Bad Teachers

I am evaluating my Math teachers. The main math teacher I will focus on is Mr. Juell. He teaches Algebra 3 and Trigonometry, which was combined in one class, and Geometry. He was an absolute terrible teacher; he couldn’t even do the problems himself. Teachers are age old; they have been around almost since the beginning of time. They have also caused great discussion among students. “Don’t take him he is a terrible professor.” This is common advice students give each other or sometimes you will hear, “He was really good, I completely understood what he was talking about. You should take his classes.” Students seek out this advice because they know if they get stuck with an intelligible teacher their grade and understanding of the subject will suffer. Many college have websites that have student evaluations of teachers. This is a blessing to all of the students who take advantage of it, although it is only made available because of the kind few who suffered through terrible teachers.

Mr. Juell would fall under the category of math teacher. Some more broad categories are education and teachers, but for my purposes he will be categorized in math teachers. The kind of math they teach does not matter as long as they teach a form of math. Mr. Juell can be compaired to some other math teachers I have had. Some examples are Ms. Krock a honors Algebra 2 teacher, Mrs. Kohlmann a honors pre-calculus teacher, Mrs. Reish a honors Geometry teacher, and Dr. Ping Xu a Business Calculus teacher. I have had each of these teachers and had personal experience with them. Some of them are really good teachers others know what they are teaching but can’t teach it, and some have no clue what they are doing. They can be used to compare with Mr.Juell to help identify what specific qualities a teacher must have to categories them as a bad math teacher.

I can use two different sets of criteria to evaluate Mr. Juell, that of a good teacher or of a bad teacher. For my purposes I need to define both to make a comparison. I believe during this evaluation I will find that some teachers don’t meet the criteria of either a good teacher or a bad teacher and will fall in the middle. A bad teacher has a low understand of what they teach, they make several mistakes regarding class material, are unable to explain the subject they are teaching in a way their students would understand, they are unable to give an intelligent answer to questions that can be understood, and finally they are unable to gain the respect of their students. A good teacher has a high understand of the subject they teach, they make very little mistakes, are able to take the complicated materiel and explain it in a way that students can understand clearly, they can answer questions pertaining to the subject they teach, and have the faith and respect of their students.