DS has to re-do Math homework......

[courtneymarieclare]

As a teacher, I have two things to add:

1.) Just because there were other kids in the class who also did not follow directions does not mean the directions were not clearly given by the teacher. I teach high school and I can explain things until I am blue in the face and even write it on the board and many, many of them still do not know what to do. It's because they were not listening. It's very frustrating to explain things over and over again and still have them done wrong. Yes, it's my job to explain things clearly. It's their jobs as students to listen. After an explanation, if something is not clear, the child needs to ask. I can't read minds.

2. To the poster that stated they are keeping all of their child's work because they are sure that the teacher is going to mess up because they are not putting grades in the computer in a timely manner--I agree with keeping everything, however, don't just assume the teacher is going to mess up. As a new teacher, she/he is probably very overwhelmed and may still be trying to learn the system. Also, I'll admit that I don't always put grades in the online system in a timely manner, but eventually I do and I can concretely say that I've never lost anything. Everytime a child has a missing assignment and they say they are sure they turned it in and that I have lost it, I tell them to look in their bookbag. They always find the supposed "lost" assignment. Have faith in your child's teacher!

 

[diznygirl]

I would support the teacher while thinking to myself that it was stupid.

This.

I try not to get in the way of how the teacher runs their class, but I sure can have an opinion about it.

Like the teacher that didn't require that homework be done but still required the parents to sign the blank packet and send it back. I played along and sent them back.

 

[hentob]

As a teacher, I have two things to add:

I teach high school and I can explain things until I am blue in the face and even write it on the board and many, many of them still do not know what to do. It's because they were not listening. It's very frustrating to explain things over and over again and still have them done wrong. Yes, it's my job to explain things clearly. It's their jobs as students to listen. After an explanation, if something is not clear, the child needs to ask. I can't read minds.

I don't always put grades in the online system in a timely manner, but eventually I do...

I am glad that you "eventually" get around to putting grades online, but this would not fly in my district....informing parents of test grades in a "timely manner" is part of our job. Just like a student listening to directions is part of their job

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

I just got off the phone with my friend and had to come back here to post this story.

Her daughter just started third grade and she LOVES math. Loves it. She was ecstatic today because she "finally" got math homework. I can completely picture this child doing an entire worksheet when she only had to do the first five problems. WHY would you punish that enthusiasm?? That's a great way to ruin it, that's for sure.

Which made me think of two other examples. We know because the OP told us that her son didn't remember what he was supposed to do. But what if he did remember and mom didn't believe him and made him do all of it? Or what if she believed him, but felt that it would be good for him to do the whole paper anyway?

I just can't fathom NOT accepting homework that had too much of it completed. I don't get it.

I still say that the lesson learned here is NOT the importance of following directions. It's that going above and beyond is going to get you in trouble.

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

I am glad that you "eventually" get around to putting grades online, but this would not fly in my district....informing parents of test grades in a "timely manner" is part of our job. Just like a student listening to directions is part of their job

 

[The Mystery Machine]

2. To the poster that stated they are keeping all of their child's work because they are sure that the teacher is going to mess up because they are not putting grades in the computer in a timely manner--I agree with keeping everything, however, don't just assume the teacher is going to mess up. As a new teacher, she/he is probably very overwhelmed and may still be trying to learn the system. Also, I'll admit that I don't always put grades in the online system in a timely manner, but eventually I do and I can concretely say that I've never lost anything. Everytime a child has a missing assignment and they say they are sure they turned it in and that I have lost it, I tell them to look in their bookbag. They always find the supposed "lost" assignment. Have faith in your child's teacher!

Well I hope she doesn't however I keep ALL WORK until the semster is over for all classes.

Guess what? There is ALWAYS a mess up. This is my second go round with middle school and for whatever reason they lose assignments. The odds are not good in the new teacher's favor. Hopefully she gets it together however they have her teaching science and math if you can believe that.

My kids have been in 3 different middle schools and they are all the same.

 

[declansdad]

Well I hope she doesn't however I keep ALL WORK until the semster is over for all classes.

Guess what? There is ALWAYS a mess up. This is my second go round with middle school and for whatever reason they lose assignments. The odds are not good in the new teacher's favor. Hopefully she gets it together however they have her teaching science and math if you can believe that.

My kids have been in 3 different middle schools and they are all the same.

My wife has taught middle school for 15 years and I have never known her to lose an assignment. I taught at a college for 13 years and never lost a students assignment. There isn't always a mess up.

