Student VS. Teacher
 

Okay, I have had problems with my English teacher since day one. Right off the bat she got mad at me because I told her I would read our assigned reading after I finished the newest Harry Potter. First of all, I was kidding, and second of all what I do in my free time is none of her damn business.

Life moves on, I stay pretty much under the radar, I make a C in her class, and don't cause any problems worth mentioning. Around fall, the time comes for us to work on a portfolio piece. Basically, (I'd never heard of it before, so I'll explain) you write a big special paper that counts for a lot of points on your final grade. I wrote mine on hydrogen fuel and how it really wasn't not the end-all solution to our energy crisis that many people think it is. She grades the paper, and gives me a 60. Just to cite some of the things she counted off for, at one point I wrote "Putting water in your car's tank and driving to work is just a dream, there is no car that can do that." She wrote "whose dream is that?" and counted off 3 points. On another part I wrote that hydrogen cars were not applicable because in order to tranfer hydrogen you need a tank that weighs 16 times as much as the fuel it is carrying. She wrote "wrong" in capital letters next to that.

This teacher is horrendous. Many of her class' major assignments that were supposed to be graded according to a rubric are instead graded based on her opinion of the student. Perfect example: the girl that sits behind me gave a presentation and received a 100 as her grade. Not only did she sit down and read form her paper the entire time, but on her poster the word medicine was misspelled. Her poster had 4 pictures on it that were printed from an incredibly low quality printer, and none of them were larger than a 5x7. I have nothing against this girl, she is actually a good friend of mine, but the fact remains that she received a marginally higher grade than I did, which I believe is based entirely upon my teacher's opinion of her.

I know that I can ask her to give me another chance, I know that I can talk with my councilor about the teacher's decision, I know all that. I want to know where I stand as far as serious action, in the likely event that she refuses to change the grade, or offer me another chance.

i would say that if you can find more people in your class with the same sort of problem about her, you may have a somewhat serious case here.

Because, really, some teacher do simply have an "in" for certain students. And when your grades get unfairly menaced by that, i say it's time to do something about it.

However you got to make sure that YOU dont have an "in" for her first

Well that bit is wrong. My research group (though not me personally) work on H fuel cells and I've never heard anything like this. What is this based off? Though she should perhaps have been more constructive.

As for the "Whose dream was it concept" it is maybe justified. Depends on the rest of your essay. Did you go over the dream of Hydrogen fuel previously? Cause if so then the comment does seem pretty trivial but if you haven't done it in depth previously then I could see why she would say it. Though it is not very constructive I'll give it that.

Though in general it's hard for us to judge when we're recieving only a subjective view.

Most places you should be able to get a second opinion on the piece where it is submitted anonymously to another teacher for marking. If you're concerned take it up with administration. They should have procedures for this kind of thing. It does come up with reasonable frequency.

Aside from that, welcome to arts. There is a lot of variance in arts marking because stylistic factors are important. I still get large disparities in my grades which are down largely due to lecturers' preferences. Something you have to live with mostly.

Should this even go in discussion? Anyway:

I've once had done an assignment in a group of 4 and each group was free to do the assignment on anything they felt like. This was during high school, about the time of the media announcement of the planet after Pluto and all the talk about Pluto not being a planet anymore. We had to talk in front of the class and explain everything and answer questions on it. This usually causes nervosism. It didn't this time. It was perfect. We said everything correctly didn't just read off from the text and answered some random questions. We got a 10/18. Why? According to the teacher, it "didn't say anything new". I'm sorry, a new planet isn't a big discovery, we should've picked something better, I guess. So, okay, I was kinda mad because of that. Then some of my colleagues go ahead and make a really, really crappy miniature of a building and go ahead and talk about the history of our town. They forgot what they had to say, made unnecessary pauses and then read from their paper sheets, all things which were supposed to make them lose points. They got a 17/18. The teacher said their presentation was much better. Apparently, because we didn't appear nervous, we don't deserve grade.

Is this technically a de-rail? >_< Seems too "light" for discussion.

It really is too light for discussion.

I used to get lower grades despite far better material due to lack of pretty pictures and glitter on my posterboards.

I like the tags you added Krylo, very subtle.

Anyway, I understand that there is unfairness all over, and that teachers are in no way perfect. My lack of bouncing breasts has ever been a burden in my economics class, just as my lack of asskissery in Japanese has resulted in harsher grading on speeking practice; this is all nothing new.

What I am concerned with, is what you did about it, or what you should have done about it? Although I am sure there are many people that would be willing to lie down and take something suh as this, but right now it may be a matter of passing or failing the class. This is the second major assignment she has done this on this 9 weeks, and though I admit it is too late for the first one, this one is much more recent. Whether it's a hostile approach, an approach through appeasement, or just a simple report to the administration and a threat of canning, I want to know the process.

