Incandescent with rage!

[Dawndonnaagain]

Just got dds school report, it's good, in the main, which we expected, but she is a worker. Now, some of you know that dd is an intelligent, hardworking, articulate woman, so please take note, those that don't!
She has had difficulty with her German lessons all the way through AS level. Not so much the lessons as the lack of tuition, she has two hours teacher contact time per week, for AS level! The teacher continually tells her that she won't make it. She leaves her ridiculous amounts of work to do in the scheduled lesson times, as well as homework. I have had enough and hired a private tutor. Said tutor has pointed out that a) not enough contact time, b) her pupils finished the book that dd is on (chapter three) before christmas, c) The school teacher's corrections needed correcting, d) with enough tuition dd can achieve a c this year and a b next. I know the woman tutoring, she taught ds for four years at a different school.
Now, despite the fact that dd is doing everything asked of her and more, fucking bitch has given her a satisfactory for effort and a bit of a slagging off. I am writing to the governors about the lack of teacher contact time, the fact that the report is grossly unfair, and the fact that it's not even written properly. Any suggestions welcome.

Ah ok - just read your daughter is the only student. I was the same when doing my A-levels but I'm sure I was given at least 3 hours a week...

If she is the only student then that means it is more intensive learning experience but 2 hours is stil tight IMO, maybe 3/4.

It seems, after today's meeting, that during the 'intensive two hour contact time' the teacher is marking the work done in the previous lesson, writing emails and doing some role play. DD does the role play, a listening exercise (which let's face it can be done at anytime) and other independent work which has been set by the teacher, today for example, she marked her own work, whilst the teacher did something else. Teacher then told head of sixth form that all dd had done last week was produce a couple of hundred words for her spoken piece. Head of sixth form has photocopied the thousand word piece dd had written and has agreed that the lesson plans to be followed will be the ones that have been set by out of school tutor.

There are two kinds of German teacher. There are those who think they're teaching French, talk in German the whole time, immerse you in the language but don't actually explain the rules of grammar and syntax. Then there are those who think they're teaching Latin, bash the grammar rules, get you to recite the prepositions that govern the dative, insist that you memorise your strong verbs and explain why adjectives decline differently after different markers. The latter type will get you through the exam. The former won't. This is doubly true if you are sitting a prose paper. And doubly again if your mother tongue is English (or French) since an appreciation of the grammatical nuts and bolts of a more synthetic language don't apply to analytical languages like these.

Aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu. Orright?

Yet another reminder of why I feel really sorry for teachers.

Sorry OP, but you sound out of control. 'Fucking bitch'? Incandescent with rage? 'Grossly unfair'?

I think OP has every right to be angry, her DD is being let down and the teacher is blaming her incompetence on the pupil.

Most decent teachers would love the opportunity to engage with just one pupil who actually wants to be there and tries hard.

This teacher sounds dire and if the school had a problem with there being only one person in the class they should have cancelled it before the course started so the OP's dd could choose something else.

I do usually feel sorry for teachers, but not this one.

How old is your daughter? You've called her "an intelligent, hardworking, articulate woman".

She's in college so probably 17

Lol at chateauferret. That is very, very, very true.

I had a wonderful, very cynical tutor who very much leaned towards the second, but who was flexible and cynical enough to have long accepted that teaching like that in modern FE was incompatible with actually having more than one pupil turn up!

If I was a teacher, I would be the physical embodiment of the second. I really do treat German like Latin. Which is why my written work was "immaculate", and my spoken German was "difficult to understand".

And my French is appalling!

Hi OP. I would be angry too! I studied A level German and both A and AS level students had four hours of teaching per week. Two hours is not enough. I then went on to read German at university, MA etc...

Here are my tips:

Get this book and learn all the vocab www.amazon.co.uk/Wort-Fur-Advanced-German-Vocabulary/dp/1444109995

Enrol DD in an intensive Goethe Institut course over the Easter break.

