How much homework is enough???

[morelcabin]

I think you should get all the other parents and students together and rally a homework strike. If NONE of the kids do it and thier parents are backing them up then that teacher is going to be forced to do things differently.

 

[Bren1222]

Quote:
Exaggerating.....are you serious? Why would I do that? I take great offense to this comment. I have never been a problem parent in my life. I am not one of these parents who think their child is perfect and I have always told my daughter to repect her peers..this includes her teachers. If you want to judge me and think I am exaggerating then come to my small town in Iowa and stick your 10 yr old child in this class and you will soon find out what we are going through. Better yet, you are welcomed to come to my house and help my daughter night after night do homework and you deal with the tears and frustration. Have a wonderful time!

This has been a very trying time in our family and with my daughter. Yes it is 3 hours at least a night and yes this has gone on for several years. Want to know how she checks papers....let me tell you beings you asked so nicely........the kids check each others papers every morning then they go into what is called a holding file. We don't even see these papers again until conference time. Secondly her husband told me on the phone personally that he helps check tests etc at home.

My daughter is an A student. Why would I exaggerate when I have a daughter who has always loved school and is a wonderful student? I am sorry, I don't want to be mean but this has made me very hurt and angry. If you want to mail me I will give you our log in name and password to the school website. You are welcome to look at all the assignments that have been graded and turned in and see how many there are. You can even look at her grades. Then maybe you will believe me and not jump to conclusions.

I am so sorry I now asked this question. It is people who say things like this that makes me not want to say a word for fear I am going to get the same reaction from the administrators.

Thank you everyone who gave advise. We (several parents and I) are going to take the correct steps of command in hopes things will get better. If not we are going to have no choice but to look into other options. Either switching to the other 5th grade class or pulling her out of the school system and putting her in the one that is about 10 miles away.

Going back into lurking mode.

 

[kodiakchicken]

Bren,

Please don't let the insensitive comment of one person send you back into lurking mode or drive you from BYC. You have received a tremendous amount of support and advice on this thread and I think overall, we all agree that you are in the right and your daughter (and her classmates) are being treated unfairly.

If it helps at all, I was offended for you at JoeBryant's comment. People should really refrain from calling other posters liars, particulary when the issue is as sensitive as this one. Shame on you JoeBryant.

Please keep us posted, Bren. I'm hoping for the best for you and your daughter.

 

[tabsmonsters]

Bren,

I wouldn't let one person's comments keep you from posting on BYC. I hope you are able to get this resolved with the teacher. That is just not right. My oldest DS is also in 5th grade and the only homework he has is what he doesn't finish during school hours and he doesn't do that often. I also think its baloney that she has the kids grade papers! I can see once in a while as something fun ( i was a weird child, I liked grading papers!), but not every morning. And I don't see a purpose in holding them until conference! How can you help your child correct mistakes like that! I know when my kids do bad on a test, we sit down and figure out why they got them wrong. I think the teacher is just being lazy and no one has put up a big fuss to get her to do her job or get out. I really hope you can solve the situation and your daughter gets to enjoy school again!

 

[cjeanean]

I understand what joebryant said, since it may very well seem like an exaggeration. Not many teachers would want to grade that much homework, so it could be hard to believe. Except for one little thing. I know for a FACT that when I was in school that some of our assignments would not get graded based on how many we got right or wrong, but instead whether we turned in a completed assignment. The teacher DID NOT CARE whether the answers were right or wrong, just so long as we sat there and did the darn work. Homework supposedly builds character. Right. The other thing that some teachers did would be to alternate grading. Say a teacher teaches 6 classes per day, and assigns homework for each. Monday's homework would only get graded for classes 1-3, while the other three classes just get credit for turning the assignment in. Then, on Tuesday, classes 3-6 would get graded, while the other three just got completion credit. Or, only random assignments from each class would get checked.

There are two other option: either you are exaggerating (not likely, it hasn't been that long since I was in school and I know how psycho teachers can be....) or the teacher really is nuts and grades all that work instead of having a social life, eating, sleeping...etc. Which is also possible. I had a teacher in high school that hated kids, period, and for some reason her life revolved around making us miserable. The worst assignments, the hardest problems, the longest studying....it was terrible. Her excuse was that it prepped us for college, but man, you can tell when someone hates students. And this teacher despised us.

He did make a good point: how can she keep getting away with this for so many years in a small town? probably because it IS a small town! You said yourself that she buys eggs from you. It's easier to get away with stuff if you know everyone that makes decisions! That's what the teacher I had did. She hung out with the principal on the weekends, spent time with the school board members. She was making a pretty decent wage, from what I heard, too....just greasing the wheels, or 'job security'.

As far as being offended by what joebryant said, don't let it get to you. There have been a few people here before that blow their stories out of proportion just to get sympathy. I honestly don't think you're one of them, but that's just because it's only been 5 years since I was in school. Some teachers are good, some school districts even, but there's always a lemon somewhere in someone's hometown. Just so happens to be yours. I personally was very interested in this thread and finding out what happened, cause ever since dealing with the nutjob teacher who hated all of us it'd be nice to see what happens in your case.

Oh, and this is how we handled it: almost everyone who took her class passed with -D's (I was an overachiever and bumped up to a B), and we did so PURPOSEFULLY. Which says a lot for how you're handling it, I would just tell the teacher to go where the sun don't shine and give my kid permission to fail the class. Please keep updating us!

 

[lovemychix]

I taught 5th grade for 5 years and I never gave that much homework. I think that if they are working hard at school then they deserve a break in the evening. I even talked to my kids in my class about this.
Does your child go to different teachers for different subjects? Maybe no communication between teachers and everyone is giving HW everynight?????? I talked with the other teachers all the time so we wouldn't overload.
I think that a lot of teachers give so much work at home is because they are pressured by the state and administrations to cover so much material. Trust me...I know from experience.
I stopped teaching 6 years ago to raise my family and I do daycare in my home. Teachers are underpaid and overworked.
I would just talk to the teacher. Some get mad but oh well...It's your child!!

 

[Melilem]

If the poor child has physical signs of illness due to lack of sleep and stress, take her to the doctor. Having a physician on your side will give you leverage.

 

[kodiakchicken]

Quote:
OOOhhh, good idea!!!

 

[cjeanean]

side note on the dr visit: make sure you either know the dr very well or have several of the parents go to their doctors as well....that way he doesn't think you or the others are being whiny wusses....

 

[chicken stalker]

I teach high school earth science and I never assign homework. My basic rules of the classroom are, if you don't finish it in class, then it HOMEWORK. Usually if they don't finish something it was due to chit chatting amoung friends during group work (getting off task). Anyway our district has a no homework policy anyway; meaning we cannot count assigned homework as a grade because there was no teacher assistance. This I think is a bunch of BS. I think students should think on thier own and not be spoon feed everything. Because my work is started in class and is not finished as a result of the student then it is graded. We don't get paid over time to grade work or to stay after school. I spend enough time grading meaningful work not stuff they could have copied on the bus.

I get very annoyed at parents who blame the teachers for everything. Just because your student get staight A's doesn't mean they don't get off task and get behind in thier school work. Students are night and day when it comes to their attitude at school and at home. They are like two different people.