Quick, advice needed on possible teacher mistake

[vernon]

We had hand written homework sheets in blue ink copied on one of those big roller things in primary school. In secondary school we had an actual photocopier and again it was either hand written or taken from a book that only the teacher had with the answers in the back.

It's down to costs in time and money.

Teachers in 'the olden days' didn't have the distractions of continuous appraisal, producing hard copy evidence of assessment objectives of their own performance and that of their charges, marking books in duplicate i.e. marking the books once in green ink, red is too aggressive, and leaving advice of improvements to be made by the pupils in purple ink which requires a further comment from the teacher. Producing reams of data about their charges, an analysis of it on a regular basis, targeting underachieving pupils, having 'data conversations' with them, having data conversations with your line manager, undergoing comparative perfomance analysis agains other curriculum subjects. Preparing for the minimal notice OFSTED inspections, preparing for the pre OFSTED 'MOCKSTED' inspections. And when all of this is done then some time can be devoted to planning, teaching and setting homework.

 

[User10119]

Is it really too much to ask that a teacher does not set homework kids can find the answers to in 10 seconds? Really? Is it too much to ask that they google themselves to make sure they can't?

Yes, it is.

As far as I can see, the purpose of primary homework is pretty much:
- try to encourage some of the less engaged parents to take a vague interest and support their child a bit
- shut up the middle-class aspirationals who don't think their kids are busy enough with 6 and a half hours of school plus breakfast/afterschool childcare not to mention the extra curricular clubs (sports, story, choir, lego, computing, gardening?) and the karate/swimming/ballet/piano lessons
- get kids used to the idea of homework and self-study before secondary
- ticks a GBFO box on the Ofsted inspection tick list since they object if it doesn't get set

There are a million perfectly good ready-made resources out there and teachers have better things to do than to hand craft homework sheets to meet your exacting standards. I did beautifully hand craft everything when on placement in my PGCE and it was great. I only slept 3-4 hours a night though. Most of the primary teachers I work alongside are doing 10-12 hour days in school followed by a heap of planning/marking/assessing/paperwork in the evenings. The majority of the full timers aim to have one weekend day a week where school doesn't impinge too much. The part-time job shares paid 2 and a half and 3 days often comment on what a luxury it is to get everything done within the mon-fri week and have a real weekend.

I now work in a non-teaching support role in schools. Occasionally teachers that I work with ask me if I'll ever look for a teaching job, what with being qualified and all, and (they tell me, when I work with their classes) apparently quite good at some aspects of it. The job is just too damn hard.

And my primary school text books also had all the answers in the back, so that I could mark it myself.

 

[Spinney]

It's down to costs in time and money.

Teachers in 'the olden days' didn't have the distractions of continuous appraisal, producing hard copy evidence of assessment objectives of their own performance and that of their charges, marking books in duplicate i.e. marking the books once in green ink, red is too aggressive, and leaving advice of improvements to be made by the pupils in purple ink which requires a further comment from the teacher. Producing reams of data about their charges, an analysis of it on a regular basis, targeting underachieving pupils, having 'data conversations' with them, having data conversations with your line manager, undergoing comparative perfomance analysis agains other curriculum subjects. Preparing for the minimal notice OFSTED inspections, preparing for the pre OFSTED 'MOCKSTED' inspections. And when all of this is done then some time can be devoted to planning, teaching and setting homework.

That is why I only stuck teaching for 6 years... and it was nowhere near as bad as that when I left - it is getting steadily worse.

 

[vernon]

A Banda machine - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator

I still have some Banda masters. I use them to transfer wing rib profiles from aeromodelling plans to balsa wood by pricking through the outlines with a pin with the banda master between the plan and the balsa.

I once got a detention at school for the abuse of some banda masters. I rubbed them down the bannisters of a three storey teaching block. Over three hundred pupils ended up with purple hands. The sinks and floors in the toilet blocks also ended up being purple as my fellow pupils tried to wash it off. I was surprised that I didn't get the cane.

 

[Spinney]

I remember sniffing the newly banda'd sheets when they were handed out.

 

[slowmotion]

Envy?

Homework in the 1980's was a lot easier than the homework that I got in the 1970s. You had calculators. I had slide rules and log tables.

In the 1970s....? You were lucky! Back in the 60s....etc...

 

[ClichéGuevara]

My daughter's school gave us links to a guy on youtube that gave a tutorial on each question in the paper. I sat with my daughter and we went through the first basic parts, and then she worked through the other questions on each topic with me giving hints when she was stuck.

It supplemented the work the teachers were doing, so my daughter would have soon been found out if she was simply copying the answers off the web. It helped as well because I had a better understanding of where she was at in maths.

 

[vernon]

In the 1970s....? You were lucky! Back in the 60s....etc...

If you can remember the sixties you weren't there maaan!

 

[summerdays]

I once got a detention at school for the abuse of some banda masters. I rubbed them down the bannisters of a three storey teaching block. Over three hundred pupils ended up with purple hands. The sinks and floors in the toilet blocks also ended up being purple as my fellow pupils tried to wash it off. I was surprised that I didn't get the cane.

Vernon I've just realised there is a whole bad catalog to your misdemeanours that have yet to be aired!

 

[vernon]

Vernon I've just realised there is a whole bad back catalog to your misdemeanours that have yet to be aired!

FTFY

I have yet to be outdone by any pupil under my supervision.

 

[summerdays]

FTFY

I have yet to be outdone by any pupil under my supervision.

I blame ipad and it's silly corrections!

 

[vernon]

and, TBH, grades and groupings at primary school matter f@ck all at secondary school. It is widely recognised that primary school SATS have cfuk all to do with what groups they are put in, it's all about the primary school reaching false objectives set by OFSTED

So very wrong!

Pupils GCSE performance targets in high schools are set be the Key Stage Two attainment levels. High schools are held to ransom by the attainment of pupils at the end of Key Stage Two. There's no quarter given to high schools whose pupils are underachieving at GCSE when their KS2 results promise much higher grades.

 

[Brains]

I had to make my own paper and do my homework in the dark because candles were too expensive

As a kid of the 1970's, the three day week and nightly power cuts, we really did have the issue of doing homework in the dark after the candles ran out.

I also remember the entire class getting up every ten minutes during the lessons to run around the room reciting Latin conjugations in order to keep warm! No power, no light, no heating! It was really difficult writing with woollen mittens on

 

[CopperCyclist]

[QUOTE 3315282, member: 45"]
Give me a question I can't find the answer to on t'intenet...[/QUOTE]

Why does boiling hot water freeze quicker than room temp water?

 

[vernon]

Why does boiling hot water freeze quicker than room temp water?

The internet is awash with references to the Mpemba effect

Here's one for starters:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...old-solved--strange-behaviour-atom-bonds.html