Homework

At Phillips we assign homework on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  Parents expect and look for it.  We had a very busy day today.  It was a testing day.  We started out the day with a math quiz.  We also took a big reading test.  Because the kids had worked so hard, I decided to go easy on the homework.  I wrote this assignment on the board, and asked students to write it in their planners.  Two of my students approached me with worried looks on their faces.

"Ms. Day," one of them said, "I don't have that book."   She was totally serious.  It was one of those teacher moments when I thought I had given clear directions, but obviously I need to do some clarification.

And that was our day.

Too Much Homework

I take this cart back and forth to school each day.  I have been bringing home too much homework lately.

Photo #18/365: Homework

Today I took some time out of my day to visit another classroom in our district. This teacher is running a paperless classroom, and I wanted to learn more about how he is doing it. I was pleased to see that I am doing many of things that he is doing, like using Google Docs and Google Forms. I picked up lots of new ideas too, especially the way he is using his class blog to post work and provide links to students.

Mine is definitely not a paperless classroom. This stack of papers is my homework; papers I brought home over the weekend to be corrected. I'm trying to move more in the direction of being paperless, but the big factor is available technology. The classroom I visited is a special education room with enough iPads and laptops for all the students. In my room, with 28 students, it takes a couple days before I can rotate everyone through our computers and iPads to complete an assignment.

Photo #305: Too Much Work

I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed this year. No matter what I do, I just can't keep up with everything I'm supposed to do. The beginning of the month is particularly challenging, because I set up our Writing Calendar and our Homework Folders at the beginning of each month. I've been asking myself lately why I do some of the extra stuff, like the blogging, and the research. But I already know the answer. This is the stuff that is fun. This is the stuff that peaks kids' interest. This is the stuff that makes it all worthwhile.

I left work at four tonight so I could finish changing the water in the hot tub. Then I started working on school stuff. I never had time to take a good photo, so I decided to take a picture of the work that is not getting done.

Photo #253: Off For The Weekend

Five o'clock on a Friday, and I'm off for the weekend. Although with all this stuff coming home with me, I'm not exactly off work. My cart is filled with a computer, teacher's manuals, lesson plans and papers to be corrected. It's always like this at the beginning of the school year. There's never enough time to get caught up on everything that needs to be done in a classroom. I wonder how much will actually get done? Unfortunately, there are a lot of times that I cart everything home, and then turn around and cart it back to school untouched.

Photo #29: Homework

Homework
Originally uploaded by BarbaraLN

It's Friday and I'm home, but I sure brought a lot of school with me. There are so many things I didn't even bother to bring home, because I knew I wouldn't do them. So often, I cart things home, and then cart them back to school, without ever taking them out of the bag. That may be true for this weekend, because I am really exhausted.