MR. KOCH'S PHILOSOPHY ON HOMEWORK

I believe it is important for students to have some homework during the week. The experts say about 10 minutes a night (X) times the child's age, so if your child is 12 years old that would be about 120 minutes (2 hours) a night. At the middle school we will be giving homework, but rarely will it ever be two hours worth. When it comes to homework, I have three suggestions that have worked in the past for parents, including me!

ASSIGNMENT BOOK

Students today use a variety of ways to keep track of their daily assignments. Please visit with your child about developing an organizational structure for keeping track of daily work and project dates.

LET THE TEACHERS TEACH

One of the biggest reasons parents and children get into power struggles is homework. When you start to feel stressed out over homework or maybe you don't understand the assignment, I encourage you to put the assignment away and bring your child to school early and let the teacher do what they do best, and that is teach. Our staff is very dedicated to teaching your child and they tell students all of the time to seek them out for help. Our teachers are here from 7:45 to 3:45 PM. If your child is embarrassed to go see a teacher, have him/her bring a friend. Oftentimes the friend has questions too.

ICU

ICU is a program we started a few year ago that promotes students doing their homework and doing it correctly. When a student comes to school and their assignment is not completed or completed to a satisfactory level the student attends our noon or at the end of day during Power Hour. ICU is led by a person we call a "life guard" as they are trying to protect your child from getting behind. We also have voluntary ICU from 7:45 to 8:10 each day. If your child is struggling with homework at home, put the book away and send them to ICU in the morning! Our ICU program has significantly reduced late work. ICU program has also helped us significantly drop "D's"and "F's" in our school.