Principal’s Message 4/27/15
By Daniel Zoller
No...I am not asking you to send your child out to play while you sharpen your #2 pencils and buckle down with the fundamental concepts of Math and Reading! But I highly suggest that regardless if your child is in Kindergarten or 5th Grade, to sit down at least once a week and watch, help, assist, and scrutinize their homework.
As many of you know I have my own children, 1st and 5th grade, and during Track Out I have all the homework duty for the evenings to give my wife a break; usually we share the responsibility. The past week each night, Ellie my 1st grade daughter had 3-4 word problems for Math Homework. The first night we did pretty well and I was glad to hear her not only read fluently but answer the problems with little assistance. The second night was a bit different.
Ellie’s Tuesday Night Math Homework:
Problem #1: Tarquez has 2 fewer canoe oars than Kemiyah. Kemiyah has 6 canoe oars. How many oars does Tarquez have?
This problem frustrated me! She knows how to complete this problem but reading the word problem is what caught her up. It was interesting that she didn’t struggle with the names of the students but with the words “canoe” and “oar.” Oar is especially challenging for Ellie since she has trouble, just like her dad did, with saying the “r” sound.
After teaching Ellie the word canoe and practicing saying the word oar and reading the sentences at least 4 times we finally got to the Math in the word problem which she easily completed.
The next problem I whipped out my Phone and opened my voice recorder App. This time I recorded myself reading the problem and let Ellie replay it as many times as she needed to and this was much quicker. On the third problem she wanted to record her own voice using the App! It was great to see her excitement and engagement.
Almost every night I can see the value in the homework my children have (I sure hope so being a principal in our school district) but last week, I made a true connection that my child’s homework can give me a very clear picture to her exact ability in the subject being taught even if it isn’t the intended one.
I encourage all of you to “do your child’s homework” maybe not every night, but at least once a week sit down with your child and “assess” them on their abilities.
By Daniel Zoller
No...I am not asking you to send your child out to play while you sharpen your #2 pencils and buckle down with the fundamental concepts of Math and Reading! But I highly suggest that regardless if your child is in Kindergarten or 5th Grade, to sit down at least once a week and watch, help, assist, and scrutinize their homework.
As many of you know I have my own children, 1st and 5th grade, and during Track Out I have all the homework duty for the evenings to give my wife a break; usually we share the responsibility. The past week each night, Ellie my 1st grade daughter had 3-4 word problems for Math Homework. The first night we did pretty well and I was glad to hear her not only read fluently but answer the problems with little assistance. The second night was a bit different.
Ellie’s Tuesday Night Math Homework:
Problem #1: Tarquez has 2 fewer canoe oars than Kemiyah. Kemiyah has 6 canoe oars. How many oars does Tarquez have?
This problem frustrated me! She knows how to complete this problem but reading the word problem is what caught her up. It was interesting that she didn’t struggle with the names of the students but with the words “canoe” and “oar.” Oar is especially challenging for Ellie since she has trouble, just like her dad did, with saying the “r” sound.
After teaching Ellie the word canoe and practicing saying the word oar and reading the sentences at least 4 times we finally got to the Math in the word problem which she easily completed.
The next problem I whipped out my Phone and opened my voice recorder App. This time I recorded myself reading the problem and let Ellie replay it as many times as she needed to and this was much quicker. On the third problem she wanted to record her own voice using the App! It was great to see her excitement and engagement.
Almost every night I can see the value in the homework my children have (I sure hope so being a principal in our school district) but last week, I made a true connection that my child’s homework can give me a very clear picture to her exact ability in the subject being taught even if it isn’t the intended one.
I encourage all of you to “do your child’s homework” maybe not every night, but at least once a week sit down with your child and “assess” them on their abilities.