Selective schools with incompetent teachers? (1 Viewer)

[schweppes95]

I did my HSC last year am on uni break now so thought i might aswell post, my school was semi decently ranked and selective (38) but our head of science who was my teacher for phys would hardly be in class and would always leave to go to the canteen during lessons. We'd also only read off worksheets and highlight the whole lesson (shed tell us what parts to highlight). It honestly felt like a joke haha. Like I would wonder how did she become the head of science at a selective school? Once teachers get in do they not keep on getting evaluated? Bit of a tangent but i think good schools, or at least those that are improving (cherrybrook) take in talented teachers like Eddie Woo whereas my school would just rotate its current stock into leadership positions.

Any similar stories on such teachers and thoughts on how a school can improve?

 

[Drongoski]

Unbelievable. Could it be the case she does not know her physics? So is trying to avoid, as much as possible, having to teach the stuff.

 

[schweppes95]

Yeh at times our class thought she didnt know her physics at all but then again she was a HSC marker for a like 7 years so who knows (apparently she was an okay chem teacher though), why she had a physics class blew my mind. In year 11 we'd ask her questions on how the formula would be applied or to clarify a concept and shed just explain it in such a wishy washy way almost like tiptoeing around the actual question that eventually the class would give up and just go "Oh ok thanks miss" without actually understanding it and wed go back to highlighting LOL. By year 12 we gave up even asking her and the majority of the class self learned. The other departments at the school were great, maths was hands down amazing. Full of great teachers. But yeh science I have no clue how it was filled with teachers who did not know how to teach. Oh yeh the class tried getting a new teacher by doing a petition once but because she was head of science it didnt go very far haha

 

[Drongoski]

Being good in Chemistry does not mean you are good in physics. You may have the case of a teacher who did a science degree, majoring in Chemistry (in the 3rd year), who also did Physics in her 2nd year, but barely scraped through. In fact, in my opinion, you need a higher level of intellect to handle physics.

Also, may I suggest that being a marker in physics does not mean you really know your physics. Once you get to be a marker, you keep being appointed marker, unless some serious boo boo imputing your competence occured. The markers are given solution and marking guidelines. One can easily bullshit ones way without exposing one's incompetence in the subject.

 

[leehuan]

Here's the thing though; if you really want to get a teacher fired you'd probably need 50%+ of CONSECUTIVE cohorts voicing an opinion to the principal.

 

[BandSixFix]

Because students put in the effort... The best teacher doesn't necessarily mean that their students will be smarter. Although teachers do make an impact, its up to the students to push themselves.

 

[jjuunnee]

I have this teacher who is an extremely cool person but honestly has no teaching ability. Some days he would spend the first 20mins of class scrolling through youtube to find a video we can watch, but most of the time they end up being really bad and he's like "we don't need to watch the rest of this" and pauses the video and we're like 'okay' (??) He also makes us do heaps of group presentations where we present to our classmates and teach each other so he can go on fb or something. Funny enough he's dyslexic so his handwriting is shit and he can't read so sometimes I wonder how he marks our assignments. But anyway our assignments are always videos and presentations so...

We also had a crappy science teacher who was apparently extremely shit but I never had her and she's left our school so all good

I wonder how such teachers can get jobs in selective schools

 

[schweppes95]

What school did you go to jjuunnee or what rank? Yeh it was pretty annoying haha because you can tell the students wanted to learn in class but were sort of forced to sit quiet and learn at home. I think thats the problem, at least in the middle of the pack selective schools. Probably not so for the top performers like ruse, nsb. Teachers come to selective schools, all the kids are so polite and then the teachers over the years just become lazy slobs until they retire, whereas in private schools and top 5 selectives, if the teachers arent performing (like the cohorts are getting worse) then replacements are made

 

[jjuunnee]

Well I go to Manly, which was I think ranked 14th last year but we're normally in the top 10

 

[strawberrye]

I did my HSC last year am on uni break now so thought i might aswell post, my school was semi decently ranked and selective (38) but our head of science who was my teacher for phys would hardly be in class and would always leave to go to the canteen during lessons. We'd also only read off worksheets and highlight the whole lesson (shed tell us what parts to highlight). It honestly felt like a joke haha. Like I would wonder how did she become the head of science at a selective school? Once teachers get in do they not keep on getting evaluated? Bit of a tangent but i think good schools, or at least those that are improving (cherrybrook) take in talented teachers like Eddie Woo whereas my school would just rotate its current stock into leadership positions.

Any similar stories on such teachers and thoughts on how a school can improve?

Here is what i heard when I was in high school, people become head teachers based on how much extra administrative work they do rather than necessarily based on their teaching abilities, in fact, I know a teacher who taught brilliantly but who never got promoted to head teacher after decades of great teaching because he didn't like doing paper work, let alone extra paper work

 

[Drongoski]

Here is what i heard when I was in high school, people become head teachers based on how much extra administrative work they do rather than necessarily based on their teaching abilities, in fact, I know a teacher who taught brilliantly but who never got promoted to head teacher after decades of great teaching because he didn't like doing paper work, let alone extra paper work

Good point. We often like to think the Head of Science is the best Science teacher, which need not be the case. So the Head of Maths in a school is not necessarily the best Maths teacher, however we wish to define "best".

