Teachers are people too?

[Cal Teacher Blogger]

After two weeks off, my mind is not on the time I spend in the classroom, but the time I spend out of the classroom. For teachers to be effective, our lives need to be balanced, and our experiences well-rounded. Not well-rounded as in we need to know what it’s like to have been arrested, but well-rounded in that our lives are not completely and wholly about our students and our classrooms. For some teachers it’s natural to take time away from education to educate themselves in their other interests (e.g. writing, tractor operation, and home repair), for other teachers it takes a lot of work to not always work. Know what I mean?

Read on...

http://calteacherblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/teachers-are-people-too.html

[Unregistered]

I HATE HOMEWORK!!!!!!!!! THERE IS NO POINT TO IT! GIVE US CLASSWORK SO THAT WAY IF WE HAVE TROUBLE WE CAN GET HELP RIGHT AWAY INSTED OF HAVING NO ONE TO TURN TO AT HOME EXCEPT FOR OUR LOSER PARENTS WHO NO NOTHING ABOUT ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!

PLEASE! if there are any teachers out there! please take this into consideration! email me i_skateboard91@comcast.net

sincerely,

Tyler

[Unregistered]

Hey skateboard91 get off your duff and teach yourself. Can you read? I taught myself Calculus in high school because I wanted to learn it and my school didn't offer it. I bought a book on it and read it and did the problems myself.

You can teach yourself just about anything you want to, IF you really want to learn about it. Search the web, tons of resources out there. Why do you want for everything to be handed to you on a silver platter? Come on buddy, nobody is going to make your life better for you but you. Get up off your butt, but the computer games away, turn off the tv, put down the iPod and read the darn text books. You just might surprise yourself and learn something.

[Cal Teacher Blogger]

A follow up response:

http://calteacherblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/where-is-students-work-ethic.html

[Unregistered]

Hey skateboard91 get off your duff and teach yourself. Can you read? I taught myself Calculus in high school because I wanted to learn it and my school didn't offer it. I bought a book on it and read it and did the problems myself.

You can teach yourself just about anything you want to, IF you really want to learn about it. Search the web, tons of resources out there. Why do you want for everything to be handed to you on a silver platter? Come on buddy, nobody is going to make your life better for you but you. Get up off your butt, but the computer games away, turn off the tv, put down the iPod and read the darn text books. You just might surprise yourself and learn something.

yeah i know about all these reasourses and i do use them constantly but my family has no money what so ever, i dont have tv, i dont have internet. when i use the internet i am either at someone elses house or the library. but i cant teach myself **************** anyways. if i take the textbook for the class that i take now and read it i cant figure it out. i need to have examples shown to me and someone show how to work out the problems and not all text books show that.

[KatieBee]

I think there is a good balance, you need to learn how to figure problems out on your own. AT the end of the day it's not the actual knowledge you take with you from high school that you benefit from, it's understanding how to think analytically and problem solve independently that gets you ready for college, or whatever vocation you might pursue. I advocate allowing a few minutes for kids to get started on homework in class so they can ask quesitons if they are still struggling with a concept - but the idea of having something your responsible for outside of school and need to work through on your own is very important.

[Real Live WI Teacher]

yeah i know about all these reasourses and i do use them constantly but my family has no money what so ever, i dont have tv, i dont have internet. when i use the internet i am either at someone elses house or the library. but i cant teach myself **************** anyways. if i take the textbook for the class that i take now and read it i cant figure it out. i need to have examples shown to me and someone show how to work out the problems and not all text books show that.

I'm not really buying this, skateboarder... it's pretty innovative for you to be posting here on a teacher's forum. You're on the internet, on a resource, reading and writing, but claiming you can't use textbooks or other resources to learn? I think your point is more that you don't want homework, period. Even if it was the kind that you could do on your own, that required no impetus or motivation or self-direction. It's much better to have a direct dialogue, especially about this topic because I think you have a good point. Also, you bring up a lot of other issues and topics that are very worthwhile to discuss, such as the point of homework; the person responsible for learning, and why are our students so disenfranchised from actually learning, and frustrated by the "schooling" alone?

I hope I can hear from you about these topics, it'd be interesting to have your insight in an anonymous forum like this.

[Unregistered]

Sorry, Real Live, I tend to agree with skateboarder. The teacher was hired to teach the content. Expecting the students to learn the content on their own is, in my opinion, a shirking of our responsibilities. Maybe such assignments can constitute a small portion of the homework, or extra credit. But to assign work that was not taught is a recipe for failure, in my opinion.

