parents/students and school homework

[Wreckem]

Originally posted by: bobdelt
I always found the people who spend a lot of time studying are the stupid ones, there are plently of people who get A's (inc. in college) that dont do ****** but show up to class sometimes, drink, and crack open the book the day before the final...

Sure in highschool you can do that. But if you dont go to class or study until the final, you arent getting a A in any upper level class. At best a C.

Maybe freshmen courses, but really freshmen courses just reteach what you should have learned in high school.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Students who complain, dont know how to work the system.

 

[zylander]

Originally posted by: AznAnarchy99
Students who complain, dont know how to work the system.

I wont agree, but I wont disagree either.

 

[newParadigm]

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
I both agree and disagree. I think too much busy work is given out, and there's too little allowance for varying levels of ability/knowledge. However, I also think kids today get grades for next to nothing and are really not learning very much comparable to previous generations. I have a feeling I will be much hated for my grading policy...perhaps to the point of grading myself right out of a career. *shrug* We'll see.

My school somehow somehow figured out how to teach everything for all the AP classes I took (actually not everything I'll go with 87%) and still turn over incredible scores on both the AP exams themselves and state exams. I regularly had less HW than classmates in the same classes of the honors/standard type (honors was below AP at my school). I never di a singe HW assignment for AP bio, never did anything outside of assesment asignments for AP US History, and for my other two AP's, I did little HW. For a SUPA (Syacuse University Project Advance) course at my highschool, we had no HW assigned aside from bimonthly papers (2 a month). I got a 100 on the final from only listening and taking notes in class, never read the text outside of class. as a 1st semester sophmore, the only class I've needed to do excessive external studying has been calculus.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: newParadigm

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
I both agree and disagree. I think too much busy work is given out, and there's too little allowance for varying levels of ability/knowledge. However, I also think kids today get grades for next to nothing and are really not learning very much comparable to previous generations. I have a feeling I will be much hated for my grading policy...perhaps to the point of grading myself right out of a career. *shrug* We'll see.

My school somehow somehow figured out how to teach everything for all the AP classes I took (actually not everything I'll go with 87%) and still turn over incredible scores on both the AP exams themselves and state exams. I regularly had less HW than classmates in the same classes of the honors/standard type (honors was below AP at my school). I never di a singe HW assignment for AP bio, never did anything outside of assesment asignments for AP US History, and for my other two AP's, I did little HW. For a SUPA (Syacuse University Project Advance) course at my highschool, we had no HW assigned aside from bimonthly papers (2 a month). I got a 100 on the final from only listening and taking notes in class, never read the text outside of class. as a 1st semester sophmore, the only class I've needed to do excessive external studying has been calculus.

It's kinda odd, because I was shaking my head during the first 3/4's of your post. But, I was thinking about it from the math context. During the years, I've had students who seemed to get it almost immediately, and for whom the homework became busywork. However, for the vast majority of students, practice is needed before they master many of the concepts learned in calculus. (Chain rule for differentiation seems to be one of the big ones, figuring out what substitutions to make in integration by parts is another.) But, for many topics, I chit chat for 3 or 4 minutes with the students, then spend all of 5 minutes on the lesson for the day - then the rest of the period is for practice. i.e. product rule and quotient rules for differentiation. (I also give them little tricks to remember rules, such as ho-d-hi minus hi-d-ho all over hoho for the quotient rule - much easier to remember that way.)

 

[AlienCraft]

Apprently, the OP didn't do enough English homework to ingrain the differnce between totwo AND too. I'll bet ya got an "A" in DRAMA tho, BWAHAHAHAHHAHAhh ack. soorrry.

 

[Cooler]

When I was in HS I did get a lot busy homework in government and history that was basically just writing a two-three page paper each week on current events. We were never tested on it nor was it on the AP exam.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Wreckem

Originally posted by: bobdelt
I always found the people who spend a lot of time studying are the stupid ones, there are plently of people who get A's (inc. in college) that dont do ****** but show up to class sometimes, drink, and crack open the book the day before the final...

Sure in highschool you can do that. But if you dont go to class or study until the final, you arent getting a A in any upper level class. At best a C.

Maybe freshmen courses, but really freshmen courses just reteach what you should have learned in high school.

That's a generalization. If you know the material, you know the material. I find it harder to get away with it in the 400-500 level classes than it was earlier, but it's still doable depending on the type of teacher. If they're the type that basically teaches the texts then there's often no reason to go. Just buy the books and learn yourself (if you're so inclined). If lectures and such are gonna matter then it's a different story.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: AznAnarchy99
Students who complain, dont know how to work the system.

The question is, why should people HAVE to work the system? The system should just work on its own. That's why it's the system.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Mo0o
I dont know what the first person was complaining about, homework was a joke in high school

yes since every school was the same as the one's you guys went to.

My high school is ranked pretty high among public high schools and i took quite a few AP classes, even then it was a joke. i'll admit that there's probably way harder schools out there, magnets, privates and what not but as far as regular public high schools go, i dont think my high school was any easier than the others.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: newParadigm

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
I both agree and disagree. I think too much busy work is given out, and there's too little allowance for varying levels of ability/knowledge. However, I also think kids today get grades for next to nothing and are really not learning very much comparable to previous generations. I have a feeling I will be much hated for my grading policy...perhaps to the point of grading myself right out of a career. *shrug* We'll see.

