Hey...Teacher...leave those projects at school!!!

[diz8297]

I'm sorry but these projects are ridiculous. It is totally unreasonable to expect people to shell out the money and I agree that the logistics in preparation and transportation are a nightmare. I tip my hat OP for the amount of work to be done in the a.m. I know our mornings start at 5:30 and are, orchestrated to the minute until our department at 6:55.

 

[AppleDumpling]

Kids in the schools here are asked to bring in a homemade dish a few times as part of various foreign language or social studies lessons. It was always one dish, always voluntary and never associated with a grade. We were also routinely asked to contribute to the occasional bake sales for fundraisers, also completely optional.

Op, I feel for you; your school's expectation seems excessive.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

So it's ok for the teaher to use their time outside of the classroom and their own funds for these projects? Your daughter couldn't be in a group because of outside activities so you had to do all three and complain about cost and time! It ok for teacher who probably has family and outside interests to go buy things?

If it was such a hardship why not contact teacher and explain. I'm sure they'd work something out. Although it does sound like you are making fantastic things to bring the comments on parents funds and time being used are rather selfish IMHO

Well, yeah. It's the teacher who wants to throw this elaborate fiesta in the first place. Why should the burden of time and expense be put on the students and parents who, if given the option, would rather opt out? Cooking and transporting three courses worth of food for thirty people is an undue burden in terms of homework assignments, nor is there any justifiable reason for assigning such a project. What educational value is there to be had in eating guacamole?

Bottom line, the teacher wants to throw a party. That's fine, I'm sure it will be a welcome change of pace from normal class lessons for both the teacher and students, but don't try to mask what should be an elective fluff activity as mandatory and grade-worthy. Make participation voluntary, for extra credit, or scale it back to chips and soda and have the teacher provide the supplies herself. Or, if that's still too much outside-of-the-classroom work for her, she can skip it altogether and use the class period to teach.

FWIW, I'm surprised schools still allow this kind of thing. With all the potential risks of allergies/cross-contamination/food safety concerns/storage and temperature requirements, you'd think they'd rather avoid this kind of liability. It'd be all too easy for a kid to undercook the chicken enchiladas and infect thirty students with salmonella.

 

[DanceswithDisney]

From what I found out from my kid is that not all kids brought in at once.

 

[kamik86]

I think the point is that the funds/time for the project should be thought out a little more not that the teacher needs to provide the funds. A meal for 30+ kids is not cheap and it's unreasonable to expect a kid who can't be part of a group to provide the entire thing on their own. If part of a group, each kid would make one thing so why would a child not part of a group have to provide a full course meal? I'd be a little bent out of shape too. I've never heard of being able to opt out of a group project though. Now if OP insisted her child could not possibly be a part of a group and that was the alternative given then that was a choice made and a problem of her own making.

I loathe school projects. Both as a kid and as a parent. I had parents who worked swing and grave and no extra funds whatsoever. The pressure to present a dazzling, knock your socks off project and having no resources was awful. As a parent I never had a project that cost me less than 50 bucks with my oldest. I couldn't afford it then and now that I can I just don't with the younger two. We buy a display board, use the materials we have on hand and they do the best they can.

What i don't get is why they couldn't be part of the group.

If the thing is to bring a meal its not like the kids had to cook it together. Just decide who its doing app/entree/dessert. Bonus points if they coordinate enough to have a meal that makes sense but that could be done at lunch. Then they all go home make food whenever convienent and bring it in on class day. Probably would take LESS time then doing it on their own.

 

[Poohlove]

What on earth does it mean when you refer to someone as a snowflake?

 

[Disney_traveler]

What on earth does it mean when you refer to someone as a snowflake?

Personally I look at it as meaning they are individual, special, one-of a kimd, unique creations.....but in the end, all together, they are all snowflakes and are all the same en mass.

 

[jevs]

What on earth does it mean when you refer to someone as a snowflake?

No idea. The word isn't used to my knowledge in Oz, I never heard of it until these boards.

