Tricks of the Trade - Homework

Linking up with Jessica over at Joy in the Journey to share a little 'Trick of the Trade' about homework!  I know homework can be a touchy subject for a lot of people, so it's nice to see what everyone does and maybe pick up a few new ideas of my own.

My homework collecting is actually quite simple.  When students come in they have a list on the board of what they need to have out:

On that list is also what homework is due that day.  This allows me to quickly look around at each desk to see who is slacking and trying to finish homework now, or who straight up doesn't have it.  Before I have the students pass it forward, I also have them "Hold up your work so that I can see it exists!"  They all hold their papers high in the air so that I can see that everyone has at least something to turn in.

As for kids who are missing work?  My school has adopted a program that my colleague and I created, Discipline Awareness.  This program has actually helped us to easily track which students are missing homework and what the consequence is for it.

This template is the one we use for 6-8th grade.

As you can see, there is a spot where the teacher will write down exactly what homework was missing when that student went to class.  Part of the rules of our system is that if they are missing homework, the automatically have to serve an after school detention for that day.  You'll see there is a spot at the bottom for the teacher to circle if the student earned a detention.  It will get signed when the student serves it.

I like this system because the parents have to sign it every night and that helps to hold everyone involved accountable for what is going on with each student.

If you have any questions about our system, let me know!