For the last couple of months I have been struggling with my beliefs about the benefits of homework in the elementary classroom. Last January I attended a lecture at the Trinity School where Alfie Kohn discussed his book The Homework Myth: Why children get to much of a bad thing. Since this time I have been evaluating what homework has to offer our children and what policies our school system has in place that I am obligated to abide by that are associated with how much homework our children are to be assigned during the educational day. I would like to engage our community in a discussion about the practice of assigning homework to our children. Below you can find some websites that have also addressed this topic to help you see where my curiosity began.
A podcast from Alfie Kohn's lecture at the Trinity School.
Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish's homepage from their book The Case against Homework: How homework is hurting our children and what we can do about it.
Sara Bennett's blog about The Case against Homework
Marzano and Pickering's article in Educational Leadership
"The case for and against homework."
The Slate blog by Emily Bazelon
Time Magazine article by Claudia Wallis
Jay Mathews from the Washington Post
Please in your own time take a look at the above sites and let me know your thoughts on this issue.
Last month Esquire magazine published its endorsements for the 2008 elections. The letter from the editor was interesting because it talked about how his staff took it one step further to discuss things that they endorse in their day-to-day lives. The endorsements ranged all the way from Old Spice deodorant to Limes. After sending around an e-mail to my friends with my day-to-day endorsements I decided to pen five things that I see as educational endorsements. These are things that I feel are important to the development of children both emotionally, physically, and cognitively. Here we go . . . .
Good Books- Everyone knows how important it is to read to and with their child on a daily basis, but many people do not stress the importance of what they are reading with their children. There are many different types of literature for children at this stage of development. The books that I am addressing at this time are classics. Many children are still learning to read and are stuck in the rut of "The fat cat sat on the mat," type of literature. I know that some research finds value in this for developing readers, but when this is all that they get to experience, I feel that they are missing out on so much of what the literary world has to offer them. Follow this link to a wonderful webpage that lists children's books by the awards that they have received.
Creeks- I grew up with a creek in my back yard and I can not tell you what a wonderful thing it was for both myself and my mother's development (for the hours I was there she was actually able to watch Oprah in peace, or so she said). I spent hours at that creek building damns, looking under rocks, racing leaves, and sometimes just jumping around in what my mother deemed my "creek shoes". Now I know that not everyone has a creek in their back yard, but next time you go to the Green Way, or any other public park, let your little ones wear an old pair of shoes so if they want to venture out a bit it will not hurt them.
Dinner Table Conversation- I know everyone and his brother fusses about this one, but it is for a good reason. Having genuine conversation with a child is one very important piece of your child's development. In the past experts claimed that the television was the demise of this cultural past time, but now I am interjecting that one of the other things that causes less families to eat together might be organized sports. I know how difficult it must be taking two or three children to different sports practices each day, but I still cannot stress the importance of this endorsement for a child's educational development.
Bicycles- I loved my bike more than anything in the whole world when I was little. I remember when I learned to ride my bike, I felt more free than when I was given my drivers license. Put air in those tires and grab the helmets and let your children loose on the streets.
Sets or Kits- I saved the best for last. Of all of the things I mentioned above this one was my favorite. Too many of today's toys are already a product. They have a use or a purpose already. Children do not have anything to offer to the toy. When I was little I had a Wood Burning kit, an Erector Set, a paint set, and a set of colored pencils. I also remember when Legos were just Legos and didn't come with an already planned end result in mind. Sets and kits encourage creative development in a way that computers, coloring books, and plain pieces of paper cannot.
So remember, this is a blog. The purpose of this is to encourage conversation amongst a community. If you can think of an endorsement from your childhood that helped shape who you are today then add a comment below. I would love to hear about what shaped who you are as a person.
Visit our Photo Gallery to see some new pictures that I have posted from the past couple of weeks. My favorites are when the children visited some of their old Kindergarten classess to share posters that they made to help the "little kids"
This past weekend my wife and I moved to Marietta and had a bear of time finding gas on Saturday evening to fill up the moving truck before we dropped it off. I told this story to the children to see if they had any ideas of how we might be able to save gasoline. Here are some of their responses:
-We could use horse poop. (I think this meant methane?)
