C4T #4 Summary

For the final C4T, I was given the opportunity to choose the teacher myself.  I chose The Fischbowl, written by Karl Fisch.  

In his post from October 27, Mr. Fisch blogged about homework.  His school expects him to give the students enough homework so that they are working two hours for five days a week.  He questions where this time came from and says that there is no data that shows two hours for five days a week is the perfect amount of time to spend on homework.  There are three reasons to assign homework, Mr. Fisch says they are: the students need practice, the teachers are unable to cover the curriculum, and finally, it teaches responsibility.  I just wrote a blog the other day about homework, so this really peaked my interest.  Those are all in my 'homework pro list' from my previous blog.  Karl addresses each of these reasons in his blog.  First, homework is necessary because the students need to practice what they have learned at school that day.  The argument for this is that there is no data that shows doing homework has a substantial impact on the student's achievement in school.  Then there is the reason that teachers can't cover the curriculum; Fisch offers a simple enough solution that does not involve homework, change the curriculum.  Lastly, responsibility.  Homework teaches the children to be responsible with their time.  Again, Mr. Fisch explains there is no research to back this up.  He finishes the blog saying, "[i]f we truly believe that "data-driven" is the way to go, then the data is telling us that we need to step back and reexamine both our assumptions and our practices." 

That statement probably inspired his next post from November 12.  This blog featured a TED Talks about data and what it means.  Ultimately, "data doesn't create meaning, we do.  I encourage you to take some time and watch this video and read over what Mr. Fisch wrote about it.