tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post7927753315145355988..comments2023-10-23T09:23:22.051-04:00Comments on Your Schools: Should teachers give homework for the sake of giving homework?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-19634759749986812732014-11-15T19:15:09.193-05:002014-11-15T19:15:09.193-05:0011:03
You do realize we're talking about a pub...11:03<br />You do realize we're talking about a public school system with a Board of Education that voted in favor of standardized testing dance and yearbook? <br /><br />I was physically present at this meeting. <br /><br />Alicia Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-61379696491360405422014-11-15T19:04:20.683-05:002014-11-15T19:04:20.683-05:0011:03
And in case you haven't been paying atte...11:03<br />And in case you haven't been paying attention..<br /><br />My father is a former public school principal and public school superintendent.<br /><br />A good principal matters. Really matters. Count your blessings you have a principal you like to work for. Although, I suspect, you might be a principal yourself in which case I fully support your homework policy albeit CMS' Board of Education thoughts and policies on the subject. <br /><br />Alicia Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-70838486956361595812014-11-15T18:48:20.490-05:002014-11-15T18:48:20.490-05:0011:03
How wonderful you happen to work at a school...11:03<br />How wonderful you happen to work at a school that also allows teacher's enough autonomy to implement something called common sense. <br /><br />Common sense is not something I've always experienced or witnessed in public education. And let me be clear, I'm as much of a public school teacher as you are.<br /><br />As you know, a supportive and competent principal greatly matters. <br /><br />Alicia Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-3315829388703238272014-11-14T23:03:14.394-05:002014-11-14T23:03:14.394-05:00Alicia,
I'm happy that you're happy to...Alicia,<br /> I'm happy that you're happy to be doing the same thing that thousands of teachers worldwide have been doing for decades innumerable, even us poor louses in CMS that have principals that allow us the same leeway that you crow about. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-62920579389675404112014-11-14T22:22:11.795-05:002014-11-14T22:22:11.795-05:00Black folk calling that test question having racia...Black folk calling that test question having racial undertones is somewhat ridiculous.<br /><br />Can tests not have simulations from predominate names of a race ? Would it be an uproar if the name was Nam or Juan ?<br /><br />Come on folks. I know a student that was named after lemon jello.<br /><br />Lemonjello<br /><br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-59612765570297624562014-11-14T22:20:18.577-05:002014-11-14T22:20:18.577-05:00"Homework can be a necessary part of the lear..."Homework can be a necessary part of the learning process..."<br /><br />Can be means won't be. But hey it's easier on the staff. That's what what we're all about now.<br /><br />How about this: Meaningful homework IS a necessary part of the learning process. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-87579065642132640122014-11-14T21:46:20.798-05:002014-11-14T21:46:20.798-05:00Let's be clear. No school is perfect.
However...Let's be clear. No school is perfect.<br /><br />However, one of the things I really like about my charter school is the ability to independently decide my homework policy which is different than the other 5th grade teacher I work with. The other 5th grade teacher I work with assigns homework every night with the expectation of it being due the next day. The one thing we do have in common is giving out "0's" for students who don't hand their homework assignments in on time. My two person 5th grade team doesn't believe in giving students a grade of a 50 for doing nothing. We're not adverse to giving "F's". We've given out plenty already. This being said, we're also sensitive to things that occur in daily life that warrant occasional exceptions to "the rule". And isn't this how things work in the real world? Different supervisors and bosses with different expectations and rules? <br /><br />Alicia <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-33563807522265084652014-11-14T21:05:04.809-05:002014-11-14T21:05:04.809-05:00My 5th grade homework policy posted on my website ...My 5th grade homework policy posted on my website the first week of school (August, 2014).<br /><br />NO EXCUSE HOMEWORK POLICY:<br /><br />After decades spent trying to assess the value of homework, researchers still argue over the simplest findings.<br /><br />What we think we know:<br /><br />1. A Duke University study concluded that in elementary school, there is no measurable correlation between homework and achievement.<br /><br />2. However, the same Duke University study concluded that by high school, the average student doing homework outperformed 69% of students in a class with no homework.<br /> <br />Ms. Durand's philosophy and policy on homework:<br /><br />Students will be assigned a reasonable amount of homework at the beginning of each week which will be due every Friday. Students may choose to complete all homework at once or spread it out over the week creating a "NO EXCUSE" policy for incomplete and late assignments. Any homework assignments that are submitted late or incomplete will receive an automatic "0". Parents and students are responsible for making sure all homework assignments are completed and submitted every Friday. Homework will count for 10% of a student's grade per subject area with the primary goal of developing good time management skills and study habits needed to successfully function in school and in life. <br /><br />AliciaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-52948284586041142932014-11-14T18:49:21.172-05:002014-11-14T18:49:21.172-05:00Anon at November 14, 2014 at 5:02 said "Homew...Anon at November 14, 2014 at 5:02 said "Homework should be used to practice already taught skills" You nailed it. My kids sometimes are assigned new