Co-op S/O -- Have you ever blown off a teacher's assignments?

[Rebecca VA]

If your child is in a co-op and the teacher makes an assignment that your child doesn't have time to do or doesn't want to do, do you tell the teacher that your child won't be doing the work? Has your child ever gone into a co-op class and told the teacher he was too busy and wouldn't be doing the assignment?

 

If so, how did it go over with the teacher?

 

I'm just asking out of curiosity -- we don't have any co-op issues going on here, thankfully.

[Dmmetler]

I've had to tell teachers that DD simply couldn't do X this week because of Y-and so far, they've been pretty understanding. Having said this, I do try to tell teachers in advance when this will be the case (when, for example, I KNOW that DD has dance rehearsals all week, and we'll be lucky if we're awake enough the next day to make it to class at all), as opposed to showing up with the work undone at the next session. I know I appreciate this as a teacher, so that if it's just plain been impossible for several students to get their work done, I don't plan an activity that builds on that homework.

[Leanna Tomlinson]

I've had it both ways. I've been the teacher in that situation, and I've also needed to eliminate assignments for my dc. In our co-op, we have found that this works best if the communication about this is teacher to parent. It is also kept private and not discussed in class.

 

A student loudly announcing in the classroom, "My mom said I don't have to do xyz," can be offensive and disrespectful to the teacher. It is demoralizing to the other students, and undermines the teacher's authority.

 

After this happened many times, we labelled our co-op "College Prep" so people knew what was expected.

 

I am very open to modifying and eliminating assignments for my students, but at the same time, I have had families do it too often without communicating with me.

[Ferdie]

We haven't skipped any co-op assignments that were assigned in advance. However, I have had some problems with classes without a syllabus. I have received homework assignments for my kids late Wed. via email from the teacher that were due on Friday morning. In a few cases we weren't able to do those because we didn't have enough time. Ugh!

 

ETA - Our co-op has the homework requirements listed with the course description so you know the expectations in advance.

[Mom-ninja.]

My ds almost never does his chess homework. :leaving:

[Rebecca VA]

Thank you for replying. The whole concept of blowing off a teacher's assignments is a shocking one to me. How many of us would tell a public or private school teacher that we were too busy to have our child do the work, or that our child "didn't like" a book and thus was unwilling to read it? Yet from talking to other moms I know who have taught at co-ops, this is very common. One mom told me she confronted a high school student who was plagarizing, only to get a furious phone call from his parents. I've heard of other co-ops that have been torn in two by moms who just wanted a socialization outlet vs. moms who craved serious academics for their children. So I'm tremendously interested in how teachers of homeschooled children are perceived -- as authority figures, or otherwise?

[Pretty in Pink]

No, I have never allowed my child to blow off a homework assignment or to skip it because he didn't have time. Barring unforseen circumstances, if we don't have time to keep up with assignments then we don't participate during co-op that semester. I don't see why anybody would neglect their homework assignments. You can't do that in school. Why would co-op be any different?

[elizabeth]

Yikes. Nice way of letting the student live in a perpetual childhood. No I would not accept it , condone it or permit it in any shape, form or fashion. I hope dd will be a successful college student . Permitting a distortion of priorities coupled with excuse making is not the way to the Dean's List or Phi Beta Kappa. On the other hand given how we structure our priorites in our family she would never even ask to be exempt.

[3lilreds in NC]

When I taught a co-op class once, I had a mom tell me that she actually had no intention of having her daughter do the homework. It was only a hand sewing class, and I didn't really know what to say - I just told her that it was clearly up to her and her child wouldn't get all she could from the class if she wasn't able to work at home. I was mildly offended/irritated, and pregnant, so I probably overreacted, but wasn't really sure why she was in the class if she didn't want to do the projects. Just my $.02. We haven't been in a co-op yet where homework was required for any of our classes, because my kids were younger, but they would absolutely do it if they were supposed to.

