No more homework in New Jersey?

[goog40]

High school was a joke. I took mostly honors/AP classes. Outside of major projects, most assignments could be completed quickly with a minimum level of effort. The only thing I looked back on as being valuable for me in college was the math classes (CS major). First thing they told us in the intro writing course in college was to forget everything we learned in high school.

 

[Bignate603]

High school was a joke. I took mostly honors/AP classes. Outside of major projects, most assignments could be completed quickly with a minimum level of effort. The only thing I looked back on as being valuable for me in college was the math classes (CS major). First thing they told us in the intro writing course in college was to forget everything we learned in high school.

They told me that in my freshman writing course, but would give an A for work that wouldn't have gotten a C in my 10th grade English class. It was laughable.

 

[nageov3t]

High school was a joke. I took mostly honors/AP classes. Outside of major projects, most assignments could be completed quickly with a minimum level of effort. The only thing I looked back on as being valuable for me in college was the math classes (CS major). First thing they told us in the intro writing course in college was to forget everything we learned in high school.

sounds like you went to a shitty school.

I was kinda stunned and amazed at how dumb a lot of people were in my freshman year of college, though... like, who gets to college and doesn't know that writing your papers in comic sans to reach page requirements isn't a great idea?

 

[goog40]

sounds like you went to a shitty school.

I was kinda stunned and amazed at how dumb a lot of people were in my freshman year of college, though... like, who gets to college and doesn't know that writing your papers in comic sans to reach page requirements isn't a great idea?

I thought it was, but then a lot of people moved to the area just so their kids could attend our school.

 

[yhelothar]

I like the Khan Academy TED video where he described a class where they had the students go on Khan Academy and learn the lesson as homework and in class they'd work on sample problems together.

Awesome class. xD

 

[MarkXIX]

I rarely did my homework either, especially when the grading scale made it easy not to. In my AP math classes, the grading scale was 85% of your grade from quizzes and exams and the other 15% was made up of homework assignments. So, I NEVER did homework assignments knowing that I could still get a B in the class.

My teacher thought I was cheating on exams and actually asked me point blank. I told him to give me a tough problem from the course material and I would solve it on the board in front of him. He did, I solved the problem, and he lectured me on how I could have an A if I would just do my homework. I think he got mad when I asked him what was so important about getting an A in his class.

 

[Leros]

I rarely did my homework either, especially when the grading scale made it easy not to. In my AP math classes, the grading scale was 85% of your grade from quizzes and exams and the other 15% was made up of homework assignments. So, I NEVER did homework assignments knowing that I could still get a B in the class.

My teacher thought I was cheating on exams and actually asked me point blank. I told him to give me a tough problem from the course material and I would solve it on the board in front of him. He did, I solved the problem, and he lectured me on how I could have an A if I would just do my homework. I think he got mad when I asked him what was so important about getting an A in his class.

My high school put too much emphasis on homework. Homework with something like 50-75% in most of my classes. I remember figuring out that I could make an A in US History even if I made a 30% on the exams (which were really hard) as long as I made perfect homeworks (which were really easy).

 

[xanis]

I like the Khan Academy TED video where he described a class where they had the students go on Khan Academy and learn the lesson as homework and in class they'd work on sample problems together.

Awesome class. xD

I like that idea. The kids learn the material, they still get class time, and it's a good way of using technology to reach the generation.

 

[DrPizza]

I rarely did my homework either, especially when the grading scale made it easy not to. In my AP math classes, the grading scale was 85% of your grade from quizzes and exams and the other 15% was made up of homework assignments. So, I NEVER did homework assignments knowing that I could still get a B in the class.

My teacher thought I was cheating on exams and actually asked me point blank. I told him to give me a tough problem from the course material and I would solve it on the board in front of him. He did, I solved the problem, and he lectured me on how I could have an A if I would just do my homework. I think he got mad when I asked him what was so important about getting an A in his class.

