Rethinking homework, it's about time.

Elizabeth Peterson, the author of this blog post, http://www.theinspiredclassroom.com/2011/10/revising-homework/, got me to thinking about homework.

As a teacher, I gave homework for a couple of reasons. First, and most importantly, because I thought I had to. Then, as I got to be a better teacher and had more to "cover" I gave homework as an extension of the school day. Toward the end of my time in the classroom I used homework as a way to "flip" my instruction. I asked the students to read and take notes on a section of text. The next day we would discuss and do activities about that content. I was on to something, but didn't have much more to use than the textbook or magazines at the time. Now with You Tube, I Pods, email, etc. there are so many options. Not all students have access to the internet or technology at home, so this is still a hurdle, but you have to admit, the resources are out there.

Now as a mother with school age kids new light has been shed on this whole "homework thing". Unless it is purposeful and engaging work, why would students want to or even care about doing it? We could ask ourselves the same question about work that is done inside the school day too. Wink, wink. Students are less likely to retain or comprehend ideas or content that are not meaningful or engaging. So how can we make homework more meaningful and engaging?

Elizabeth Peterson has some great ideas about using tools like Study Island, Study Jams and Spelling City.
-What about assigning You Tube videos to watch on the content you are studying?  Better yet have kids create You Tube videos to share in class.
-If you want to keep it simple have students find examples of math, science or reading at home that relate to what your lessons are at school.
-Use Project Based Learning ideas, this gives real purpose to the work. There are many websites out there with sample projects.  http://www.bie.org/videos/cat/example_projects
-Quizzing Mom, Dad and siblings about topics or skills from class.
-Help your teacher out by writing the next math test, don't forget to include the answers!
-Read, read, read
-Write, write, write

I know many of you are doing all these things and more. Please share!

Learning about Learning Styles, not important? Think again.

This NPR article, Think You're An Auditory Or Visual Learner? Scientists Say It's Unlikely, speaks to the fact that teaching to one learning style or another is not best practice. I can't argue with that, however children do prefer different modes of learning, that doesn't mean they don't learn from all of them.
The author says here that we should "mix up" how we teach, so that students experience a variety of learning throughout the instruction.

"And, in that case, he says, there's a lot of common ground. For example, variety. "Mixing things up is something we know is scientifically supported as something that boosts attention," he says, adding that studies show that when students pay closer attention, they learn better."


I completely agree with this! But teachers need to understand learning styles and how to teach to them so that they are able to "mix it up". Everyone, including teachers, prefer to express themselves in certain ways. I like to talk it out, my husband can't explain anything without drawing you a picture, etc. Knowing how you communicate as an educator will help as you plan and deliver your instruction. Know thyself...is the first step.


I would hate for this study to take away from the importance of getting to know your students. Building relationships in the classroom is not just finding out your students' favorite hobbies; it is more about discovering who they are as learners and in turn, empowering the students with this knowledge.

Teacher Accountability & PLC

Below is a blog article by my colleague Daniel Venables, author of The Practice of Authentic PLCs. I had a hand in it's creation as I was the one that said, "Daniel, you need to write this article!" Please let us know what you think.

By Daniel Venables

(written with contributions from Cari Begin of Performance ED, LLC)

Teacher Evaluation & Accountability reform has been firmly placed on an educational front burner becoming a hot topic of state boards of education, district boards across the US, local school administrators, teacher advocate groups, teacher unions, the media and the general public. {The topic has also served as a seemingly endless source of material for blog posts, this one not excepting.}

This year, the NEA (National Education Association) has adopted a Policy Statement on Teacher Evaluation and Accountability; many individual state teacher unions as in Delaware, Missouri, Oregon and others have begun initiatives honing guidelines for teacher evaluation.  In North Carolina, Pay-for-Performance and the new North Carolina Teacher Evaluation Process (NCTEP) will affect almost a hundred thousand teachers beginning next year.

In Charlotte, where the authors have spent recent years as Professional Development Coordinators, we witnessed first-hand the groundswell of anxiety with which the NCTEP was met by teachers.  In our opinion, the NCTEP is a solid, though far from perfect, document; but like most evaluation instruments, its use in practice exists in a context of evaluator intention – principals’ intentions, in this case.   In a climate of shrinking budgets and Reductions-in-Force (RIFs), it’s hard to convince teachers that the NCTEP is an instrument for professional growth and not for ridding faculties of their ineffective teachers.  Regardless of how principals actually use the instrument, teacher perception of possible misuse quickly pins teachers’ stress needles.  

All this is not to suggest that we think teacher evaluation and accountability is a bad thing.  It is not.  Nor do we oppose, a priori, the notion of external teacher evaluation based in part on student performance.  (We said, “in part.” :)   Our query is this:

Regardless of the criteria or instrument used in evaluating teachers, At what point do we teachers begin to hold each other accountable?  Lawyers do it, doctors do it, journalists do it, basketball players and filmmakers do it.  When will teachers wean themselves from their dependency on edicts of administrators and hold one another to the standards of high quality teaching?  After all, if we were doing this all along, there wouldn’t be such a need for external evaluation and imposed accountability systems.  There will always be some degree of external evaluation and that’s not unreasonable.  But isn’t it high time we did some serious self evaluation and took action based on that evaluation?  Are we not the ones in best position to decide what is not working and what it might take to improve those things? 

There is no telling when teachers will move toward active (both proactive and reactive) self-evaluation but we’re quite sure how this will happen.  It will involve teachers working together as authentic professional learning communities (PLCs).  Self-evaluation and self-accountability will require big doses of trust and honesty among educators – the degree of trust and honesty found in authentic PLCs. 

It’s not that we should do it; it’s more that we must do it.  Would educators really prefer the continued bombardment of external evaluation and accountability systems to sitting down together and having honest, often hard, conversations about what is needed to do better by kids?   We don’t think so.