[Karis]

If your child is in a co-op and the teacher makes an assignment that your child doesn't have time to do or doesn't want to do, do you tell the teacher that your child won't be doing the work? Has your child ever gone into a co-op class and told the teacher he was too busy and wouldn't be doing the assignment?

 

If so, how did it go over with the teacher?

 

I'm just asking out of curiosity -- we don't have any co-op issues going on here, thankfully.

 

 

Maybe, depends. (Not disrespectfully or anything "blown off") but I would not register my child for a co-op class if there was no flexibility. My co-op exists to benefit Me - My schooling efforts.

[angela in ohio]

I have been on the other side of this. I offered to teach two very academic classes (in that they would replace what a parent had to do at home, not add something extra.) Parents were so happy to sign their dc up and relieve their own burden, but then the class was difficult because they didn't take it seriously and many students didn't do the work. I think they thought one hour a week in class was enough. :confused: For writing and Latin at a junior high to high school level, you need more like an hour a day.

 

I didn't have that problem much this year, but people were paying for me to teach their dc. People value what they pay for. I have had students miss an assignment here or there for one time issues. I don't mind that at all.

[Leanna Tomlinson]

I completely agree that assignments should never be "blown off". I have been offended by this as a teacher, and we have changed our co-op policies to prevent this.

 

I would like to mention, however, that sometimes my dyslexic son has needed some modifications to assignments and/or tests. I have also allowed these modifications for other students for the same reason.

 

I can't tolerate, "We didn't like the book", or "We were too busy." It is so discouraging as a teacher to know some families were "too busy" to do the work, while they enjoyed activities that I skipped, so I could grade papers and be better prepared for co-op. :(

[Miss Marple]

From a co-op teacher perspective, this is one of my biggest beefs. Our co-op is an academic one - not one for enrichment or socialization (those are just an added bonus). Blowing off an assignment because one just doesn't see its value or one didn't make time to do it discourages the teacher (um...why is the student here is the first place), it shows a lack of consideration for the students who did do the lesson, and it allows the student to believe life is just a bowl of cherries in which one can pick and choose at will.

 

I have had students not do assignments because they had something more important to do (youth group activities, scouts, etc.). I have had parents who felt the assignment didn't warrant the amount of work it needed to be accomplished. I have had parents who said that the student already knew the material (or could write essays well) and didn't need any more experience with that. At this point, I only allow excuses for illness or family emergency. When these kids go to college (and we are a college prep co-op) they will not be able to behave in the same manner and receive a good grade.

 

My own kids are in this co-op and I have them do all assignments even if I think it's not worth the time. But I signed up for the class, therefore in order to be involved, I have my kids to the work. If I find that the class doesn't suit our needs, I pull them out completely.

 

How one prioritizes assignments in co-op depends on the type of co-op one is in and what the teacher expects from the students. Does she consider assignments optional? We now have the parents sign a statement that they support the teacher's choice of curriculum and assignments and will make see to it that their student does all assigned work unless arrangements are made in advance with the teacher. We have had some moms who have forgotten that they signed this form.

[angela in ohio]

I thought of something else, on the 'what it teaches dc' aspect...

 

My middle dd attended a (supposedly) IEW writing class two years ago. At the same time, I was teaching the aforementioned Latin and writing class to older students. I had no need to have someone else teach her writing, but there weren't great choices for her age group. At that point, I had been doing IEW and other writing instruction with her for years. She also reads good old books, so her sentence structure is fabulous. She brought me the rough draft of her final paper, and the teacher had marked to cut apart all of her complex and compound sentences. They weren't run-ons. I was livid. She was teaching my dd to write like a second grader.

 

However, I didn't tell dd that. I told her that sometimes in life, she will have teachers who have certain preferences. They may not make sense to her or even be correct, but she needs to complete the assignment in their way anyway. It was a great lesson, even if it wasn't a lesson in writing. :001_smile:

 

When we teach our dc that they can take or leave what they want from a class, we are setting them up to be 'those homeschoolers' about whom college professors complain. :glare:

[Rebecca VA]

Angela, that's so funny that you used the IEW example! Just last night and this morning I worked with my daughter on a comparison/contrast paper for her writing class. The teacher uses a lot of the IEW methods.