I think it's used to mock parenting styles.

 

[Poohlove]

No idea. The word isn't used to my knowledge in Oz, I never heard of it until these boards.

I think it's used to mock parenting styles.

That's what I was thinking because I have seen it used mostly in what seems like a more sarcastic way.

 

[King Schultz]

That's what I was thinking because I have seen it used mostly in what seems like a more sarcastic way.

Definitely a sarcastic way to refer to children of parents who think their child is unique and their problems, talents, challenges, etc. are so unique only they can understand them.

Kind of played out in my opinion.

 

[DanceswithDisney]

So I blame my snowflake in part because of this because I don't know why she did not become part of a group. This was basically dropped on me last week with tomorrow being the only day I could drive. However I still blame the teacher for this assignment and see no educational value in it.

It has put an undue burden on us in time and expense for what is basically a class party in the first five weeks of school. There is also a PowerPoint that had to be done with this but that was not on me at all.

Still to the teachers I say leave the projects at school and stop adding to the parents workload!

 

[K and K's Mommy]

Back in the 80's we did this, but it was only for extra credit. I was in French, and my best friend and I always made a buche de Noel. Thinking back, I don't remember shopping for ingredients so I assume my mom did that. We always made it completely by ourselves though. I think we usually destroyed the kitchen. It was always delicious! My own kids are in Spanish, but they have never had to do this. My daughter would love it, my son would hate it.

 

[tcufrog]

At my sons' school the grade most dreaded by parents is the second grade because the second grade reading teacher is way too project happy. After the class finishes a book the kids have to do an at home project. The kids are given a paper with the options on it and some of them are way too unrealistic for seond graders to do without tons of parental help. One of the options for Pete's (I really want to use a non Dis sanctioned word) sake is a freaking 3D model of a Conestoga wagon. That year I was a good friend with a mom from England. When that list went home I warned her to avoid the Conestoga wagon. Since she had no idea what one was I told her Google it. Once she saw what one was she thanked me.

 

[Disney_traveler]

Ok I graduated in the early 2000s and I can remember we did a lot of projects:
-egg carton seed collection (first grade) 1 type of seed in each egg slot
-20+ Rock collection (2nd grade)
-3rd grade science fair (science fair for every year after that) and a dinosaur diorama, period specific
-4th grade settler or Native American diorama (I did teepee)

These are just the big ones I remember. I know we also had book report dress up days, making posters, teach the class a craft, history of a holiday with parties, show and tell projects, etc

Then in junior high and high school with changing classes it took on even more. Making videos, group skits, group teach a class, elaborate displays, etc

The way my parents and I saw it, the teacher assigned it, so we I did it. It wasn't a "let's go pitch a fit because we don't want to". Money was tight in our house, but we did what we could with what we had and bought what we had too. And back then we didn't have the easy access to the Internet or Pinterest!

If you don't like it so much, go talk to admin. Otherwise suck it up and go.

 

[Dentam]

Sounds like something you could go to the higher ups about - it's surprising to me that this is allowed given food safety concerns.

 

[DanceswithDisney]

I will have to figure how to post a pic on here to show what she made.

 

[barkley]

At my sons' school the grade most dreaded by parents is the second grade because the second grade reading teacher is way too project happy. After the class finishes a book the kids have to do an at home project. The kids are given a paper with the options on it and some of them are way too unrealistic for seond graders to do without tons of parental help. One of the options for Pete's (I really want to use a non Dis sanctioned word) sake is a freaking 3D model of a Conestoga wagon. That year I was a good friend with a mom from England. When that list went home I warned her to avoid the Conestoga wagon. Since she had no idea what one was I told her Google it. Once she saw what one was she thanked me.

both my kids had a teacher like this-for multiple years. my most hated was the 'book in a bag' project-the kid had to fill a bag with 20 items that directly pertained to whatever book (or genre) had been assigned so the kids could tell what the story was about (aloud in class) and have props to use. try doing that w/something written about battle conditions during the revolutionary war-um, nope.........I don't have spare muskets, gunpowder, saltpeter or rotting hardtack sitting around the house to fill a bag with. it was hands down the most detested project among all the parents.