material to learn at home on skills they haven't been taught yet. <br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-55547732548404489162014-11-14T17:02:52.660-05:002014-11-14T17:02:52.660-05:00When I started teaching here teachers were forced ...When I started teaching here teachers were forced to give excessive amounts of homework. When teachers questioned the practice they were shut down by administrators. Homework should be used to practice already taught skills. This place is nuts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-81163569711925328752014-11-14T16:30:30.221-05:002014-11-14T16:30:30.221-05:00NOBODY KNOW ANYTHING about the UNCC contract or an...NOBODY KNOW ANYTHING about the UNCC contract or anything else because of the lack of investigative journalism in Charlotte. The last time the CO did anything that did not come out of a PR department was the good work they did on Jim Baker and the PTL disaster.<br /><br />On the test question. Is the question racially biased ? Is the SAT test questions racially biased ? Almost any question will offend someone in CMS. If you dont believe me then go ask Dr. Morrison what he thinks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-51524620221427670192014-11-14T16:27:38.237-05:002014-11-14T16:27:38.237-05:00Well I will guarantee you that the local private s...Well I will guarantee you that the local private schools are giving out homework. What a bunch of nonsense CMS.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-65842726062267801652014-11-14T16:25:21.769-05:002014-11-14T16:25:21.769-05:00Teachers in CMS can't even call students out. ...Teachers in CMS can't even call students out. Teachers in the state of North Carolina have no authority. Education here is ran by people in office's. People in downtown Charlotte or Raleigh. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-60789687730212474272014-11-14T15:17:51.452-05:002014-11-14T15:17:51.452-05:00If your child "doesn't want to do homewor...If your child "doesn't want to do homework" after school, maybe he/she would prefer playing hours of video games....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-23973040515240908642014-11-14T15:02:15.434-05:002014-11-14T15:02:15.434-05:00If your child is not doing homework after school, ...If your child is not doing homework after school, maybe he/she is playing hours of video games. Is that a better use of their time?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-53503896588831257452014-11-14T14:04:11.335-05:002014-11-14T14:04:11.335-05:0012:53,
PL is the next big breakthrough for public...12:53,<br /><br />PL is the next big breakthrough for public education. <br /><br />What child doesn't want to play with an iPod, iPad, or other technology device while at school?<br /><br />Sure it stunts the brain development of young children, boys in particular, but it's fun!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-4571502521452385302014-11-14T12:53:14.917-05:002014-11-14T12:53:14.917-05:001. we never got our end of grades test scores from...1. we never got our end of grades test scores from last spring. Shocking<br />2. What no homework? Go to a personalized learning school-there is little work at all there. Problem solved.<br />3. Personalized learning investigation needed!!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-91023421807346517432014-11-14T12:22:52.393-05:002014-11-14T12:22:52.393-05:00Maybe the wackos who made their kids not take End ...Maybe the wackos who made their kids not take End of Year Testing last spring (or whatever) will tell their kids it is now okay to boycott homework. Since it is too much of a workload.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-28858023618663296372014-11-14T12:16:57.869-05:002014-11-14T12:16:57.869-05:00Not needed especially with stellar homework like t...Not needed especially with stellar homework like this (is it dumbing down the standard or making the wording more appropriate for those involved?)<br /><br /><br /><br />A Charlotte mother is expressing concern after a class assignment she considers offense was given to high school students, some say it has racial undertones.<br /><br />“I was completely stunned,” the mother said. “This is not appropriate language at all for the children in the school.”<br /><br />The question was from a test on genetics.<br /><br />"LaShamanda has a heterozygous big bootie, the dominant trait. Her man Fontavius has a small bootie which is recessive. They get married and have a baby named LaPrincess," the biology assignment prompts students.<br /><br />The assignment then continues to ask "What is the probability that LaPrincess will inherit her mama's big bootie?"<br /><br />The mother says the assignment was given last Monday and she reached out to the teacher for an explanation for the question.<br /><br />"I am extremely concerned that this type of language is being used and considered expectable [sic] to be issued to students," she said while asking for an explanation.<br /><br />According to an image of the assignment provided to WBTV, the questions before and after the "bootie" question revolved around "stinky feet" and the height of plants.<br /><br />The mother showed WBTV an email apology she reportedly received from the teacher "if the question offended you."<br /><br />"I had asked the students to pick two of the remaining questions on the worksheet and did not necessarily assign that particular one," the teacher said.<br /><br />She continued, "I apologize if it offended you or your child."<br /><br />The teacher said the worksheet had been passed down to her by other teachers who have been using it. It was also reportedly part of the "Summer School Biology Notebook Packet" that teachers were given by the school district.<br /><br />WBTV's Dedrick Russell reached out to the school district to ask about the worksheet. "The worksheet does not appear to be a document created by CMS," the officials said. "The school has taken the worksheet out of circulation and requested its teachers to discontinue using it."<br /><br />The mother is relieved the question will not be used again<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-46066120413032134012014-11-14T12:16:38.216-05:002014-11-14T12:16:38.216-05:00Too Much Homework Is Bad for Kids
