Another homework complaint

[rosyred45]

Eaccae, I know exactly what you mean when you say about teacher's confussion.

I got to the point that because I knew I had no clue, I would either tell the kids to take it home or go see if their teachers could explain it. I didn';t understand it so I didn't want to confuse the kids even more

BUT I have found a better way. I used to split the kids up so they weren't copying when they were little. Now I try to sit them together so they can explain it to each other.

We have been separating the older kids from the little guys for homework and I tell the big guys that if they have a question with their homework, they have to let me know they are asking a homework question---so I don't think they are just chatting and avoiding home work. So far it's working.

The teachers have had workshops with the math and stuff, I just wish they would have one for hte parents. Maybe if I understood it, I would be able to help a bit more and not be so against change.

Jeez, maybe that's how our kids feel

[eaccae]

LOL - Kaiti - now we know how our parents feel!!

[rosyred45]

I know my mom did her best, so the least I can do is have a bit of patience with kids----Lord knows she had a ton for me

[Annette]

I feel for you guys.I was so sick of my DD bringing home almost all of her daily work as homework.At her IEP I didn't sign it.I made an appointment with the head of speciel ed.And told her I wasn't putting up with this anymore,I took her homework for one week( 15 to 20 pages).I told her it's the teachers job to teach her not mine.I told her I felt my job was to reinforce what she is being taught in school.She re wrote the IEP.Now they can only send one page of homework a day.The Teacher must also sign all of her work so I know she has seen it.

[mskris]

Well, you all have addressed my personal pet peeve...Look out

Ds 9 not only has a science project (poster on electricity and magnets) due 1/18, but a 3-part book project due the SAME DAY!!

Besides that, the teachers haven't set up any milestones to mark the kids' progress. Science class meets daily and for one whole week, ds has drawn pictures he says are for his poster (yea, right). He has no overall plan, no sketched-out poster, nothing. He has not brought a poster board into school (other kids have, but there was no date by which they were supposed to, so we were clueless), and has not brought home any of the supplies the school was to provide. Hello -- any 9 yo needs help with this type of thing. This is obviously a project for the parents! So, today I went out on my lunch break and spent $21 in supplies so he can get this poster done with DH this week. READ: DH will do the poster this week.

I'm in charge of the book project. He has to pick 3 tasks from a packet of 9 - but not just any 3, NO! They have to form a tic-tac-toe on a grid. How stupid! He did finish the book last weekend, but by the time we get to the reporting part (after regular homework), he'll have forgotten all the details. So I have to read the book so I can guide him in the project.

I'm also really PI**ED at the teacher because she sent home a note (and called) to say he's behind in his homework assignments. Yes, he is, because NOBODY was checking his book bag and he kept coming home without the book or packet (worksheets) he needed to complete them. BTW, it is part of his 504 Plan that someone check both his agenda and bookbag daily. I have emphasized repeatedly that it's not being done and that's why assignments aren't complete. Now she wants to keep him after school daily for 30 mins to do homework because she thinks he can't get it done at home. Well, he could if he had all the items needed!

I'm so sick of school - I've already been through it once and now I have to go through it THREE more times!! I, too, want to know what the teachers are doing - why do we have to TEACH our kids during homework. I can't tell you how many times my kid (who's bright and doesn't qualify for an IEP) has no idea how to do the problems/assignments and says, "I forget," or "I don't know" when we ask for info.

It's unbelievable!

Kris

[mskris]

I just had to post again about your math discussion.

I'm no mathemetician, but I keep telling ds to "use what you know." Example, if he doesn't know what 7 X4 is, but he knows what 7 X 2 is, add 14 + 14 and you get 7 X 4! None of the teachers do it this way, and yet, it is so much easier than him racking his brain trying to remember all the times tables. I admit, I wasn't taught that way, either, but I can do basic math so much faster and better now as an adult, using this method.

Yet, I'm also ticked because they are doing algebra in 4th grade and he doesn't know his times tables because they went through them so quickly! The curriculum is so advanced that there's no time for them to practice and really get good at the basics before they're moving on to really difficult (for 9 y olds) stuff. Hello, if they don't know the basics, how can they apply them to the tougher stuff??

