HSC Stuff > New South Wales Education Discussion

Hey peeps!

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Kombmail:
Hey Guys!
Just wanted to tell you guys that i have a shitty teacher for one of my subjects which i have an absolute passion for and was wondering how i should cope with this?

avocadinq:
Hey there,

I personally can relate to this, especially for legal studies. It was one of my favourite subjects and still is, despite having a bad teacher, because I did not let my bad teacher ruin my passions for it. Here 3 general tips on how I coped with a bad teacher + how I applied these tips into my life:

1) Talk to your teacher. Talk to them ways to improve their teaching style to cater for you and your learning style. At the end of the day it is your HSC, so communication is essential in order to get the most out of class/learning the content. Teachers are usually open to feedback but only if it is conveyed in a constructive yet polite manner. This has helped me so much especially in year 9 where I talked to my Japanese teacher about her learning methods to suit my learning style - which improved my grades for the next term.

2) Talk to your peers. Whether it's studying with your peers, sharing resources or more generally, talking about everything and anything (including bad teachers), it's important to not let teachers get in the way of your passions of a particular subject. Without talking about my passions about chemistry, I would have not become as close to one of my closest friends to this day.

3) Immersing yourself within the subject. Developing your interest through other means, besides your teacher is important - studying ahead in maths, watching tv shows related to a particular subject or reading novels etc. I personally watched documentaries and read SMH in order to maintain interest in legal studies.

Hope this helps!

jamonwindeyer:
Hello!! What exactly about the teacher are you not meshing with? Is it just you or is the whole class struggling? I like to think that most teachers have the best of intentions, and it might be something you can bring up with them in a productive way. They may not realise they are viewed as a "shitty" teacher at all!

Sometimes though, despite wanting to live in an ideal world, you do get teachers who just plain don't care.

If you feel comfortable bringing it up with them, I would do that first, especially if you honestly do think they mean well - They'd almost certainly be keen to improve your experience. If you don't feel comfortable, perhaps have a (non-aggressive) chat with your coordinator/Vice Principal and explain your point of view. Don't be accusatory/defamatory of the teacher, just say you are concerned about your development in the course, because "X, Y, Z."

It's actually good practice for dealing with similar situations in later life. If someone isn't working well in the workforce, you can either bring it up with them or bring it up with a manager (or a managers' manager) - Super similar crossroads, and it depends a lot on the context :)

owidjaja:
Hey there,

I definitely know how you feel. In fact, if you read my HSC journal, you could see me ranting about my math teacher and how she wasn't the best teacher. It depends on how you define as a 'bad' teacher. It's either you just don't get along with them or they don't teach anything. If it's the first situation, then the best way for you maybe ask for help from another teacher or even your friends. If it's the second situation. it's a bit more complicated.

Firstly, just ask around your class if anyone's actually absorbing content from the teacher. In my situation, I had a lot of people who had tutoring but our general consensus was that we didn't like her because she was always confused whenever she would teach us and then the lesson ends up being taken over my another student. And unfortunately, I had to find other ways to keep up because one thing you should keep in mind is that you shouldn't get carried away with the idea that you don't like the teacher. I had to be proactive and teach myself the content in advance because my teacher never explained things properly. I also asked friends from Year 12 (I was in Year 11 at the time) for help and even asked my classmates for help. I also talked to my dad about the issue and he called my school office, the Catholic Education Office, the junior school assistant principal (because she knew my family quite well) which led to her speaking to my school's assistant principal which ended back to my math co-ordinator. At some point, my math co-ordinator would sit at the back of the classroom and observe the class dynamic. I was actually lucky we had a different math teacher in Year 12 (who was better but hasn't taught 3U maths for four/five years) but even then, I went around and asked my physics teacher for help.

I guess my point is that when you don't like your teacher (regardless whether you just don't like their personality or they don't teach), the best way is to be proactive, whether it's just asking for help from friends or another teacher, or even teaching the content yourself. It was very stressful for me (it was actually so stressful where someone could literally come up to me and say "Hey, how are you" and I would just cry because I was so stressed) but the thing that I learned from the two years of dodgy math teachers is that I need to take initiative of my own learning because (unfortunately) at the end of the day, I'm the one sitting the exam, not the teachers.

Hope this helps!

PeriPeri101:
Hi,

I am dealing with a similar situation at the moment. My Legal Studies teacher is very passionate about her teaching and honestly that is amazing but her teaching methods are starting to wear away at me. Specifically she has no order or system. I never know where in the textbook she is talking from and she jumps around from chapter to chapter. Like today she said 'okay kids flick to chapter 6??'
The notes on the board a messy and are hard to understand because they are so brief and so many acronyms, i feel like this method would be used when all of us are more comfortable with the terminology, not the start of yr 11.
Like 'The separation of powers includes the judicial, executive and legislative arm' would be condensed to 'SOP ---> Jud. , exec. , leg. , '

I want to approach her about this in a polite manner but do not know how. I do not want to get off on the wrong foot!

Thanks :)

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