Homework Apps - transforming my life :-)

Only to find that she got told off for not submitting one piece on time - she knew nothing about it because she was ill when it was set, and for some reason the teacher hadn't put it up on the online SMH equivalent tool either...

I think the "maverick" nature of some teachers causes a lot of issues generally. If the school has decided to introduce a SMH system, then all the teachers should abide by it. It's up to the leadership team to deal with teachers' issues. It completely devalues the whole thing if some maverick teachers decide to do their own thing for their own reasons.

If my son missed a homework that wasn't on SMH then he wouldn't be getting punished or told off for it, I can assure you, and if the teacher tried, they'd be told otherwise in no uncertain terms, regardless of whether they'd told it in class or not.

As for a previous post by a teacher whinging about pupils emailing her asking for homework details because she hadn't put it on the system, that's her own bloody fault! If her school has decided to use the system who the hell is she to decide not to bother? She could avoid her pupils emailing her if she did what she should have done and put it on the system. If she has problems with that, then she should take it up with her HOD and school management, not take it out on her pupils!

My DC both have homework apps BUT there are issues which mean that it's less than reliable. And it seems to me as a parent that it's just another 'admin' duty to do...

DD had an issue recently where she was briefly off sick, we checked online for any additional bits of homework set that she missed being told about - nada. Only to find that she got told off for not submitting one piece on time - she knew nothing about it because she was ill when it was set, and for some reason the teacher hadn't put it up on the online SMH equivalent tool either...

DS has an 'old school' teacher for one of his subjects who a) often forgets to put work up on my SMH and b) when he does remember to do so, often forgets to mark it as submitted - so it looks as if DS hasn't done it (but he has).

And it's not only an extra admin job for parents - it's more work (presumably) for the teachers too?

Maisy, yes, she could have had a school-home book but that would have made her feel different to all the others, with SMH she gets treated the same, at least for this aspect of her schooling. For us its a total winner.

My school has stopped giving kids diaries because £££. If I don't put the homework online then they've no way of recording it.

On the one hand it's good because it doesn't rely on their accurate recording of page numbers etc to do the right homework. On the other hand it is totally removing any responsibility to organise themselves from them. I've had a sixth former tell me they haven't done the homework because it wasn't put online. How will they cope at university?!

The additional demands/expectations linked to these platforms are precisely the things that annoy me about them

Agree.
'Worksheet wasn't attached on SMHW' - I know I gave your child a sheet in class and they lost it. I didn't attach on SMHW as it was a hard copy that I photocopied - to add it to SMHW I need to scan it, save it and add it.

'You didn't put on SMHW that a calculator was needed for the test'. No I didn't but I told children every lesson for 2 weeks beforehand and actually they should always have their calculator for Maths.

I am also too busy to answer your emails which are basically excuses for your child not being organised.

Well many of the hw tasks seem to be multiple choice quizzes at the moment, so only online in any case. I don't know how valuable these are in terms of learning, but then I'm not a teacher.

It may may your life easier but it causes problems for my teaching It would make my life easier because currently the teachers are not posting the homework when they should post it, i.e. on the day they say they are going to post it, surely it's not unreasonable to expect them to stick to their word?

orange
For all KS4 homework i put it on after class or set to go live the day after class because thr homework is based (usually) on things we have just done in class.
I don't want material about what happens at the end of a chapter on the learning platform before we have read the chapter. It may may your life easier but it causes problems for my teaching when I'm asking students to consider what's going and half the class have seen the homework task 'explore how the writer makes simon's death significant'

Without the online platform you wouldn't get homework til it is set in the lesson.

The additional demands/expectations linked to these platforms are precisely the things that annoy me about them.

The school also has a policy of no phones out of bags during school hours, so they can't take photos of the board Our school has this policy too but it seems that if the pupils are using their phones to for the right reason - taking photo of the homework the rules don't apply! I wish the teachers posted homework onto SMH before they set it in class - it would improve our home life considerably.

Agree there were some issues at the start with inconsistency etc and some not using it but now its been running for a while and all teachers use it and it's used for any sort of communication/notifications' and is really helpful. And as I said before is good practise for Uni where absolutely everything is done in this way.

Wh0KnowsWhereTheTimeG0es
We put in place home/school books for this. Students would pop them out/guve to teacher whatever was agreed with home and teachers write in them.

I agree that SMH and other platforms can be great and work well.

My DD's also has a no phones out of bags policy. Just jotting it down in a diary or planner isn't easy for her, she has slow processing speed and handwriting. She didn't know anyone when she started at this school so the first few weeks she didn't have anyone's phone numbers to text and ask for clarification. She also didn't want to admit to the teachers that she couldn't write it down fast enough as she gets embarrassed in front of the other pupils. So it was a real struggle for her before she got SMH, it has been a revelation for her and her confidence has really grown.

The school also has a policy of no phones out of bags during school hours, so they can't take photos of the board
So jot it in their planner or diary?

I tell mine to do that anyway because everything is set in class.
I don't get this 'instructions and material were given in class but it being online later means it's difficult to do homework'. How do we think teachers and students have managed for years?

DS has just started secondary, they use SMH. Most teachers use it, a few put the hw on very late (tho of course at beginning of term the school made a big deal about there being no excuse not to do homework as 'it's all on the app!')

