How can I get my teacher to take me more seriously?

Get the A. It will take care of itself.

Jot down a point you were going to ask about or an answer you were planning to give. Then if you forget, you can look at your note and get a reminder.

You might want to talk to your teacher, but you had better prepare what you want to say in advance and what you want the outcome of the meeting to be. Don’t just go talk to him vaguely.

I have had to walk down this path with my son and the single biggest mistake he made was his aversion to speaking with the teacher. Teacher conference after teacher conference they always said they had no idea he was feeling so intimidated to speak with them! Just do it now and don’t wait another day!

Treat your teacher with respect and arrange to ask question at a time that works for the teacher outside of class time. Come prepared with your question, having read the relevant material in your text book first.

wow, lol. I don’t know the whole story but it sounds like the teacher knows you’re a genius and plays against you just to help the other kids not feel so dumb. Sounds like you might be subconsciously sabotaging yourself for the same reason by seeming a bit absent minded.

I agree with marinelife – I think jotting some notes sounds good, sometimes just a word or two is enough..
When I took freshman English the teacher could tell when I didn’t understand what he was talking about – I think I got a “deer in the headlights” kind of look – and he ALWAYS called on me when that happened. After the first month when he realized my essays were very good, and he realized I had a tendency to freeze up (and he wasn’t really a sadist) he stopped calling on me unless I volunteered.

@bewailknot That happens to me a lot too. Like, we’ll be discussing something about politics, and I would have the most confused look on my face. He would say in class “You look like you just want to bang your head in a wall, girl.”

Which is true. I’m not very fond or familiar with deciding whether the Republicans and Democrats have the same veiws in 1877 as they do today.

Maybe we need to work on our poker-faces so we can hide what is going on inside.

Go over your words in your head before you say them. This will take a second, but it’s a second well-spent.

Politely ask your teacher to stop being condescending (after class), be ready to politely explain what you mean by that. He’s likely not, not deliberately. It’ll sting him a bit, and he’ll probably stop.

Well, what you need to do is…......uh what were we talking about?

Your perception of his actions is leading you to believe that he doesn’t take your seriously, whereas this may not be why he dismisses your answers at all.

Your perception of his actions actually tells more about how you feel about yourself than it reveals about the teachers thoughts, intentions or actions. It is likely that you are projecting your insecurity onto the teacher, which would be why you feel hesitant to speak to him privately about your concern.