🚀 go-pugleaf

Mark,  As a junior high teacher with a mere three years experience in
the classroom, I sympathize with your view on homework in the classroom,
but my experience tends to push me towards your "opponents" camp.  I
agree that students are in school to interact with the teacher and I
enjoy teaching math in a discussion format where the students feel free
to explore their understanding of a concept aloud.  This format allows
other students to see how their classmates approach a concept.  BUT, it
is absolutely imperative that the students also learn the mechanics,
that is, the symbolic manipulations, and for three years I did not have
the board space to put an entire class on the chalkboards, and when I
did try, it usually turned into a waste of time with the poking and
joking that went with kids being shoulder to shoulder at the board.  The
other alternative is seatwork where you can monitor (albeit rather
haphazardly) their homework as they work on it.  I have finally found
what I believe to be the best of all possible worlds.  One of our
teachers found small dry-erase boards for a reasonable cost.  Now, I
have a classroom set of dry-erase boards w/markers and toilet paper
works wonderfully as erasers.  We do problems as a class, the students
get instant feedback from me, and have time to discuss problems with
classmates.  I get instant feedback from students and can repair or
encourage whatever needs to be repaired or encouraged.  It is a fusion
of homework in the classroom and active teaching.  I love it, the kids
beg for it (no joke), and they LEARN!!  Enough of me plugging dry-erase
boards, and enough of me butting in.
                Thanks,
David Hoffmann, Charleston Catholic
                          1033 Virginia Street East
                          Charleston, West Virginia 25301



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