I'm not a huge believer in homework. So to give holiday homework... well that seems cruel. Nevertheless, a tradition of taking pictures has led to the holiday scavenger hunt. The list gets co-constructed with the kids and the adults usually take part as well. This holiday we are looking for: A picture of water Your shadow... Continue Reading →
Play in home learning?
The children in my class continue to astound me with the creativity they bring to their home learning. This week two children decided to make a collaborative movie. They wrote scripts, enlisted parents as characters, developed costumes, had an older brother film them and then reflected on the attitudes they were using in the script. It was... Continue Reading →
Homework shouldn’t be done in isolation…
There's a bit of assumption out there that homework is something that kids do by themselves hunched over their worksheets. Family involvement is often seen as a negative thing, the adults hassling the kids to get it done, fights arguments or worse the adults end up doing the work for the kids. I am open to... Continue Reading →
Home learning – now in video response
I'm not a huge fan of homework. It takes away from time children could be spending with their friends and families as well as time to get bored. However, I'm required to set it. So rather than give the children a 'task' to do every week, there's a simple statement which the children will then... Continue Reading →
When we don’t follow ‘the research’
My school recently hosted a webinar by Alfie Kohn on the topic of homework. Kohn is highly critical of the practice homework finding no study that shows benefit for homework either academically or in 'self management.' I spent most of my time nodding my head. I know homework for younger children has no academic benefit or even any... Continue Reading →
A holiday homework challenge – getting on the flight deck
When I was my students age, my once a year treat was to fly between Wellington and Auckland by myself. Travel as unaccompanied minor was always a great adventure. I felt so independent making a journey on a plane without my family. Alongside the highly coveted role of handing out the pre-landing lollies, a highlight... Continue Reading →
Learning logs – the journey continues
The 'big idea' of our unit - human exploration results in new discoveries - it's been fantastic to see how children use this idea in their home learning. This child made a lot of interesting connections between her apartment and the 'learning statement..' by looking and observing her home and then researching. She thought that her... Continue Reading →
Using home learning to inform learning
Learning logs continue to be a success in class.After going through the home learning with the class, I had the kids think about next learning steps.The children quickly identified that they didn't really have much experience of being disadvantaged.I then suggested they might get in touch with a friend of mine working in development. In order... Continue Reading →
Home work – learning logs follow up
As a follow up to the last post on home learning. This week I had some amazing responses from the children to the idea of fairness. This child has used a simple comparison between his perspective and his mother's perspective. I love how the child is learning from his mother and that the learning conversations are continuing... Continue Reading →
Home learning – less is more 24/365
Disclaimer - I totally stole my home learning template from @sherrattsam and Chad I highly recommend their blog Time Space Education Rather than give the children preset tasks my English and a unit of Inquiry home learning consists of a simple provocation and a blank sheet of paper. From there the children are expected to... Continue Reading →
Teaching the Teacher 