Is it okay to ask my math teacher to explain certain things in pre-calculus?

Sometimes I want to get a better understanding of what we're doing, and I'll ask why something is a certain way. But the teacher I have now is so anti-questions.. and then sometimes kids snicker. It's annoying because I thought teachers were supposed to be on your side, especially when you just want to learn. Previous teachers I've had never had any qualms when I asked such questions.. it just helps me learn better when I can truly understand what we're doing. Ugh, am I in the wrong here? Should I just take things just as, or try to get a deeper understanding? because when I want to major in economics when I get to college, so I really want to know what I'm doing in math. This marking period I have a 97% too, so it's not like I'm asking questions because I wasn't paying attention or anything. Sometimes she'll even let people with lower grades get extra credit and not let me, just because she'll say my grade is high enough.. but wtf i'm trying to get into a good college here! Why wouldn't she want me to be exceptional? she complains about having a big class but the school I was at before had classes of the same size, and there was plenty of time for questions. maybe if we spent less time at the end of class doing the homework early, we'd have more time for questions, so saying we have no time for them is completely baseless from my view.