Oh, and Krylo, Warumono and I broke up, so you can have at it ;D.

While this is true, it is also pretty cheeky.

She docked marks for making an unreferenced statement and for a factually inaccurate statement.

So far, I'm not seeing the problem.

Stating your opinion will only get you so far. You have to be able to explain your reasoning, and if necessary your sources, in order to garner a good mark.

See, this is actually a problem. However, do not mention this unless it has directly caused you to receive a lower grade than you deserve. It may not be pleasant to see a lack of effort go rewarded, but when presenting an issue, you want to involve as few people as necessary.

This. This this this this this. Talk to your counsellor, bring a blank copy of your paper (No names, no annotations, no edits), and hope your school has a good framework set up.

If they do have a good system for this, you should be set from that point on. If they don't, I have this to say: suck it up and ask for a second chance.

It is not worth it to piss off an English teacher, assuming that English is mandatory in Kentucky. If it was an elective that you didn't need the credit for, sure, say "Fuck off" and drop the course. I did this in Grade 11 Economics, and I never looked back. However, English is going to be looked at. If doing well means asking for a second chance, it's well worth it.

I see this mainly as the teacher not properly teaching you in the first place, both constructively and about what she expects from your research paper. Did you practice citation? Practice looking up proper research on proper topics? Practice examining information found on the internet critically? Did the teacher give you the chance to turn in a rough draft for review so she could tell you what was wrong with it before you were required to turn in a final copy? Did you do other essays/research papers prior to this to help practice for the "big" one? All of these are important steps leading up to such a project and unless she just took it for granted you already knew how to do things of this nature, she is certainly not doing her job properly. And if she took it for granted everyone in your class knew how to do those things she is also not doing her job properly.

However, you didn't supply a lot of detail on whether or not any of the above was the case. Did she have the class practice and learn about all of these things or did she simply tell you to write a research paper without proper guidelines for everything she wanted included?

In any case, if you are in danger of failing her class, I think you should contact the administration/counselor or even her (surely asking her for personal help should help you with her, both on an interpersonal level and on an academic level--if she refuses to give you personal time in order to help you succeed in her class, there is something wrong with her teaching method) in order to set up a meeting between the teacher, your parents, you, and at least one other faculty member (probably part of the administration, or what have you) to figure out what you need to change in order to do well in her class (or what she needs to change!), or whatever the procedure is in your school. The first step is ALWAYS to talk to the teacher (or in any situation, the person you are having problems with), and if nothing seems to be working, talk to the administration.

I had an English teacher my senior year and pretty much had this same problem. It wasn't isolated to me because I had previous warning from multiple students. I went into the class not believing any of it, because, well, kids are lazy bastards and kids in Highschool can be cruel and unreasonable and teachers have enough shit to put up with without every god damned kid getting in their face every two seconds.

But every word of it turned out to be pretty true. She hated men, and only to a slightly lesser extent, boys. She graded harshly, she taught improperly, her expectations were unreasonable and doubly-so because she didn't make them clear. It didn't help that I was attached to a group of four, two of which drove her insane at every opportunity, but I shouldn't have done poorly in English at all. I mean, let me just say; my reading comprehension is high, I can burn through 2-3 books in a matter of days. My writing skills are at least competent.

Here's just one example of how this teacher ruined this subject for me; I was going on vacation with my family during the school year. Not the greatest opportunity to take off but it was the only time we could go because of dad's work schedule. So like any good student, I asked for the following weeks assignments ahead of time so I wouldn't be behind. Her response was "this is impossible, I don't prepare the next weeks assignments that far in advance". Well, that's either stupid or a lie because they take butt-loads of days off for teacher planning or keggers or whatever. But WHATEVER. "So can you give me some make-up assignments to do while I am gone?" is what I ask. And of course she refuses because she "doesn't DO 'extra-credit' or 'make-up assignments'". (She says these phrases with disdain and anger).

As far as Frost's situation... Well, it sounds like you have a lot of problems with more than just this one teacher. I mean, its easy to shift blame on to teachers but I'm in agreement with what other folks have been saying - you may want to pursue the situation with the English teacher, but not with the intent of blaming her and others for your struggling with grades. If you want better grades, tell the staff in the school that is there to help you that you want to know what YOU can do, and if they give you suggestions that mean you have to work harder, then, well... work harder. If you feel some teachers are unfairly grading you, make that known as well and make sure they understand specifically what instances this has occurred. But don't pin it all on them because they'll likely be able to show you how that isn't the case, and they'll view it as a load of BS because believe me you are not the only kid to have hated their teachers.

That all said, it does sound like this teacher is ... kind of a jerk? So my sympathies go out to you. But before you assume that they are being biased, try to approach the situation more gently. This is an important lesson in social graces that comes in handy when dealing with employers. In the working world, if you are not accepting the blame for things that reflect on you, they will LOOK for opportunities to get rid of you.