Week 5 Reflection

 I think the main take away this week was not to stereotype your students. Do not assume that all students have the same resources and previous knowledge that will be required for your class. I think it is extremely important to understand where your students are coming from. You can gather information through get to know you forms, personal interactions with the students, and if needed, from other teachers that have taught the student. I am firmly in the little to no homework camp. Partly because I volunteer at the school where I will be teaching and I have seen how much some of these kids struggle with large amounts of homework. The small charter school has quite a few kids with IEPs, a lot of students with rough home situations and even foster kids, assigning unnecessary homework puts these kids at a disadvantage. One class that I was observing had a very bright student that was falling farther and farther behind in her class. I spoke with her and discovered she did not have access to a graphing calculator at home and the online link the teacher suggested hadn't worked. She also had no knowledge of how to use the online version which was quite different from the one used in class. The teacher was assigning 30-60 homework problems each day. There was no way this student could excel in a class where she was at such a disadvantage. Just this week I was struggling with my son and his homework, his school is doing hybrid at the moment, he watched a video for his math class and discovered when he went to do the assignment that he needed a protractor and a compass. I thought we had a compass but couldn't locate it and we did not have a protractor. I did not have time to run to the store so we had to borrow one from someone else. Had there been communication between the teacher and myself, I could have made sure we had the proper tools for my son to do his assignment. But there are many families that can't run out and get extra tools for their children. As educators we need to be aware of these things. If a graphing calculator is required for homework we need to be sure that our "link" works on all operating systems and show the students how to use it. We have to make sure they have access to the internet. We need to be setting students up for success not for failure.