Our Class is "Too Quiet"

Caught

Our substitute teacher keeps telling us our class is too quiet.

There's 7 of us in the class, and usually only three to five of us are in. She keeps complaining that we're too quiet, but with such a small class we're quite lost on how to be louder? Our teacher is quite loud themselves and if you get something wrong she becomes angry and scary, so it's quite difficult to talk and answer in case she gives out to us for being wrong.


Has anyone else had a problem like this? If we answer wrong then she seems angry, but if we don't answer she's annoyed that nobody is answering and the room is silent. Lately she's been giving out more and more about how annoyed she is that we're quiet, and we're becoming more afraid to participate in class.


She'll be here for God knows how long because our actual teacher hasn't been well, and we just want a class which we feel comfortable in again, without being afraid that we're going to get into trouble for one reason or another!

happywithlife

what subject is it for? if it is for say irish where oral work is a key component than she may be right to say you are not talking enough.
i think though what she is trying to portray maybe is that she feels your quiteness is coming across as a lack of interest -- i know you mentioned she is scary when you get something wrong but can you maybe approach it in such a way as to ask her her opinion on something specific - perhaps even read ahead in the chapter for what may be coming up the next day and think of an interesting question you could ask ... if one good discussion got going it may break the ice so to speak and open up a whole other dimension to the class. if you don't feel comfortable enough to do this in class to start with maybe ask her opinion after class.
as to her being loud and scary - i know that is hard on you but maybe say it to her (if you can) .. i know i've had students say it to me in the past - i teach a practical subject so after a busy class i might go into a theory class and still be projecting my voice too loudly (as i've had to project it over machinery or whatever in the class before) .. that is a fault of mine i know and its something i actively work on, but at times even i come of class thinking 'gezz i've given myself a headache there i've been talking too loudly'. and i don't get offended when students say it to me either btw - i accept it, apologise and make a more conscious effort for the next few classes. so my advice on that part of it would be to say it to her.

Caught

Thank you very much! It's Chemistry.

One of the girls is good at getting discussions going with the teacher, but she's always out now so I suppose we'll have to try it ourselves!


Thanks for the advice! I have tried coming up with questions, but then usually I can answer them before I ask them and don't, haha! I never thought of it as her seeing us as uninterested though. I'll say it to my friends and we could make an effort with that so! Thank you!

happywithlife

maybe even ask her if she could recommend any good websites or anything for extra curricular reading?
or what she would recommend revising over the xmas hols? (if you are leaving cert) or how to make out an effective revision plan for the prepapers...
if the class is that quite you must be finding it boring to sit though - i imagine its a lot of teacher talk from what you decribe and believe me, even us teachers actually hate those kind of classes too and find them depressingly boring .. definitely make an effort to get some kind of discussion going - it can only benefit your learning in the future so its a win win all round
best of luck with it all !

Snowc

Op why don't you mix up something in the lab that will explode with a loud bang and then see if she thinks ye are too quiet ....

Caught

Haha, well we have had a good few things go wrong in our lab (we had a bad rep for how horribly wrong our experiments went in the school past year!). I don't think she'd appreciate us making a bang! :P Anyway, we all jump and/or scream if something goes on fire (like the tubing or retort stand clamps) so she knows we can be loud! :P

Thanks happywithlife! It's actually for three of us, our favourite class and subject! Most of the class were in this week so we've been having less silence (and also the chapter is dead easy at the moment so we're not as afraid to answer her). Anyway, only four more classes left with her teaching us. Then we'll have our own teacher back again.:D

Thanks everyone!

RML

It's such a coincidence..
there's only 7 people in my class and the subject is chemistry too.
Its always me in the class who answers the questions and others just stay quiet for some reason even if they know the answers.