What actions will you consider enabling students take assignments? Let’s focus on the concrete strategies for getting kids to do homework alone.

• Request the students to take their work in your office at lunchtime

It can be hard to skip lunch but worth the course. Any student will do homework when cornered in your room, and the only exit is to have a completed assignment. You can seek support from your colleagues to help you watch the students as they tackle the work. 

• Make use of the class dojo

A class dojo is a better system of tracking behavior. Give positive points on completed work. The negative points are for unfinished or missing work. It’s even better to set it to notify the parents in case of any missing work from the respective students. 

• Grade and return assignments

If you take a long time to return any collected work, students will perceive it as unimportant. Try to collect, mark and return the work within two days for the students to see the essence and where to correct. 

• Over-communicate

Post the assignment everywhere in class. Post on the school website and in class. You can even email parents for them to assist in the follow-up. You should train or teach kids to have the desire to get homework answers fast. 

• Reduce homework

If students are performing in classwork, there is no need to give them excessive homework. Too much homework is tiresome and doesn’t guarantee 100% improvement in academics. You can opt to replace the homework with pop quizzes. You will need to be innovative in time management to achieve this. 

• Talk about goal setting and growth mindset

We can threaten, nag and cajole, but it’s the student’s responsibility to do work. Invest good time in discussing growth mindset and helping students to set their own goals. 

• Demand students to complete significant projects

Make it a rule that students must complete significant projects for them to pass your course. If they don’t complete it, they won’t pass your course. They will make an effort to complete the work for them to move to the next level. 

• For any late submission, deduct points

Make it a rule to deduct points for any student who delivers assignments late. 

• Create help sessions

Create help sessions for learners before school, at lunchtime and at study halls. The session will aid the students who need help to make good use of it. You will have a reason if parents complain of poor performance. You will assure them that their children failed to use the help sessions. 

• Print students reports

Print out the grades reports and highlight zeros for any missed assignment. At times, students don’t understand the need for assignments. Print the grade reports every week highlighting the zeros. Students will understand the effect of missed marks on their final grade. 

• Build strong work ethics in students

Though it will take time, use any chance you get to build a strong work ethic. Remind them that the habits they are creating while in school will translate into real life. 

• Give incentives

Give better incentives for the top leading students in homework submission. The students will struggle to appear on the list and thus submit the work in time. 

Conclusion

It’s taunting to have learners who don’t take assignments. It’s a common problem in many schools. Be keen with students who take homework simply because they don’t have an option. The above list of best tips to motivate kids to do homework are good to put into practice.

The time spend on school bus rides has increased over the last year. Students spend time in school buses where they try to do their homework while on the bus. The after-school rides take more time. It makes students sleep or listen to music after they finish the assignments. A 12-year-old student will spend 2 hours and fifty minutes every day on a school bus. Families that live along the scenic roadways got surprised to find no bus rides. It happened on day one of schooling. Some students have to take more than 3 hours every day on a school bus.

Calley had a conversation with this common problem and reported a misconception. She said the misperception is that many western Loudoun families have stay-at-home parents. These parents can help in driving kids to school.

When does she ride the bus home after school? People perceive stay-at-home-parents to be firefighters, house cleaners, teachers and farmworkers. They can ferry students to and from school on a daily basis.

Tami Carlaw decided to find a solution when her children took long from school. The same problems also affected her neighbors. Her meeting with the school transport department brought to life a shuttle program. The shuttle had to pick students from school and drop them at the Lovettsville Library. The students ought to hang around the library until when picked by their parents. The program was a good one before the funders stopped it. The long hours of up to three hours are equal to adults’ time while commuting to their jobs. Families living on the dirt roads in south Lincoln had their children walk. The walking was unsafe for kids, especially those below the age of 6 years. The roads they are using are unsafe, even for adults.

What’s the cause of these long rides?

Kevin Lewis, the school superintendent assistant for support services, made a remark. He said they expected the changes. Kevin said they revise the school pick up areas and routes every year based on many factors. That explains the fact of how long is too long on a school bus. He requests parents and students who are new to these changes to adjust to fit the changes. The leadership changes are also a factor that causes the changes in the routing system. Every new administrator of the transport department will always have their route schedule.

The rise in the department’s budget is also a factor. Funding grew by 23%, while enrollment grew by 38%. It makes the transport sector struggle with the high number of students. They have to find alternative routes that will serve them equally.

Many parents in western Loudoun are willing to fund the program. The challenge is that the law prohibits the school from charging transportation fees. Employee and fund shortages are among the stiff challenges affecting the transport department. So far, there is a shortage of unfilled 89 positions for bus drivers.

