Anonymous wrote:Hey, at least your kid's teacher didn't assign them to compare George W. Bush and Hitler, like a DC teacher did.

Omg

Hey, at least your kid's teacher didn't assign them to compare George W. Bush and Hitler, like a DC teacher did.

Some teachers like to grade on Looks. Fact.

Stupid assignment anyway you look at it. She can tell the kids that they are welcome to decorate their notebooks--but homework? Really?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgive me while I vent: my 5th grade DC has an assignment to decorate two notebooks with stickers, pictures, etc. These decorated notebooks have actual due dates, which means I have to take DC out to Michael's after school to pick up said stickers, decorations, etc. Why is this even an assignment? How about some math, spelling, or grammar instruction? Honestly, I am disgusted.

OP, does the notebook have an actual theme -- for example, "things I love" or "all about me?" Just wondering.

My kid did this in 4th-6th grade (AAP center)

It had to be decorated in a way that was related to the topics that would be covered in the class. Like the math binder was decorated with all kinds of formulas and mathematical symbols in different colors and fonts. The world history notebook ended up with pictures from different monuments and icons from some of the countries they were going to learn about that year.

Are you sure it is just supposed to be decorated with a bunch of Hello Kitty and rainbow stickers from Michaels? Or is she supposed to customize it in the way described above?

Anonymous wrote:If you guys hate how the teachers do things then show up a school board meetings, volunteer at the school, etc. instead of whining about it on DCUM!

No, please don't. We don't need anymore complainers trying to eliminate all fun from elementary school.

Maybe its just me (as a parent of a 4th and 6th grader) - but it does not seem like you had to go to Michaels to buy supplies or otherwise get involved. I don't see why you could not let your kid do whatever they could with materials already your home. The teacher was not expecting a work of art, so the notebook should look like the work of a 5th grader (with crudely drawn pictures, bubble letters, etc.).

That being said - I did have to complain to the teacher about a vocabulary assignment (my kid had to find sentences in a book/newspaper/magazine using 10 vocabulary words. After spending 3 hours skimming , he finally gave up in frustration.

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one who thinks this is a good assignment? It's to help the kids feel excited about going to school, it makes their notebooks more personal to them, and they get to do something creative.

It honestly wouldn't bother me either, but me and ds like doing this kind of stuff. We like drawing, painting, making crafts etc. We also love michaels and there are like 3 stores in a 5 mile radius of our house. And yes, I agree with the excited about school and making the notebooks more personal thing too. It's elementary school, lighten up. Childhood is short and goes by really fast.

If you guys hate how the teachers do things then show up a school board meetings, volunteer at the school, etc. instead of whining about it on DCUM!

Anonymous wrote:Forgive me while I vent: my 5th grade DC has an assignment to decorate two notebooks with stickers, pictures, etc. These decorated notebooks have actual due dates, which means I have to take DC out to Michael's after school to pick up said stickers, decorations, etc. Why is this even an assignment? How about some math, spelling, or grammar instruction? Honestly, I am disgusted.

Why can't you just find images she likes on the computer, cut and paste them to a Word document, and print them out? That's what my 5th grader is doing. I don't think this is a ridiculous assignment. I think you're ridiculous for turning something simple into an unnecessary shopping trip.... and then complaining about the work you created for yourself.

Anonymous wrote:Forgive me while I vent: my 5th grade DC has an assignment to decorate two notebooks with stickers, pictures, etc. These decorated notebooks have actual due dates, which means I have to take DC out to Michael's after school to pick up said stickers, decorations, etc. Why is this even an assignment? How about some math, spelling, or grammar instruction? Honestly, I am disgusted.

OP, does the notebook have an actual theme -- for example, "things I love" or "all about me?" Just wondering.

Am I the only one who thinks this is a good assignment? It's to help the kids feel excited about going to school, it makes their notebooks more personal to them, and they get to do something creative.

Anonymous wrote:If the kids spend time "decorating" the notebooks, they are more likely to take better care of the notebooks, and not misplace them. The teacher gave this assignment for a reason.

Yeah, because the teacher didn't want to assign anything useful. OP- I wouldn't be happy either. The dumbing down in the schools is ridiculous.

My kids (twins) are in 6th grade and they still like to do these things. At first glance, it seems like a dumb assignment, but I agree with most of the posters who said it helps them take care and ownership of their notebook if they spent time customizing it. My kids are in private school, although they went to public for many years, but their technology teacher had them recreate their school schedule as an assignment in a Word document using the "tools" function with columns and finding school related graphics or clip art to decorate the calendar. I thought it was so stupid at first and thought it was a waste of time since they already had a printed schedule. Then, I realized it was for the purpose of them practicing their technology skills and being creative. So, I agree it is an exercise that has a purpose and hopefully will pay off with the kids taking care of their notebooks. We live at Michaels...

My kid had to do this last year in 4th grade. He used pics (of him & things he liked) that we printed & taped with packing tape. And of course - he brought it home at the end of the year with 3 pages used! Waste of time is right.