The school also has a policy of no phones out of bags during school hours, so they can't take photos of the board. DS is very anxious about getting to the next lesson in time and gets panicked about having time to write in hw diary.

leccybill
I've set my KS3 to auto set for the term but it auto goes on each Monday abd sometimes I don't see them til Tuesday abd some have done it. In one class there seems to be a growing game of beat mrs pops . I'm not complaining because it gets it done.

There are a lot of positives, just some elements of it annoy me until students work out that the same rules apply wth me as before we got the system

I always upload hwk onto SMH before I even tell the classes. Usually on a Sunday. Some conscientious kids see it, do it, print it off and hand it in the next day before over even had the chance to tell them about it! I love those kids
Pros for me - no 'I lost the sheet' excuses, if kid was absent they can still do it (I make them), they can post a comment to me if unsure on anything.
Cons - sadly quite a few of ours don't have Internet at home because it's been cut off due to parents struggling with bills, so it makes things a bit more awkward for them which isn't their fault. I let them in the computer room at lunch in this case.

My school does everything online. Parent evening appts online, seating plans, appraisal, the lot. Makes my head spin sometimes!

If it can be effectively used as tool to help disorganised kids that would be great but I have found it has done the opposite. Dcs do food tech - they cook every Monday...without SMH the teacher would have to give them the recipe for next week on the Monday - all would be well and we'd have plenty of time to get the ingredients but instead the ingredients are randomly uploaded on different days of the week, it's a pain in the butt and making it hard for us to get organised and develop any kind of routine for getting ingredients.

They say that they will post the homework and when they do it is often at the last minute and still expect it to be done
I set my homework in class and the task is in their books.
Sometimes I'm busy doing all thr other things linked to teaching and post it up a couple of days later (always with the line 'as discussed in detail in class on Monday...')

It was set in class, explained in class and our students still have homework diaries.
The fact that an electronic version of a task i spent 10 mins explaining and setting (and the children have the material) is on a couple of days late isn't a reason not to do the homework. Hell, we managed perfectly well without having to upload duplicates kf homework for years.

Oh and the extra work on the platform is that schools expect staff to sign in and tick off that students have done the homework. Why not just let me keep my own record like i've done for years.

I do get that if the school have gone entirely paperless then late uploads is an issue, but I would question why any teacher isn't setting homework explicitly in class (tech or no tech, it's a basic to me).

Dcs school are very bloody annoying about this app.
Apparently I am supposed to check what homework they have on it, discuss it with them and then make sure it's all done and then sign their planner! I do not believe this is at all necessary - my dcs do their homework - they organise time to do it around activities and weekend trips, they take responsibility for their work and would get bloody annoyed at me interfering.

I trust them but the biggest challenge is learning to deal with the teachers do not deliver the goods. They say that they will post the homework and when they do it is often at the last minute and still expect it to be done. DD emailed her teacher twice this week requesting the homework be posted as her diary is very full from Friday to Monday and the work is due in on Tuesday and she needed to do the work before the weekend - still nothing has appeared and we will have to return home earlier than planned or cancel her activity on Monday - depending on when the homework comes through. The dcs often get around this by taking photos of the homework and pass it around WhatsApp because they can't trust the teacher to put the homework on the app on the day they set it.
It's all bit shit to be honest - the app has created its own problems.

Sounds like a pain for teachers though, inputting every piece of homework!
It is.
We have a similar setup.
It was sold to us as it will reduce how much time you spend chasing homework etc

Except I didn't have a homework issue in my classes so now I spend more time adding homework to the system.

Oh, and then you have students saying thru haven't done the homework because they had a 'problem logging in'. (top tip for show my homework - students and parents can view homework on thr school calendar without logging in!)

For the first month I had students messaging on thr system at 10pm the day before homework was due to say they didn't get thr homework and then on deadline day say they couldn't do it because they were stuck. Detention given.

It meant that instead of being at 100% homework handins by 3-4 weeks in, it took me til half term to be there as students tried to work out which members of staff will buy the excuses.

My policy is:
You still write an overview in your planner (or at least that you have it so if there's an issue you can text someone and ask). If you don't and then have a problen with the platform it's not my problem and you get a detention.
Running out of data in your phone and other tech issues is no excuse unless our IT team confirm an issue with the platform.
Students can use any computer in school or mine on a lunch.
Do not expect a reply ob the system out of standard working hours (8-5)
Leave it to the last minute and have an issue then it's not my problem

I like a few of the features of the platform. It just created more issues for me at thr start of the year as students tested what they could get away with.

Sounds like a pain for teachers though, inputting every piece of homework!

My severely dyslexic dd often takes a picture with her phone of any homework on the board so she knows she has it copied correctly.
The online homework system is great too but there are occasions when it does not get added.

Yes, I've got one DC who's school use it and one who's school don't, it really is brilliant. The DC who has it is dyslexic and before they started it used to struggle to write fast enough in the planner what the homework was, now she's totally on top of things. I have it on my phone too so I can keep an eye on things but she really doesn't need me to.

My involvement in homework at secondary has always been just to ask them if they've done it in general. I don't look at it on a piece by piece basis.