Homework is
an emotive issue and a word that can strike fear and terror into the hearts of
all stake holders; students, parents and teachers.
I would
like to state my philosophy on homework early in this post. I believe homework
is a necessary evil. Students need it to establish positive work habits and to
develop key study skills that will assist as their education lives grow.
I have had
a reputation (mistakenly mind you) of a teacher who tends to deal out a great
amount of homework. I stubbornly defend myself against these charges. I would
love to not have to assign homework each week. This would mean less marking for
me to have to do. I would however, be doing students a disservice if I did not
give them homework. They would not be developing skills that are going to be
essential for them in the future if they do not do homework.
The school
I currently work at has a sound policy in place regarding homework that I believe
is effective and works very well. For each year level a student is in multiply
by 10 the amount of minutes that a student needs to spend on homework each
night between Monday and Thursday. Therefore a student in Year 6 should do 60
minutes homework a night.
Our weekly
homework schedule is distributed on a Monday and is generally due Friday. The
work is a combination of spelling, maths, grammar and either a literature or
Inquiry Studies activity. Students are also given weekly Chinese homework. The
flexibility of this type of system allows for students to complete their work
whenever they want during the week. If they have an extra-curricular activity
on a particular afternoon and can’t get homework done, not a problem. As long
as the work is handed in completed on a Friday that is all that matters. Of
course we encourage effective time management and spacing the work out
throughout the week but this is not always possible.
On top of
this work is the expectation that students will read nightly. This is a massive
non-negotiable in my mind. Every 2 week students have to report orally to the
class on the book they have just completed.
I am a
tyrant in ensuring homework gets completed. Students need to understand that
there are commitments they must meet and homework is one of them. In my class
students know that there will be ramifications if homework is not completed. I
follow these consequences through and therefore have a very, very low rate of
homework incompletion.
Over the
past 18 months the homework issue has turned almost full circle for me. My 9
year old daughter once she reached Year 2 started receiving weekly homework. A
touch of the tyrannical classroom teacher obsessed with homework completion attempted
to raise its head. My wife quickly quelled this beast reminding me that I am
Alexandra’s father, not teacher, and my role was to support and assist her with
homework tasks.
Alexandra
tends to have a somewhat casual attitude with her homework. She is of the
belief that it will get done eventually. I am learning not to push her but to
let her take responsibility for her own work. This approach seems to be going satisfactorily
at this stage but am I still hoping to intervene at some stage in her academic
life.
This
addiction first began when I was 9 years old during the Moscow 1980 games. At
our school in my Year 4 class we had to do a project on the Olympics. Basically
this just involved cutting out Olympic pictures from a paper and sticking them
into a project book. However this was enough to pique my interest in this
quadrennial event. I can still clearly recall that Australia’s two medals were
won both in swimming by Michelle Ford and the men’s 4 x 100m medley relay.
Los Angeles
1984 and my addiction was just about full blown. I watched every moment I could
and became almost ‘Rain man’ like in my ability to recall obscure facts and statistics
regarding the events and competitors such as Romanian gymnasts. Anyone else
remember Ecaterina Szabo and Simona Pauca? I do.
Seoul 1988
and I was in Year 12 preparing for my HSC. I recall during the school holidays
my mother making me lock myself in my room to study just as the Australian
women were playing in the gold medal hockey final. Well my mother went out for
a few hours and I left my room went out and watched the game cheering the
Aussies onto their gold medal. When my mother returned she excitedly said to me
“Wasn’t it great Australia winning the hockey gold medal?” My reply was simply
“Did they? I didn’t know that. I was busy studying”.
Barcelona 1992 and the addiction had reached
an alarming rate. I was teaching now and had my own Year 6 class who I
attempted to brainwash over the virtues of the Olympics. I bombarded them with facts and figures on the games and
as I was living away from home I spent nearly every minute glued to television
coming to school blurry eyed each morning.