 

My daughter's a very good writer, and I think I do a good job of editing/discussing. But there were so many restrictions placed on the sentence structure, title, and so on that the flow of the paper was greatly hindered. I told my daughter, "You know I hate this writing method, but you need to obey the teacher's rules, so by golly we're going to make this work!" We worked on it until 10:00 last night and were up at 6:00 doing some last-minute editing (it was her writing and her research, but she wanted it to sound smooth and nice). It turned out quite well, and she proudly took it in to class this morning.

 

Maybe that's what caused me to start this thread today! I would never in a million years have told my daughter to disobey the teacher's assignment. It was up to us (her, really) to make the assignment happen.

[Tap]

Sometimes. It depends on the format of the class and the expectations. Classes that are just for fun, I may not force the homework if it doesn't affect the classroom. ie DD used to take a "World Traveler's" class. She may have a homework assignment of label the map of Brazil. They studied one country a day, so since Brazil was studied that day, and wouldn't come up again....we didn't do these type of assignments often. They weren't graded or scored, they were mainly a reinforcement exercise.

 

If it is a class assignment like an essay that they will be working on in class and out....they are expected to do those.

 

Once they get to Jr/Sr high I expect more homework but there were times that the elementary classes were giving big chunks of homework. Very little got done, so the teachers finally realized that it wasn't the best method of teaching homeschooled children.

 

I think a lot of homeschool parents feel that if there is going to be homework, it had better not be busy work. And it had better not take as much time from them as it would have taken to teach the subject at home.

[angela in ohio]

Angela, that's so funny that you used the IEW example! Just last night and this morning I worked with my daughter on a comparison/contrast paper for her writing class. The teacher uses a lot of the IEW methods.

 

My daughter's a very good writer, and I think I do a good job of editing/discussing. But there were so many restrictions placed on the sentence structure, title, and so on that the flow of the paper was greatly hindered. I told my daughter, "You know I hate this writing method, but you need to obey the teacher's rules, so by golly we're going to make this work!" We worked on it until 10:00 last night and were up at 6:00 doing some last-minute editing (it was her writing and her research, but she wanted it to sound smooth and nice). It turned out quite well, and she proudly took it in to class this morning.

 

Maybe that's what caused me to start this thread today! I would never in a million years have told my daughter to disobey the teacher's assignment. It was up to us (her, really) to make the assignment happen.

 

I should have been more clear. :D I teach IEW writing. I love IEW. This teacher was not teaching it correctly. In IEW writing (taught well) the student will have complex and varied sentence structures. By marking those out, this teacher was defeating the very purpose of teaching the IEW method.

 

As a side note: I encourage you to trust the assignments (if you have confidence in your dd's teacher.) They make for very awkward papers sometimes, as students try things that are out of their comfort zone, but the student comes out a better writer in the end. It's the process, not the product, at this point!

 

I totally agree with you (obviously from my post) about making dc do the assignment, even if you don't personally agree with it. I would always prefer a character lesson to an academic one. The character ones are harder to come by!

[Rosy]

Thank you for replying. The whole concept of blowing off a teacher's assignments is a shocking one to me. How many of us would tell a public or private school teacher that we were too busy to have our child do the work, or that our child "didn't like" a book and thus was unwilling to read it? Yet from talking to other moms I know who have taught at co-ops, this is very common. One mom told me she confronted a high school student who was plagarizing, only to get a furious phone call from his parents. I've heard of other co-ops that have been torn in two by moms who just wanted a socialization outlet vs. moms who craved serious academics for their children. So I'm tremendously interested in how teachers of homeschooled children are perceived -- as authority figures, or otherwise?

 

I think if a teacher wants her assignments to be completed, then parents and students need to know up front (before the class starts) that homework will be expected. I have been on both sides of this--I've been teaching at my co-op for 2 years, and have had kids in it for just over that. My kids are 9 and under, so if there's homework to be done, it's mostly on me to make sure it gets done. I won't knowingly put my kids in a class where homework is expected unless it contributes to my learning goals for my kids.

