Reinvent?
In nearly every school, and at nearly every level there is a struggle with the success of homework in the schools. The struggles are different in a variety of ways depending on socioeconomic, demographics and even support outside of the school setting; but regardless of the reason, the struggles are evident in terms of completion, effectiveness and true purpose of the activity in all aspects of education. The Reinventing Homework drive focuses on building students in four key areas, creative inquiry, intrinsic motivation (failing freely/quickly) and learning from it, problem-solving skills, and increasing parents involvement
1. creative Inquiry
Providing opportunities for problems to blossom for young tinkering minds to dissect with the up-most imperfections and sloppiness. Gently steering our students through the obstacles with no answers, only open-ended questions, all while modeling the joys of failure with a smile and collaborative methods.
2. success building
That feeling of pride, success, and confidence all wrapped in one warm blanket of self-comfort. Intrinsic motivation rewards the soul; extrinsic motivation is fancy talk for materials. Students learn to do it for themselves, by themselves, all while building themselves.
3. choice
Diversity is the spice of life, and this goes for expressing the “expertise” of a student on a variety of mediums, a variety of projects, and a variety of expectations. It isn’t a secret that we have diverse learners, so why should homework be the same?
4. The home
Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunty, Uncle, Cousin, and all the Step-____, and all the adopted families out there; The home wants to be there to help, why are schools sending intimidating work home then?! Providing opportunities that the home can contribute as well without 1)doing it, 2)doing a worksheet, and 3)getting into an argument about it!