MOOKS: How much do you think you can impact public school?

[hocus2]

So we're a few weeks into the school year and there are few things bothering me. I can't tell if this is just live with it type stuff or something worth bringing up to teachers/PTA/administration etc.

1. Summer project was not graded. 
I am particularly sensitive about this project because it was inappropriate for first grade. My kid busted her butt and now we don't have any sense of weather she met expectations or not.

2. No homework packet.
I hate homework so I'll just get that out there. I think homework below 3rd or 4th grade is questionable at best.

Last year homework was weekly. This was ideal for me since we could pick and choose when to it do. In first grade the homework is sent in a packet but checked daily. Today the packet didn't come home so I assume we'll get it tomorrow. If there is homework for Monday that we'll have to make up I'll be pretty ticked off. Additionally I dislike that the packet didn't come home today because I prefer to do a bunch of the work on Monday when my kid is fresh. Doing homework on Thursday is so very painful.

[madringal]

1. where you told the summer project would be graded? If not, I don't think there should be an expectation of a grade. But I don't think you are out of line if you shot the teacher an email asking for feedback. But yeah, I doubt many kids busted their butt on summer homework. Don't do that again

2. Would not phase me a bit. It happens, move on.

[formerlyak]

1. Was the summer project required or recommended? We have recommended projects every year for math, reading, writing, etc. We pick and choose - nothing is ever turned in or graded. The teacher may ask if anyone read a specific book on the summer reading list, but that's about it.

2. As your kid gets older, they will have homework every night. Unfortunately, we don't always get to plan when we want to do the homework. The packets in the earlier grades were nice, but I think ours stopped after 1st grade. Starting in 2nd, we got assignments for each night.

[DarcyLongfellow]

Who assigned the summer project? When I was in school, we had summer reading, but there was no one to check up on us and see if we'd actually done it. So if my DD were given a summer project from the school (that was grade-wide), I'd probably just assume it was designed to keep kids doing some sort of academic work over the summer but I wouldn't expect a grade or anything. I mean, they couldn't really count it as part of her grade for the semester since there would inevitably be some kids who just moved into the school and didn't know about it.

The homework thing would annoy me. Not the fact that it didn't get sent home one day, but the fact that it isn't consistent. Have you gotten a sense of how the teacher regards homework? My DD1 was getting a LOT of homework (in first grade!!), and a lot of it was because she's super slow and careful, so she sometimes doesn't finish classwork (so it was sent home as homework). I scheduled a meeting with the teacher, and one of the things we discussed was homework. I asked her if it was okay if I used my judgment as to what homework we would do, and she said that was fine. Then I asked her to prioritize what was most important out of the stuff that was coming home.

So, for example, I don't even touch the 4 page spelling worksheets that come home every Monday and are due on Friday. I just throw them away because she is having fun learning the spelling words in other ways. If she starts to need help learning the words, then I'll start having her do them. But I would have had no idea that these weren't mandatory unless I'd made an appointment and discussed it with the teacher. We focus on reading the books she brings home, learning the spelling words, and then -- only if we have time and she's into it -- do we work on other stuff.

I refuse to make a 6 year old hate school by forcing her to do mindless worksheets for homework.

[auntie]

Not hills upon which I would chose to bleed.

1. Frustrating. Did the teacher loop with her class? But it is the practice in some places to give the students something to engage them academically over them summer- a project, journal or reading list. It's a good life lesson that you don't get a reward for every bit of effort you expend.

2. This trends awfully close to telling a professional how to run her classroom. Homework is generally at the discretion of the individual teacher. This one does it differently than last year- it's good for your child to learn to be OK with different teachers having differents ways of doing things.

[hocus2]

Our summer project comes from the principle. It isn't summer workbooks or reading logs. The kids make tri-fold boards for a book fair held on the second week of school. I think the upper grades the reading fair is more of a big deal but all grades get the assignment. A rubric was sent home, so I figured that implies a grade or formal feedback.

Based on the teacher-parent night conversation HW is quasi-optional. They get funny money for their weekly shopping trips to the toy chest, but it doesn't appear to be tracked as part of the grades.

[hocus2]

Sept 28, 2015 15:35:56 GMT -5 auntie said:

Not hills upon which I would chose to bleed.

1. Frustrating. Did the teacher loop with her class? But it is the practice in some places to give the students something to engage them academically over them summer- a project, journal or reading list. It's a good life lesson that you don't get a reward for every bit of effort you expend.