In an effort to transition students to college, I don't check homework for my seniors in math class. Well, I don't blatantly check their homework by walking around the room and looking over each student's shoulder while marking in a grade book whether it's done or not. But, seriously, I'm in the same room, kids. I'm 15 feet away. Do you really think I can't see that your notebook page is blank before you frantically scribble down every problem I go through so that the students who actually did their homework can find out what they did wrong? Anyway, if a kid can pull of an A without doing the homework assignments, more power to him; the homework would have been busy work. That's pretty rare though.

Usually, I'll get a kid or two each exam who is new to the whole slacking off thing. My test grades usually run like this: 70% of the class 90%+, then an 80-something, a 70-something, and the rest fail. Without fail, when I call the students out who failed, it's because they didn't do their homework. "Look around. Almost everyone got an A. The only people who failed are the ones who didn't do their homework. Do you think your college professors are going to hold your hand and check your homework for the first 5 minutes of every class?" I usually give kids one or two extra chances a year to take a retest, provided they make up the homework first - and I point out that "next year, this would be a $1500 lesson, because college professors are too busy to give you a second chance."

Most of the kids learn their lesson. One of these days, I'm going to present parents with a set of statistics: those who never learn the lesson that homework = success, and fail 3 or more tests during the year, inevitably fail out of college within the first year. Nearly without exception. (I say "nearly without exception", but I've been thinking and can't think of any exceptions. Last year, it was two students. Both failed out of college.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

In an effort to transition students to college, I don't check homework for my seniors in math class. Well, I don't blatantly check their homework by walking around the room and looking over each student's shoulder while marking in a grade book whether it's done or not. But, seriously, I'm in the same room, kids. I'm 15 feet away. Do you really think I can't see that your notebook page is blank before you frantically scribble down every problem I go through so that the students who actually did their homework can find out what they did wrong? Anyway, if a kid can pull of an A without doing the homework assignments, more power to him; the homework would have been busy work. That's pretty rare though.

Usually, I'll get a kid or two each exam who is new to the whole slacking off thing. My test grades usually run like this: 70% of the class 90%+, then an 80-something, a 70-something, and the rest fail. Without fail, when I call the students out who failed, it's because they didn't do their homework. "Look around. Almost everyone got an A. The only people who failed are the ones who didn't do their homework. Do you think your college professors are going to hold your hand and check your homework for the first 5 minutes of every class?" I usually give kids one or two extra chances a year to take a retest, provided they make up the homework first - and I point out that "next year, this would be a $1500 lesson, because college professors are too busy to give you a second chance."

Most of the kids learn their lesson. One of these days, I'm going to present parents with a set of statistics: those who never learn the lesson that homework = success, and fail 3 or more tests during the year, inevitably fail out of college within the first year. Nearly without exception. (I say "nearly without exception", but I've been thinking and can't think of any exceptions. Last year, it was two students. Both failed out of college.

I totally agree with your viewpoint. Unfortunately, I've had several classes going to the University where I did all the homework plus found more problems to do, got 90's and 100's on all of it and, did poorly on the tests. I think that's probably another topic though.

 

[yhelothar]

In an effort to transition students to college, I don't check homework for my seniors in math class. Well, I don't blatantly check their homework by walking around the room and looking over each student's shoulder while marking in a grade book whether it's done or not. But, seriously, I'm in the same room, kids. I'm 15 feet away. Do you really think I can't see that your notebook page is blank before you frantically scribble down every problem I go through so that the students who actually did their homework can find out what they did wrong? Anyway, if a kid can pull of an A without doing the homework assignments, more power to him; the homework would have been busy work. That's pretty rare though.

Usually, I'll get a kid or two each exam who is new to the whole slacking off thing. My test grades usually run like this: 70% of the class 90%+, then an 80-something, a 70-something, and the rest fail. Without fail, when I call the students out who failed, it's because they didn't do their homework. "Look around. Almost everyone got an A. The only people who failed are the ones who didn't do their homework. Do you think your college professors are going to hold your hand and check your homework for the first 5 minutes of every class?" I usually give kids one or two extra chances a year to take a retest, provided they make up the homework first - and I point out that "next year, this would be a $1500 lesson, because college professors are too busy to give you a second chance."

