3/21/2018 6 Comments TOO MUCH HOMEWORKToday's High School students are given too much homework. This mountain of work isn't new, its been there all year long, but it is weighing down on students especially this time of year. It's not senior-itis, or junior-itis, or whatever you want to call it. Kids are getting burnt out and stressed out. The average nightly homework load is taking a toll on teenagers, whether its due to the teachers, or the structure of the school system.
Holly Roberts wrote an article for LIVESTRONG.com that details the effects of the work load on teenagers. Roberts explains the different types of effects: academic, emotional, health, and family. She explains that "For most teens, homework is part of high-school life, who spend an average of four hours each week doing homework ". I am not sure if because this article is three years old, or Roberts isn't looking at the same school I am, but it's more like an average of four hours a night. This doesn't include extra curricular activities, eating a meal, or actually taking time to be with your family or take care of yourself. And once all these things are accomplished, if possible, there is no time left for what else students should be doing: hobbies, friends, college and scholarship applications, jobs, more family time, devotion, etc. And if you think students get time to do these things on the weekends, you're usually wrong, since students have a bigger workload since teachers assume we have more time to get it done. So much homework alone hurts a students motivation, disrupts family life, makes kids less active, and decreases the amount of sleep teens need to perform and live well. Robert has found that "More than two hours of homework a night, though, did not improve a student’s future academic achievements, though, according to Cooper's 2006 study published in the "Review of Educational Research." Too much could prove counter-productive to academic success, especially if the homework isn’t appropriate for a teen, because it’s too challenging or not challenging enough." Raychelle Cassada Lohmann very recently elaborated on what I have mentioned in her article "How Much Homework Is Too Much for Our Teens?". Lohmann understands the amount of work that high schoolers, especially 11th graders, get and the pressure we are faced with, especially this time of year. She proposes that "Whether it’s setting up a shared school-wide assignment calendar or collaborating across curriculums during faculty meetings, educators need to discuss upcoming tests and projects, so students don’t end up with lots of assignments all competing for their attention and time at once." I can agree with her idea but teachers should also look at what is necessary or just busy work for students and how much time in class they give students to work, A modified schedule with long class periods should include a work time long enough to get work done. Teachers also need to understand how long it actually takes a student to do the work they assigned. What do you think about the amount of homework today's teenagers, especially at my school, do each night and how do we fix it?
6 Comments
3/14/2018 0 Comments Emotion
3/7/2018 4 Comments The IT Girls![]() Well, I have a major life update for you all! I have recently been given the opportunity to create my own program to inspire girls in technology! I am so excited! I am working along side The Lutheran Schools Partnership to create a summer camp that will teach girls entering grades 7 and 8 robotics, programming, and a little bit of the making and hardware side of technology. I have to submit an application my this Sunday in order to receive a $3,000 grant to run the summer camp! The timeline has been so fast, since I learned about this opportunity just last week! I have created my own curriculum, planned out my budget, and started to look at advertising, registration, and all the other factors that goes into running my own "mini business". I am going to teach girls how to use and complete challenges using Mindstorm robots, program a turtle to move around an obstacle course in Java, and complete a project on a Raspberry Pi! (Its okay if you have no idea what I am talking about haha) My favorite part about all this is not just being able to create and running my own summer amp, help make technology more known and available to girls, but naming and designing it! The name for my program will be "The IT Girls" (IT means information technology), and this is one of my top ideas for the logo. I am so so so excited for this opportunity! I will try and keep you all updated throughout the process. |
Categories
All April 2018 February 2018 January 2018 June 2018 LAUGH March 2018 May 2018 My Life November 2017 Photography The IT Girls Archives
June 2018
|