 

In one instance, I was told on the 3rd week of the class that there was homework. My son (who was 7 at the time) would stick his papers in his backpack and then forget about them until the next week. I had 3 other kids, I was homeschooling the older two, we had just moved into a new house (which was a fixer-upper)...my plate was FULL. I was also coordinating our missions projects and teaching 2 classes at co-op, so Fridays were a whirlwind, and I had plenty to do on Thursdays to prepare. Checking with my son to see if he had homework and then supervising his completing the homework was off my radar. I talked to the teacher about our situation. The assignments were somewhat optional, she said she understood our situation but my son would miss out on the reward system she's set up for homework completion. The homework was just to reinforce material they'd already learned, it had no bearing on new material.

 

The point is (for me), I didn't commit to this when I signed up for the class. It's like buying a house and then having someone say "oh, by the way, there's a $500 monthly fee to live in this neighborhood". Fortunately, the co-op now will note on the class list whether homework (if any) is required or optional.

 

As a teacher, I will not ask more of my students than what they've come into the class expecting to give. If I say homework required--1 hr./week, I may ask less of them some weeks, but I won't ask more. It's just not fair to the kids or the parents. We're all busy and co-op is a lower priority than our own schooling, and teachers need to take that into consideration. I know some co-ops are more academic than others, but that should be known in advance as well.

 

Now, next year DD will be taking a Zoology class with required homework. I signed her up for that knowing which books I will need to buy and that she'll be doing homework. I'm happy to do it (especially because it means I don't need to teach higher-level science next year). But it was my choice.

Edited April 29, 2010 by Rosy

[NanceXToo]

My homeschool group sometimes has co-op classes but we never assign "homework" or assignments to do outside of the co-op class. I'm glad for that, I like for us to do our own thing in our own way at home, participate in the classes and get togethers we want to participate in, and then choose for ourselves whether we want to leave the class behind when we leave the class, or put more work/research into something on our own because we were interested enough to.

[Leanna Tomlinson]

 

Once they get to Jr/Sr high I expect more homework but there were times that the elementary classes were giving big chunks of homework. Very little got done, so the teachers finally realized that it wasn't the best method of teaching homeschooled children.

 

I think a lot of homeschool parents feel that if there is going to be homework, it had better not be busy work. And it had better not take as much time from them as it would have taken to teach the subject at home.

 

I think this is a good point. We are a college prep co-op and expect all jr./sr. high students to complete assignments and all parents to support the teachers.

 

The problem comes when a teacher wants to change the agenda of the grammar level classes. The reason we even have grammar level classes is because our high school students have siblings. The moms need to teach, and the younger children need something to do.

 

We had to clearly state the purpose for each level of the co-op:

 

Rhetoric: - provide a college prep course of study in History, Comp& Lit, Science and Spanish

 

Dialectic - begin rigorous instruction in all of the above to prepare for Rhetoric level

 

Grammar - provide a day where hands-on activities, labs, and group activities take place to relieve the load of those teachers who carry the upper level classes. In other words, relieve a burden, don't add to it.

 

I've had some very enthusiastic grammar level teachers who started to act like we are in the public school. I can see why some parents wanted to shirk the busy work.

 

I have had other parents who have no clue what a student needs to enter college. We had a lot of resistance to our standards until we clearly stated our purpose as a college-prep co-op. Now, the only families allowed to enroll are those with at least one child in the Dialectic or Rhetoric levels.

[HayesW]

I did it in public school. My 2nd grader was given a project that I would have had to spend hours to work on for her. I refuse to do homework. I am almost 35. I told her teacher we would be happy to accept an alternative assignment.

 

I can't think of anything in co-op that we haven't finished on purpose.

[Kimber]

Not really, but I would do it if I thought the work was inappropriate. Children shouldn't be asked to write a science report with no guidelines or experience in writing reports at all. In a situation such as that, I would definitely say we're not doing it.

