Now you tell me if that's fair that some students are given special treatment over others.

One thing I also want to point out is, 2 weeks ago he gave us some questions to answer, and without warning, he told us a week ago, that the answers would go towards our interval report. If we knew we were going to be marked for these answers, the class would've put more effort in their answers. How could you expect the class to do that, when we thought we were merely practicing? The move was sudden and just because the Art Department didn't see it coming, the students shouldn't have to be penalised.

Look, the world is not fair, but you can try to make it more fair for yourself. Its interesting that you say you asked your teacher how you went wrong in your essay but then you stopped at that- did you just not like the answer he gave you? what exactly did he say?

If you think its unfair that other students get sit down treatment, go up to him and say you would really appreciate it if you could schedule some time with him about it. All you do is keep wining that its not fair that your teacher isn't telling you exactly what you need to do to get better marks. You may see this as unfair and maybe it is, but theres no point in just sitting there going 'poor me, its so unfair'. If you really care about it, try the following, if you don't want to do the following, stop winging.

-rewrite the essay, try to make it better, re submit it to your teacher for marking
(this is not for you to get better marks for this particular essay, but to improve your own work for next time)
- If you don't like the new mark, rewrite it again and see how you go and so on.
-Take your essay to other teachers and ask them if they could critique it for you.
-compare to students who got better marks than you and figure out what they are doing that you are not.
-Understand that not everything will not be done for you, some teachers do not like to spoon feed their students, they like them to use their own brains and regardless of whether you agree with that, your stuck with it so use your own brain.

Finally, realise that art is very subjective, peoples opinions really do come into play in marking, the trick is to justify and be as convincing as you possibly can, so that even if the marker does not agree with what you are saying, they can see it as being plausible. - This is the way Visual Arts is, if you think its unfair, you picked the wrong subject.

 

[Moenique]

Visual Art teachers cross mark everything you hand in.
Well at least they do at my school.

Every essay, written assessment, and practical assessment we hand in, they cross mark to make it more "fair" which I agree with.

 

[bettina44]

if you're that peeved at it,well i'm not exactly sure how it works at your school but at mine, you appeal your mark to the deputy and she'll get it remarked

 

[MetroMattums]

And you care about marks you receive in essays that ultimately amount to nothing because...?

 

[alex.leon]

Dude, do we have the same teacher?

My teacher has just come out of uni, and his English grammar and spelling is ridiculously bad. I'm the only kid in my art class who is doing Advanced English, so he gets away with it, but sometimes I wonder whether he even knows what he's saying.

He'll write a sentence then put in a big word just for good measure...

eg. 'Kosuth uses pastiche and humour statements to recontextualisation his work'

...Wtf is that? Seriously.

And then he marks down my assessments because I use words that he doesn't understand. For instance, he didn't get what 'impede' or 'orthodox' meant, so he deemed them 'uneccesary' (which he also spelt wrong)

I'm pretty tolerant, but when he gives us notes that don't make sense, and marks me down for using words that he personally doesn't understand..its just..AGGH!

Today, he asked me to explain his own notes that HE wrote. When i asked why he didn't understand what he himself had written he said..

' I just used 'synonyms' in microsoft word, and forgot what I meant in the first place'

Kill me.