Atlanta
1996 was much the same. I taught a large unit of work in class on the games
with a new group of students to indoctrinate. I brought a TV into the classroom
to watch the women’s hockey final but kept the volume down and didn’t let the
kids cheer when Australia scored. I had a new girlfriend and I didn’t want her
to think I was too much of a freak with my love of the games (she is now my
wife and well aware of my addiction). I was captain of my rugby team at the
time and before kickoff I told the team to play with the same spirit that
Kieran Perkins had done when he had won the 1500m freestyle earlier that
morning. Many of my team mates groaned when I mentioned this point.
Sydney 2000
was incredible. The games seemed home made for Australia a nation whose
sporting passion knows no bounds. I missed the first 5 days of the games as I
was travelling in China. On return I went to the tennis finals seeing Venus
Williams win gold in the women’s singles. All I wanted to do was see Australia
win a gold medal live. Unfortunately I saw the Woodies lose to their Canadian opponents
in the men’s doubles. Despite this I loved seeing the passion that all medal
winners displayed. They were so proud to have achieved a level of greatness on
the ultimate world sporting stage.
Athens 2004
was a lot of fun and I exulted in Australia’s best ever performance. Just
lastweek I made my children at home
relive 2 hours of highlights of these games on DVD. I am thrilled that my
daughter is starting to become passionate about the games.
I had a
soft spot for Beijing 2008 having been to this amazing city numerous times. The
Chinese did not disappoint. I was fortunate enough to attend the equestrian
events that were being held in Hong Kong. I had my chance to see Australia
finally win a gold medal live as they battled with Germany in the last round of
show jumping. I held my breath as the Aussie riders attempted to clear all
fences and wanted to scream out loud and put the German riders off as they went
through their paces. Alas the Aussies hit a few more fences than the Germans so
I saw for the second time Australia win a silver medal.
What is it
that I love about the games? Where do I start? I love the passion, the superstars,
the sportsmanship, the sense of comradeship between all competitors. I love
seeing nations come together in what is generally such a peaceful event. I love
seeing smaller nations taking on bigger teams (Tunisia v USA men’s basketball
played this morning is just one example of this). I love seeing Australia do
well and seeing our athletes return home as heroes. I love seeing people taking
an interest and becoming experts in sports that they have no idea about outside
the Olympics such as hockey and water polo.
I have
tried to think about some of my top Olympic moments over the years so here they go
in no particular order:
1.Sydney 2000. Having a chance to attend these
games and see them in my home nation was incredible.
2.Dream Team 1992. I was and still am a massive NBA
fan. I thought it was incredible when the greatest basketball players were
allowed to enter the games. The story of Magic Johnson, recently diagnosed with
HIV, illuminated further the greatness of this team.
3.Jon Sieben Los Angeles 1984. This was the first time I had seen
an Australian win a gold medal. I sat in front of the TV madly cheering on Jon
Sieben a 17 year old outsider in the 200m butterfly as he powered home in world
record time to beat of a star studded field.
4.Derek Redmond Barcelona 1992. The heartbreaking sight of one of
the favourites for the 400m tearing his hamstring as he turned for home. This
was then followed by the inspiring move of his father who leapt from the crowd
to carry his son across the finish line.
5.Grant Davies Seoul 1988. Grant Davies was an Australian
competing in kayaking. He was in a fierce battle with an American opponent and
they crossed the line nearly dead even. Davies was initially told he had won
the gold medal. Ten minutes later he was told that he actually lost by a few
thousandths of a second. I was distraught watching it. Davies was a mirror of
sportsmanship and humility as he accepted this news in good grace still elated
to be leaving the games with a medal.
6.Eric Liddell Paris 1924. Whilst obviously not seeing this
one live it is still one of my favourite Olympic stories. The man who refused
to run on a Sunday due to religious beliefs therefore missing the 100m where
was expected to win. He went on to win the 400m. It is fantastic that this story
was retold in the movie Chariots of Fire.
7.Australia 4 x 100m Women’s Freestyle
Relay Athens 2004. These
girls were quite amazing. Won the gold medal in world record time but what
stands out for me with them was their reactions on the victory podium. 3 of the
team stood beaming with happiness and pride whilst the youngest member Alice
Mills, had tears streaming down her face as the emotion overcame her.
Anyhow
these are just some of my favourite memories from the games. I hope London 2012
suppplies many more narratives that I can add to the list.
