Teachers, we need a break from schoolwork and so do the kids. Here are a few reasons to avoid assigning homework over break. 

1. Packets Don’t Help With Sh*t

Busy work does not increase learning. More work does not mean higher achievement. 

Let’s be real; it’s not like students will divvy up the assignments and complete a little bit per day. If they did, cool, that’s distributed practice and great for kids. But the reality is most students do all the work once they get it. So they get it out of the way and don’t have to think about it. Or they complete the work right before coming back to school. Either way, it’s cramming. Cramming or mass practice is not effective in student understanding or long term memory.

This diminishes its effectiveness. Are you telling me students bring back their best work after break? Why would we assign something that we may get back that is not high in value? It’s just busywork masked as practice. (Blog post- Worksheets: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)

Let go of the packets! Even the digital ones!

Side note- don’t fight with the experts. Many education experts believe in eliminating or at the very least, revamping what we assign as homework. 

Books: Rethinking Homework
The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much Of A Bad Thing and What Parents Can Do About It

2. Better For The Brain

Kids are not immune to burnout. They have it just like us. Rest and relaxation are needed. A rested brain is a more creative brain.

Adults read so many self-help books, blogs, apps that help them learn how to rest and recoup. Do you know why we need all those tools? We have been conditioned to have our days filled up with work from a very early age. We can’t take a freakin break! And we are conditioning our students in the same way. 

The brain has to rest. Research has shown that having a mind slightly relaxed allows it to explore different combinations of ideas. Don’t believe me? Think about all the amazing ideas that pop up when you’re in the shower or on a short walk. I don’t know about you but I come up with some bangin ideas then. 

Here’s another way to think about mental restoration. Any gym rat will tell you that our muscle groups need rest to make gains. The brain is a muscle, or at least it trains in the same ways.

3. Work-Life Balance

Holy crap, my teacher friends, we have such a difficult time with this. The late-night grading or early morning prep. ugh

I’m not sure if we consider enough that kids have a work-life situation just like us. Their work is school, and life is play. What message are we sending to students when we can’t manage that balance ourselves? Or when we don’t provide them with the tools needed for balance?

Family time is just as important to achievement and behavior. Remember when you were a kid. The thing that you remember about school breaks were not the massive packets sent home. “Boy, oh boy, I just loved those packets.” Said no one, ever!

In a realistic school day, how much family time do students really get? Not that much.  School breaks are a time to sleep late, wake up late, Netflix binge, go for walks, play video games, etc. We cannot diminish the importance of family time by interrupting it with work.

Blog Teacher Workload Is Destroying Education

Books Work-Life Brilliance: Tools To Break Stress and Create the Life and Health You Crave
Unapologetic Work-Life Balance

4. Fresh Start

Time for some hard truths. Teachers, do you really want to go over these assignments when YOU get back from break?

I always find it amazing how much busy work we assign but how much we dread going over it. There’s a reason…neither the student nor we are getting much out of it.

You are your students want to come back reenergized. That happens with rest. Ask yourself, is all this work really worth your time or theirs?

Can We Just Make It Fun?!?

Ok, fine, you’re still going to send students home with something over the break. I have some tips for that. Sneak it in through play.

Have students read for fun. Yes, I said fun. Do not time your students reading. I never understood this. How is timing anyone’s reading fun? “Read for 30 minutes every day” sounds like a chore. If students choose a good book, trust me, they’ll read. The same goes for students who don’t like to read. It’s all about finding the right genre or the right fit.

Ok, so how can we sneak math concepts in as play? GAMES. And I don’t mean ones you make up and print off. I mean literal games, like board games. So anyone and everyone can join in. This makes it fun for the family and sneaks in some math practice.

You’ll want to provide students with a list of games they could play. If students don’t have the means, I recommend before the school breaks come around, start a board game fundraiser, swap, or donation event. That way, students have the opportunities to receive one.

Holiday Gift Guide- Math Edition

Permit yourself to break away from the status quo. You are not a crappy teacher if you break the mold and don’t assign work. 

Just let them be kids!