My school somehow somehow figured out how to teach everything for all the AP classes I took (actually not everything I'll go with 87%) and still turn over incredible scores on both the AP exams themselves and state exams. I regularly had less HW than classmates in the same classes of the honors/standard type (honors was below AP at my school). I never di a singe HW assignment for AP bio, never did anything outside of assesment asignments for AP US History, and for my other two AP's, I did little HW. For a SUPA (Syacuse University Project Advance) course at my highschool, we had no HW assigned aside from bimonthly papers (2 a month). I got a 100 on the final from only listening and taking notes in class, never read the text outside of class. as a 1st semester sophmore, the only class I've needed to do excessive external studying has been calculus.

Regrettably such things were grade based, at least while I was in. I couldn't do any honors or AP stuff because I never passed the regular classes because I should have been in honors or AP stuff. 😎 *shrug* no worries. Put me behind but it didn't kill me. And it definitely motivated me to become a teacher so I could actually do my job instead of falling back on a grade crutch.

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: Wreckem

Originally posted by: IAteYourMother
I'm in HS and I'm getting buried in homework, it's insane.

If you cant handle the homework load in High School you wont do well in College.

All highschools should really switch to A/B days, where 4 classes are MWF and 3 classes are TR. That would ease the book carrying burden. It would also allow more time for teaching.

I disagree, WTF would want a 2 hours of PE? You'd think that PE helps keep the weight off kids, but it really doesn't. What the school system needs to do is remove the requirement for classes that are truely unnecessary..

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Wreckem

Originally posted by: bobdelt
I always found the people who spend a lot of time studying are the stupid ones, there are plently of people who get A's (inc. in college) that dont do ****** but show up to class sometimes, drink, and crack open the book the day before the final...

Sure in highschool you can do that. But if you dont go to class or study until the final, you arent getting a A in any upper level class. At best a C.

Maybe freshmen courses, but really freshmen courses just reteach what you should have learned in high school.

that really isnt true, i got As in many 300+lvl classes with doing lil or no work outside of class, i know many others that did also, hell i know people that studied all day every day for finals and tests and did worse then those that didnt

you cant make a blanket statement like that because everyone is different

and when i was in HS the only class i spent more then 30 min doing work for was AP European History, and thats only because we had to read so damn much, calc and physics were a joke as well as whatever english class i had

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango

Originally posted by: Wreckem

Originally posted by: IAteYourMother
I'm in HS and I'm getting buried in homework, it's insane.

If you cant handle the homework load in High School you wont do well in College.

All highschools should really switch to A/B days, where 4 classes are MWF and 3 classes are TR. That would ease the book carrying burden. It would also allow more time for teaching.

I disagree, WTF would want a 2 hours of PE? You'd think that PE helps keep the weight off kids, but it really doesn't. What the school system needs to do is remove the requirement for classes that are truely unnecessary..

That's not because exercise doesn't work, it's because PE isn't taught well in America and we're competing against ourselves with our diets. MWF PE that is taught correctly while improving available foods for the kids would probably work pretty well.

On your other point, who decides what's necessary? Music certainly isn't necessary, but it gives enjoyment which is the purpose of life. Also those with music backgrounds do much better (generally) in math classes. So what's the answer?

 

[newParadigm]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: newParadigm

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
I both agree and disagree. I think too much busy work is given out, and there's too little allowance for varying levels of ability/knowledge. However, I also think kids today get grades for next to nothing and are really not learning very much comparable to previous generations. I have a feeling I will be much hated for my grading policy...perhaps to the point of grading myself right out of a career. *shrug* We'll see.

My school somehow somehow figured out how to teach everything for all the AP classes I took (actually not everything I'll go with 87%) and still turn over incredible scores on both the AP exams themselves and state exams. I regularly had less HW than classmates in the same classes of the honors/standard type (honors was below AP at my school). I never di a singe HW assignment for AP bio, never did anything outside of assesment asignments for AP US History, and for my other two AP's, I did little HW. For a SUPA (Syacuse University Project Advance) course at my highschool, we had no HW assigned aside from bimonthly papers (2 a month). I got a 100 on the final from only listening and taking notes in class, never read the text outside of class. as a 1st semester sophmore, the only class I've needed to do excessive external studying has been calculus.

It's kinda odd, because I was shaking my head during the first 3/4's of your post. But, I was thinking about it from the math context. During the years, I've had students who seemed to get it almost immediately, and for whom the homework became busywork. However, for the vast majority of students, practice is needed before they master many of the concepts learned in calculus. (Chain rule for differentiation seems to be one of the big ones, figuring out what substitutions to make in integration by parts is another.) But, for many topics, I chit chat for 3 or 4 minutes with the students, then spend all of 5 minutes on the lesson for the day - then the rest of the period is for practice. i.e. product rule and quotient rules for differentiation. (I also give them little tricks to remember rules, such as ho-d-hi minus hi-d-ho all over hoho for the quotient rule - much easier to remember that way.)

Yeah the first 1/3 of calc was areal Killer for me cause I treated it like every other class I'd taken. When I actually started doing the HW, it came SOOOOOOOO much easier.