 

[C.Ann]

Same thing happened to my DGD in 1st grade.. To her the work was easy, so she just went ahead and did it all.. Next day a note came home - with work to do over.. The reason? Not following directions.. Her parents were not the least bit upset.. Following directions is every bit as important as doing the homework and DGD quickly learned not to jump ahead on assignments..

 

[horseshowmom]

I had one of my Ag teachers do the same thing when I was in high school. Everybody messed up on it

To this day, EVERY time I read a set of directions, I think about that little assignment.

There aren't nearly as many Ag teachers as there used to be (although my son-in-law is one). I've heard many people say (including my husband) that they learned a lot of important things in Ag (basic electrical wiring, carpentry, etc. - things that many people have to call a repairman to do for them now).

I just got off the phone with my friend and had to come back here to post this story.

Her daughter just started third grade and she LOVES math. Loves it. She was ecstatic today because she "finally" got math homework. I can completely picture this child doing an entire worksheet when she only had to do the first five problems. WHY would you punish that enthusiasm?? That's a great way to ruin it, that's for sure.

Which made me think of two other examples. We know because the OP told us that her son didn't remember what he was supposed to do. But what if he did remember and mom didn't believe him and made him do all of it? Or what if she believed him, but felt that it would be good for him to do the whole paper anyway?

I just can't fathom NOT accepting homework that had too much of it completed. I don't get it.

I still say that the lesson learned here is NOT the importance of following directions. It's that going above and beyond is going to get you in trouble.

I'm in your camp. While following directions is extremely important (and I have former students who would attest to how firmly I enforce that concept ), I just cannot imagine not accepting math work that had the entire sheet done rather than just 5 problems. If the student was eager and loved math, they got more practice. If they didn't and had done all the extra problems, that would have been "punishment" enough (although I love math personally).


I'll add here in addition to my previous post (where I commented on the 30 point deduction for the heading) that when I taught Career Discovery, I did take 25 points off if an assignment was turned in late (which dropped it to a D at best) and wouldn't take it at all after one day late. CD was different than an academic subject, and I strongly reinforced the fact that employers did not want employees who couldn't do their work on time (unless they were out sick, of course).

As a previous poster mentioned (a teacher), it isn't uncommon to explain things in great detail, have no questions, and then have students want to start asking questions when they got to something they weren't paying attention to in the first place. I agree with that teacher's point. While I am responsible for explaining thoroughly, it is the student's responsibility to listen. If they don't have any questions (as the teacher said, I explain in great detail and generally put it on the board if the directions aren't on the paper), they're on their own after they start.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I can honestly see both sides in this issue. I loved working ahead as a student, but as a teacher I don't encourage it for my kids. I teach special ed and my kids simply aren't capable of it and will do it wrong. They will then have to unlearn what they have done. It sounds like that is not the case for your son. I also agree with the following directions argument.

At the same time, it does seem kind of silly. I think the teacher was in a bit of a tough spot on this one. On the one hand, it was nice that he worked ahead and got it right , on the other hand she still needs to reinforce the following directions.

 

[grafxgirl]

I guess I don't understand why a parent would be upset that a kid had to re-do math problems. What's the big deal?

Practice...practice....practice.

As others have said, the fact that he did MORE than required the first day doesn't give him a free pass the next day. Homework is homework whether you're in 4th grade or 10th grade.

Perhaps the teacher is keeping separate folders for each day. Is she supposed to keep going back to the folder for day 1 to check the work? Are the kids 'swapping' papers in class to check the work, or going over it in class? Is the teacher supposed to remember that your child already did it and have it ready to give back? No. At 4th grade, a child can begin to learn the responsibility necessary to keep track of and complete their homework as instructed.

Teach responsibility now...being responsible for knowing the assignment, being responsible for following directions.

These are all great points. I was also going to add that maybe she wanted them to do the first 5 problems on each sheet so she could assess what they already know, then continue working on the rest of the problems throughout the week. If he already completed the work then he would have to just sit there in class and do nothing, which could cause issues among the rest of the class.

 

[grafxgirl]

Love the God Complex

People make mistakes. Children make mistakes. 30 points So a 100% (A+)goes right to a 70%(D).

I hope that school penalized the teacher by 30% of his/her pay for every mistake he/she made. Doesn't seem too fair now, does it?

30 pts does seem excessive. I would deduct 10 pts for not labeling the paper right. If a child doesn't label their paper correctly, with name, date and group then the teacher has to waste time figuring out whose papers are whose, which file they go into, which group the student is in. I suppose deducting pts is better than receiving a complete zero.

 

[grafxgirl]

I think the only thing she did wrong (depending on the answers) was re-assigning the same worksheets. I would say give the kid a different set of problems from the same chapter. I don't know what a 10 year old's memorization skills are but I would have at least remembered some of the answers and it wouldn't have been a challenge to re-do it.

