From the Principal’s Desk
Dear Parents,
One of the verses we follow in a major way at Bethel Christian Academy is Luke 2:52: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” The word stature refers to physical development, increasing in aspects about the body. One of the aspects of the physical we try to develop is character: doing the right thing regardless of the circumstances.
One way we develop character at Bethel is through homework. When we teach a lesson, we assign homework (or seatwork) so students can practice what we taught during the day, and so they can review what we taught in previous days. The character part comes by requiring that students turn in the homework when it is due, usually the next day. As they do this day by day, year by year, they develop character.
When children are young, school is fun, homework makes them feel “big,” and homework is fairly short and simple. But as they get older, 3rd grade on up, homework gets to be a lot like work. And they often don’t want to do it. The problem is that when students do not do their homework, their learning is affected, their character development is affected, and their grades are affected.
Many times students do not make the honor roll because they don’t turn in their homework. They might get most of it in, but missing assignments often get turned into zeros, and zeros are hard to overcome.
We structure our homework plan by having students write the day’s assignments in an assignment notebook. We then ask that parents sign the notebook at home once the homework is completed. Many of you already do this, and we appreciate your tenacity. But with quite a few students, we are seeing a break in the process. Either parents are not signing the notebook, or they are signing, but not checking to make sure that the homework is actually done. As a result, students come back the next day and their homework is not done.
I ask that you do two things: 1) go over your child’s homework each night and check it for accuracy and completeness; 2) only sign their notebook after you have checked their work. Generally speaking, don’t sign their notebook simply because they tell you that their work is done. “Let me see it.”
Parenting is hard work, and the school year can get long. But if we will follow through on this aspect of the homework process, our children will learn more, they will have better character, and their grades will improve.
Sincerely,
Pastor Sutton
Dear Parents,
One of the verses we follow in a major way at Bethel Christian Academy is Luke 2:52: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” The word stature refers to physical development, increasing in aspects about the body. One of the aspects of the physical we try to develop is character: doing the right thing regardless of the circumstances.
One way we develop character at Bethel is through homework. When we teach a lesson, we assign homework (or seatwork) so students can practice what we taught during the day, and so they can review what we taught in previous days. The character part comes by requiring that students turn in the homework when it is due, usually the next day. As they do this day by day, year by year, they develop character.
When children are young, school is fun, homework makes them feel “big,” and homework is fairly short and simple. But as they get older, 3rd grade on up, homework gets to be a lot like work. And they often don’t want to do it. The problem is that when students do not do their homework, their learning is affected, their character development is affected, and their grades are affected.
Many times students do not make the honor roll because they don’t turn in their homework. They might get most of it in, but missing assignments often get turned into zeros, and zeros are hard to overcome.
We structure our homework plan by having students write the day’s assignments in an assignment notebook. We then ask that parents sign the notebook at home once the homework is completed. Many of you already do this, and we appreciate your tenacity. But with quite a few students, we are seeing a break in the process. Either parents are not signing the notebook, or they are signing, but not checking to make sure that the homework is actually done. As a result, students come back the next day and their homework is not done.
I ask that you do two things: 1) go over your child’s homework each night and check it for accuracy and completeness; 2) only sign their notebook after you have checked their work. Generally speaking, don’t sign their notebook simply because they tell you that their work is done. “Let me see it.”
Parenting is hard work, and the school year can get long. But if we will follow through on this aspect of the homework process, our children will learn more, they will have better character, and their grades will improve.
Sincerely,
Pastor Sutton