Learning Communities

Any teacher with a few years under their belt has heard a myriad of reason why students didn't do their homework.  Not to say that children don't have real problems, but sometimes students fail to follow through with their responsibilities.  What is a teacher to do when a student tells you that they didn't know how to do it?  Learning Communities is my preemptive strike against the "I didn't know how to do it" line.  On my webpage, a new tab has been created to help those who seem to forget an entire day's worth of curriculum and need a tutor at home.  Housed here, students can access math and science interactive tutorials and practice.  Learning has never been so easy.

I was so impressed with myself that I wanted my students to use it before their first quiz of the year.  Stations were set up with different concepts tested.  The kids rummaged through the math links in pairs and created a list of specific resources to use that night as they prepared.  Homework was to get the students to focus on their weaknesses using the tutorials found earlier in the day. 

Shock/Reality - All good ideas don't equal success.....you still have the human factor to consider.  Some kids need more time to buy into what you are trying to sell them.  I have to admit, it took a few days to recover from the terrible test scores that crossed my desk.  Despite the initial failure of my idea, I still believe that this will turn into something useful.  More exposure for the students and better communication with the parents will probably go a long way towards determining whether this addition to my webpage becomes a common site for students to find academic help.