Enough.
Kris

[StrugglingAgain]

Whooooooaaaaaa, Girls, you're ringing my bell again! This homework stuff doesn't just happen in Houston, Texas? I thought we were unique! Just kidding....it's absolutely the pits. Last evening, I did my son's book report for him. Yes, he read the book and read it well, but the things he has to do for a book report....well, let's just say he'd never complete it. We can't just do a summary anymore; we have to do a "timeline" or an "illustration", or an image from a site transferred to Microsoft Word, etc. WHAT? I'm proud that I can just get him to read and do it well. Things like this make him HATE reading. For ADHD children it's an argument, a fight, a crying spell, yelling, etc. and it still isn't done. Sorry, I'd rather do it myself in twenty minutes and be done. Yep, I had to read the book, too, since he read it aloud to his father and not me. Math is a joke. I'd never even heard of "Front-end estimating" until last night...AND he's NINE YEARS OLD? I don't know about you, but I did just fine not knowing how to do it. Talk about confusing the poor little thing. I can understand a little practice sheet of something or another, but dumping new practices on these children and then sending them home to learn it is wrong! I thought we sent them to school for that! If I wanted to homeschool, I'd do it! As you can see, this is a real hot button with me and I can tell many of you are right there with me.

[Linda]

karen...we ARE right there with you but look at it this way....we are getting an education all over again ;D and the bonus? We are learning it in a whole different way

[StrugglingAgain]

Linda, mistaken identity.....it's not "Karen". BUT thanks for agreeing! I just got an email from his teacher this evening and she says he's doing really well in school...not even struggling and that he may be playing me a little. GREAT, just what I need!! Grrrrrr.

[Linda]

Whoops....StrugglingAgain....sorry

One thing for sure...our kids are really good about "playing us"...master manipulators ;D ;D

[TexasMom]

I hate teachers. Steven came home wit 4 F's on his report card because he has homework issues. You know what his homework is? He has to read 90 minutes a week (which he does) and he has to hand in a reading log each week. He also has to copy down vocab words and write definations. He passes the vocab tests, but he gets counted off because he doesn't had in the lists. Because of stupid stuff like this he will probably have to repeat 6h grade and they wonder why education funding is lacking

[mskris]

Well, it's time for

Once again, last night ds came home without either of the books he needed (social studies book to do the worksheets or the project book). Obviously, nobody is following the 504 Plan, which specifies that someone check his agenda and bookbag daily. I was so livid last night when I saw that he was missing items again. I left a terse message for the teacher today, saying ds is NOT to be kept at recess or after school to do what she terms "incomplete" assignments. They're incomplete because the school is in violation of his 504 Plan!! I also left a message for the principal today, asking for a second set of textbooks to keep at home.

We never had this problem last year, yet I've had to repeatedly ask about it since the first week of school this year. Grrrrrrrr

I'm tired of my kid being penalized for their lack of follow-through. Poor ds gets so overwhelmed with make-up homework on top of regular homework, on top of school projects, that he sits and cries and can't get anything done at all!! I had him read 4 chapters of the project book last weekend and do 4 worksheets to catch up, so he wouldn't have to stay in at recess, and now he's behind in social studies!

Kris

[camismom]

Cami had homework last night. 40 problems, some of them with multiple parts (like 40 a. b. and c.) ! It all about fractions, figuring out wich one is greater than, less than, equal to, etc. or putting them in order from least to greatest.... things like that.

Example: Put these in order least to greatest.... 3/4 5/6 1/3.

Well, fractions was NEVER my thing. It was one of those areas I missed a good chunk of due to moving mid-year and switching schools. Anyway, after quite some time I figured out how to get the answers... as I said in a previous post, there are no examples in her book... but no matter what I did, how I explained myself, I couldn't get Cami to understand it.

When I asked her how the teacher explained it, she said and I quote, "She didn't. We always go over the answers in class the next day and THEN she explains it." What? Hello!! You mean she gives y'all homework in something you haven't even gone over yet?

Well, I sent her a little note today telling her that Cami didn't quite get how to do the homework, and I couldn't help her understand it. I then questioned why they would be given homewrok in something they had not yet covered in class and told her it wasn't my job to teach it, it was hers. Cami did not get it all done and she d*** well better not mark it as incomplete!

[eaccae]

What on Earth would be the point of giving homework before explaining it? Expecially math - and fractions?? Can't wait to hear if Cami's teach has a response!

The weird thing about the "new" math that DS is learning - they haven't yet covered division really - yet they have done a lot of fractions - they have already learned how to put the factions from largest to smallest - as in Cami's homework - things like "which is greater? 3/5, 4/7 or 5/8? Put them in order from largest to smallest" and a whole bunch of other things with fractions - they haven't learned to multiply or divide them yet as they are just doing that with the regular numbers. They have been teaching them fractions since last year with a bunch of visual type exercises and this year some of that but more learning without the visual aides. Once again, it is that timetable that is screwing me up. Thank goodness most of the teachers really get this new math and it is starting to make sense to DS - because I am probably worse at fractions that you, Christy!!!!

[mom2tj]

would you beleive that yesterday ms DS had to find the meaning of workds in the dictionary words that have to do with weather, they are in french so I cant realy be specific but workds like turnado and storm, he had to match them to a deffinition......


beleive is or not there are 2 words that are not in the dictionary we just guessed with the 2 remainning