10 Minute Homework Rule

           Currently I am a teacher at an after school program in McFarland. My job is to pick the kids up from school, and the first thing I ask them every day is, “Hey guys! How was school? Do you have a lot of homework?” Almost every response is, “No, we never get homework.” These are kids ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade, and none of them have homework. I think that it is understandable for a kindergartener, but once they hit second, third, and fourth grade they should be getting some sort of work to do beyond the classroom. In an article written by Cathy Vatterott, she says that students should get a certain amount of homework every night based on the grade that they are in. For example, first graders would get ten minutes of homework, second graders would get twenty minutes, third graders would get thirty minutes, and so on. I think that this would be a great system, especially for the students who are in high school getting up to 4 hours of homework every night. I do not think that it is an effective strategy for kids in fourth grade to never get homework because soon they will be in middle school and then high school and will not have a routine of doing homework. Soon these kids will feel overwhelmed and surprised with the amount they have. If the amount of homework is eased into these students daily routine, it will only become less stressful for them in the future. 

woodleywonderworks, CC

           I also believe that this is an effective idea because from kindergarten to fifth grade I never got homework. Some nights I might have had to read for 15 minutes, but that was it. Then once I got to middle school I felt like I was drowning in the amount of homework I was given, and then homework in high school seemed almost impossible to complete in one night. I did not have a good study habit developed into my daily routine, so I struggled. If teachers would ease the homework and studying process into these children’s lives before they hit the middle school and high school range, I think that students will succeed and be saved from becoming overwhelmed and stressed about their amount of homework.

Along with the study habits, I think that the 10 minute increase by grade is a smart idea because in high school it seems like students get three hours at the minimum every night. With sports and extracurricular activities that schools encourage, three hours every night is almost unachievable in relation to getting a healthy amount of sleep. For example, I played volleyball all throughout high school. I had games every Tuesday and Thursday, and practice the other three days. On game day, we didn’t play until 6:30 PM, which is late enough where there is plenty of time between school dismissal and game time to get a chunk of homework completed. Our coach, similar to other high school coaches, encourages her players to sit and watch the freshman and junior varisty games that are played before ours. Yes this was encouraged, but it was more along the lines of, "watch the other teams or you will not be playing tonight." This gave us no time for homework after school. Seniors in high school should only be getting two hours of homework each night, where my senior year I was given at least three to five every night. Teachers throw out the excuse that they are just preparing us for college. Yes, this is understandable, but if their goal is to prepare us for college, a better route would be to ease us into the amount of homework at a younger age. 

Technology in the Classroom

Thad K, CC

Growing up I never had technology in a classroom besides in my computer class, which was only one or twice a week. Some days we were lucky enough to have laptops to rent from the school for a certain assignment. Today I work at an after school program where the kids come with tables they are provided from the school district. I think that this is absolutely ridiculous. Yes, technology can be a great tool for learning, but I also think they can cause too many issues in the classroom. The perks of having this technology is that it could save time looking for information. When a student is asked to look something up in a book, it could take too long before it is found. On a tablet, all a kid needs to do is look up a key word and they will be directed to that information. This could also be a negative to technology in the classroom because a lot of teachers assign worksheets with their readings and a student could easily look up the key word of the question and end up not reading the assigned pages. A positive to this technology that a school encourages is that even though these tablets cost a lot of money, but so do books, and when a book is damaged or lost, replacing them can also be expensive. A problem comes from these books when new information needs to be added, and a school is then forced to buy new editions after a few years. This problem does not come with technology because it is constantly updated and the information on them can be kept up to date without having to buy a new tablet.

Another issue that comes from tablets in the classroom is the risk of the kids breaking them and not using them responsibly. Usually children from the age of third grade to eighth grade are provided with this technology. Third graders are still under the age of ten and are not as responsible as an eighth grader to be reliable to keep this expensive tool safe. Giving these young children a device like this to take home is risky, in the fact that they are likely to break, and then will cost a load of money to either replace or repair. Who is then to pay for the repairs? Does the student, the parents, or the school? Yet another issue arises when having technology in the classroom is that it can be distracting for the children. It is easy for kids these days to download games on their tablets, and who is stopping them from using these devices for games instead of educational purposes? Yes, the school can block kids from being able to download these games, but there is an infinite amount of games on the internet that the kids could easily get access to. 

School and Work

CollegeDegrees360, cc

           

          

One problem that I face as an education major in college is time management. I believe that I do very well when it comes to managing my time properly. I am a full time college student, and for me that means a part time worker as well. Tuition, as everyone knows, is not cheap, especially not at Edgewood College. Since I am now paying for my schooling, saving and making money is essential. I wake up every day and go to class, and the second that I am done with class, I get in my car and go to work until about 6:00. Most people would tell me that I do not need a job in college. These people might not have to worry about paying for their own education. I think that working is a necessity, but it also pushes me to work harder than if I did not have a job. Some jobs in college give students an extra income; my job gives me this and also is the perfect job for my future career as a teacher. Managing this job in college will benefit me in the long run. I am back on campus by 6:30, and this is my time to do my homework. Yes, 6:30 is not too late to get done with work, but when I am bombarded with reading two chapters every night for every class, plus a load of math homework which takes at least 10 minutes a problem, time seems to run out quite fast.  A solution that people might suggest is to do homework during my breaks between classes. This semester I have no long breaks between any of my classes, besides my 40 minute lunch break, at which I do get a few pages of reading done. Being an education major, practicums are required. The times that I do not have class or work during the school day, is when I have the time to fit in my 25 hours of classroom observations.

I find it ridiculous that education professors don’t understand this as much as they really should. I constantly find myself up until midnight just reading. The overload of homework and hours in a classroom is stressful. Sleep is something that I find myself never getting enough of anymore, mainly because of the hours and hours spent studying and doing homework. I understand that homework and studying is very important for my education and future career, but the busy work is what pushes us students to the maximum level of stress. I do believe that hours of studying are necessary in order to succeed, but something that I believe does not coincide with success is busy work of reading certain books, and receiving sheets and packets of homework just to give us something to do. If this is the teaching style that a particular professor prefers, then do it in a respectable amount. Overall, school should be hard and difficult, but the work load in addition to the other requirements become overwhelming for the students who have to work in order to pay for their schooling.