Most of the kids learn their lesson. One of these days, I'm going to present parents with a set of statistics: those who never learn the lesson that homework = success, and fail 3 or more tests during the year, inevitably fail out of college within the first year. Nearly without exception. (I say "nearly without exception", but I've been thinking and can't think of any exceptions. Last year, it was two students. Both failed out of college.

:thumbsup:
I've also had professors take off the homework grade if the student showed to do well on the tests regardless.

 

[yhelothar]

I like that idea. The kids learn the material, they still get class time, and it's a good way of using technology to reach the generation.

Yup. And learning it online where you can rewind takes away that bored droning out during lecture issue where if you missed one small part, it's going to be really difficult to get back into it.

Classroom time should be used for students to actively engage in an activity, preferably with others.

 

[DrPizza]

Yup. And learning it online where you can rewind takes away that bored droning out during lecture issue where if you missed one small part, it's going to be really difficult to get back into it.

Classroom time should be used for students to actively engage in an activity, preferably with others.

There's nothing really that special about Khan Academy though. What's really the key in the case where the kids pre-learned the material is just that - they pre-learned the material. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes in someone's mastery of a subject when they've at least attempted to go over the material in advance. i.e. for other subjects, reading the chapter before the prof goes over it. That way, the professor is filling in all the gaps and explaining things better that you have a general idea of (and yes, then you can do more guided practice with math problems.)

 

[yhelothar]

There's nothing really that special about Khan Academy though. What's really the key in the case where the kids pre-learned the material is just that - they pre-learned the material. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes in someone's mastery of a subject when they've at least attempted to go over the material in advance. i.e. for other subjects, reading the chapter before the prof goes over it. That way, the professor is filling in all the gaps and explaining things better that you have a general idea of (and yes, then you can do more guided practice with math problems.)

Yeah but I think the idea of taking the lecture home onto an online video where you can go at your own pace and then using class time to do engaging activities with the class is so much better.

 

[Ninjahedge]

OK, I skimmed through page 1 of this and all I can say is BS.

After being a complete honor student and taking a bunch of difficult classes (not just AP, but some art that required time no matter HOW good you were at it), these kids claiming X hours of homework are exaggerating. They may have that on Friday, but not EVERY DAY.

One good reason why? Teachers have to GRADE that shizznit. You are a teacher giving a genuine hour assignment every night to half your classes means that you have to spend AT LEAST 5 minutes to even LOOK at the thing and see that the kids name is on it. (One history teacher we had was known as a non-reader...but he was a rarity.)

If the teacher is worth their salt, they will be spending a good 10/15 minutes per assignment going through looking at all this stuff. One 1 hour assignment for a teacher could easily mean 3 hours of work for THEM when all is said and done.

Now, as for homework not doing anything? Debatable. If I did not have homework, Physics and Calculus would have been tough to learn. The textbook is not exactly a page turner and sometimes you need something definite in application to get you to learn.

And don't even get me started on Engineering in college. The way you learn there IS 90% homework/labs.

The thing that gets me about most of these stories are the gross exaggerations and inaccuracies about the whole teaching profession and how much our children are not getting what they need.

87% crap in most of these stories with 13% genuine misappropriated fact for flavor!

 

[Ninjahedge]

BTW...

The only other positive that is a no-brainer from homework is simple.

Life.

As an engineer, all I can say is that if you think that analysis projects and homework is boring and uneventful, then you really have not done a full project yet.

Between the calcs, the report, the permits, the specs, the drawings and all the changes and corrections that go along with it, you have PLENTY of busy work to pad that small sliver of interesting stuff (say, dynamic analysis) you went to school for.

Sometimes "wax on/wax off" is intended to teach you something more. But sometimes it is just to teach your lazy butt how to work in the real world.

 

[bignateyk]

I always finished my homework during study hall. Kids these days are stupid.