The first action I would suggest would be to switch classes, if it’s possible; another teacher may well be able to explain it better.

Talk with your principal, as a class, and sincerely let him/her know that none of you are learning what you should; she is not teaching concepts or reasoning, she’s simply going through the problems. This isn’t arithmetic where you can just divide such and such by so and so and be done with it…which is how she’s teaching. In Calc, she needs to teach you the concepts, or you will continue to be completely lost – and your transcript will suffer for it.

Ask the principal to sit in on a class or two, or ask for permission to tape the class so s/he can see what you’re dealing with. The teacher isn’t necessarily a bad person or anything, but she is doing an extremely poor job of teaching. It’s not your fault she’s inexperienced, and she probably shouldn’t be teaching an honors course.

If you have to, go to the school board. Get your parents involved, do what you have to do. Don’t get all militant about it, but you have the right to be *taught* the information in the class, rather than just told to do it and get it over with.

Edit: If you decide to get a course to also teach yourself at home, I second the suggestion of Math U See. Here is the link, in case you’re really not able to get anything accomplished with the situation at school:

http://www.mathusee.com/precalculus.html

The problem with the teacher not teaching properly, is something that is out of your control. She may be a bad (or totally inexperienced) teacher, from your description of her. She may not understand the material, or she may not have the ability to control the class’ attention.

An honors class full of students who are really trying to learn should not be getting grades between 40 and 85.

One solution would be to schedule a conference with the teacher and talk to her during her office hours about material you don’t understand. If the teacher gets very nervous in front of the class, maybe she will be better able to talk to just one or two students at a time. The most important thing is to learn the material.

additional:

If you have no time for a tutor on weekdays, you should get one on the week-ends. There are lots of situations like this in schools and colleges. The teacher will be distracted or something will be wrong, and you will find your semester wasted. It is an imperfect world.

another thought on the subject:

If everyone in the class tests at between 40 and 85, and if everyone is dissatisfied with these poor grades, it is the teacher’s job to notice this. After all, the point of testing is to discover how well the student knows the subject.

The teacher must know from the test scores that everyone needs help, and it is her job to offer help or advice on how everyone can learn the subject.

and

The class needs to take some responsibility for the problem because, as you say, no one listens to her, and they talk over her. If everyone wants to get through this with a good grade, they need to co-operate with the teacher. Learning with a teacher is something that takes two people to accomplish: teacher and student. If she needs help, go ahead and help her. It’s not like she has to be perfect and mistake-free. Most people in their first year of a new job, make mistakes. If you students are helpful to her, you may find she will be happy to spend time helping you.

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Try the Math-U-See pre calculus course…Math-u-see is exactly what it is, it makes you “see” the answer and not just require you to memorize a formula because someone “says so”

if she is the only teacher, see if you can get a tutor, or if you nieghbor can help you or something.