Bogged Down with Biology Again

Last night we attempted to tackle the untackle-able in this house-hold: biology. See, the 9th graders are in the midst of their first high school exams. Yes, they have actually been studying since the first day of Christmas Break Dec 20th. Not exactly sure how hard they were studying, but study guides did appear, books and papers were strewn about, so they certainly went to a lot of trouble to make it look like they were studying.

Mrs. Biology teacher offered a 5% increase in your score (or was it 5 points to your grade? her offer was about as clear as the rest of her teaching) if you completed the study guide. In a class where the failing outnumber the passing, a teacher must offer some incentive or risk losing her job (no tenure). Despite amassing pages and pages of answers to pages and pages of questions, last night with mere hours to go, we were all still hopelessly lost. If you're going to ask a question like, (and this isn't a direct quote, just paraphrasing) "what are the differences in weights of the x and y chromosomes and what are the gene traits" or something like that you'd think that somewhere in the last 4 months of teaching you might have actually offered such information. Nope. Not in the notes of either child, not in the worksheets, the study guides, the book for goodness sake, NOT. We think we found the answer on the internet. But why are we learning new things on the eve of the exam? Because we didn't pay attention in class? Sometimes that is the reason. But not for the girl child - she does all the homework, pays attention in class, and tries so hard. Needless to say, there were nearly tears and whines of frustration after school today as we discussed the incredible injustice of a teacher who puts things on the final not in the guide (uh - everything's fair game from the whole semester kids - lesson learned, I hope) and skips a whole lot on the final that was in the guide.

Yep, 2nd semester is going to have a new outlook - perhaps one with an insight into how to figure out this teacher.

And momma has discovered that her co-worker found biology "easy" and "fun." (imagine such a find at a firm where we prosecute all manner of scientific patents...) You can bet Sir Ted will be getting a few phone calls this semester from momma about biology!! Forget Google - we have a live tutor!! whooo-hooo.