Post date: Dec 17, 2017 5:7:14 AM
Hello Rm 25 Parents and Kids,
Family Giving Tree: Today my daughters and I volunteered at The Family Giving Tree warehouse along with a crew of DCS alumni. It is the closest thing to the North Pole that I've ever seen; huge piles of gifts and about a bunch of us elves sorting, shopping, and reading/fulfilling wish cards from kids and adults. A perfect experience to put one in the spirit of the season -- if you ever have a chance to join in, go for it.
Angel Island Experience: A tired but satisfied group came home Thursday afternoon, common sentiment seemed to be "not as bad as I thought it was going to be" (good lessons to be learned in that). I'm very glad for that and appreciative to all who participated, chaperoned, and to Bonnie for taking the lead on this one. I'm in the process of gathering information and pictures so that I can make the Angel Island page of my site more informative for kids and helpful for parents.
Mystery Book (and movie): Getting into this genre has been slow, but we're getting there. Here is a list of the books in which some kids have shown interest (thanks, Joel, for the annotations). We'll be choosing books on Monday, and I'm hoping that the kids can fine copies over vacation. We'll also finish off the Sherlock Holmes movie on Monday (along with accompanying questions) and then reading/discussing a written piece by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Food & Gifts Friday: I hope that a bunch of you are willing to send in food for an end of the year celebration on Friday. Let's use this page and the embedded form to coordinate efforts. I'll see if the kids want to do a gift exchange on that day as well. We've done well during these first 80 days of school and everyone deserves a great long (!) break.
Curiosity Slides & Target Topic: Every week since the beginning of school, each kid has created an online slide covering a topic of personal interest. I'm sure you've seen them before. What you may not have seen, however is their "Interest Driven Knowledge" topic choice and the questions that they've decided to investigate about it. Please ask your kid about theirs and/or find the topic underlined in their row of this chart. Tomorrow afternoon I'll revisit the project with them and begin taking sign-ups for presentation slots.
Below is Samek's article on homework:
Homework at DCS
By: Samek Rangarajan
The most powerful weapon in the world is education. Education comes in many forms, but when most people think of education they think of schooling. In order to maximize the amount students take out of school, as well as to teach individuals valuable skills, many teachers assign homework for their students. A common question about homework I often find people asking themselves is, “Am I doing enough homework to prepare for the future.” Through interviews and research I have concluded that the amount of homework eighth graders do at DCS is far less than they should be.
According to CNN, a large amount of students in the United States are having far more homework than they should. A guideline proposed by CNN is that students should have ten minutes of homework per grade level. This system makes it so that students are performing the amount they need, as well as not over performing and stressing themselves out. Some however would disagree with this system.
US News wrote an article regarding homework among K-12 students and the facts are bone chilling. They stated that, on average, middle school teachers assign roughly 3.2 hours of homework per night. Logically eighth grade students would be towards the top of that, but sadly at DCS students are being given far less than the national average. Shockingly, at DCS, 97% of eighth graders are doing less than an hour of homework each night. The other 3% are all doing less than 2 hours of work per night. Even with the CNN proposal, 97% of students are still doing under the suggested guideline as the national average is not necessarily good. The main concerns with doing too little homework are that students aren’t getting used to the amount of work they will need to do, students aren’t being taught as much as they should be, and students are spending their free time on other things that may be less important. Many students at DCS may be in for a shock when they reach the upper grades.
In recent weeks I have experienced this homework load to the extreme and the cause of this may be an unexpected one. School had gone on for about 3 months and I was absent very few times. Then came a time when I got a cold and had to miss 3 days of school. On top of that I missed another day while I was shadowing. This lead to one of the busiest times I have ever had. On top of all the work I missed I also had to do regular work, and all the other extracurriculars I do. When students at DCS were asked about what they do when presented with this challenge the resounding reply was along the lines of, “Do it and turn it in late.” However at DCS the consequences of turning work in late are less severe than most places. Edutopia did a survey of teachers nationwide and they discovered that teachers on average take off 25-50% off of an assignment if it is not turned in ontime. Some teachers won’t even accept late work, and students get stuck with a zero.
Even though the homework at DCS has many problems, there are some things that is done well. 100% of the eighth grade students surveyed were able to give an answer (other than IDK) when asked how homework gets assigned. Teachers’ method of assigning work includes having a nightly assignment Google doc, posting it on Google calendar, writing on the board, or simply telling the students what to do. The fact that teachers have systems for assigning homework is beneficial to the success of the students.
In summary DCS has many things to improve on in the area of homework, as well as a few things it is doing well. The topic of homework is very controversial and people have different views. Regardless of what other people think these are the facts, and because of them change is needed. Whether that change be an increase in amount or simply more done in class.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet - Aristotle
Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/02/27/students-spend-more-time-on-homework-but-teachers-say-its-worth-it [Accessed 13 Dec. 2017].
Edutopia. (2017). How do you grade late assignments?. [online] Available at: https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/how-do-you-grade-late-assignments [Accessed 13 Dec. 2017].
Kelly Wallace, C. (2017). Kids have three times too much homework, study finds - CNN. [online] CNN. Available at: http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/12/health/homework-elementary-school-study/index.html [Accessed 13 Dec. 2017].