Teacher Opinion On: Mrs. Bellmore gives her perspective and advice on homework and finding GRIT.

Mrs. Bellmore- 8th grade science teacher and coach of the Science Olympaid team.

Homework is not only a hot topic with students, but also with parents and teachers. Believe it or not, many teachers have a love-hate relationship with homework! When I was a kid, I remember thinking, "why do I need to do this?!" Or "my teachers must hate us for giving us so much homework." I didn't like all of my teachers especially the ones that gave us the most homework, although looking back they were all pretty amazing in their own ways and it was because of those challenging times I learned about "GRIT." I'll come back to that. But, homework is definitely not something I wanted to do. Kid perspective.

​Teacher perspective. When you put time and effort into becoming better at activities such as sports, dance, music lessons etc you feel confident, you see personal growth and you find yourself persevering through challenges that eventually become easier. You start on this ladder to greatness and you become unstoppable. What an awesome feeling to make that winning touchdown, or hit that high note in the school play or even beat a certain level in a video game and unlock some secret world! You would never accomplish those amazing feats if you didn't put in the time to get there. Putting time and effort into homework serves the same purpose. In order to get better at topics teachers are teaching, the more exposure and practice students have, the more confident they will become in the subject area. So, is homework necessary? Yes. It's a great time to practice skills and also gives students an opportunity to come to class with questions for their teachers. You can look at it like, "you practice hard so the games are easy!" Teachers love questions by the way. It helps us read your minds, which is really hard especially when you're feeling lost and confused in class.

How much is too much? Best practice says homework should be a student's grade level times 10 min. So, for 8th grade, 80 min per night. If you take additional classes such as online classes, that time will increase since those are additional optional classes. The same goes for high school honors and AP classes. The workload will be heavier, therefore the time it takes to get you where you need to be academically will require more of your time.

Students these days are super busy after school and most weekends. This makes having a healthy balance of school, extracurricular activities, family time and time management very important. For anyone to be successful in life, these skills are a must! It's like shoving a bunch of rocks and pebbles in a pickle jar. You have to put the big ones in first, which represent the most important things in your life, then the pebbles last, the less important things, in order to fill up your jar and fit everything in.

My advice: If you're "stuck" on one math problem for a long period of time, talk to your teachers immediately about it. Ask for help, attend tutoring, ask a friend to peer tutor or see a teacher for working lunch. There's nothing more frustrating than spending hours and hours on homework at home alone. The reality is students are either: losing much needed sleep, choosing to do one teacher's homework and not another teacher's homework, forgetting about assignments or choosing not to do any of it. It can also be overwhelming if you procrastinate and waste time during your school day and more if you just don't get it. Students should begin with the end in mind. Set a goal and create strategies that work with their busy schedules. Use agendas to write assignments and write in due dates. With technology, car rides to games and practices are a great time to plug in ear phones and watch a quick video on that hard topic in science. It's also a great opportunity to grab that library book and read a few pages. Becoming a stronger reader, mathematician and learner will have great benefits down the road- like scholarships to college! Cha-Ching! That's money in the bank when you start your career.

Every teacher has a different homework procedure. For my class, my students have a lot of choice and options in how their homework is completed. It has been amazing in many ways because students have surprised me with home experiments and other cool activities. However, every assignment isn't always going to be what you want to do that night, especially after a long night of chorus auditions or a late game. It's not always going to be fun or on a topic you are passionate about. Homework definitely needs to serve a purpose and not be busy work. Some will be thought provoking for class discussion the next day, or skill based like in your math classes, and some will just give students an opportunity to see words and concepts before the teaching begins. If you've ever been afraid of the teacher calling on you to answer a question, you know how important it is to see those vocabulary words a few more times!​

This is where we challenge you to "find your grit." Find that mental toughness and courage to try your best, even on those long days, and have courage to ask questions. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. We learn from mistakes and we get better. Sometimes we surprise ourselves with learning new things and sometimes we unexpectedly find our strengths and weaknesses and passions! Teachers call this process "homework."