As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do&q

As an 8th grade teacher, the most challenging situation is trying to get my students to understand the value of homework, and studying. They come to class without books, paper, pencils, homework or anything of value. They scream we give too much homework however; when I try to give "classwork" they never complete it. I never get to teach. It's always monitoring negative behavior, loud talking, late students, and students who just don't seem to care. What's worse - is many of the parents sign documents during the first of the year "promising" their input for homework, checking agendas, backpacks, etc. and never followup. I am ready to return to high school to teach because I am getting more grey hair everyday. I love teaching - I believe it is a calling - an anointing on your life to wrap yourself up in the various packages students come in and try to elevate their minds and teach on levels they can understand and appreciate. I have tried everything. Any suggestions I am willing to try

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

Give them less homework and try to make it more fun. Give less paperwork and more interesting projects. Try to be more creative with it. I know kids can be very difficult to teach these days. Good luck!

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

I know this question has already been answered, but how about having a website on line. Tell them they can only get their homework by going to your website. Change it a little each day. I have seen this work really well. Report It

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

Wow ! That is a great idea!

Really!

I love your answer, Ginaforu5448 ! Report It

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

GIVE THE STUDENTS SOME "TIME-OUT",SEND THEM TO THE OFFICE MORE OFTEN %26amp; TRY TO GET RID OF THEM.

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

posotive or negative reinforcement. offer the carrot and if they dont respond give the stick. maybe writing poetry and having to read it out loud in front of the class. most kids would hate to do this. posotive could be getting a class pet and doing a project around it.

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

tell the students u will make a phone call to their parents, that used to scare me, even when most pf the time they didnt call. They should start doing their work then.

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

Just be a more kickback teacher. Dont be so anal and get all strict over everything, because if the students dont like you, they will go out of their way to make things harder on you. It sounds like me that you have the class where all the dumbass bad students go and if thats the case, you might as well give up cause ive seen so many teachers quit from those classes.

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

I, for one, should stop giving them homework.

They allready have enough to study in class.

I didn't like it either getting tons of homework after school.

What you can do is tell them they should put some lines on a piece of paper about what they're loving to do in their pastimes, and then let them talk about it the next day in front of the class.

I bet, you'll get more better results, then.

You have all of my respect, teacher.

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

kids hate boring homework, try something without repetitive simple questions. kids like challenging questions more than having a lot of easy questions. have a prizes for the children who do all their homework for the entire week. and give them a few homework passes for the quarter, maybe 2 or 3. don't expect them to do all their homework. give sometime at the end of class for homework. they hate to carry around textbooks and will do their homework because it means they won't have to waste time at home. if they have questions they can ask you and you can watch them do it. Make doing homework competitive.

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

Tell them, somebody they will have a boss and he will fire them. Then they will learn what loser means.

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

I've taught both 7th and 8th grades, and I am glad to see this is a problem for someone besides me. My students are the same way. I put up a homework lotto board, it has 100 spaces on it and every time a student misses zero on their math homework they get to put their name on a square. When it is full I draw 2 winners from each class. I also give 1 hour detentions for every two missing assignments. One idea that Ive seen was the homework table during lunch periods. Any students who came to class without homework, spend the first half of their lunch period at the homework table. Then gets to eat during the last half of lunch, when most other students are playing or talking.

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

The ONLY way to get the students to do their homework is to encourage their PARENTS to make sure the homework is done!

It's my opinion that teachers should not be in the "business" of parenting,nor should they be required to provide pencils and paper.

The moral of my story is this:Teachers teach,parents discipline,provide,encourage and help,students learn and do as they are told.

Speaking of "teaching",would you mind teaching a little spelling and grammar while you visit here?

I'm a STRONG advocate for allowing teachers to call the parents of students who are disruptive,show up unprepared,or ANY other reason(s),telling them to come pick them up! Plain and simple!

