Yeah, sure, it's cool not to do your homework

It's the end of May. I get that.

It's after the NYS. I get that.

It's warm and nice outside. I get that.

Students have a life after school. I get that.

I teach middle school. I get that.

While I get and understand where my students are coming from, and have experienced the desire not to do my homework before when I was in school, this is ridiculous. I have communicated to my students NUMEROUS times about how I check homework EVERY day and that homework is so important because it gives them a chance to review, apply & practice the skills learned in class. So when I went to check homework today, I expected it to be more or less of a normal day... a couple (meaning five or so) of students didn't do it or "forgot" about it, but the rest of the class had it all done with beautiful work shown, etc. Here's what I got instead:

• First Period: Eighteen students out of thirty did not do their homework.
• Second Period: Twenty-three students out of twenty-nine did not do their homework. Yuck.
• Third Period: Twelve students out of thirty-one did not do their homework. Ehh, better, but still not good.
• Sixth Period: Fifteen students out of thirty did not do their homework.
• Eighth Period: Ten students out of twenty-eight did not do their homework.

I broke down first and second periods and gave my students a long lecture and "the package" about homework and why their dismal showing came to me as an insult to all the hard work I did making the worksheet, blah, blah blah. But I stopped after second period, because I figured that seeing the zeroes in the gradebook for all the homework they didn't do and how badly it effected their grades should be motivation and reason enough for them to finish their homework every night it's assigned.

I try not to assign homework every night. Usually, I will assign it every other night, or after class periods where we introduced a concept or learned an important concept. Homework usually takes about 20-30 minutes. After the NYS, our curriculums give us SO much more freedom that my students' homework loads are even lower than usual.

I wish my students would still be the same motivated and driven students that I had before the NYS. It's May and towards the end of the year, so I do need to cut them some slack. It's also been very hot recently and will be getting even hotter in the coming weeks, which also takes a toll on them. But if I'm still doing my "homework", they should too. What we learn at the end of the year is basically going into the Algebra I curriculum in high school - and I really feel that if I get them prepared and on the right track for high school math, they will see similar success next year and in the future that they saw this year.

But they ABSOLUTELY have to do their homework. It's soooo important!!!