-We should just get more out of the ground.
-Saltwater could work.
-We should become scientist and make some more gas.
-We could get some of the oil out of the sewers.
-Fire has gas in it, let's just use that.
Then I asked them what happens if we run out completely. This is what they had to say:
-Ride a horse.
-Ride your bike to school.
-Build a car that runs on water.
-Let's ride in the old trains that they used before that had all of the fire in them.
-Let's invent an engine to go in a car that will run without gas. (This is the same young man that had the scientist idea before)
And my favorite once again:
-Let's just move to Mexico, China, or Canada where they have gas.
We have been studying the weather and checking the Weather Channel for updates over the past week. When time came to study "tools to measure weather" the children were happy to receive a package from a former student who was supposed to be in our class but never arrived. Sakeeth has been in India for the past month hunting elephants, but has been in close contact with our students. Since I have been sending him assignments, but he is unable to access the Weather Channel from his location, he sent our class an old fashion weather instrument to keep track of weather patterns. We installed the gift in our Outdoor Classroom, and are now checking it daily for updates. This wonderful machine has a built in wind vane, rain gauge, and thermometer. Please visit the Photo Gallery to see more pictures of our adventures.
This morning as we were talking about how the weather changes the children started to steer the conversation towards the seasons and why we have them. Everyone new what the seasons were, but as I posed the question as to why the weather stays relatively the same for about 3 months the children had some wonderful explanations for this phenomena. Here are some of my favorites:
"If it rained all the time, like in the spring, we would have a big flood. Yeah, and all of the plants would get real soggy."
"In the summer it gets so hot so the winter has to come so the snow can cool it down."
"All of the plants get enough sun in the summer so they don't need anymore during the rest of the year."
Then there is my favorite....
"I think it is so the Earth can have more fun."
The reason why I had such a great time with this conversation was because I once saw a documentary where Howard Gardner questioned Harvard students on their Graduation Day (in their caps and gowns none the less) about what caused the seasons. At least 20 of these young men and women, whose parents are now in debt to their ears, offered up some of the most hilarious theories that I have ever heard. Hopefully by the end of the week the children and I can build some more accurate theories about what causes the seasons.
Hello everyone. First of all, I want to thank everyone for all of your enthusiasm for the new year inside of our class. I have attached a couple of new pictures, moved the classroom calendar to the Links page, and deleted the old newsletter points. It is blank at the moment, but will be updated soon as I return to school to sit with my curriculum logs.
Another thanks to everyone who spent 2 hours of their Thursday evening listening to me go on and on during Curriculum Night. It is exhausting to present for that length of time and afterwards I always think of 100 things that I left out, or should have phrased differently but I guess that is how it is with everything. Your children enjoyed the notes and the idea that less than 12 hours before their morning started, the people who they love the most were sitting in their seats thinking of them.
I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend, and I look forward to posting here again soon.
I am sorry that I missed everyone at the McDonald's 1st Grade Reunion, but as you know summertime schedules are always being changed and shifted around. I hope all is well and you are staying busy and having fun with your families and friends.
My wife has employed two children this summer to keep an eye on me so I will stay out of trouble. Most of the time they take me to their swim practices, the library, and the Greenway for a bike ride. When they are not watching me I have kept my calendar full. Since the end of school I have been running late in the evenings and early in the mornings to avoid the sunlight and the temperatures that it brings with it. I have learned that I am definitely not hot weather runner. These people that I have seen running on the side of the road at 2 o'clock in the afternoon are crazy. My kickball team has decided to finally start playing well and we have won 3 of our last 4 games with one more to go this Sunday! And I just finished two great books to put on my Summer Reading List for the month.
I hope you are all doing well, please drop me a line or post a comment to this blog so that everyone in our class can see what you are up to this summer. Take care of yourselves and steer clear of those dreaded summertime worksheets.
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