Pardon my ignorance but what is this whole website access for the parents business? Are parents supposed to be able to see what was assigned to their kids or something? Jeez, if my mom had this option when I was in school, I would have been in a lot of trouble!

I don't even think my high school had a website when I graduated in 2000.

Our county has a website that the schools use. Teachers post their classroom assignments, spelling lists, vocabulary words, and homework assignments on a daily basis so parents know what is going on. We also have something called Live Grades where parents are given a password that allows them to access their child's grades instead of having to wait for the report card every 9 weeks.

 

[grafxgirl]

Here, a 70% is a D

A 93-100
B 85-92
C 77-84
D 70-76
F <69%

Our county used to have the above grading scale, but switched it about 10 years ago to the 10 point grading scale:

90-100% = A; 80-89% = B; 70-79% = C; 60-69% = D; 59% and below = F

 

[SandrA9810]

I just have to say, that teacher would've hated me. I used to take my math book home, and complete every section in like a week. Then for the rest of the year, just sat in class doing my homework for all the other classes. I hated doing homework at home.

The teacher's never assigned all the problems either, some weeks it was all odd or all even. Others were just the first 15 problems. But since I never knew what they'd want ahead of time, I just did them all. Of course it was always a pain when they'd write a handful of problems on the board and I had to do them in class.

 

[ksjayhawks]

I would be upset with my ds for not writing down the homework assignment and for waiting until sunday night to do it!

The teacher may have only wanted the 1st 5 problems done because they were going to do the problems on the rest of the worksheet at other times--either in class or for homework. So, ds needs to turn in a worksheet with only the 1st 5 problems done.

I think you are overreacting. It was not that many problems to redo and he has learned a valuable lesson--write down the assignment or there are consequences.

Sounds like you are more upset about this than he was.

 

[horseshowmom]

These are all great points. I was also going to add that maybe she wanted them to do the first 5 problems on each sheet so she could assess what they already know, then continue working on the rest of the problems throughout the week. If he already completed the work then he would have to just sit there in class and do nothing, which could cause issues among the rest of the class.

Valid point, but if he were in my class, I would give him another sheet and have him do them over with the rest of the class if that were the case. If I felt like I had to make a point of it, I might make him copy the problems down on his own paper to do over. He definitely wouldn't sit and do nothing.

I just have to say, that teacher would've hated me. I used to take my math book home, and complete every section in like a week. Then for the rest of the year, just sat in class doing my homework for all the other classes. I hated doing homework at home.

The teacher's never assigned all the problems either, some weeks it was all odd or all even. Others were just the first 15 problems. But since I never knew what they'd want ahead of time, I just did them all. Of course it was always a pain when they'd write a handful of problems on the board and I had to do them in class.

Most of the teachers that I know would have caught on to that. I know that in my case if I had told you to work on the specified problems in class, you would have gotten one warning. After that I would have taken up whatever you were working on and repeated my instructions to do what I asked. It wouldn't have mattered that you had already done it once. I would have expected you to do what I told you while you were in class.

But I wouldn't have hated you!

 

[brytorlyn]

Good thing DH wasn't punished for doing more than he was asked for..
In grade 6 he was bored and so he did the ENTIRE spelling book and math book...EVERY SINGLE QUESTION....before the Christmas break. He went on to a school for gifted kids

It worries me to read people comment that this activity (re doing sheets) will teach kids to "know better than to work ahead" or do more than they were asked for. Seems to me that is what excelling is all about.

 

[PaulaSB12]

Good thing DH wasn't punished for doing more than he was asked for..
In grade 6 he was bored and so he did the ENTIRE spelling book and math book...EVERY SINGLE QUESTION....before the Christmas break. He went on to a school for gifted kids

It worries me to read people comment that this activity (re doing sheets) will teach kids to "know better than to work ahead" or do more than they were asked for. Seems to me that is what excelling is all about.

That is what I found worrying all a better way of putting a kid off school I can't thik of why hold a child back if he is capable of doing more? Give him harder stuff instead of holding him back.

 

[hentob]

.....and DGD quickly learned not to jump ahead on assignments..

That's right! Make sure she never works ahead! Hold her back What a wonderful lesson to teach a child.

Sometimes parents need to say "the directions are ridiculous. My child deserves to work to their absolute fullest potential”.

Stop teaching children to follow blindly. Go talk to the teacher if your child can and wants to move forward.

Yes. It is more work for the teacher. But a good teacher would welcome that kind of extra work