 

[dan964]

At my school, the deputy had to take ext 2, as there was not enough teachers to take it.
At least at my school, the head teachers of maths and science, knew their stuff.

My year group complained a little bit in Year 11, so for chem and physics, ended up being two of the better teachers, taking two classes each. Then again in both subjects, teachers had left for long service leave... meaning there wasn't a lot of teachers left to teach the subject.

(Mind you my Year 11 physics teacher was really good and interesting, but went on leave for a small time; but also went on long service leave the following year; one of the substitutes that often took our class, that year was originally from SBHS, but oh dear me)

But don't mention Geography...

 

[Drongoski]

In Selective Schools, students are selected; not the teachers. I imagine though if a Selective school teacher isn't up to scratch, he will feel the pressure to leave of his own accord, when he finds his students know more than he does.

 

[Paradoxica]

In Selective Schools, students are selected; not the teachers, although if teachers engaged aren't up to scratch, they will feel the pressure to leave of their own accord, when they find their students know more than they do.

No, they don't.

Evidence: My school's faculties.

 

[Trebla]

Best memory of an incompetent science teacher - marked nearly everyone wrong in a half yearly exam because sin x / sin y = x/y (cancel out the sines)

*facepalm*

 

[eyeseeyou]

IMO as harsh as it sounds, but at the same time as true as it is (without attacking anyone here), no matter which school you go to whether it's a good school or a bad school and whether or not you have a good teacher or a bad teacher, there is no excuse to not doing well.

If you do shit in your school exams, it is no one's fault but yours. All a good teacher does is that he/she makes himself/herself more approachable to the student in order to facilitate their needs and wants in the subject but at the end of the day, it's up to your own hard work if you wanna do well and succeed. If you have a shit teacher who doesn't teach and doesn't bother to help, does that mean you automatically fail? Of course not. All it means is that you take it upon yourself to learn the subject but if you prefer learning in a classroom environment then you get into a group study with your friends and you teach each other.

If you want feedback but your teacher's not going to give you feedback is why not go to another teacher for fedback or get feedback from the top students in your grade? (or get feedback from any band 6 student). Ever heard of a tutor who can be a substitute for your bad teacher? Why not use one? A thing that pisses me off is that teachers don't take their job seriously (although you do have to understand teachers have a life of their own such as having kids to take care off) but what pisses me off even more is that students accuse teachers when they do bad in an assessment. I had 2 shit teachers back in year 9 and they just made you rote learn all the content and whenever you asked them for help, they couldn't help you because even though they helped you by explaining things you don't understand, they were literally talking about all this jibberish you couldn't understand. I ended up with shit grades and got pissed at them. Who's fault was it for my bad grades? Me. Could I of had done something in order to get better grades while having a bad teacher that was rendered useless? Yes, I couldv'e read the textbook and studied all the content by myself as well as ask other teachers and ask peers in my cohort.

Suppose you have scenario A where everyone in the class in a band 6 student (out of 24 students) and suppose there is another class with only 6 band 6 students (in another class of 24). Scenario A has a fantastic super dedicated HSC marker scenario B has a shit rookie teacher. Why did scenario A have more band 6s than scenario B? Was this factor based on the teacher, to some extent yes but mainly it was their own hard work and dedication to learning wheras in scemario B there was only 6 band 6s. Could the band 6 percentage rate of had increased? Yes. How? Those students in scenario B couldv'e taken it upon themselves to learn the subject and get feedback and hep from students, peers and other teachers (not to mention there are websites out there which do provide you academic help). If your english teacher is away on a week before an important asessment task is due (because he/she is sick) does that mean that you'll do bad? No it doesn't because you consult others for feedback. IIRC Crobat said in his guide to english advanced that he had a shit english teacher and managed to get a 96 in english advanced in the end

tl;dr At the end of the day, if you get shit marks, don't blame your teacher (even if it's a shit teacher), blame yourself and no one else because no one is responsible for your learning other than you. You either seek out a tutor and/or get help/feedback from other students, peers and teachers. If you wanna do well, stop relying too much on your teacher because your teacher isn't going to be there behind your back 24/7 to look over you during your HSC. I'm not trying to attack anyone here, I'm trying to be honest with you. Having a good teacher is really "by luck" but it doesn't mean you'll automatically do well

 

[eyeseeyou]

I know someone who graduated from a selective high school last year that his maths teacher was useless mainly because everyone in the class was tutored

This was the same case with Sydney Boys (according to someone's brother who went to Sydney Boys)

 

[Sien]

Whoa i can see some legit character development in eyeseeyou

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

[DatAtarLyfe]

For once in my life...i agree with icu
wow..

 

[eyeseeyou]

For once in my life...i agree with icu
wow..

out of my 2.8k posts, you agreed with 1

DW DatAtarLyfe, literally no one agrees with me for most of the time and I can understand why lol

Also ppl like BandSixFix need to stop thinking all this bullshit that teachers play a major role in a student's education

Maybe when he reads my post above, he'll rethink about teachers