What's all the hype about homework?!

Homework always seems to be a topic that students tend to cringe when it is brought up in conversation.  After being in the classroom for 7 hours out of the day, when that dismissal bell rings, homework is the last thing on students' minds.  This week I read an article that drew out all of the pros and cons that homework creates.  Although most students have a negative connotation about homework, there are many academic and life lessons that are associated with it as well.  A big challenge that many educators face is how much homework is really appropriate for each grade level.  I have always heard that the rule of thumb for the amount of homework assigned is 10 minutes times the grade level.  For example, if you are teaching a fourth grade class, it is acceptable to assign 40 minutes of homework.  However, research is now showing that homework doesn't really have an impact at the elementary level, it has a low beneficial impact for middle grades, and a subtle impact for high school students.
A goal of mine as a future teacher is to make sure my students understand the value of homework and not let them get bogged down with busy assignments, which could result in frustration and poor performance.  I could really relate to some of the issues that were emphasized in this article caused by homework. Throughout my educational experience, I always seemed to get the teachers who loved to assign loads of homework each night.  In high school, I was an AP student, a fall sport athlete, and being involved in the community, with family, and my church, I can attest that having loads of homework only adds frustration and stress.   I personally experienced the sleep deprivation from having to stay up late and finish homework, loss of quality family time, and not performing to the best of my abilities on assignments in order to check everything off of my to do list.  Today, I tell people that high school was more challenging for me than college, and people look at me weird.  I challenged myself academically in order to prepare myself for college, and looking back in return, I just feel like I signed up to occupy all of my time to completing school assignments.  I do, however, think it is important that students are able to learn not only the academic skills from completing their homework assignments, but also the life lessons as well.  Students should learn time management, the importance of parental involvement, and have a deeper understanding of the concept that they are working on. 
I also found it interesting that this study took a global perspective, as to how much time students around the world spend doing homework.  The students in the U.S. spend almost double the amount of time each week doing homework than students in Finland and Singapore.  However, it is important to keep in mind, and refer back to my personal experience that the main focus of homework should be about quality instead of quantity.  I like how the article concluded stating; " The question isn't about homework vs. no homework; instead, we should be asking ourselves, "How can we transform homework so that it's engaging, relevant, and supports learning?" My mission is to find the right balance and allow my students to have the right attitude towards having homework. 

This challenge of assigning the appropriate amount of homework to a class ties in with standard 4, which is teachers facilitate learning for their students.  Teachers should be familiar with the capabilities of their students and attempt to strengthen the skills necessary for them to be successful.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/research-trends-is-homework-effective-youki-terada