Oh wait, I thought we were supposed to be the same person. :D

[Real Live WI Teacher]

Doesn't this mean we are enemies now??!! LOL

Sorry to re-hinge, my twin, but I wasn't making a point contrary to yours. I was saying I didn't buy skate boarder's claims, that the real point seemed to be not that he COULDN'T do the homework, but more the purpose, place, and point of homework. I'd rather have that discussion.

I'm the Special Ed teacher, remember? I'm hip on supporting the learning part of education through actual instruction and engagement at school (gasp). :p

We'll find a good debate yet, I'm sure. THAT I'm truly looking forward too, although I better start boning up now...

[Unregistered]

Doesn't this mean we are enemies now??!! LOL

Well, that would help your popularity in this forum. :D

[Unregistered]

To my understanding skateboarders spend way too much time outside, practicing. If they spent half that at the library afterschool there would be
not a problem, in the education area.

And having teenagers myself which I am homeschooling. I know they can be
very lazy and un motivated. So....get off your skateboard and sit down and do the work.

I have a question, I have a special needs student and he is very low in spelling skills please email me with any ideas you have for encouragement.

I want to have him study ACT and SAT instead of regular education for a
diploma. But it will cause him to miss out on valuable Social studies, Science, Math, etc.

gdenise2002@yahoo.com
I need as many helpful websites, books, and comments as possible.
Denise

[Unregistered]

Uhm....I don't give homework so students can learn the infomration by themsleves, I give homework to reinforce what we have done in class, or as an English teacher, I give readings to prepare us for the next class. Let's face it, there really is no way I can cover in one sememster what the government; federal and local, the school department, and parents want me to cover, so therefore that means I must give outside reading. Sorry skateboarder that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Oh, and if you think you are the only one with homework you are sadly mistaken. I too have homework, everynight. How do you think all those cool activities in class happen, magic? Or did you think all those quizzes and tests write themselves? I think not. I spend about an hour every night correcting and/or planning for class time. That's on top of taking care of my house, cooking dinner, taking care of my two toddlers, packing lunches, well I think you ge the idea... Bottom line, homework doesn't stop, even as an adult, the definition just changes.

[Unregistered]

I give homework. Yes, I admit it. I give homework 4-5 days a week...can't help it...it's an obsession. Seriously, though, I do it to make sure what my students learned in class gets practiced outside of class. As a Spanish teacher (gasp! No! Not foreign language too!), my students don't get the opportunity to practice as much of the language as they need, hence the homework. I was also a student once (really?) and learning did NOT come easily to me (still doesn't). The thing is this: How important is learning to you? Are you willing to stay after school to work with someone (teacher, tutor, friend)? My peers in school used to tease me and call me a ditz because it would take me 2-3 times longer to do my homework or learn a new concept. This has NOTHING to do with intelligence! It has to do with learning styles and processing. By the way - I was accepted into Cornell U out of high school, but couldn't go because, just like you, Skateboard - my family had no money! So it was community college for me & working my butt off to afford a state university. THAT is why I am a teacher. And I still need a longer time to complete things - I can spend 1-4 hours a night correcting papers, doing lesson plans, planning projects, etc for my students. I do this now as a single parent of 3 children. IT IS UP TO YOU...What do YOU want to make of yourself?

[SpecTaTor]

Doesn't this mean we are enemies now??!! LOL

Sorry to re-hinge, my twin, but I wasn't making a point contrary to yours. I was saying I didn't buy skate boarder's claims, that the real point seemed to be not that he COULDN'T do the homework, but more the purpose, place, and point of homework. I'd rather have that discussion.

I'm the Special Ed teacher, remember? I'm hip on supporting the learning part of education through actual instruction and engagement at school (gasp). :p

We'll find a good debate yet, I'm sure. THAT I'm truly looking forward too, although I better start boning up now...


The purpose of homework is to enhance the capabilities of students to work independently. Just try to imagine this...your mother left you in a place you dont know, it getting late and you want to get home. Then what you did is find the road where your house is. It may be hard to do, but it has a lot of rewards.

The point of giving a homework is not to make students feel that they don't know anything, but to teach them how to work on their own, so that when they go out of the school and gradute, they would know how to arrive at solutions to problems; but teachers must check the homeworks they gave or else, all of his/her students would feel the same way as skateboard guy here. HAHAHA!!!

Maybe Skateboard guy just doen't get it because his teacher does not check his homeworks...is that it huh?