Tag Archives: teachers

Should Schools Stop Assigning Homework?

Of course students would say yes to no homework, but that’s because when they think of homework, they think of time consuming school work that they have to do at home when they can be doing other things. Every day students go home with 2-3 hours of homework and not everyone is able to get it done. This is because of how time-consuming it is. Even when they do have enough time to do it they spend way more time than they needed to. Schools in the U.S have decided to completely ban homework or have a no homework policy because homework itself takes up so much time and also immensely stressful. Most teens have to deal with the pressure of having good grades and making sure all of their homework is done before they can do other things. It’s the main reason why students have stress, so they have to stay up late and lose a lot of sleep just to finish it.

I like the idea of no homework so I do agree with the no homework policies schools are trying, but sometimes it would be better to have a few examples to practice with if I’m not understanding something. I mostly disagree with the overload of homework that we usually get daily. I would rather not understand something and ask my teacher about it the next day, than stress over getting the work done when I’m most likely doing it completely wrong. Most students participate in school sports and because the practices take up a lot of after school time this means that they can’t get all of their homework done. Even extracurriculars take up most of our time. As you can see, homework has become quite a problem for many reasons and will continue to be until a better solution is found.

~Aleysia

Bullying can be Worse Than it Sounds

 

Bullying is a big topic in most schools. It could be cyber or personal bullying. Cyber bullying is when someone bullies another person online. Most of the time when cyber bullying happens it’s through social media. Personal bullying is when it happens at school, work, the playground, or even at a friends house. The definition of bullying is “Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems.  A bully could be anyone anywhere.

Every time I hear about bullying its normally at an annual school assembly. When I hear the teachers talk about bullying I don’t actually pay attention until they start to tell us about the stories about some bully victims. Some of the stories you hear really will break your heart. Most of them are about students who attempted suicide or who have actually commited it. Did you know that there are 4,400 deaths every year from suicide caused by bullying? Also that there are at least 100 suicide attempts every year? Next time you see someone getting bullied please stick up for them so that they aren’t added to the statistics.

~Cecilia

BYOD

BYOD stands for bring your own device. It is a policy that will allow kids to bring electronics like laptops, e-readers, IPads, and cell phones into classrooms to improve their learning. Why is this important you ask? Well its important because BYOD is coming here to Dodd. Which means that students will be able to bring their electronics to class with them. The purpose of this policy is to improve the way students learn. Electronics are being used everywhere, they make things easier and more convenient to do so it only makes sense for them to also be used in school. With these devices students will be able to easily browse the internet to research facts for their school project in class. It should also make the lessons more interesting for the students if they could bring their cell phone or IPad to class. However, there are some teachers that dislike the policy because they think the students will take advantage of the policy by instead playing games on their devices.

I think that implementing this policy would be beneficial to the school and the students. It would improve the way students learning by making work easier and more convenient. Calculators are an electronic device that makes work easier and more convenient for students, and they’re allowed in schools. Schools should take advantage of the advancements in technology, and use them to help their students receive the best education possible.

~Dennis Yatsula

Homework, on Homework, on Homework

Teachers all around Dodd Middle School are questioning the idea of giving more homework to their students. Personally, I already think they are giving enough homework and sometimes too much. I do not think that any student should be staying up late to finish all their homework, but it happens a lot. Not only are kids staying up too late due to their homework, their lives are becoming more stressful. More homework should not become an option.

The amount of homework given in middle schools are making kids more stressed than ever before. With keeping up with schoolwork, friends, sports, and family, homework makes everything harder. For the kids who play sports, their life consists of going to school, going to practice, and then doing homework. This leaves no time for friends and family. For example on Thursday’s I go to school, and then have basketball practice right after until 5:00 p.m. Once I get home from that, I have to eat and then do homework for an hour. Since I play on two teams, I have to go to another basketball practice and I get home at around 9:45. Usually I would be in bed by then, but I have to complete all the rest of my homework. If teachers didn’t give all this homework, my life, and many other teenagers, would be very less stressful and just give us time to be kids.

~Allison Leonetti

Chicago Strikes Back

The city of Chicago was hit with a sudden public school strike that left over 300,000 students without a teacher. This Monday a sudden spotlight on rising tensions nationally over teachers conditions was forcefully brought up due to a strike in Chicago. This put the mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, in a tight situation on what to do.  Thousands of teachers dressed in red t-shirts swarmed through downtown and marching outside of schools across the city to put their point across about teachers being judged by their teaching.  This strike was Chicago’s first strike in 25 years. When will it end?