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

next year since the year is amlost over. make homework and calsswork 40% of the grade.. have adgendas signed by parents as 40% tests and whatever is left 20% write a long letter outlining it to your next years students that to correct theses problems you will be doing this. and for all the negative behavior, loud talking, late students, and students who just don't seem to care well referals dentention .. keep em after school i know it keeps you but it ll annoy the parents who have to come pick them up into action and.. i bet reading this i am driving you crazy with lack of.. puncutation spelling and capitals just dont fail me! heh these kids dont have to like you.. then have to learn from you. be the mean teacher if it works.. remove the unruly ones right off.. as many times as you gotta.. to thepricipals office.. heck with him if he getsmad at you..its his job to correct the things you cant

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

Doing Homework is a school problem and not just yours. Work with the other 8th grade teachers and come up with a plan to improve the students behavior toward homework. I am assuming you are in a "cluster" where you have kids in common with other teachers. - a middle school concept.

You might also give small quizzes based on the homework. Kids can even use their homework when taking the quiz.

I used a computer software program that allowed me to make print outs of it each student with their grades on homework (assignments - worksheets), quizzes, unit tests and lab write ups. When I handed the print out to the students and parents, it was a nice way to show where the students weakness and strengths were.

The sad part of homework is that many of the students will copy from others. You need to somehow make the students see the logic behind homework. The self-discipline, the short term pain for the long term gain, the writing and reading skills it improves, etc.

Good Luck

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

Give them Classwork/Homework. Whatever they don't do in class make them do at home. Whenever they complete their work give them auction bucks. At the end of the school year give them an auction. That encourage me to participate. For those who don't care about school mention: you have to go to college in order to be a professional athlete or things like that.

And yes print outs are good. When I saw how low zeros brought my grades down I started to

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

I am a 5th-6th grade teacher (ESL-EFL) in a private school in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and believe me, this is a universal problem. I tried everything, rewards, threats, sending students to the office, notes to home, double homework, writing names on the board, etc., etc. This past year, I took a course in Constructivism and I can楹搕 begin to tell you the wonderful results I楹搗e had. The basic premise is that the student produces, not the teacher, and that learning is based on prior experience. Teaching is done through activities and games related to the subject being taught. It took me hours in the beginning to do my lesson plans for the two groups, but as time went on, it became much easier. I spend maybe two hours on the plans, and approximately 3 hours on researching different activities and games. For example: Vocabulary- Put words on a set of index cards and meanings on another set. Place cards at random, face down, on a table or even the floor. Divide class into two teams. Each team takes a turn and exposes two cards. If they match, that team gets the point. The next team takes a turn, and so on. Kids love competition and the winning team gets a piece of candy or chocolate. This is a simple game but gives results. Oral Skills- Put different themes in a box. Each student draws a theme and talks about it. Themes or questions can vary: If you had 500.00 Dlls., how would you spend it? If monkeys could talk, what would they say? Silly questions and themes work the best with this one. I have students vote on the best spontaneous talk and that student gets a prize. Not everything is rewarded with candy or prizes...but in any kind of competition, I give a reward. Writing- If you owned a pair of X-Ray sunglasses, how would you use them? Some of these answers are incredible! We do a lot of drawing- I always have a lot of white and colored paper available. In History, if a time line is available, I have the students draw a picture representing the different years. On a long roll of butcher paper, students place the drawings and write the year and what happened and then tack it up in the classroom. There楹搒 nothing they like better than to see their work on the walls, and my whole classroom is covered with their artwork. Drawing pictures representing spelling or vocabulary is great and they actually remember the words! When we studied the Greeks and Romans, I had them make masks and decorate them with sequins, feathers, beads, etc. I used a basic pattern of the Greek Comedy and Tragedy masks. When they楹搑e reading silently or working on something, I play music, softly of course, mostly New Age or something from the group Deep Forest (their first recording was of pygmy songs recorded in the jungles and taken to a studio and put to music). When the kids first heard this music, which is strange,they of course started giggling and jumping around. When they finally asked what kind of music it was and I explained about the pygmies, the most incredible oral production began, and not by me, by them. This is just a brief overview of what Constructivism is and can do. My kids now come up to me before class and want to know what I楹搗e planned for the day. There are many days that we have "straight" work, but they know if they楹搑e going to play the games and work on fun activities, there is some work to be done. This is another thing: they know that if we can get the work done in class, there is very little homework or none at all. I try to keep homework to studying for a quiz, preparing a presentation, or writing a short paper (I keep these short, telling them its quality not quantity that I楹搈 looking for). I have given A楹搒 to papers consisting of three sentences and C楹搒 to two page diatribes. It takes a while for the kids to get used to this system, but believe me, it works. There is tons of information on the Internet on Constructivism...use it, I have. Good luck, I know what you楹搑e going through. I went through it for years before using this system. Sorry for such a long answer, but your question was not a simple one and warranted as complete an answer as I could give. (I also use the "homework table" at lunch/recess...this works wonders!)

