Quick, advice needed on possible teacher mistake

[Learnincurve]

I googled the answer to one of my daughter's homework questions, because as it turns out I am not smarter than a 10 year old. Imagine my surprise when I found that the teacher had taken the homework off the internet and the answer sheet was there. My daughter then googled the other three bits of homework and they all are off the internet and all have handy answer sheets, she did not read them but showed me she had found them. Naturally I banned her from using the laptop till homework is done.

I have written the full url for each of the bits of homeworks on the homeworks and have noted for her teacher that she has not seen the answers themselves

Do I leave it as is, do I even make her do the maths homework due in on thursday if the answers are available to all the kids in the class in 10 seconds flat? Is it normal for year 6 teachers to take homework off the internet? One even has the site url and a copyright notice on it.

 

[KneesUp]

I don't understand why the answers being available on the internet to the other kids (but not your daughter, apparently) would mean you might think it meant it wasn't worth her doing it.

 

[DCLane]

I'm not surprised; there's a national curriculum to follow and they have very little actual preparation time.

 

[Learnincurve]

I don't understand why the answers being available on the internet to the other kids (but not your daughter, apparently) would mean you might think it meant it wasn't worth her doing it.

I made her do the homework due in tomorrow. I'm not questioning the need for homework, I am questioning the need for her to do homework where everyone else has cheated to find the answers. I would rather she have different homework not taken off the internet.

 

[Learnincurve]

[QUOTE 3315243, member: 45"]You can get the answers to any school questions on the Internet..[/QUOTE]

This worries me, why would schools not have CDs to print worksheets off or books to photocopy?

 

[KneesUp]

I made her do the homework due in tomorrow. I'm not questioning the need for homework, I am questioning the need for her to do homework where everyone else has cheated to find the answers. I would rather she have different homework not taken off the internet.

I don't see why her learning (which is the point of the homework) will be affected by other kids potentially getting the answers off the internet.

You seem to think the point of homework is to see who gets the highest mark. It's not, it's so the kids learn something. Your daughter has, other kids might not have.

 

[Learnincurve]

[QUOTE 3315261, member: 45"]Why does it matter what any other child does?[/QUOTE]

Because they are put in groups these days and given work appropriate to different levels, so kids who have copied their homework may be put in the same group as kids who didn't. I'm annoyed and not really debate posting, no kid should be doing that homework if the answers are that easy to find.

edit when I say group I also mean they do "group work"

 

[KneesUp]

This worries me, why would schools not have CDs to print worksheets off or books to photocopy?

Because they cost money and schools have none.

I used to create all my own worksheets from scratch. I even used to scan in bits of newspapers to use and had a stock ready to use. I lasted two years in teaching.

Do you really think that if schools had a CD of questions that someone wouldn't put the answers on the internet?

The internet contains the sum of all knowledge, pretty much.

 

[KneesUp]

Because they are put in groups these days and given work appropriate to different levels, so kids who have copied their homework may be put in the same group as kids who didn't. I'm annoyed and not really debate posting, no kid should be doing that homework if the answers are that easy to find.

And then the kids who can't really do the work will struggle at school, or get found out.

Still not clear on how that affects your child.

 

[Learnincurve]

Really, because I distinctly remember not finding my homework on the internet in the 1980s.

 

[summerdays]

I remember we had the answers in the back of our maths books. But you used them to check your answers not to put down as the answer. There will be tests during the year which will sort out the cheats from the ones who know the answer. It's an important lesson to learn along the way that cheating may gain you a temporary advantage but in the long run it generally doesn't pay.

Even if the answers aren't on the net, there will be parents who will have almost done their child's homework rather than them produce a realistic piece of work.

 

[Learnincurve]

And then the kids who can't really do the work will struggle at school, or get found out.

Still not clear on how that affects your child.

I explained, it's "group work", they have do do projects and work with kids who are at the same level as themselves. My daughter gets all the answers right on her own and she will end up in the same group as kids who didn't and she ends up either doing all the work or having her own grades dragged down.

 

[Andy_R]

Because they are put in groups these days and given work appropriate to different levels, so kids who have copied their homework may be put in the same group as kids who didn't. I'm annoyed and not really debate posting, no kid should be doing that homework if the answers are that easy to find.

edit when I say group I also mean they do "group work"

Ahhh....you've answered the question there. You don't want your daughter to be in a lower group because she works for the answer. You want her to be in a higher group becasue everyone else cheats. What about when she gos up to secondary school and has to start working for herself? Isn't this a good point in her education to teach her to start working things out for herself - that way she'll have a head start, the others will soon lag behind

 

[Learnincurve]

[QUOTE 3315282, member: 45"]I couldn't find the internet in the eighties.

Give me a question I can't find the answer to on t'intenet...[/QUOTE]

I may not have explained, these are crosswords, word searches and puzzles. You can find the answers to the crosswords but you would need the answer sheets to find the other three bits. I googled to find the answer to a crossword question and then the rest of the homework sheets were found very quickly after.

edit: she's in the higher group because she has asphergers and is fantastic at maths.

 

[DCLane]

Homework is about re-inforcing learning; don't worry, teachers aren't stupid and can check/find out quickly if the kids haven't done their work.

I'm doing that with my new degree students; they've come through with great A-level grades but come unstuck at the simplest question - I use these to check whether it's them that's done the work for their qualifications. If not, I can put into place some remedial work quickly.

@Learnincurve - my eldest also has Aspergers, having just been diagnosed this year aged 14. His maths got him into a selective Grammar school but his English is abysmal for his age. As an aside, we've found it a relief now he's been officially diagnosed, as has he and he's come on great since the diagnosis was made.