Homework #2

And the saga continues… part II
What?
The continuation of drama, ‘Homework or no homework that is the question’. Mr. Orson Scott so eloquently put it, “Kids are going to drive when they're sixteen. So do we make them spend an hour a night pushing pedals and turning a steering wheel for ten years prior, so they'll be "used" to it?” He has a point. In this episode he addresses the why we give homework in more details. I believe the “what” to this article is that he really wanted to make sure that we understood that homework is always not the best idea. That there are other ways to teach and to have the students become more interactive with their learning. I liked his rules and feel as though I can apply some of them to my own teaching. Homework is not evil, but rather, if used correctly, an opportunity for learning. But he is right, most of the time it is not used correctly.
So what?
I feel like this portion is a little redundant to what I said for the first article, but really, so “what” is that we, as teachers, really need to consider the why we give homework or anything for that matter. Not like we need to think about it time and time again, but that we need to consider what we are doing and if it will benefit the kids or if it will make it worse for the kids. I think if we really consider the why then we can measure if it is effective and it probably will help us out too.
Now what?
Well, I think I might use some of the rules that he set forth to have little to no homework for children under the grade of 6th and to have no homework over holidays to help the students to relax some. I feel that all teachers should do that last one. But really, he does have a point, if it is really about the students then we need to do all that we can to make sure that their learning is being as effective as possible. We want them to succeed and we need them to succeed. I mean that is why we become teachers, right? Well, it was a fun article to read. Crazy man though.