No homework???

[Anonymous]

Why aren’t there textbooks? Wouldn’t that make it easier for teachers? Follow the textbook curriculum, supplement when needed. Everyone receives the same lessons across the district. It worked well in the 80s. Why not now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why aren’t there textbooks? Wouldn’t that make it easier for teachers? Follow the textbook curriculum, supplement when needed. Everyone receives the same lessons across the district. It worked well in the 80s. Why not now?

+1
This boggles my mind since all my classes except English had textbooks growing up.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I think it's about policing homework. With the proliferation of "problem solving" websites, there really is very little benefit of assigning homework. I'm not sure it's about having to grade the assignment (you can use a Google form and it's relatively very low burden to teachers). I think in general teachers don't find it useful anymore because there's no way to suss out whether the student is using a tool to do the homework. If they are, what is actually the point of going through that effort? I used to be heavily pro-homework and was appalled with the FCPS policy but as I've experienced with my own two kids, homework assignments are a very intangible measure.

Yes, teacher here, teaching English, and it's pointless. I'm not going to sit around and grade chatGPT all day.

Then hold them accountable for the information in class. If they know it, they know it. If they don’t, then it will reflect. Pretty wild that teachers don’t know how to hold kids accountable for information they’ve told a kid to learn?

DP: we do know how! It’s by making all assignments and assessments *in class* so kids do it themselves vs sending home homework.

I haven’t stopped giving HW because I am tired, I’ve stopped giving hw because I literally see better results structuring my class so all practice is done in front of me.

So less teaching than before or less work. Got it.

That’s called class work. And a lot of time they have to wait on others and just sit around.

I guess that’s where we are these days. No books and no homework. 30 kids of five different levels and languages all vying for one teachers attention who is burdened with admin busy work and, lol, zero days.

Yikes.

I don’t know what kind of classroom you are sitting and observing, but I promise you there is no “waiting on others”. Why would there be? The only one they sometimes have to wait on is me if I’m engaged with another kid, but I’ve gotten really good over the years at spreading myself to get everyone and structuring seating to maximize needy kids in one zone so I can remediate them all at once.

Block schedule makes my math class run smoothly with plenty of in class practice. It’s not less work. My “homework” from 15+ years ago when we had 47 minute periods is just part of the “classwork” today in an 85 minute block. Same amount of work! Just finally done correctly and by the student.

But this year I’ll be making new homework in addition to it, apparently, because that’s the rule.

Your class may be a model of efficiency but many of my kids teachers were not providing that experience. There is a lot of idle time.

And I don’t think you are understanding the math. 85 minutes plus 20 minutes of homework is 105 minutes of learning time. That is more than just 85 minutes of total learning time. That’s hours and and hours of in class instruction every quarter. 20 minutes is a bare minimum for essentially two nights.

The reality is there was already in class problem work AND homework. Now there is less overall work.

And PP is a math teacher? Lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why aren’t there textbooks? Wouldn’t that make it easier for teachers? Follow the textbook curriculum, supplement when needed. Everyone receives the same lessons across the district. It worked well in the 80s. Why not now?

+1
This boggles my mind since all my classes except English had textbooks growing up.

+2 It seems so obvious and basic and if my rural school district could afford books in the 80’s, there’s no excuse for these wealthy suburban districts in the 2020’s to say they can’t find the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why aren’t there textbooks? Wouldn’t that make it easier for teachers? Follow the textbook curriculum, supplement when needed. Everyone receives the same lessons across the district. It worked well in the 80s. Why not now?

+1
This boggles my mind since all my classes except English had textbooks growing up.

+2 It seems so obvious and basic and if my rural school district could afford books in the 80’s, there’s no excuse for these wealthy suburban districts in the 2020’s to say they can’t find the money.

VA would have to adopt common core for any type of textbook to be useful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have kids in MS and HS in FCPS. Both have always had homework since about 3rd grade (both were in AAP). Often, quite a bit.

I have kids in an FCPS high school. When homework is assigned, it’s optional. No homework in elementary after last kid started 4th grade - I was told by the teacher that the school was no longer assigning homework, because parents were showing their kids how to do it the wrong way. This was an AAP class. I suspect the real reason is some parents help their kids with homework and make sure they do it, and some parents don’t. This was deemed unfair.

Homework also optional in middle school, but only assigned on a regular basis in math class.

Your kids must be in the McLean or Langley pyramid. Maybe the education is better there.

The truth is FCPS does not prioritize academics and hasn’t for quite some time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why aren’t there textbooks? Wouldn’t that make it easier for teachers? Follow the textbook curriculum, supplement when needed. Everyone receives the same lessons across the district. It worked well in the 80s. Why not now?

+1
This boggles my mind since all my classes except English had textbooks growing up.

+2 It seems so obvious and basic and if my rural school district could afford books in the 80’s, there’s no excuse for these wealthy suburban districts in the 2020’s to say they can’t find the money.

VA would have to adopt common core for any type of textbook to be useful.

Not necessarily, textbooks make customized textbooks easily now. They could make a VA textbook.

[Anonymous]

Districts spend all of their money on tech these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of good coming out of homework. Many kids can’t concentrate in the noisy, commotion-filled classrooms. They can practice and generate creative ideas in quiet spaces at home with clear heads. The homework reinforces the lessons and allows kids to practice concepts away from the school environment. Even if my students work together or seek a tutor, they still learn from completing the assignments.

+1 I have had students come up at the end of the year and thank me for the homework. It really helped them to understand and practice the material on their own in a quiet, untuned environment.

[Anonymous]

Aight. Think...why do we give crap about homework?

[Anonymous]

If kids get homework and they don't have parents to help them since they don't know what it is(Probably) they are stuck. Think about it now.

[Anonymous]

I see this is an older thread. This school year 25/26 all grade levels have mandatory homework. In middle school it does count as part of their grade and there is A LOT of it.
We came from a "no homework" elementary school and this transition is HARD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see this is an older thread. This school year 25/26 all grade levels have mandatory homework. In middle school it does count as part of their grade and there is A LOT of it.
We came from a "no homework" elementary school and this transition is HARD.

What MS? Does the hw come home? I heard a lot of kids get it done in class bc of the block period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see this is an older thread. This school year 25/26 all grade levels have mandatory homework. In middle school it does count as part of their grade and there is A LOT of it.
We came from a "no homework" elementary school and this transition is HARD.

My child is in 7th this year and hardly has any homework. She gets a lot of it done during the advisory block or during the actual blocks. The homework she does at home seems very easy and she’s able to complete it quickly. She’s in all honors classes. She also has time for lots of extra curricular activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see this is an older thread. This school year 25/26 all grade levels have mandatory homework. In middle school it does count as part of their grade and there is A LOT of it.
We came from a "no homework" elementary school and this transition is HARD.

Ask your child what they are doing during class and advisory. The kids who are bringing home homework tend to be kids with anxiety, learning issues, or ADHD and need more time to process and work OR they are goofing off in class and advisory. It tends to be one or the two. Most teachers leave time for kids to do homework in class so that the kids can ask questions and get help.

DS rarely brings home homework, he is in the AAP program with solid As. We ask him to spend 30 minutes reviewing notes in classes that are not his preferred classes to help him establish the habit of studying at home since we know he will need to do that in HS. Most of his friends don’t bring home homework. His friends with IEPs always have homework and it takes them forever to do it, not because it is hard but because they are easy to distract and get frustrated easily.