I confess-I lost it near the end of my kid's attendance there. dd had read 'old yeller' when it was announced that the book in a bag was again the assigned project. after uttering some totally inappropriate words to dh I gathered up some stuff to put in the bag along with 2 specific items which I gave dd specific instructions on how to use as her props. dd got up at school the next morning and told the story of poor old yeller.....got to the end where old yeller is thought to have rabies so she pulls from the bag a small stuffed animal puppy and then squirts it's mouth with the can of redi whip I had placed inside for added effect

I purposely didn't attend the classroom presentations that day but I heard from other parents and some of the class aides that the reaction was priceless-the kids couldn't figure out why/some were REALY upset old yeller was getting killed just for eating whipping cream-while the gathered parents and teaching aides were trying their best not to wet their pants b/c of laughing so hard. the teacher however didn't take it to well but it did open up a conversation between her/all the parents about reasonable expectations with class project that didn't entail the parents spending inordinate amounts of time (and in some cases money) to create these stupid bags.


the only food assignment either of mine have had in high school was during dd's Spanish class. the teacher provided the supplies from her classroom budget and took the kids to the cafeteria where they were taught (by doing the steps themselves) how to make tres leche cake. an unintended upside to the lesson was that many of the kids opted to share their portions with friends not in the class such that tres leche cupcakes became the hottest selling item at every school bake sale (and raised a whole lot of money for the Spanish club).

 

[EMom]

My class did this years ago when I taught Texas History for the unit on Texas Cultures. You could be in a group or do it as an individual. It was a tradition. The kids loved it. No one had to bring enough for 25 kids. They brought a small amount and we ate sample sizes. If you didn't want to eat anything, you didn't. We played music from various cultures and had a party. Kids who were Puerto Rican, Vietnamese, Polish, Mexican, Czech, etc., took the opportunity to bring foods to share their heritage. Kids who said their families had been here so long they didn't know what the heck they were, picked a culture and I helped them find a recipe they wanted to make or they joined a group they found interesting. If you flat out didn't want to make a dish, you could write a report. No one ever wanted to do the report. Everyone wanted to cook/bake. Some ate, some didn't. Everyone enjoyed the party and a day off from regular classwork. And everyone got an A for a major grade.

But that was years ago and we didn't worry about food allergies or tainted food. BTW, I still use the cream cheese blini recipe a girl brought in. Everyone wanted those.

 

[Aliceacc]

Honestly, I could live without them.

But they tend to really help the grades of kids who struggle. As a result, it's department policy in my school that each teacher will assign one project worth 2 test grades during the last trimester.

For what it's worth, the only supply my kids need for their math project is a tri-fold board. And they have something like a month to get it done. Starting next year, when all our students have Ipads, the projects will be submitted electronically. For now, grades 8 and 12 still don't have the Ipads.

As to the value of projects, I think that some can be incredibly worthwhile. The example in this post is one of them. If you're going to talk about Spanish culture-- which is part of the curriculum-- then exposing the kids to the food seems to be a natural part of that education. And I can't see the voters approving of treating the kids to a series of meals-- after all, the OP's child isn't the only one cooking. So either they HEAR about the food, the teacher cooks a series of meals for each of her 5 classes after she cooks dinner for her own kids and helps them with their homework, or the kids in the class take over the cooking.

I do agree that some of the projects are way out of hand, and that some seem designed to promote nothing but the two of us spending time together-- which we WOULD be doing had we not have a project to do. In particular when the kids were young, some of the projects were absolutely aimed at the parents, not the kids. And it always cracked me up to see some of the other projects that came in-- did your 7 year old little snowflake really use those power tools to make that project???

 

[DanceswithDisney]

Sofa pillows en progress.