Recording hours and subject material questions

[Nemom]

How do you keep track of what you are doing...excel spreadsheet, hand written, or something else?

 

FYI-I am leaning towards using a subject transcript rather than by grade.

 

1) Today we completed a lesson on smoking for health. It included watching some youtube videos on the health effects, compared Marlboro Man & Joe Camel commercials from years ago to current commercials, a fact sheet and discussion. Later in the week we will research vaping vs cigarettes. Do I need to record all the videos we watched? Can I just put a brief description on my planner and then be sure to include "smoking" in the course description and call it good? Is there something else I need to do?

 

2) We watched a DVD called "The White House, Inside Story". Content pertains more to American Government rather than history. We have also been watching the debates and discussing the election. I would like to include these hours in our Am. Government course that we will likely be doing another year. What is the best way to record these hours and log them for the future course? Can I even do so? Would I just record the DVD name and publisher and then the time spent on the debates? How is this best done? Some sort of spreadsheet?

 

3) Similar question with art. We will be doing various projects throughout the years. I would like to incorporate them into her Fine Arts credit.

 

If you use a spreadsheet or something similiar-how do you organize it? TIA

[MerryAtHope]

Most classes have been contained within a year for us, so I haven't needed an elaborate system. For the few classes that were over more than a year, I just kept a very simple accounting in a Word document, ie:

 

Fine Arts - class, 18 hours, outside work, 12 hours, etc....

 

I do keep a description and/or list of activities in Word also--anything that I think I might want to put in a course description. Then, the next year I can add to it until I have enough time for a half credit or credit. (have done this for theater credits and art). 

 

For my classes within a year, we just work on them roughly an hour per day, and I keep basic attendance on my weekly schedule. I know that if we worked on it for a semester, they have enough hours for a half-credit, or if for a year, they have enough hours for a full credit. If they work on it less than an hour a day (PE, music...), I roughly add up what they do. I've never done an overly elaborate, count every single hour type of system. I just look to see if they're in the range. 

[Rebel Yell]

Why are you feeling the need to be so detailed in your records?

 

And for future courses such as the American Government one, is it likely that she will not do enough "work" (reading/writing/discussion etc) to receive credit for the course? If she will be able to do what is needed during the course to earn credit for the course I would not waste effort including previous years work.

[Nemom]

Why are you feeling the need to be so detailed in your records?

 

And for future courses such as the American Government one, is it likely that she will not do enough "work" (reading/writing/discussion etc) to receive credit for the course? If she will be able to do what is needed during the course to earn credit for the course I would not waste effort including previous years work.

I haven't taught high school before. So rather than "feeling" the need to be detailed in my records, I'm more unsure what I need to keep track of. I'd like to make sure I have all my bases covered.

[J-rap]

We didn't have an elaborate system either.  I didn't keep any special notes besides what I wrote in my teacher planner for each day.  When I wrote up our transcripts (generally at the end of each year), I summarized everything briefly.  So I wouldn't list "smoking" at all.  That would be lumped together in a much broader statement like "healthy living choices."  For the DVD or video that you watched, I may or may not list the name of it separately on the transcript.  On my transcript, I have a section for each subject where I listed the books we used, but if DVD's were used I could list them in that section as well and call it books and other sources, or books/media, etc.  Or, I might just write a brief statement saying that we watched many DVD's/videos to supplement the course, and not list their names.

 

I was not a detailed record keeper as far as hours.  If we had a textbook, we simply went through the textbook and I would give that course the equivalent number of hours/credits that a course is considered in our school district.  If we broke up a course and did some during the day, some during the dinner hour as a family discussion, some on a field trip, I would not be keeping detailed records on time spent.  I had a good feel for whether a course felt meaty enough to be considered a full credit course or just a half credit course.   I know that American Government is just a half credit course in our local school district, and if most of my American Government was going to center around the election process, I would build off of that to create a broader American Government course but still just call it half a credit.  (There are some nice, short American Government supplements out there).  I'd probably plan to be done with it in December.

 

For art, I always felt most of what we did (short homeschool co-op courses, community ed art classes, home art projects, etc.) were not enough to each be considered a whole course.  And you probably don't need more than a year of art classes, really.  (I think a semester is all that's required in our school district.)  So I lumped together the various short community courses and home projects that we did over a period of a couple years, with a description that explained that a range of art mediums were studied and experienced through multiple short-courses and art curriculums and projects.  If you want, you can add that the emphasis was on sketching, water color painting, acrylic painting, sculpting. (for example)   You can list the specific community ed weekend courses, art curriculum used, major special projects, etc.  So for example, one semester my daughter did 6 water color paintings that she ended up displaying at our local coffee shop.  So, while I wouldn't list every project she did, I'd list that one since it was a bigger project that highlighted specific goals.   We loved art, so always easily ended up with a full credit's worth.  (In reality it was probably much more!)

 

We did our transcript by subject too.

Edited October 11, 2016 by J-rap

[Chrysalis Academy]

I have an excel spreadsheet with the year's plan on it.  Well, not planned out in detail for the whole year, but subjects are in the first, left column and days/dates on a top row, with non-school time blocked off so I have a sense of the time we're working with. Some subjects - do the next thing, numbered lessons, etc. are filled in on this master calendar, but of course it's easy to change/shift, and change it does, frequently. But that's the master calendar.

 

Then for each week's to do list, I just copy the current week from the master calendar onto a different sheet and print it out for dd. She checks things off and records time spent during the week, on her to-do sheet.  If she does other/extra stuff, she can write it in. I include extracurriculars and appointments on the weekly calendar, so she has everything in one place.

 

A third page on my excel spreadsheet is the timelog - when I get the week's sheet back from dd, I record times/subject/day. I have it set up to do weekly totals and a running total for the year, so it's easy to see where we're at in terms of credit hours for each subject.  That way if I see we're lagging in any particular subject, we can focus on it in the upcoming week.  We don't do a full hour in every subject, every day,every week - partly because our school time varies a lot due to intense seasonal extracurriculars, and partly because dd tends to like to binge on favorite subjects.  But this system let's me know where we're at and helps me help her keep on track with the must-dos.

 

Anyway, that's how it works. It is really quite quick and easy to set up, and it can be updated/maintained in just a few minutes a week.

 

 

[JennW in SoCal]

It doesn't need to be elaborate. I used a spiral notebook and a ballpoint pen, and organized website and youtube bookmarks by subject. I was always jotting down ideas, book titles and library call numbers, so when it was time to plan I could take those notes and start sketching out a rough plan for the year.  Once that plan took shape I made book lists and organized a rough syllabus for each course. 

 

My kids each had a calendar planner, and I'd jot down each week's assignments in it. And I kept a calendar -- out of necessity for organizing my life -- of all our outside activities.

 

I never kept track of hours spent on a subject.

 

I didn't even bother writing a transcript until the summer after junior year.  I organized it by subject and with all my hand written scribbles in my notebook had no trouble writing brief course descriptions with a list of titles read. 

 

All this to say, it doesn't matter how you organize yourself. You just need to use whatever you are most comfortable with, whatever you will automatically turn to day in and out.