Piling on the h...<b>Too Much Homework Is Bad for Kids</b><br /><br />Piling on the homework doesn't help kids do better in school. In fact, it can lower their test scores.<br /><br />That's the conclusion of a group of Australian researchers, who have taken the aggregate results of several recent studies investigating the relationship between time spent on homework and students' academic performance.<br /><br />According to Richard Walker, an educational psychologist at Sydney University, data shows that in countries where more time is spent on homework, students score lower on a standardized test called the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA. The same correlation is also seen when comparing homework time and test performance at schools within countries. Past studies have also demonstrated this basic trend.<br /><br /><br />Inundating children with hours of homework each night is detrimental, the research suggests, while an hour or two per week usually doesn't impact test scores one way or the other. However, homework only bolsters students' academic performance during their last three years of grade school. "There is little benefit for most students until senior high school (grades 10-12)," Walker told Life's Little Mysteries.<br /><br />The research is detailed in his new book, "Reforming Homework: Practices, Learning and Policies" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).<br /><br />The same basic finding holds true across the globe, including in the U.S., according to Gerald LeTendre of Pennsylvania State University. He and his colleagues have found that teachers typically give take-home assignments that are unhelpful busy work. Assigning homework "appeared to be a remedial strategy (a consequence of not covering topics in class, exercises for students struggling, a way to supplement poor quality educational settings), and not an advancement strategy (work designed to accelerate, improve or get students to excel)," LeTendre wrote in an email. [Kids Believe Literally Everything They Read Online, Even Tree Octopuses]<br /><br />This type of remedial homework tends to produce marginally lower test scores compared with children who are not given the work. Even the helpful, advancing kind of assignments ought to be limited; Harris Cooper, a professor of education at Duke University, has recommended that students be given no more than 10 to 15 minutes of homework per night in second grade, with an increase of no more than 10 to 15 minutes in each successive year.<br /><br />Most homework's neutral or negative impact on students' academic performance implies there are better ways for them to spend their after school hours than completing worksheets. So, what should they be doing? According to LeTendre, learning to play a musical instrument or participating in clubs and sports all seem beneficial, but there's no one answer that applies to everyone.<br /><br />"These after-school activities have much more diffuse goals than single subject test scores," he wrote. "When I talk to parents … they want their kids to be well-rounded, creative, happy individuals — not just kids who ace the tests."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-31521002405105293182014-11-14T12:14:13.196-05:002014-11-14T12:14:13.196-05:00Homework: An unnecessary evil? … Surprising findin...<b>Homework: An unnecessary evil?</b> … Surprising findings from new research<br /><br />By Valerie Strauss November 26, 2012 <br /><br />Alfie Kohn writes about what a new homework study really says — and what it doesn’t say. He is the author of 12 books about education and human behavior, including “The Schools Our Children Deserve,” “The Homework Myth,” and “Feel-Bad Education… And Other Contrarian Essays on Children & Schooling.” He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org.<br /><br />By Alfie Kohn<br /><br /> Let’s start by reviewing what we know from earlier investigations.<br /><br /> First, no research has ever found a benefit to assigning homework (of any kind or in any amount) in elementary school. In fact, there isn’t even a positive correlation between, on the one hand, having younger children do some homework (vs. none), or more (vs. less), and, on the other hand, any measure of achievement. If we’re making 12-year-olds, much less five-year-olds, do homework, it’s either because we’re misinformed about what the evidence says or because we think kids ought to have to do homework despite what the evidence says.<br /><br /> Second, even at the high school level, the research supporting homework hasn’t been particularly persuasive. There does seem to be a correlation between homework and standardized test scores, but (a) it isn’t strong, meaning that homework doesn’t explain much of the variance in scores, (b) one prominent researcher, Timothy Keith, who did find a solid correlation, returned to the topic a decade later to enter more variables into the equation simultaneously, only to discover that the improved study showed that homework had no effect after all[2], and (c) at best we’re only talking about a correlation — things that go together — without having proved that doing more homework causes test scores to go up. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-57673703057767150202014-11-14T12:06:43.773-05:002014-11-14T12:06:43.773-05:00Whats 9+10...21Whats 9+10...21Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-57959619129155007812014-11-14T12:04:27.362-05:002014-11-14T12:04:27.362-05:00Adam ^Adam ^Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-18678735536066790312014-11-14T12:03:49.972-05:002014-11-14T12:03:49.972-05:00This is an unnecessary argument. if the students n...This is an unnecessary argument. if the students need homework, give it. if they dont, then dontAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020455191286536580.post-28693075460721724542014-11-14T12:02:31.588-05:002014-11-14T12:02:31.588-05:009+10=219+10=21Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com