Sunday, December 17, 2006
Spanish Substitute Situation
Dear Guidance Guy,
I have a Spanish teacher who went on paternity leave. He chose the sub that we have except there seems to be one problem. We know more Spanish than she does and we are only in Spanish 3! I already know a few people in my class that ended up dropping it because they were failing and there was no way for them to get their grades up. These are people that usually will get A's and B's. It's as if everyday we walk into class and the majority of the 90 minute period is us not doing much. We basically teach ourselves from the textbook as homework. Her grading system is strange too. We all did 20 point extra credit and it raised our grade 20%. This was more than half way through the semester too. You do poorly on one assignment which is 10 points and your grade will change a whole letter grade.
Many people have already gone to the administration but they don't seem to be doing anything. My parents have emailed them and so have others. I even brought this up with one of my other teachers and he said that he and one of the other Spanish teachers have been getting A LOT of complaints. The administrators still aren't doing anything and our teacher is going to be gone another month or two. Is there anything else we could possibly do?
Thanks,
Ticked
*** *** ***
Dear Ticked,
It looks like you have been doing a good job handling this situation so far. You've been teaching yourself well and following up with administration. Now it might be time to do things a little more formally.
When you say you've gone to administration, have you been doing that in a structured way? The best way to approach the principal is with facts. Get an official appointment (and bring parents along, if possible - emailing just isn't as effective). Ask if the chairperson or supervisor of the World Language Department could be present as well. Bring statistics on how people are doing in this class and how many have dropped. Have people talk about what is going on in the class. And most importantly, be all business. Don't show anger at the teacher. She's probably doing the best she can. But be clear about how this is affecting you and your classmates.
Some suggestions you might bring up include curving the grades upward to make up for the lost points, and having an exam that another teacher makes up to see how much you know and using this as a way to grade for the class.
Finally, if no one seems to want to help or be creative about solving this problem, you always have the option of bringing your problem to supervisors at the central office. A superintendent or assistant superintendent might want to know about what's going on and what steps have been taken to try and correct this challenge.
Best of Luck,
The Guidance Guy
I have a Spanish teacher who went on paternity leave. He chose the sub that we have except there seems to be one problem. We know more Spanish than she does and we are only in Spanish 3! I already know a few people in my class that ended up dropping it because they were failing and there was no way for them to get their grades up. These are people that usually will get A's and B's. It's as if everyday we walk into class and the majority of the 90 minute period is us not doing much. We basically teach ourselves from the textbook as homework. Her grading system is strange too. We all did 20 point extra credit and it raised our grade 20%. This was more than half way through the semester too. You do poorly on one assignment which is 10 points and your grade will change a whole letter grade.
Many people have already gone to the administration but they don't seem to be doing anything. My parents have emailed them and so have others. I even brought this up with one of my other teachers and he said that he and one of the other Spanish teachers have been getting A LOT of complaints. The administrators still aren't doing anything and our teacher is going to be gone another month or two. Is there anything else we could possibly do?
Thanks,
Ticked
*** *** ***
Dear Ticked,
It looks like you have been doing a good job handling this situation so far. You've been teaching yourself well and following up with administration. Now it might be time to do things a little more formally.
When you say you've gone to administration, have you been doing that in a structured way? The best way to approach the principal is with facts. Get an official appointment (and bring parents along, if possible - emailing just isn't as effective). Ask if the chairperson or supervisor of the World Language Department could be present as well. Bring statistics on how people are doing in this class and how many have dropped. Have people talk about what is going on in the class. And most importantly, be all business. Don't show anger at the teacher. She's probably doing the best she can. But be clear about how this is affecting you and your classmates.
Some suggestions you might bring up include curving the grades upward to make up for the lost points, and having an exam that another teacher makes up to see how much you know and using this as a way to grade for the class.
Finally, if no one seems to want to help or be creative about solving this problem, you always have the option of bringing your problem to supervisors at the central office. A superintendent or assistant superintendent might want to know about what's going on and what steps have been taken to try and correct this challenge.
Best of Luck,
The Guidance Guy
# posted by Larry Hochman : 10:30 AM