 

Co-ops are not public schools, which is why we enjoy participating at them. I am still my child's primary teacher. My kids love the experience and do more for their co-op classes sometimes than they do for me. But I would definitely intervene if I think the teacher was being unreasonable and I would say something, rather nicely, that my kids don't have the skills for this project or assignment.

 

(The older I get, the more militant I seem to become. I think I'm turning into to my mother. )

[Sputterduck]

Well, it wasn't a co-op but a charter school for homeschooled kids which my son attended a half day once a week.

 

They were given homework, which was trite and pointless, and then if they did it they got candy. In three classes in a row. We didn't waste our time on the homework, and my son certainly wasn't going to be allowed to have candy three times in a row, in addition to cupcakes or cookies in one or two of the classes, in addition to popsicles at break time. Yuck.

 

Yeah, we dropped out after that. It was disappointing.

[Mom0012]

This is one of the major reasons we are not participating in a coop. I don't want to add the extra homework assignments to our workload but I can't imagine sending my kids to class without doing whatever work the teacher assigned.

 

Lisa

[AuntieM]

We have a teacher this year who often does not send the homework assignment until after noon on the day before the next class. Our family has an activity on that evening. Sometimes those assignments get turned in late. It is an elective class and I am not concerned about the grade. I would feel much differently about a high school level core subject. In that case, I believe your decision to co-op includes a respect for the class assignments. When one or two students lag, it can affect the progress of the group.

[WTMindy]

It is so frustrating as a teacher when students choose not to do assignments. In our co-op we make sure and let parents know which classes are going to have homework and which ones are not going to have homework, so I assume that parents will help to make sure that their kids get their work done. My kids take classes and there have been times when I think the assignment is stupid and even pointless, but I still have them do it. If a parent came to me and explained to me why they couldn't do an assignment I would understand, but I would expect to know that in advance. There was one assingnment that my kids had in a Spanish class that I felt was too mature for my kids, and I talked to the teacher and asked if we could substitute a different song. The teacher was happy to let them do that, but I would NOT want to communicate to my kids that it is OK to blow off an assignment just because we were busy.

[Dmmetler]

Thank you for replying. The whole concept of blowing off a teacher's assignments is a shocking one to me. How many of us would tell a public or private school teacher that we were too busy to have our child do the work, or that our child "didn't like" a book and thus was unwilling to read it? Yet from talking to other moms I know who have taught at co-ops, this is very common. One mom told me she confronted a high school student who was plagarizing, only to get a furious phone call from his parents. I've heard of other co-ops that have been torn in two by moms who just wanted a socialization outlet vs. moms who craved serious academics for their children. So I'm tremendously interested in how teachers of homeschooled children are perceived -- as authority figures, or otherwise?

 

 

Well, my DD is currently in a traditional school, so YES, I have told my DD's teacher that, due to X, my DD would not be doing Y that night. I have also, once this year, taken a book that the teacher had assigned back to school and asked if we could do a different one, because my DD just plain wasn't "getting it"-she couldn't understand why this group of 2nd graders were squabbling over who got to be the leader of a group, because at age 5, it was pretty common to have three princesses or whatever, so from her point of view, nothing interesting was happening.

 

And I can tell you that as a former public school teacher, that sort of thing from parents didn't bother me as long as the parent came to me and let me know what was going on (and as long as it wasn't a frequent occurrence). What bothered me was the just not doing it at all, or worse, the child coming in and saying "Mom says I don't have to do it".

[Renee in NC]

It is so frustrating as a teacher when students choose not to do assignments. In our co-op we make sure and let parents know which classes are going to have homework and which ones are not going to have homework, so I assume that parents will help to make sure that their kids get their work done. My kids take classes and there have been times when I think the assignment is stupid and even pointless, but I still have them do it. If a parent came to me and explained to me why they couldn't do an assignment I would understand, but I would expect to know that in advance. There was one assingnment that my kids had in a Spanish class that I felt was too mature for my kids, and I talked to the teacher and asked if we could substitute a different song. The teacher was happy to let them do that, but I would NOT want to communicate to my kids that it is OK to blow off an assignment just because we were busy.

