Agendas

[ME]

I have a question regarding agendas. I'm in 3rd. If you use agendas, do you have your students copy everything you are doing that day in the subjects or do you only have them copy the HW in the agendas? Currently, I have them copy what we are doing (I make it short) but some take awhile to do this and it cuts down on the time they have to do much needed review morning work. I just wonder if I expect too much for 3rd. Thanks.

 

[psc]

My school uses agendas with 3rd - 6th grade. Most teachers have the students just write down the homework. I have had issues in the past with parents wanting the week's work at a time and kids not writing down everything correctly, so this year, I started typing out the week's homework and stapling that half sheet of paper in their agenda each Monday. That leaves room for students to log the book title that they read and parents to sign each day in their agenda.

In the end, this takes a lot less class time and parents & children can't say they didn't know about anything! I've been in conferences with my principal and an irate parent and he backed me up because I clearly communicated my expectations.

Attached is one of the HW forms I use.

 

[chloe]

agenda

I have them copy hw only. I also use it for parents and me to communicate. I check it in the morning and stamp it. A dragonfly if it is signed and a please sign if it's not signed by the parent. This system works well for me. I wouldn't write the hw for them as another person suggests as I feel it is part of the students responsibility and it gets them ready for other grades where they won't have someone doing their work for them. I do feel having them write everything they do for the day would be a waste of valuable time.

 

[Cathy-Dee]

agendas

I use our agendas more for communication than anything. The parents record home-reading daily and I send home a weekly note. Other than that I may have students write a note if something comes up, or parents may write me a note or I may write a note as well.

I use a check mark stamp to check each day so the parents know I have seen the agenda. They just initial each day.

As far as homework - I send homework home on Mondays to be returned at the end of the week so my students do not need to write in daily homework. Our day seems so crammed already that I don't want to spend time writing notes in an agenda that could be spent doing other work.

For my weekly note home, I use large labels and type a message on them. This is easy to stick on the page every Monday and remind parents of upcoming events, meetings, etc.,

 

[lis3569]

here is what I do.

I have a set of magnetic headers I use on the board- math, reading, recess... I put the order of events up in the am and we read it first thing in the morning so they know what to expect. At the end of the day, we have planners that the kids record what we have done for the day and what homework they have. I keep it short and simple (the baord agenda is more complex). For example- the board agenda may list the story in reading, the skill and the activity we do. The planner message baord simply says- Reading- Main Idea and HW (homework) page 67.

 

[marybethc]

another tip re agendas

A TIP: I teach third (15 yrs) I use the agendas for homework and communication only. I write the HW down on the board and they must copy it into their agendas EXACTLY as written on the board. Students will invariably try to skip writing down something because it doesn't apply to them. For example, maybe they've already finished and turned in the assignment that I've assigned to finish for HW. I find it helps a lot to require them to write down everything exactly as written, after all, it's still the assignment, even if they've already finished it. I won't initial it if it's not written exactly as it appears on the board. It keeps the parents better informed. More importantly, it teaches them that it's not their place to decide what they will write down and what they won't--that can cause a lot of miscommunication and confusion.