I believe that, although teachers have a duty to teach their students, they have the right to be on strike. My stepdad is a teacher and is in the same situation with teachers pay depending on their teaching style though evaluation. Teachers shouldn’t be judged by how they teach or how their student’s perform. Tieing into this would be equal pay not only due to race and sex but also how you work. It doesn’t add up. My only question is where’s the next strike going to hit?

~Erik Galuska

What’s the point?!?

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Waking up in the morning. Rushing to catch the bus. Staying up until 3 a.m. doing homework. Freaking out about a test. All for what? School. A recent study by the Associated Press and MTV found 85% of students from the age 13-24 experience large amounts of stress daily. This is a full 10 percentage points higher than adults polled in a earlier study. That is crazy. All the adults always say, “Oh, you’re lucky you have it easy,” or “I remember the old easy days.”
In my opinion, children should be saying that to the adults after seeing results like these. All adults do is get paid to go sit on computers, tell students what to do, and socialize with their friends. Children don’t even get paid to go to school we have to go there by law.

What is the point of school anyways? In Social Studies all we learn about is dead people and the happenings of the world 1,000 years ago. We have Wikipedia and Google for that. In Math we have to write every single equation out. Are you joking? They created calculators to do the work for us and then we write the answer down, not what we just typed into a calculator. In Language Arts…we speak English and people understand us, what else do we need? One word for Spanish…Dora. Don’t even get me started about Science. Anyone can put a key on a kite during a thunderstorm, you don’t have to be a brilliant scientist. Oh my gosh, how do they even go out into public with hair like that? I would be humiliated! In conclusion, the government is putting a lot of extra stress on children that should be out enjoying their “easy” years and worry about things when they are older.

~Vivian Bronson

Whats Happened to Schools!

When you think about school, what do you think of? I bet anyone 13 years old would say learning. But what has come to my attention, is what kids actually have in mind. I know for me, when I get home from school the last thing I’m worried about is getting my homework done. For most girls, were thinking about what were gonna wear tomorrow, or how were going to wear our hair. Like most kids, I find myself doing my homework at 10 at night everyday, but yet my clothes for tomorrow and note to go on my friends bus is all ready sitting in my room. In addition, when everyone gets to school, all the teachers seem to be saying is “ wah wah wah wan”. If any teen is reading this, I bet I got you so far. Instead of caring when to use a comma, guys are thinking “ yea, I want pizza for lunch, and when I get home, mw3! Yea buddy!” While most girls are thinking about how they look, or what their doing after class.

With that being said, I don’t really think of school anymore as a place of learning, but more as a place of horsing around. Go figure! Even for students who do focus in class, with all the chattering going around, you start to wonder if the true meaning of school has changed. In my honest opinion, I feel like I learned and understood 1st grade more than I have in 8th. I wonder if things are going to start to change after more people start to realize that less and less learning is going on. Also, I don’t feel like our teachers push us to actually focus. I’m not going to lie, I talk a lot in class, but I’ve noticed that I rarely find myself getting in trouble for it, even when the teachers staring at me talking to my friends on topics not even closely related to ours. In contrast, teachers yell at kids in the halls for hugging friends, and talking. I think the halls are the time to be talking and having a little fun before class, rather than in class. I believe teachers should start putting more effort into trying to grab students attention. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want teachers screaming at me for every time I open my mouth, but even if they don’t do that, they should at least do things to get students more interested in the topic. In conclusion i think schools have greatly changed over the last few years, and not always for the better.

~Brianna Mariano

Too Much Homework?

In 2004, the University of Michigan conducted a survey asking 2,900 six to seventeen- year-old students how much time they spend on homework. Apparently, students of those ages use approximately 3 hours and 58 minutes a night on homework. That is a 1 hour and 20 minute increase from 1981. A little shocking? As a middle school student, I would say that I spend about 1 hour on homework, not including studying, and I feel overwhelmed. Being at only the middle school level, I can definitely expect more from my high school teachers.

With the torture of homework, it’s kind of hard to see the purpose of it. Ultimately, it’s supposed to better our understanding of our studies, and prepare us for any upcoming quizzes. A study performed by the Goldman Children Association found that students were 65 % more likely to succeed on a test when assigned 45 minutes worth of homework (in that class) 3 days leading to the test, than if there was only 20 minutes of homework assigned the day before the test. But with that extra 45 minutes tacked on to the homework schedule, it does mean 45 minutes less of sleep, which can make all the difference to a teenager’s growing body.

So, with all that considered, the ruling is really dependent on the age. A teacher could say our homework amount is too little, a student may say it’s way too much, and a parent could say its just fine. How do you feel?

~Alexis Giosa