Tag: homework

3/4

raining17Leave a comment

The week leading up to the end of the quarter is stress-inducing for all Ojai Valley School students. In order to accurately evaluate each student, teachers are assigning copious amounts of homework, including big projects with a high point value to assemble a final (quarter) grade.

Every class seems to have at least one test this week, often worth even more points than usual. This week feels like a year, going on and on, but soon to be over!

Photo Credit: broadwayeducators.com

Students seem to be dragging around campus as a result of late night studying and cramming to finish projects. Getting a good third quarter grade is often important, since slacking can sometimes happen at the end of the year. Therefore, this final push is what brings everybody to the last quarter, and then the end of the school year.

With that in mind, the quarter end is highly anticipated – everyone just has to make it through this week first!

 

Homework?

raining17Leave a comment

School is a designated time and place for people to learn and increase their knowledge. Because of that, I don’t think it’s fair for copious amounts of work to be assigned out of school as well.

When long hours are spent every day sitting in chairs and taking in lots of information, it seems like overkill to continue to practice what we’ve learned later in the day.

Many teachers argue that class time is for learning the material, and that through homework we are supposed to prove our knowledge. That is a legitimate point, however, if we didn’t have homework, then there would actually be time to execute our skills during class itself.

Photo Credit: jbmthinks.com

So much time is spent during class periods assigning, explaining and reviewing homework. If no homework was assigned, the time originally spent talking about homework after we’ve learned the lesson could be spent proving what we’ve learned. Then, we would have learned what we needed to know and have proven our intelligence all within the class period, without having to do even more work at home.

With all the homework that is assigned – coupled with after school activities – many students are staying up late into the night, and are not sufficiently rested for the next day. That causes them not to perform their best in school.

If this education system could be revised, students would be more attentive in school, have a higher motivation to get their work done in class and overall be more successful academically.

Overwhelmed

displacedlocalLeave a comment

Like many students I get overwhelmed with my work very often. The process progresses over time.It starts during second period when I get my first homework assignment. In my mind I am scheduling out my study hall. By third period my study hall is full. In my mind I am praying that I don’t get anymore homework. Fourth period hits. Well now I am going to be up until eleven. Then I get a brief break for Journalism where I do a blog and some of my work in class. English comes and more homework is added to the pile.

During study hall I sit down and look at the giant list of of homework in front of me. My mind starts to race. The worst case scenario runs through my head first, what if I don’t finish any of it. The list starts to feel bigger and my time is ticking away.

The Walls get smaller and my heart beats faster. It gets harder to breathe. I get a faint ringing in my ears and a massive headache. Everything seems impossible and I just want to go to sleep and leave it to the morning.

I work up all of my courage and begin. I tear through the work slowly chipping away at the giant list.

I blast through graphs and formulas as math slowly works itself out.

Physics disappears as the laws of projectile motion get thrown around.

AP US History get thrown into the past when I answer questions about the revolution.

I expose the end to my articles in Journalism.

In English I power through Miller and Poe as the clock hits 11:59 pm.

Homework is finished and I crawl into bed.

As I fade into sleep I remember.

I have a vocabulary test tomorrow.

I say toss it, I’ll study during my free period, and I fall asleep.

Senioritis

rangerthecat5 Comments

SENIORITIS!!!!

It’s here. And it’s kicking in BIG TIME.

I was extremely motivated to do well in school in the beginning of the year. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to do well, and I haven’t completely given up. But ever since college applications have all been turned in, I have noticed a shift within me and my friends that I thought I would be able to resist.

It also could be more apparent in me than in my peers, considering the fact that I have been in high school for 5 years rather than the average 4. I have had an extra year of wanting to be out of here, and it is eating away at me little by little.

Some people might not agree, but for me, I actually like going to school for the most part. But the fact that it’s the SAME THING every single day, and the fact that I feel like there’s more and more homework each week.
SO. MUCH. HOMEWORK.

I hope that this upcoming break will help dissipate some of these feelings, at least a little bit, but I’m pretty sure it will not be solved until the day that I graduate. The more I keep thinking about it, the worse it gets. I guess I just need to try harder than ever to keep myself motivated and not slack off!

Just about 4 months and 3 days until graduation, it’ll all be over. At least, for a little bit.

Unfit Not Lazy

Yourcupatea2 Comments

lazy

Being unfit should be some sort of disorder. Being unfit is not being lazy, it’s just not being capable of doing much exercise. Yes I admit I struggle sufficiently when doing a lot of exercise. This is not because I struggle to walk from the grocery store to my car or because I struggle to even step in the shower. It is because I struggle when doing sports.

This sounds stupid for someone who is so young but I admit I am extremely unfit. I’ve always done exercise and kept moving but still, I sometimes experience slight asthmatic symptoms when walking up to the cafeteria and in situations alike.

My Dad likes to comment that I never do exercise and that I’m extremely lazy. This is because evenings for me consist of food, homework, shower and bed at best. I literally have no time to myself and once my workday is done it is time to rest. I am not fat or lazy and, although others may like to argue differently, I do my best to exercise.

Being unfit just comes to some as a second nature; I guess it’s just one of my bad traits. The best I can do is to try my best to scare it off and if not work against it because after all you can’t let anything hold you back.

Stressed out.

rangerthecat4 Comments

It’s only the 4th week of school. I have been here for less than 30 days.
IT FEELS LIKE I HAVE BEEN HERE FOREVER! AHHHH!

I love this school, and I especially love the people here. I love being here.

That being said, I REALLY wish that I could just take a break.
I know I am speaking for not just myself, but also a lot of my fellow classmates when I say THIS WORKLOAD IS STRESSFUL!

Never in my entire high school career have I worked as hard as I have worked this year. I even dropped a class because I realized that I would not be able to handle it. And still, every night, even on the weekends, I find myself working for hours on end and still not feeling satisfied with some of my work. I thought Friday and Saturday nights were for relaxing… Maybe I’m just crazy.

I know all of the teachers here really care about the students and really want them to learn. I am so thankful for that. I have learned a lot from every teacher I have had at this school. But being a good teacher and helping students learn does not mean assigning homework every night, even on the weekends, and assigning huge essays and projects with minimal time to complete them.

All of these homework assignments just keep building up and I cannot seem to find a way to escape. Even if I am proactive and do my homework days in advance before it is due, thinking this will help me manage my time better, I am always assigned something else.

I will be honest, I do know a lot of students – and even some of my close friends – slack off a lot and procrastinate. And once in a while, I do the same. But it is only because I can never catch a break otherwise. Whenever I have free time, I use it to sleep, catch up with my friends from home, call my parents, or watch a movie. Is it too much to ask to not have a homework overload every once in a while?

I wish teachers could see it from our perspective. Some of them don’t take into consideration that we all have at least 4 or 5 other classes to deal with each day and night. It becomes really overwhelming for us!

I am so stressed out. But, nothing I can do about it… except more homework!

Only Here

theycallmedameLeave a comment

I, unlike many of my peers, have never been to public school.

I have never walked large halls, I have never seen a fellow classmate and not recognize him or her.

I went to a Montessori pre-school, and then went to Calmont School my kindergarten year.

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