Sometimes when kids or their parents know they will be absent for one or more days, they ask for the school work in advance, and then we the teachers dutifully write directions, gather assignments and materials, and send them home. More often than not, we never see them again, and that can be kind of frustrating.
As it turns out, Kyle brought a lot of homework with him this weekend. He's missing a couple of days of school in order to visit his grandparents in Buffalo, so his teacher sent along several assignments in all of his subjects. Our first reaction was no problem-- who better to help a fifth grader stay current on his school work than two teachers?
Oh how naive we were. His spelling has taken hours, and we're still not sure that he's doing it right. There is still reading, social studies, and math work to go. He's trying to be responsible, but he loses focus after a certain amount of time, even with a licensed teacher sitting by his side.
No wonder we don't get that work back.
When I taught in HS, that was the hated part. Hated hated hated. No problem--I'd love to spend an extra 2 hours of my free time writing homework in advance so you, dear student, can go skiing/go home to Mexico/whatever.
ReplyDeleteI got so I'd say: we'll help them make it up when they return--and then I knew what critical items they needed to do, and what I could let slide.
Hoorah for you for helping Kyle!