 

Huh. I wouldn't have thought it really made a difference whether the kids did homework or not. We were part of a co-op this year, and my dc didn't do anything outside except the 12yo did the reading for Boy's Book Club. I never got anything from teachers saying there was homework, though, so I don't know if we blew off assignments or not.

 

I thought co-op was for socialization?

[Renee in NC]

double post

[Harriet Vane]

Huh. I wouldn't have thought it really made a difference whether the kids did homework or not. . . .

 

I thought co-op was for socialization?

 

Some co-ops are for socialization, and some are not.

 

It makes the teacher's job VERY difficult when some students have not done the homework. I have taught many, many small group classes over the years. Good teachers do not give busy work. I design assignments with specific learning goals in mind--if the student does not do the assignment, that student has not learned what is necessary to proceed to the next step. When a class contains a mix of prepared students (those who have done the homework) and unprepared students, the teacher is faced with the dilemma of either proceeding as planned with the prepared students while the unprepared ones are lost, confused, and floundering, OR taking the time to teach the unprepared students what they should have learned in the homework, and thus leaving the prepared ones feeling bored stiff and frustrated with the sloooooow pace of the class.

[Renee in NC]

Some co-ops are for socialization, and some are not.

 

It makes the teacher's job VERY difficult when some students have not done the homework. I have taught many, many small group classes over the years. Good teachers do not give busy work. I design assignments with specific learning goals in mind--if the student does not do the assignment, that student has not learned what is necessary to proceed to the next step. When a class contains a mix of prepared students (those who have done the homework) and unprepared students, the teacher is faced with the dilemma of either proceeding as planned with the prepared students while the unprepared ones are lost, confused, and floundering, OR taking the time to teach the unprepared students what they should have learned in the homework, and thus leaving the prepared ones feeling bored stiff and frustrated with the sloooooow pace of the class.

 

Our co-op classes were things like "People in History" (video program with worksheets), Five in a Row, Arts & Crafts, etc. The Apologia Marine Biology class requried homework, but I figured a co-op would be like ps - if you don't do the work and get behind, it is your own fault.

[Tokyomarie]

Huh. I wouldn't have thought it really made a difference whether the kids did homework or not. We were part of a co-op this year, and my dc didn't do anything outside except the 12yo did the reading for Boy's Book Club. I never got anything from teachers saying there was homework, though, so I don't know if we blew off assignments or not.

 

I thought co-op was for socialization?

 

My philosophy is that elementary grades classes shouldn't have required homework. Those classes should be for true "enrichment" not a substitute for core curriculum.

 

Once students get into middle school it's a different story. Our co-op had ALL enrichment classes in K-12 at one time in its history. But parents of college prep students were finding it frustrating to take a full day out the week for enrichment, yet because the co-op did fulfill such an important social function for their kids they didn't want to leave altogether, either.

 

About 8 years ago we began to transition from the all enrichment format to offering more core academic subjects. The parents who have stayed with our group over the years have consistantly said, for their family, they do not want their co-op to be only for core academics because they usually only want to give up one or two subjects to an outside source. They also want classes like drama that can only be done in a group. So they prefer a mix from middle school on up.

 

The transition has not been without its bumps, however. It has taken old-time parents some years to realize

 

a) Signing up for a class that states it will fulfill all requirements in area x, y, or z means that they shouldn't double up and plan their own curriculum in that area at home

 

b) They need to build time into the structure of their days on the other four days to get the work done for their co-op classes. If a class states 1 hour/day homework, they really need to reserve 1 hour/day for that subject.

 

c) Signing up for a middle school or high school core academic class does not mean that parents can or should be hands off. A class that meets only once a week serves the purpose of providing some basic instruction, helping students and parents to pace the studies, take some of the grading load off the parents, and have a more knowledgeable person available for the student to ask questions. Parents still need to see that students do the work, make sure they understand the assignments, help them seek clarification if they don't understand, etc.