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

When you encourage students to do their homework, you are fostering study habits that will help them in college. You need to attack this problem from every possible angle, and accept the fact that some parents are not ready to support their children with homework. With the children of those parents, you need to establish a more personal and supportive relationship in order to get them to be accountable to you.

Positive and negative reinforcement will help about 75% of your class. Keeping track of who does it and who does not sends an important message about expectations. Letting them know, periodically, the purpose of such exercises lets them know it is not simply busywork. The 25% that does not respond well to this program needs individual conferences with you, where you make your expectations clear but also show that you are open to listening.

Also, don't forget that at this age, many students seem not to care but are just pretending, in order to gain peer acceptance. I could tell you many anecdotes from my own teaching where I realized just how important I was in their lives. Please hang in there, middle school is the most important period in a child's life.

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

Hello fellow teacher, it has been interesting reading all of the responses. I understand exactly what you are saying. From student behavior and attitude to parent and administrative behaviors. I teach science and one thing that I have done is deny participation in lab if the students have missing work. This works for some. Instead of doing the lab, they must sit at their desk and complete their missing assignments. It does pose some problems though, because there are those that still refuse to do the work, and it is difficult to monitor the two groups at one time. To be honest, I rarely give homework anymore, not because the students don't do it so much as there is no guarantee that THEY are the ones that completed it. Lots of cheating and copying going on and I don't know they are clueless until it is test time. I have given simple completion check grades for homework and then given daily quizzes to see if they really know what is going on. I think that some of the suggestions you have received will work for some students but not for others. I would hesitate to tell you to spend a great deal of your own money on "treats" as that can get really out of hand. If grades are not a motivator, I am in the same boat as you are. I am sorry I am not any more help. I think we all experience this frustration. And yet I fully agree that teaching is a calling. Try to hang on until summer and a much deserved rest.

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

I teach 8th grade too and I experience the same as you. Our district requires students to receive a 2.0 gpa in order to graduate. What are your districts requirements? I constantly discuss the grad requirements beginning from day 1 and up to the last day! This seems to work. I do have 12 students not graduating (out of 147) so it must be working. Good luck!

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

Explain that it is their choice.

That is, set your grading standards. Inform them of these standards. Explain to them they can either meet the standards or not, it is their choice.

Hold to your standards.

By the 8th grade, they understand choices and consequences.

When some of them start flunking and then start complaining, tell them you are willing to meet with their parents PROVIDED the kid takes the lead in explaining to their parents why the are flunking.

As a teacher of 8Th graders, what recommendations do you suggest to encourage students to "do" homework?

this is not an an answer but just a personel reflection.

I attended private school for grades 4 and 5 and public grades 6,7,8. Although I started out as a great student in 6th grade ...I almost failed 8th grade. I somehow got accepted to a private school grades 9-12 and the discipline required was definitely intense. ( I wanted to succeed in the public school 8th grade math but I was allowed to be distracted daily by class clowns and allowed to fail. I was one of 32 students and the teacher did his best but I slipped through the cracks. Private school had noticeably much smaller class sizes and their was a constant reminder that school was very demanding.

If a student was doing poorly in public school, the situation was allowed to linger. In private school, if a student was on a string of bad grades ,,it meant automatic after school study...in the libary with teachers volunteering their time. If the students would not particpiate in after school studies, they were expelled.

Public schools have the disdavantage of having to keep students who do not wan't to attend. This makes life miserable for the teacher (who generally are true hero's), for the students who wan't to attend and the students who do not wan't to attend.)

So I think public school allows kids to sink or swim, and private schools have the mandate and approval of parents to really force the kids to swim. Now years later after completing college, graduate school and beyond, I thank the discipline from the private school to show me how to succeed. I am in awe of public school teachers who have to battle with tough classes day after day.