question..........

James K

NO, I'm always like this
Location
Taylorsville, Ut
...............I am a little aggrevated.

My 5th grader has 2 six page reports due Dec, 22.

One is a auto biography, about his birthday's, which he has had 11 of including the one today.

It has to have a cover page, a table of contents in the form of a time line, plus the six pages about his birthdays. All typed in no bigger than a 14 font, top and bottom margin of 6 spaces and 1" margins on the sides.


The other is on the orginal 13 colonies, which he has already had to build a house for that reprsents where a shipwright would live. It has to be done in powerpoint, which he can only use when he is at school. For which they only see about 15-20 minutes of computer time a day, because they have 8 computers and 30+ kids. Oh yeah and he has to have a costume, that represents a shipwright, to play out some skit about the colonies on top of all the other crap.

This is in addition to all the normal class work they are expected to get done on a daily basis.

This is driving me and my wife insane. How in the hell do you expect a 5th grader to do all this and still have a life?

At this point my wife and I feel we are back in school. :mad:

I just think this is a bit of a stretch and quite a bit of work for a 5th grader.

not to mention who gives a crap about what happen with the colonies. Focus more on teaching them how to do the report then what its about.

Oh yeah by the way my daughter had this same teacher when she was in the 3rd grade (7years ago) and all this woman want to focus on is history. My daughter still to this day dislikes this woman, for which we don't let her talk about the teacher in front of my son as to not discourage him.



and yes, I really dislike this woman.


rant off:
 

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wydaho
While I believe history is very important, it sounds like this lady has issues. I understand kids having homework, but in moderation at best! IMO, if a teacher is issuing homework that takes up more than an hour of the kids time at home (all homework for the day), then the teacher(s) is not doing their job with their given time in the classroom.

6 page reports?? I didn't have 6 page (plus) reports until my senior year in hike school. Tell the damn teacher to her job and quit relying on the homework to teach the subject. :eek:
 

Meat_

Banned
Location
Lehi
Sounds like a bit much to expect. As for having teachers like that, it teaches kids that there are people in life that are very unlikeable and that you can't always do something about it.
 

ALF

SURE!?
Location
Taylorsville
I hear ya James my kid is only in first and she has an hour a night not including the 20 min. of reading she is supposed to do by the time she does her homework chores, eats dinner and has a bath it's bed time. Sometimes it seems like they want us to teach the kids what the hell are we paying them for :mad2:

Where the time for kids to be kids and have FUN? :ugh:
 

Milner

formerly "rckcrlr"
I think my 5th grade teacher was by far the hardest I had until I was a freshman in college!! I hated her....until I got to highschool....

You situation does seem excessive though.

As for powerpoint, download open office, it is supposed to be compatible and was free last time I tried....
 

Bart

Registered User
Location
Arm Utah
My youngest is in 6th grade and has never had 2 projects of that magnitude at the same time. In fact I don't think my older kids had a 6 page report until junior high. That teacher is phsyco.
 

?JMAMA

Formerly YJMAMA
Location
Magna, UT
My brother was supposed to do some big report on how he thought different languages were developed. He felt this was just "busy work". Our mom went to the principal about it. He ended up not having to do the report.
 

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Sounds over the edge, I was in an acclerated school program in my younger years (balanced out my much slower high school program ;)), and I don't remember anything as hardcore as that.
 

Catherine

Mrs. Gardner
Location
Fruita, CO
I do agree with most comments. Being a teacher i guess i am a little more sensative to the negative comments made toward her. In my experience I have had children who no matter how much time you give them in class will not do their work...then it becomes homework. Check to see if the teacher has given them time in class to complete some of the report like maps or other specific criteria.

And by the way looking at the teacher salary in utah you aren't paying them enough to teach your kids!!!
 

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wydaho
Catherine said:
I do agree with most comments. Being a teacher i guess i am a little more sensative to the negative comments made toward her. In my experience I have had children who no matter how much time you give them in class will not do their work...then it becomes homework. Check to see if the teacher has given them time in class to complete some of the report like maps or other specific criteria.

And by the way looking at the teacher salary in utah you aren't paying them enough to teach your kids!!!

Can I pull my foot out of my mouth yet? :eek: :hickey:
 

way2nosty

Registered User
Herzog said:
Can I pull my foot out of my mouth yet? :eek: :hickey:


I think that teachers are paid just enough - figures out to like $34/hour when you consider they only work 9 months out of the year 6 hours a day. I'm not ragging on teachers, I just think that the union mentality has struck again. Look what it is doing to GM.
 

Greg

I run a tight ship... wreck
Admin
way2nosty said:
I think that teachers are paid just enough - figures out to like $34/hour when you consider they only work 9 months out of the year 6 hours a day. I'm not ragging on teachers, I just think that the union mentality has struck again. Look what it is doing to GM.


Yeah, unions suck... what do you do & how much do you make an hour?
 

Greg

I run a tight ship... wreck
Admin
way2nosty said:
developer $55


I have a job that requires NO high school diploma and I make around $20/hr, have incredible benefits, the best retirement offered and the possibility to take my job whatever direction I desire. Unions kick ass... after working plenty of non-union jobs, I'm glad to have the support they provide.

BTW... my wife wishes school days were 6 hrs long. Most of the time she works, she gets home later than I do.

Sorry about the hijack James. :D
 

way2nosty

Registered User
I'm not saying that Unions are all bad, They most definatly have their place. You work for Union Pacific right? Which employs what 40-60,000 people, the company could easily decide that the $8.00/hour they pay in benefits isn't worth it... the Union keeps them honest.

What my comment about The union was directed at is that it has no place in or around education, Unions promote mediocrety, which is bad in a school. Education should be totally performance driven, push the good techers get rid of the bad ones which is a MAJOR hangup in Utah -medocrety-

Having a significant amount of secular education, I beleive it is significantly less valuable then what a person learns in the school of hard knocks. I have seen a mechanical engineer that could build anything on a computer, but could barely operate a remote - I've seen people that dropped out of High School write tighter code then people with BS in Computer science. You most definatly have my respect.
 

TK1

Full Mall Crawler Status
Location
Taylorsville, UT
Ken said:
All I have to say to a powerpoint presentation in fifth grade is f that!

My daughter has done a power point presentation for her SEP conferences in 3rd grade last year and in 4th grade this year. It's just a small presentation but power point none the less.
 

ALF

SURE!?
Location
Taylorsville
TK1 said:
My daughter has done a power point presentation for her SEP conferences in 3rd grade last year and in 4th grade this year. It's just a small presentation but power point none the less.


ummm :ugh: I can't figure out power point :sick:
 
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