assigning a project right before Spring break

[RedBottoms]

So this is mostly a rant but the rant board is usually empty so posting it here.

My son's Language Arts teacher assigned them a big project yesterday that is due on March 29. Next week is Spring Break. So basically over Spring Break.

They have to get a book that takes place in a non English Speaking country or has a non English speaking author-read it- and then prepare a 2 minute speech about the book that needs to be mostly memorized and well rehearsed.

He has done this before where he gave the same assignment but also required a prop and costume and assigned it over Halloween and only gave them about a week to do it. But in that case the book was already read since it was a book they read as a class.

He did not even give any suggestions of books. So DH and I are desperately looking for a book suitable for a 6th grader in content and difficultly that takes place in a non English speaking country and is not super long since he only has about a week to read it. I searched our book shelves and THANK GOD found a book he read about a year and a half ago that fits the description. He is going to reread it and take notes and do the speech on it.

But it pisses me off the teacher does this. He does this ALLLLL the time. He never gives any notice for you to order a book from Amazon which takes a few days. Or to have time to go to the book store or library to find a book. The school library ran out of books that fit the criteria last time because all the 6th graders stormed it at once. In that case it was a book suitable for a 6th grader that had an African American author. The library only had like 15 books that fit that and there are over 70 6th graders. In our case, we ordered from Amazon.

So if any families had vacations like to Disney or hiking or something planned-they have to take family time away to work on the project and read the book. Not all vacations have time to read if you are doing something like an amusement park or hiking all day or touring museums etc. I am glad I did not plan a trip with the kids because he would be having to read the entire trip.

It just really frustrates me he does not give more notice on these things. The assignments are fine -but he should have handed this out on Monday or even Last friday. Not yesterday.

The kids are supposed to go spend next weekend with my mother and Stepdad whom is going through cancer treatment and honestly may not have much time left. His cancer is treatable but he is just not in great overall health and is in his 70s. But now I have to call my mom and let her know that if my son does not read the book and write the speech out in time-he can't come stay with them. Because she is incapable of helping him if he needs any sort of help. And she would be distracting him from working too much.

He will get it done and for sure get an A on it like he always does. But my other son in 6th grade at another school most likely won't have any homework over Spring break. His teachers are way more chill. I knew when we signed up for this school it was A LOT. I still get pissy about it though. They are just kids! Adults don't have to do work on their vacations usually. Why should kids?!

[mater-three]

I don’t think teachers think things through sometimes.

[RedBottoms]

I don’t think teachers think things through sometimes.

I think in his mind he is thinking -oh these kids are just going to play Fortnite all Spring Break-I can save them by assigning this project so they read.

And its annoying because my kids have to read 30 minutes every day. I make them. Its something our family has been doing since they were 5. So he will be reading regardless.

[Rebeccaraev2]

I'd be talking to that teacher about it. It isn't college, and none of my professors assigned work over the break to boot. He needs to plan his assignments better.

[Anonymous 1]

I think all schools should be like colleges and each teacher should hand out a syllabus at the beginning of the school year.

The students should have been told a long time ago about this project so that they could have chosen a book and even began working on it in advance if that's what they wanted to do.


What book did your son pick?

[RedBottoms]

I think all schools should be like colleges and each teacher should hand out a syllabus at the beginning of the school year.

The students should have been told a long time ago about this project so that they could have chosen a book and even began working on it in advance if that's what they wanted to do.


What book did your son pick?

"Bombs for Hitler" or "Making Bombs for Hitler" something like that. Its about a little girl in Ukraine I think and ends up in Germany. So I think that fits the criteria. He liked the book so he is fine reading it again. Its about 215 pages.

We were actually struggling to find a book that fit the criteria on Amazon. Most books we found were too mature for him in subject matter or too long that he would not have time to read them in time.

I am pretty big on not having him read books too mature in subject matter. Like "Kite Runner" came up as something that fit the description but that subject matter is not okay for an 11 year old. I think it has rape in it. So things like that make me picky about what he is going to read.

He does hand out syllabus per 9 weeks but he won't give out the details of the assignment ahead of time or he throws in "surprise" assignments. He surprised assigned them a paper on MLK over the MLK weekend holiday last 9 weeks. He does shit like this all the time. Its so F***ing annoying. So if you do try to plan a trip to visit family or go hiking or whatever---he fucks you over.

[RedBottoms]

I'd be talking to that teacher about it. It isn't college, and none of my professors assigned work over the break to boot. He needs to plan his assignments better.

I don't want to be the problem parent that complains but I have a feeling other parents might have already complained. I don't know.

We are almost done for the year so just gotta push through. But I might seriously send an anonymous email about it after the school year. Our school system has a way to send anonymous tips or suggestions to Admins so I can use that.

He is a good teacher in that he is teaching them a lot and puts a lot of effort into things-but he just needs to learn to give more notice. What about the kids whose parents won't or can't take them to the library right away? Or the kids whose parents can't afford to order a new book from Amazon or the book store? Like I said the school library ran out of books the first day last time

[Valentina327]

He's probably one of those that thinks they're going to get rusty if they're off school for the week, and he wants them to stay in the swing of things. He sounds old school.

[LuckyEightWow]

My kids don’t do projects over breaks and that’s something I always make clear to teachers...or did when mine where in school.

Breaks are very important for kids (and adults), no way are they doing school work.

[Shaken1976]

My kids used to come home with packets of work for Spring Break. One year I counted the worksheets and it was 32. We did a few math problems of each type, read a few passages, and did some of the grammar and writing. I was not happy about that. The following year it was one math worksheet, one reading passage, a three paragraph essay and an editing worksheet. I still wasn’t happy but it was at least a reasonable amount of work.