2. This trends awfully close to telling a professional how to run her classroom. Homework is generally at the discretion of the individual teacher. This one does it differently than last year- it's good for your child to learn to be OK with different teachers having differents ways of doing things.

  Nope -- homework packets are grade based. All first graders get the same assignments on the same schedule. 

[rugbywife]

Homework should never be graded.

I am not a fan of homework as it is traditionally done, so #2 is tough for me.

[hocus2]

Sept 28, 2015 15:46:31 GMT -5 rugbywife said:

Homework should never be graded.

I am not a fan of homework as it is traditionally done, so #2 is tough for me.

 I don't agree. I'm fine with check marks on daily homework, but the summer project was a huge deal. It took hours of work to complete. Feedback - even if it was not a grade should be given for something that so was complicated.

[rugbywife]

Sept 28, 2015 15:55:04 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

Sept 28, 2015 15:46:31 GMT -5 rugbywife said:

Homework should never be graded.

I am not a fan of homework as it is traditionally done, so #2 is tough for me.

 I don't agree. I'm fine with check marks on daily homework, but the summer project was a huge deal. It took hours of work to complete. Feedback - even if it was not a grade should be given for something that so was complicated.

You said graded. Feedback is entirely different (when done properly). I have no problem with descriptive feedback being provided.

[hermione]

Sept 28, 2015 15:55:04 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

Sept 28, 2015 15:46:31 GMT -5 rugbywife said:

Homework should never be graded.

I am not a fan of homework as it is traditionally done, so #2 is tough for me.

 I don't agree. I'm fine with check marks on daily homework, but the summer project was a huge deal. It took hours of work to complete. Feedback - even if it was not a grade should be given for something that so was complicated.

Well, it sounds like your mind is made up on this so I'm not sure why you're asking for other opinions.

Personally, I would not expect a summer assignment to be graded.

[hocus2]

Sept 28, 2015 15:59:24 GMT -5 rugbywife said:

Sept 28, 2015 15:55:04 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

 I don't agree. I'm fine with check marks on daily homework, but the summer project was a huge deal. It took hours of work to complete. Feedback - even if it was not a grade should be given for something that so was complicated.

You said graded. Feedback is entirely different (when done properly). I have no problem with descriptive feedback being provided.

  Fair enough. Based on how the school works the project would fall under "writing". All prior writing projects haven come with detailed feedback and a score (like 3/4). I really don't care about the score but I think a failure to send any sort of feedback home is unacceptable.

[madringal]

Sept 28, 2015 16:00:59 GMT -5 hermione said:

Sept 28, 2015 15:55:04 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

 I don't agree. I'm fine with check marks on daily homework, but the summer project was a huge deal. It took hours of work to complete. Feedback - even if it was not a grade should be given for something that so was complicated.

Well, it sounds like your mind is made up on this so I'm not sure why you're asking for other opinions.

Personally, I would not expect a summer assignment to be graded.

I think something else has to be going on for you to be so up in arms over this. For one, you title doesn't really match your actual post. Two, in your post you mentioned going to the administration. Really? Over one day that a homework packet wasn't sent home.

So are you asking if we would be upset over these (trivial) things or are you really wanting to know something more/what our line is around 'burning it down'?

[hocus2]

Sept 28, 2015 16:07:23 GMT -5 madringal said:

Sept 28, 2015 16:00:59 GMT -5 hermione said:

Well, it sounds like your mind is made up on this so I'm not sure why you're asking for other opinions.

Personally, I would not expect a summer assignment to be graded.

I think something else has to be going on for you to be so up in arms over this. For one, you title doesn't really match your actual post. Two, in your post you mentioned going to the administration. Really? Over one day that a homework packet wasn't sent home.

So are you asking if we would be upset over these (trivial) things or are you really wanting to know something more/what our line is around 'burning it down'?

 I guess I see homework/homework policy as something parents can collectively change. Does daily homework make sense in first grade? Can the school develop a more sensible and family friendly homework policy? If weekly packets checked daily are the standard from 1st on and are immutable then I expect the teachers to send them out on Monday and not send them out late. If they want me to devote 20-30 mins of night to homework I expect them to help make it easy on families to do that. 30 mins if a fuck ton of time when your kid get home at 6:30. 

In terms of the summer reading project. I hated that project with the fire of thousand suns. I hate it even more because it doesn't get feedback, doesn't seem to impact anything, and was huge waste of summer time.

 But overall it seems like people feel like there are minor things. Fair enough. For now I'll sit on them and perhaps inquire about homework cadence if it continues to be an issue.

[barefootcontessa]

My first graders have never received grades. I am against homework for younger elementary.

