The End of February and April Vacations?

Because of all the snow, and resulting snow days, the question of how to make up the time is a hot topic. I don’t know what we’ll end up doing at McAuliffe but it seems every school district in the Commonwealth has the same problem. 

I was speaking to a couple of kids I tutor last weekend and was surprised to discover a different approach to winter/spring vacation. They don’t have either;  instead, they get time off in March. 

Break in March? I had never heard of that, so I did some poking around on the internet:

In California, school starts in the middle of August and ends the first week of June. They get one week off in the February/March/April period.

In Minneapolis, (and these guys deal with crazy amounts of snow), they start before Labor Day end before the second week of June and have one week off in the February to April time-frame.

In Juneau, they begin in mid-August, have one week off in March and end the year on June 4th.

Everywhere I looked, it seemed that the two separate breaks in winter/spring were a thing of the past. To be sure, there are a lot of school districts that still have that kind of schedule, but there were a ton that did just one week off.

I wonder, should Massachusetts do away with one of those vacation weeks in the future?

What do you think?

Ugh, Homework

For many students homework is an ugly fact of life. They don’t like the idea of having to do extra work on their own time. They don’t want to do it. And some, simply don’t do it. 

Some scholars understand the value of homework, even if they’d prefer not to have to do it. These are the students who embrace the idea of a “growth mindset.” They understand that hard work is required to achieve their highest levels of learning. They do the work even when they don’t like it. These are not the students I’m thinking about right now. As far as I’m concerned, if you’re a student who regularly does his or her homework, you can stop reading right now.

If you are not in the habit of doing your homework, I invite you to read on.

Despite my prior blog post, I do not assign homework because I’m getting some sort of benefit from it - like a Ferrari.

I have four main reasons I assign you homework:

• I want you to practice what you learn in school. Everyone practices - Tiger Woods practices, Tom Brady practices, Keith Lockhart practices, Jennifer Lawrence practices and you practice. It’s the only way anyone ever gets good at anything. 

• Can you really do the work? It’s wonderful if you understand what we’re working on while you’re in the classroom. You have a lot of support in school. You have at least one teacher in the room, and you have friends and fellow students right next to you. The acid test is; what happens when you’re alone in your bedroom. Can you do the work without help? Can you really do it on your own? What happens if you get stuck, can you use what you’ve learned to figure it out?

• Homework shows you and I what you know and what you need to work on. If you’re serious about doing your homework, you’ll know what you need to work on. You’ll know what questions to ask in class tomorrow and what areas you’ve mastered. Homework tells you what you’ve learned and what you need help with. It also tells me the exact same thing.

• Other reasons...well, since you’re all going to high school next year, you’re going to need to engage in some self-regulation by motivating yourselves. In other words, you’re going to find fewer and fewer teachers bugging you to get your work done. If you are going to be successful, you are going to have to bug yourself to get your work done. 

You are going to have to learn how to avoid distractions, to understand the importance of time management, and, this is the hardest part - the importance of delaying gratification. That is, doing your work before playing video games, or texting your friends, watching TV or doing something fun. 

Trust me, if you don’t get a handle on these things, High School is going to be very difficult and “college” is going to look a lot less like a dorm room, bookstore, and lecture hall and a lot more like the inside of a Burger King kitchen.

Do yourself a favor - do your homework. You might not like it, but it’s for your own good. Invest a little time in yourself and, believe me, it will pay off in the end.

Ahhhhhh, Homework

Homework, its a fact of life for students and teachers. Nearly every student has failed to turn in a homework assignment at one time or another. It happens. We’re all human and sometimes we forget, or leave some critical resource at school - like the homework itself. 

Sometimes the reasons for not having one’s homework can show off the creative side of a student or reveal his/her priorities. Here are a few of the answers I received when I asked my fellow teachers:

“What is the most interesting response you have received when a student didn’t have his or her homework?”

Here are some of the replies I received:

I was too busy with _____________________ (Fill in the blank - dance, football, karate, soccer etc.)

Google lost my doc.

I did it but I left it __________________________ (Fill in the blank - on the bus, at my grandmother’s house, in my ELA class, at my friend’s house, Starbucks, the library, etc.)

I spilled something all over it. 

My dog ate it.

My sister ate it.

My Dad was helping me but never gave it back.

My Mom was helping me with it and didn’t put it back in my bag.

My brother and I were doing homework together and he must have mixed it into his papers.

I never got it.

You never gave it to me.

I lost it.

You said it was due (some other day).

That was homework?

We used to be able to do it in X-Block.

I needed help and there was no one to help me.

I forgot.

I didn’t feel like doing it.

I don’t believe in homework.

My parents don’t believe in homework.

I thought I did it but I guess I didn’t.

I had a dream I did it and thought the dream was real.

I gave it to you yesterday.

I left my bag in my Uncle’s car and it was in my bag.

I know I put it in my bag (As the student franticly pulls an amazing quantity of crinkled paper out of his or her bag)

It was too hard.

I had planned on doing it on the bus this morning but I forgot.

I emailed you this morning before school with a question, but you didn’t answer. (BTW this was on a Monday.)

You give too much homework.

I needed paper to make a paper airplane on the bus.

I was doing it in the bathtub and dropped it. The ink all faded and ran before I could dry it off.

I was busy chasing my pet chicken, Maurice.

You never taught us this.

I had to go camping this weekend.

I don’t have to do homework - it’s on my 504.

The Bruins went into overtime last night and I had to stay up to watch.

See what I mean?  If I taught creative writing, some of these would constitute a good start on a short story. Maybe I should incorporate some of these; I’m sorry I could not grade your tests because I was watching the Superbowl.