I am writing this because I am just so ****ed off. I've never actually hated anyone before, sure I've disliked people, but never actually hated anyone. I'm just coming up to do my French GCSEs and have realised that over the last 3 years I have learned absolutely nothing.
Here's the backstory. In year 7 I joined my school (which is supposedly a language college) and got a pretty amazing French teacher. I learned a lot that year, much more than I expected of myself and all was going well. Unfortunately, the next year when we were due to have him again he sadly passed away which was very saddening as he was a really nice person and an excellent teacher. So next year we had a new teacher who has been in the school for many years. I won't say her name, I will refer to her as Mrs. X. Although your not allowed to call her Mrs. X, instead she will bite your head off if you don't call her Madame X. Anyway, she started teaching me in year 8 and I immediately fell behind. I could hardly understand a word of what she was on about. I thought it was just me but later on I realised around 75% of the class was in the same boat.
Naturally, I asked questions about what I didn't understand, but she just responds with "You should pay attention" or just some pathetic attempt at sarcasm or humour. She never actually answered any questions I put to her. She often goes on rants about 'how it is done in France' such as how a week has 8 days rather than 7 and how absolutely no French people drink cold milk and they all drink it warm. These rants often last 10 or 15 mins, a great use of my time. In lessons she will either be talking about the imperfect subjunctive BS tense that she has never taught us but expects us to understand or will simply sit back and tell us to do work in our books. I realised just how much of a problem it was when I looked back over my books for revision and found nothing I could actually use- it was all just questions. She will simply waste the lesson ranting, shouting at people, make us do exercises or writing stuff on the board in French that only 10% of the class can actually follow.
I'm no 'power to the students' type person, and I get on fine with most of my teachers and respect their authority. However, I have had numerous visits to the 'student services department' as have many of my classmates to complain about the various things she has been doing and asking for something to be done. All that happened it that one day the put a member of the Senior Management Team in the back of the classroom. I had the best French lesson I have ever had, she taught us clearly, she answered questions and did everything I would expect from a teacher. The member of staff at the back left about 10 mins before the end. As the left, you could immediate see her expression change and with no exaggeration, 15 seconds after the teacher left she had a massive go at one kid for no apparent reason. This is when I realised that it wasn't just her not being a particularly good teacher, but that she could do it properly but has been choosing not to.
All-in-all I have a teacher that refuses to teach, the school won't bother doing anything because she is 'experienced' and really don't care about anything other than how the school looks and 3 years of learning wasted. It's so frustrating because I want to do well and have been putting the effort in but it is just impossible.
To top it all we are doing a controlled assessment which is the new course work. We handed in our drafts for them and I got mine back yesterday with almost everything crossed out and a note saying that if I didn't do at least 300 words in the exam the maximum I can get is a C, I did 230 and I would say that at least half of it has been crossed out. That was 2.5 hours work with the internet at my disposal, how the hell am I supposed to do that in 1 hour without any help under controlled conditions? Although I have a plan for it, cheating isn't going to get me anywhere when I sit the GCSE papers or do an oral.
Sorry for the massive rant but I am really angry and typing this helps a bit. As I said, I'm not some 'power to the students' kid whining about a nasty teacher but instead a kid that wants to learn and do well and is getting A's and A*s in everything else, but I simply an unable to learn. On top of all that most universities are only accepting people that get at least a C in a foreign language. I just feel so let down by a school that boldly shouts about it being the best school in England.
Here's the backstory. In year 7 I joined my school (which is supposedly a language college) and got a pretty amazing French teacher. I learned a lot that year, much more than I expected of myself and all was going well. Unfortunately, the next year when we were due to have him again he sadly passed away which was very saddening as he was a really nice person and an excellent teacher. So next year we had a new teacher who has been in the school for many years. I won't say her name, I will refer to her as Mrs. X. Although your not allowed to call her Mrs. X, instead she will bite your head off if you don't call her Madame X. Anyway, she started teaching me in year 8 and I immediately fell behind. I could hardly understand a word of what she was on about. I thought it was just me but later on I realised around 75% of the class was in the same boat.
Naturally, I asked questions about what I didn't understand, but she just responds with "You should pay attention" or just some pathetic attempt at sarcasm or humour. She never actually answered any questions I put to her. She often goes on rants about 'how it is done in France' such as how a week has 8 days rather than 7 and how absolutely no French people drink cold milk and they all drink it warm. These rants often last 10 or 15 mins, a great use of my time. In lessons she will either be talking about the imperfect subjunctive BS tense that she has never taught us but expects us to understand or will simply sit back and tell us to do work in our books. I realised just how much of a problem it was when I looked back over my books for revision and found nothing I could actually use- it was all just questions. She will simply waste the lesson ranting, shouting at people, make us do exercises or writing stuff on the board in French that only 10% of the class can actually follow.
I'm no 'power to the students' type person, and I get on fine with most of my teachers and respect their authority. However, I have had numerous visits to the 'student services department' as have many of my classmates to complain about the various things she has been doing and asking for something to be done. All that happened it that one day the put a member of the Senior Management Team in the back of the classroom. I had the best French lesson I have ever had, she taught us clearly, she answered questions and did everything I would expect from a teacher. The member of staff at the back left about 10 mins before the end. As the left, you could immediate see her expression change and with no exaggeration, 15 seconds after the teacher left she had a massive go at one kid for no apparent reason. This is when I realised that it wasn't just her not being a particularly good teacher, but that she could do it properly but has been choosing not to.
All-in-all I have a teacher that refuses to teach, the school won't bother doing anything because she is 'experienced' and really don't care about anything other than how the school looks and 3 years of learning wasted. It's so frustrating because I want to do well and have been putting the effort in but it is just impossible.
To top it all we are doing a controlled assessment which is the new course work. We handed in our drafts for them and I got mine back yesterday with almost everything crossed out and a note saying that if I didn't do at least 300 words in the exam the maximum I can get is a C, I did 230 and I would say that at least half of it has been crossed out. That was 2.5 hours work with the internet at my disposal, how the hell am I supposed to do that in 1 hour without any help under controlled conditions? Although I have a plan for it, cheating isn't going to get me anywhere when I sit the GCSE papers or do an oral.
Sorry for the massive rant but I am really angry and typing this helps a bit. As I said, I'm not some 'power to the students' kid whining about a nasty teacher but instead a kid that wants to learn and do well and is getting A's and A*s in everything else, but I simply an unable to learn. On top of all that most universities are only accepting people that get at least a C in a foreign language. I just feel so let down by a school that boldly shouts about it being the best school in England.