I feel like I can have minimal impact on the public school. Things are geared towards meeting state-mandated standards and nothing will change that.

[game blouses]

For the record, I agree with both of your points. Feedback on big projects is always appreciated, and I always gave weekly homework rather than nightly (even in middle and high school). But, not every teacher does it that way. Sometimes the value of a summer project is keeping up project-based learning skills. And sometimes a teacher finds value in nightly homework.

To answer the question in your title: Not much. Homework is regulated by the school board and unless a teacher or grade level is in violation of that regulation, they are free to assign and grade the way they want.

[hocus2]

Sept 28, 2015 16:17:10 GMT -5 barefootcontessa said:

My first graders have never received grades. I am against homework for younger elementary.

I feel like I can have minimal impact on the public school. Things are geared towards meeting state-mandated standards and nothing will change that.

  You mean on homework or in general?

We got grades in K. Not letter grades but all kids were given numbers that roughly mapped to under expectations, meeting expectations and exceeding expectations. Scores are given across the areas (reading, math, science, writing etc)

[Poppy]

Not a MOOK but these wouldn't bother me. Hopefully your daughter learned some things from the summer project and especially since you have the rubric, can't *you* give her some validation? I would not focus too much on "grades" or whatever at that age, but rather praise her for her hard work.

[rugbywife]

Ok. So, if you goal is to discuss how you can impact the current homework policy that is different. I didn't really get that from your OP.

So...

I would start with trying to find out if you school board has a homework policy. My school board works with the 10 minutes per grade framework - nothing for kindie, then essentially 10 min a night in first, 20 in second, so one and so forth. That is just a guideline.

The next place to look would be at the school level, does the school have a policy within the school board framework/policy. For example, I have worked with admin who believe in nightly homework and support that by buying math workbooks for each child. Others don't support that model and prefer to have homework that is more of what you have spoken of, weekly assignments/activities. The administration at your school may not have an opinion and may leave it entirely up to teacher discretion. This is common in my board, where teachers do what works best for their programming.

Once you have an idea of what the actual working policy is, if you were still unhappy, you could bring it up at PTA u guess (we have School Councils, essentially the same thing), however having it discussed there doesn't mean it will actually bring change to the existing policy. But it is one option.

[imojoebunny]

I have one kid in private and one in public. I do not like the homework aspect of first grade, though my son can easily do it, he does not do it easily because he finds it boring, and he has had enough school when he gets home. I also do not like the rigidity of our school. You get no harder work, unless you are in gifted, and no extra help, without an IEP.

I have a lot more to say on the topic, but I will mute myself.

[jeaniebueller]

I woks be thrilled a homework packet wasn't sent home and hope that there wouldn't be one at all. I am of no help here obviously.

[mccallister84]

It seems like you really hate homework and you want it off your daughter's (and by extension your) plate.

You don't even know yet if she will be held responsible for the portion that would traditionally be done tonight since it didn't come home today. You also said that everyone in first grade has the same standard assignment. Finally you said the homework is quasi optional.

So, if you don't want to do it and you don't think it's valuable then don't do it.

I would assume the team of first grade teachers, who are working togerher to develop these assignments think there is some value here. They are professionals who have gone to school for this so I would be inclined to trust their judgment, but since it is optional you don't have to do that.

If you want feedback on the summer project email the teacher and ask.

[redheadk]

To clarify, this ONE time the hw packet did not come home on Monday and you would like to approach the principal over this? It isn't late on a regular basis, just this one time, and by a single day at this point? You are seriously overreacting. Not liking homework has pretty much zero to do with this and teachers are allowed to make (very minor) mistakes like not getting the packet out on time once in a blue moon. The copier could have jammed (happens ALL THE TIME), she could have been out, she might have just run out of time and forgot, your kid might have been in the bathroom when she passed them out, and so on.

[rugbywife]

To clarify, what I think the OP is speaking to is a system whereby you get a package of work on, Thursday, let's say, and you have all week to work on it, based on when you have time. It is a system that is often used in kindie, sometimes 1-3, but rarely higher grades. If I understand her, she had a teacher use this system last year but this year's teacher follows more of a nightly assigned homework system.

[matildasun]

If you are worried about something talk to the teacher first. Do not go to the principal or the PTA before checking in with the teacher.
This will always be my answer, unless the teacher is physically harming a child.

[cjeanette]

I don't think questioning #1 is wrong.

#2 why do you assume the teacher is at fault. Is it possible your child forgot to put the packet in their backpack?