Work brought home from school

When I look at some of the work turned in by students, it makes me think .. are parents looking at the work their kids turn in????? Sloppy, incomplete, below average work. Parents need to make it a habit from day one to look at the work their kids bring home [graded work]. Stop the sloppy carelessness before it gets worse!!!!!! Give them homework!!!!

Believe me, there's ALWAYS room for improvement.

Look for misspelled words and make them write those a few times. Teach them to do things right [because you KNOW they can] the first time, or they'll have to make corrections. Trust me, kids have PLENTY of time in class to do good work. Often they rush through it or are just careless.

Expect higher standards from your kids ... it will help them succeed in high school and college when they develop good habits early on.

Stop by the school, before or after school, and take a look at your (elementary age) kid's desk .. is it neat or messy? Now's a good time to learn and practice organization skills. I see so many ripped bags, torn folders falling apart, distroyed school supplies .... that tells me that the kids don't care how much their parents spent to buy nice new supplies for them and that the parents aren't telling them that it's unacceptable to tear up these things they need and use everyday.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE IT WOULD MAKE, if more parents used their day off (every once in a while) to observe their kids at school. As a substitute I see sooooo many discipline problems and often I see the same students over and over displaying consistant behavior problems.

I often wonder what a POSITIVE change it would make to have cameras in the classroom. It doesn't bother me, because I know I'm doing my job. But many many kids are NOT doing what they should be doing. I'm only one person, but I would like the parents to see EXACTLY what their kids are doing and do what they need to do to correct the problems (which start at home). Parents have NO IDEA what their kids are doing when parental eyes are not watching. Always in the back of their minds: [to teacher or sub] "you're not my mom or dad."

To be continued...

School lunch

Here's a thought: Do your kids have enough time to eat their lunch? When I monitor lunch at the elementary school level, I'm reminded of my days as a picky eater. Young pallates are discovering what they like and don't like and if no one is there to tell them "Clean your plate" .. then they won't. I see lots and lots of full plates when it's time to clean up and leave. Kids know what they want to eat and don't want to eat. It reminds me of a time when I was in the hospital (for a short time) and the nurse told me to take some pink medicine. I told her I didn't like it. Now, I don't know how I knew, but I knew, and when I made an attempt to take it, I threw it up.

Keep this in mind. There's only a handful of adults to monitor several tables full of kids. Talkative kids will spend the majority of their time talking. Some kids will spend a lot of time playing with their food, and of course the pickiest kids will spend most of the time picking over their food. Food is the fuel to get them through the rest of the school day. It is in their best interest to eat as much as possible. Parents should remind their kids how important lunch is and to use that [short] time to eat. Typically they will have less than 45-minutes. There's the commute time to get to the cafeteria, the time in line, and the clean up time. Not to mention the disorganization and chaos that happens when there's a sub.

Something else I noticed was that some schools have recess after lunch and some have recess at another time. I'm in favor of not having recess after lunch. It allows the food to digest and also the kids won't burn off all the food's energy so fast.