Hardest Homework Assignment Ever!!!

I must be a really mean teacher. How could I possible ask my students to do something so difficult for homework?

You’ll laugh when I tell you what the assignment actually is. But first, a bit of a set-up here is needed.

I tell my students that they should be doing twenty minutes of homework a night. I don’t think this is an unreasonable request. I also don’t ask them to do anything terribly difficult.

This is what my homework program looks like. I send home a letter every Monday that outlines the homework for the week. I list 4 or 5 things that I would like the students to do for the week.

1) The students need to study the spelling words and be prepared for the test on Friday. I have given them a few different ways to study the words and I don’t ask them just to study them in a specific way.

2) Math – I sometimes ask the students to practice the timetables and I encourage them to memorize them. Other times I send home a one page worksheet as a review of what we have been learning in class.

3) Read for twenty minutes at least twice this week.

4) Write a paragraph on a topic of your choice.

I changed the Fourth Homework item this week to this.

4) Have a NO ELECTRICITY NIGHT. For one night this week, do not do anything for fun that requires electricity. This means that you cannot watch TV, play video games, go on the computer, listen to your MP3 player, etc. Write a paragraph about what you did.

I encouraged the students and wrote to the parents that this could be a family activity. I told the students that they can have the lights on and they still can cook. I just want them to try and entertain themselves without electricity. This ties in to our unit on Early Settlements and Pioneer Times.

I really hope that my students will take up this challenge. I told them that I will be doing this myself today. I can’t really ask them to do something I am unwilling to do myself. So tonight after school, I guess I won’t be watching Wheel of Fortune while I have my dinner. I won’t be going online either. I can do it, I think.


5 responses to “Hardest Homework Assignment Ever!!!”

  1. “I really hope that my students will take up this challenge.” I hope so too! One of our best nights ever as a family was when the power was out and we were forced to sit together in the kitchen, using candlelight. We roasted marshmallows and just talked.

  2. Hi Vered,

    I hope so too. I’m remember the big blackout a few years back. I saw parents outside playing with their kids, parents that I had never seen do that before.

    It is amazing how much our technology actually cuts us off from each other. It’s sad that it takes a blackout for parents to spend time with their kids.

    That day was actually a really good day. I spent time with people in the neighbourhood that I hadn’t even met. It seemed to bring us all together and it was great.

  3. this is a great assignment – i need to do more things that don’t involve electricity, like reading. i haven’t been reading as much as i used to and i REALLY REALLY miss it. i am reading 5 books at one time right now. normally i would breeze through one and move on to the next. tells ya how busy i have made myself.

  4. Hi Trisia,

    I love when your comments cause me to laugh out loud. Nice!

    Hi Natural,

    One of my students actually said that he loved it and wants to have no electricity nights often now. I wonder if his family will go for it again. Apparently one of the reasons he enjoyed it was because his little brother was “going crazy.” I tried not to laugh at his reasoning.