Giving Homework Helps Your Students Learn

 

Homework is an important way for students to learn the lessons. It gives them a chance to practice what they have learned and it allows you, the teacher to know if the students understand what you have taught. Make sure you give the homework information clearly, the students know the purpose of the homework, make sure to give proper feedback on the homework, and make sure the homework is interesting.

When giving homework make sure to state the directions clearly. It might even help to have a typed up instruction on a worksheet that you can give out to the students. If the students need to use a book as a reference make sure to have the page numbers on the homework guide. If the students have a set of directions they must follow like how to create a blog post using WordPress then make sure all of the steps in creating a blog post is outlined.

Students need to learn the purpose of their homework so they can better understand the goal of completing the assignment. For example, if your students have to write an essay make sure you tell your students why they have to write the essay. For example, if your students have to write an essay about photography in the 1950s, be certain to tell them they have to write an essay about photography history so they better understand what photography was like in the 1950s, what tools they had that they could use, and compare what photography was like in 1950s to what photography is like in the present times.

Once the students have completed their assignments it is up to you, the teacher to make sure to give detailed feedback. Feedback is very important because it will help the students learn what areas they can improve in and what areas they were able to understand. Feedback may also come in the form of other peers commenting. For example, if the students have written an essay about photography you can have students post their essays on a WordPress blog and have the students comment on each other’s essays.

Homework gives students the chance to display what areas they succeed in. Make sure you give an adequate amount of homework and ensure that the homework is pertinent to the subject matter the students are learning. Homework does not have to feel like homework. There are ways you can give fun homework so make sure to do research on ways on how you can make the homework fun. For example, if the students are learning about current events you can have the students go online and find an article they are interested in and bring it to class and share it with each other.

Homework is key in educating the students. As a teacher, it is your job to make instructions clear, the goal of the homework stated, the students learn how well they did with completing the homework, and most importantly that the students are engaged when completing the homework. Make homework interesting and your students will love you for it.

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Learning in Groups

Organizing students in groups can help them learn because they have more fun, they get ideas and learn from each other, and they also compete. Learning in groups is called cooperative learning. Many studies have been done on cooperative learning and these studies show that when students are put in groups their learning is enhanced.

When students are placed in groups they retain more information and gain new skills. It is important to minimize conflicts when students are placed in groups and often times it might be a good idea for the students to vote a student leader for the group. Sometimes students may not all share the same amount of workload so it is important to ensure that the groups have divided their workload equally.

Make sure to note when groups are not working and are just chatting or playing around. It is important for the teacher of the class to monitor the groups and give them guidance when needed. Also, encourage the students within the groups to help each other and give positive recognition to the groups that are working well together, communicating effectively with each other, and are focused on the tasks at hand.

Next time you have an important lesson plan see if you can incorporate group work. This will give students a chance to get to know each other and it will be a new change of pace. You will find that there will be many positive effects because of group work.

Don’t Be Perfect Just Make Sure to Succeed Most of the Time

Life is already complicated so don’t make it more complicated by striving for perfection all of the time. Just make sure to do the best that you can and make sure to succeed at least 80% to 90% of the time. This is a mantra I live by and I’ve applied it to many aspects of my life.

As a Visual Media undergrad, I had to make all sorts of drawings and paintings. I wanted all of my drawings and paintings to be perfect and to be the most awesome pieces, but what I found was that striving for perfection was driving me insane. Then I realized you know what if I just at least make 80% to 90% of my pieces excellent then that will be good enough.

Being an artist is not about making a masterpiece all of the time. Sometimes you have to experiment and make mistakes and then the important part is learning from those mistakes. You have to try new paints or new brushes to improve your art and yes you might make some mistakes, but you have to get back up. Refresh your artwork ideas and try something new or perhaps apply your new method differently in order to make a better piece.

Above is a piece I made that was a complete experiment. I like most of it. Sure it is not perfect. It is not a masterpiece, but I love this piece because I tried something new. I cut out magazine pieces, glued it onto paper, and made a collage. I then drew on top of it then scanned the entire piece, saved the image on my computer and edited it in Photoshop. I used the smudge tool to make the edges blend and I played with the brightness and color of the image.

I love how the images are structured and placed. I like the smudges blending the images. I like the right side a lot more than the left side. Some of the drawings go well with the image like the squiggles on the right side. The drawing on the left side of the image not so well, but I still really love this piece. I am happy with the image for the most part. I would say I like 80% of it. I made this a few years ago and to this day I love it.

The important lesson for me to learn about this image is that it is not perfect, but I love most of it. Of course, it is also important that I tried something new and I grew a little bit as an artist. In the future, I would like to apply this similar technique to my other pieces. I think overall creating this artwork was a great experience and now I am happy I have a piece I can share with you, my audience.