Most days, I come home from school, exhausted, with a bunch of math homework waiting for me. This might be less of a problem if we were allowed to work on whatever we wanted during the last fifteen minutes of fourth hour.
You see, at the end of fourth hour, students are expected to work on either IXL, SQUIRE, or a belonging activity.
I think that most of these are a huge waste of time. Why do we have to do IXL? We have ELA classes, we have state testing, and we have SQUIRE time most days in ELA.
The you belong activities are a completely different level of useless. I could get behind the IXL and SQUIRE in some situations, but the “You Belong” activities are dreaded by many students. They don’t make people feel welcome; they just make students annoyed. And how is writing about a famous person going to make students feel more like they belong?
I would rather have extra time to work on my math homework or any missing work. It would benefit students way more than testing their skills on an IXL. Grades might even slightly improve.
I understand that teachers think that these activities help students. IXL can help students practice their English skills. SQUIRE time can fit in some reading time that students may not get while at home. Belonging skills can convey a good message.
And I understand that some students might not use work time to get stuff done and play games or watch YouTube videos instead.
But I think we can practice these in ways students find more engaging and ensure we don’t waste time and can get work done. And make sure students are on task.
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