calling teachers!! Scary, Elliepac, etc... advice yet again, please!

[mistermister]

Hi, sorry to keep picking teachers' brains, but you are all so helpful! IYO, do you do your children any real favours if you pick them up on mistakes/slight errors in homework etc? I would say probably not, but just wondered what teachers thought? Not talking anything monumental, just whether or not a heading stands out on a poster/the odd grammatical error (don't know if I've spelt that right?!!!!), maybe if they've missed out one or two things that they should have included, etc..... I just want to do the right thing in striking a balance because I don't want to dent confidence by picking up on everything (my DS luckily is very conscientious and I don't have to chase him to do h/w) and also, I guess teachers have to see the "real deal" to get a fair picture? Sorry to waffle on! Thanks.

Depends on the child I'd say.
My daughter didn't and wouldn't appreciate any intervention on homework whatsoever. My son asks me to check his stuff and is pleased at any tips or points I can help with.

I wouldn't point out grammatical errors in general run-of-the-mill stuff, as that would give the teacher a false impression of the child's abilities.

With ds1 I do offer advice/suggestions/contributions on about 25% of his homeworks.

So for example I have strong opinions on design of posters/powerpoints and so on - ie classic and unfussy: max two font styles, max two font sizes, good use of blank space, careful/limited colour scheme, etc. So once, early on in yr7, I went through this with him and explained my point of view and the reasons behind it. Since then I haven't commented further on his layout styles, other than to praise him when I find something particularly pleasing.

Like Goblinchild's dd, ds2 is - and always has been - impossible to give advice to. So I always leave him to it completely unless he comes and solicits assistance! Otherwise we both end up very stressed.

Okay, Roisin, thank you very much for your post - very helpful indeed. I think I will let him get on with it and, as you mentioned, will offer help if asked for and maybe if something new comes up, we can go over it together and then maybe he'll be better armed for similar homeworks (if that makes sense)! Thanks again.

I'm glad that was useful. I also generally offer help, suggestions, comments before he does the work, rather than as a postmortem after. With things like Maths (questions/answers) I don't check at all.

thank you.

Yes and no. I find it hard when he has h/w's for something I've taught not to tell him how it could be better; but I do a quick proof of stray capitals and spellings, as I'm trying to get him to see how this can gain marks.

If he has something specific for geog/hist/Eng, then we'll talk about it, and I'll help with French/Dutch h/w in that I'll help him look things up in verb tables and discuss tenses. Maths and science are closed books to me, so he's stuffed with those unless dh helps him.

Thanks, Scary - I'm afraid maths is down to my DH who has an A-level whereas I only managed a CSE (yes, a CSE!) grade D!! Shameful!! It was the one subject I just couldn't grasp, yet English and Science were good subjects for me and I can help if need be! I'm getting a clear picture here, so thanks everyone.

I am the proud possessor of 2 CSE grade 2s and a CEE 2 in maths which is an O level equivalent, hence I could teach. No matter that I teach RE and don't need trig or algebra, but heyho!

Love the post, Scary!! I am currently doing a correspondence course for GCSE maths as I am thinking of going into nursing and it's the one qualification I'm lacking!! I loved RE at school, one of the few that did!! I bet you are a great teacher - I respect you all - I am a TA in a primary school and I don't think I could be a teacher - I don't think people really realise what goes into it - hours of planning, marking, dealing with parents - hats off to all of you!!