The homework be kicking my booty! *
October 23rd, 2006 | by Vinny |Every night, we go through the same thing.
I have a fourth grade daughter, who has reached the point where proper names need to be capitalized, book reviews have to be thorough, and math problems need to be right. This requires a lot of support on our part. My wife and I are constantly over her shoulder, because otherwise she spends hours writing it incoreectly, and then hours revising it all. We need to head it off quickly just for our own sanity.
My eighth grade son is so horribly disorganized it is nearly impossible to help him. He comes home without half of what he left with in the morning. Today it was a brand new down vest, worn today for the first time. Anyway, he rarely has the right paperwork, homework sheets, or class notes. The content he is studying (Earth Science, Polynomials, etc) frequently requires me to do a lot of review and research just to be able to assist him. He is being tutored in math and science to make sure he keeps up, but that also complicates the schedule. What may be the worst part is the sheer volume of work, which usually takes us well past 10pm.
We could easily work all day Saturday just to keep our heads above water. 2 soccer teams further complicate matters, as do piano lessons, church and alter serving on Sunday.
How are you handling these issues?
* I’m paraphrasing Wynton Marsalis, who said that about the music while he was touring with the Eastman Wind Ensemble. He said this, by the way, live on “The Today Show”.
4 Responses to “The homework be kicking my booty! *”
By on Oct 26, 2006 | Reply
My wife went to our fifth grader’s school a couple of weeks ago. As she walked down the hall she noticed a single backpack full o’ books sitting in the hallway on one of the tables. It was the middle of class… so it was totally out of place. And it belonged, of course, to one of my kids.
She put it in his locker. He never even noticed it was gone.
I know what DOESN’T work: getting all pisssed off. What SEEMS to work is the actually the school’s policy of having an “agenda.” He’s slowly improving at getting everything he needs to complete his homework agenda. If it’s not on the agenda, though…
It’s a long way of saying “I don’t know.”
The volume thing is a big deal to us, too. Kids need to be kids, and Westchester homework quantities can be pretty overwhelming.
Plus, I’m exhausted, and clearly overcommenting.
Rock on.
By on Oct 26, 2006 | Reply
I have done pissed off, disappointed, indifferent, apathetic, and I’m sure Grumpy, Sleepy and Dopey. You’re right. None of those work.
The agenda is the solution, but what happens is, as you well know, it never gets IN the friggin’ agenda. We complete every assignment we know about, and do it well.
That’s what’s making me crazy. The WE in that last paragraph. Why should it have to be ‘we’? Then again, it was just ‘me’ when I went to school, and I ended up with a GED.
By on Oct 27, 2006 | Reply
We have agendas at the school I teach at and to be honest, I think they are great, but it should not be MY responsibility to fill them out for my students, this is where they need to self-manage as you said, unfortunatly, many do not.
Besides, most of the parents I deal with think homework is pointless anyways. I hear it all the time, “but we had to go to grandma’s house and then to football practice”….and that’s from the parents!!!
- Jon
- Daddy Detective
- www.daddydetective.com
By on Oct 27, 2006 | Reply
I agree, Daddy D. You as the teacher should not be filling out the agenda. Two issues need attention, though:
1- When you check notebooks (as nearly all teachers do) why not check an agenda page?
2- If Johnny is failing, perhaps you would troubleshoot the issue some by checking the agenda.
I’m a teacher as well. yes, I know all the mandates that have crept in to a day that is no longer than it ever was. But any failing student deserves some diagnosis. It’s a team effort, and I know, if you are here, you are not the problem.
I can tell you, though, I just waited 10 days for an email response from a teacher in a class Son is failing. That’s just unprofessional. He’s being left to swing out here, and I’ll not have it. They are going to have to start ponying up soon.