 

More and more our high schol students are doing fairly well at getting the work done. We still need to work on building that culture for our middle school students. Part of it is helping the parents to understand that when their child enters the middle school years, it's time to start upping the ante. But there is a wide variety of philosophy about how homeschooling is done in middle school. By high school, though there are differences in philosophy, most people- in our group at least- get that they are building a transcript for college and that changes the nature of the game.

Edited April 29, 2010 by Tokyomarie

[Renee in NC]

Marie, I can see in your co-op my dc would do whatever homework was required. Ours is (mostly) different in that it isn't covering core requirements.

[Tokyomarie]

Our co-op classes were things like "People in History" (video program with worksheets), Five in a Row, Arts & Crafts, etc. The Apologia Marine Biology class requried homework, but I figured a co-op would be like ps - if you don't do the work and get behind, it is your own fault.

 

Because classes tend to be much smaller, when several students are repeatedly unprepared because they haven't done their homework, it drags down the whole class. Most teachers will not slow down the class for one unprepared student- nor should they- but if several in a class of 8-10 are unprepared it is extremely frustrating.

 

My youngest has some learning challenges in the area of written expression. He wasn't keeping up with the written assignments for one of his classes this year. I have consistently communicated with the teacher, and in fact let her know I thought he should drop out because I didn't want him to hold the class back. After our conversation, the final decision was for him to remain in the class and simply audit. He was doing the assigned readings and participating in a reasonable manner in class and she didn't want to lose the discussion dynamic since it was a small class.

 

When parents communicate with the teacher regularly, it does help to keep the air clear.

[teachermom2834]

We do all assignments...some weeks it about kills us :)

 

The only exception is the vague email less than 48 hours from a teacher asking for some sort of project or presentation. If we are not given ample lead time based on the length of the assignment we do not do it. In that case we generally will have it ready the next week. That has happened a couple of times. Generally, everything is laid out on the syllabus at the beginning of the semester.

 

It is hard if we are missing for a trip of some kind but even then we have done work on the road to get it done. Just seems like a lesson in commitment and time management.

 

Marie (who is very happy today was the last day of co-op for us)

[angela in ohio]

Because classes tend to be much smaller, when several students are repeatedly unprepared because they haven't done their homework, it drags down the whole class. Most teachers will not slow down the class for one unprepared student- nor should they- but if several in a class of 8-10 are unprepared it is extremely frustrating.

 

Exactly.

 

Also, a co-op teacher is generally not paid. Some are getting equal amounts of classes for their own dc, some (expecially those who teach high school classes) are not. It is a labor of love. It is terribly hard to feel like the parents appreciate your effort so little, as their gratitude and the students' success is the only 'pay' you get.

[TechWife]

If your child is in a co-op and the teacher makes an assignment that your child doesn't have time to do or doesn't want to do, do you tell the teacher that your child won't be doing the work? Has your child ever gone into a co-op class and told the teacher he was too busy and wouldn't be doing the assignment?

 

If so, how did it go over with the teacher?

 

I'm just asking out of curiosity -- we don't have any co-op issues going on here, thankfully.

No - if I sign my child up for a class that has homework, I expect him to do the homework. That means I put it on the schedule and make sure that it gets done.

 

If the course description did not relate that there would be homework and it is not possible to work it into our schedule, I would discuss that with the teacher and possibly the director to get a clearer understanding of what the expectations are and to relate my understanding that resulted from the information given.

 

As a co-op teacher, even the elective courses I teach have some homework. This semester I am teaching a course that has quite a bit of homework. Our co-op has written guidelines regarding homework completion and I enforce them in my class. Ultimately, if a student does not complete homework, the family can eventually be removed from the co-op to make room for another family that is able to fully participate. That said, I have had some parents approach me about their schedules, learning styles, concerns, etc. and I have never failed to reach an acceptable agreement with a parent regarding homework assignments.