Conclusion

The transport department aims to reduce the time a student stays while on transit to and from school. It’s the reason why routes constantly change. The advice from the department concerned is that parents and students have to adjust.

Homework is necessary. It’s good to check on the amount, worthiness and the type of homework given. Research shows that schools have toyed with enacting policies to strike out homework. Some schools discourage homework, but they don’t outlaw it. The 2014 national education association article suggested curbing and eliminating homework.

Are there reasons why teachers should not assign homework?

You only give homework when it’s seen to be worth giving to students. The Edutopia research shows that though homework is good, it has adverse and dangerous effects on high school learners. It brings stress, sleep deprivation, and physical ailments. Therefore, it makes it necessary to have limits on homework assigned to students.

Debates on common study concepts agree that homework should be a ten-minute affair. Students need to have ten-minute homework as it grows up to 90 minutes in middle school. When students go past 90 minutes, they become unproductive due to burnout. The concept is genuine basing on the Duke study in 2006.

It will be beneficial if you gave students homework to build skill and knowledge mastery. The researchers don’t expose how good homework will look like.

When does homework become busy work? Homework is busy work when it fails to get graded or doesn’t become review materials used in class. If it doesn’t introduce materials to use in class, it turns out to be unworthy. It should relate to the course lessons to enable students exercise their brains.

What is effective homework?

Try and explain to students why you are giving or assigning work. While introducing today’s topic, touch on the one for tomorrow in brief. The two minutes explanation will help the class during homework time.

• Review previous topics

Make a good review of the previous classes. Answer the test questions giving guidance to learners. Think outside the box to try and present the topic in a different way. If you can get a crash video about the lesson subject, let the learners watch it.

Should teachers give homework? Is it worth it?

Any homework should contribute 50% of the student’s final score. Students will feel it’s worth and make a reasonable effort in tackling it. Some schools disagree with this notion. They say that homework should contribute between ten to 15 per cent.

• Build students for independent studies needed in college

High school students need the motivation to study and get good grades to take home. When teachers prepare students from a young age, it makes the homework valuable.

• Is it reasonable?

If you ask students to read a 40-page book, they need ample time to attend to the task. Give students weekly or monthly homework to benefit them. They will end up having time for other activities like clubs, other courses and sports.

• Students are different

The most important thing to remember is that not all students in your class are the same. You may have students with low reading skills, while others are trouble makers. Please don’t give up on them while concentrating on those who are perfect. It’s better to give less frequent but more structured homework.

Conclusion

Whether to give or not give an assignment depends on you as the teacher. Remember, not all students are the same. Some don’t have access to technology to help them. Plan accordingly to ensure you have meaningful homework that will benefit students.

K-12 learners in a day spend around 40 minutes in their bus riding. It means the students use 120 hours in a year in the 180 days they are in school. In a better perspective, the time the students spend on the school bus is long. It’s equal to the duration to get a bachelor’s degree. The 120 hours spend equal to 20 school days. All this time accounts for only the students’ time on bus rides commuting to and from school. The students who take part in interschool activities spend much extra time on the bus. Together with other school programs, the field trips make them spend more time on the school bus.

There is a need for students to fully use this time.

Making homework zones

Many schools are adopting a 1:1 program. It provides its students with gadgets to use while in and outside the school. Many teachers give homework that needs internet access. Students have tablets and laptops; their homework is digital; they use the bus for 40 minutes a day. The one thing these students miss is the internet connection. The bus becomes a homework area where students will tackle their homework. Homework zones help to manage their behavior while on board.

More time for extracurriculars

Research shows that many learners take part in school extracurricular activities. Many older students do part-time jobs and take part in sports. Installing WI-FI on bus will enable them to undertake their homework on the bus. They will have ample time to take part in other activities or sleep.

When you have a WI-FI school bus, it adds the students 150 hours a year to internet access. They will have more time to tackle their homework. Students who come from far will spend more than 40 minutes on the school bus rides. They are the greatest beneficiaries of this program.

The bus shortages in remote areas make students spend more time on long routes. They may have more than one-hour bus rides every day. Installation of bus WI-FI is a simple way of making good use of the students’ time on the bus.

The central school of Palmyra Macedon in New York has their bus fitted with a WI-FI. It’s a blended connectivity program that makes the connectivity more crucial.

The program benefits students who get home as late as 10:00 pm. They can do homework in bus environment before arriving at their homes.

Conclusion

The WI-FI installation program in school buses is very vital. A college student doing homework on the bus is a common practice. It gives students enough time to tackle the homework without necessarily having to do it at home. Those on long commutes will do their homework while on board.