Can you send her to Germany for a week or two pre-exams? This will do wonders for her fluency.

Feel free to PM me. Good luck.

And she once said that you cannot effectively teach German grammar to English students while speaking German. Since learning French, I now comprehend why non-Germanists often think you can.

I'm confused. You said 'satisfactory for effort'. Satisfactory means good enough. Nobody can be really good at everything, so what is wrong with satisfactory?

And she is in her last year of school, isn't she? Getting used to working with less teacher contact time and more independent study is a great preparation for what she'd be expected to do in a university course.

cassee it's a language though, on a course which is aimed for first year of sixth-form.

Doing an AS-level, even as an adult, with only two hours of contact time a week is really hard. Even for those who already speak German, I saw. For teenagers who have only done GCSE [monologue on the poor preparation given by the modern GCSE removed], two hours a week is impossible!

Dawndonna and Daughter of Dawndonna I have aural weirdness with my hearing (probably sensory processing disorder). If this is an issue you share (fully acknowledge we're all different ) that poses difficulty with German,, and you want a list of things I've tried that have worked, just say. I don't want to bore you to death, but I also want other people to be able to learn from my mistakes and successes!

casee first year of sixth form and has disabilities, also has put in lots of time, she should have had a 'good' for effort.

finance not out of control and used to teach so more than aware when I come across a member of staff trying to cover their arse.

tilly yes please, she has some hearing difficulties and yes, sensory processing difficulties.

I can understand now why "you used to teach" and no longer teach. I hope your dd doesn't read your post. Jeez, is this really what teachers have to put up with?

Might help? www.duolingo.com

I had a similar situation when i was at school. I was the only person sitting the subject, and got a teacher for 50min per week. I was actually quite happy with the situation, as i wouldn't have been able to take the subject otherwise.

However, the big difference is that it was a science, not german. i imagine german will be much harder to learn from a book.

My advice is to make sure your dd is in control of her learning. She sets her schedule, she tells the teacher what she needs each lesson, and generally takes responsibility on herself. In my experience, that is the way to make the most of reduced teaching hours.

Why on earth, dulldeidre would you hope dd hasn't read my post, in fact she has. As for your - you can understand why I used to teach, what rot. I lecture now.

The fact that you refer to another person as a "fucking bitch", that's why.

and as for As for your - you can understand why I used to teach, I rest my case. Wrong profession perhaps?

Dawndonnaagain

Please let me clarify this. You have stated that your daughter has read your post. This is the post where you refer to her teacher as a "fucking bitch" and you seriously consider that to be acceptable.

Ahh, I see, you're making judgements about somebody you know nothing about, Dullard.
As for having an angry reaction to bad teaching, because that is what this is, when you've had to fight to get a disabled child through mainstream education, and every opportunity is eroded, at every opportunity, then perhaps you'd have half an inkling as to how difficult life can be. It's my job as a parent to ensure my dd gets the best possible out of a system designed to fail anybody that isn't within a certain parallel, that's what I'm doing, and whilst I admit that name calling is childish, I make no apology for it.

Dawndonnaagain

Fair enough. So you have no objection to your dd seeing you refer to her teacher as a "fucking bitch"?

She's 17. Why would I. She's seen this thread. I didn't use it to the teacher's face, I was angry and distressed on my dd's behalf. Again. Seriously, you have no idea how difficult it is to fight discrimination every single day. I lecture now, and one of my lecturing jobs is to teach student doctors about ASDs, I have 22 year old students who still buy into the 'rocking in the corner' myth of Autism and that nothing can be done to help 'those kids'. People see my dd in her wheelchair and even in school have been known to talk to her twin about her.
I should also like to apologise for getting your name wrong up there, ^, it really was not intentional, it was a quick glance up and type. I shall use the last part only deirdre.

Sorry I forgot parents aren't allowed to have a bitch every now and again we suddenly sprout wings and halos