The Dog Ate My Homework

     

     Last year a student actually said to me, "My dog ate my homework."  It was all I could do to control my eyes from bugging out.  Let me inform you of some background...this girl is an awesome kid who has a great, outgoing personality and sense of humor.  However, she's the one we all have in our class who chronically has excuses for her homework not being done (we're talking 10 minutes a night plus some reading) and I hadn't seen her folder in weeks.  I gave her a new one (which I never saw again, btw), she had to miss recess on Friday (each week) when she failed to turn it in, which escalated to no morning recess until you bring in something that even remotely resembles homework.  I called her mother, but to no avail.  I have to convince myself that just because they don't learn their lesson in first grade doesn't mean it won't get learned later in life.
     Homework is due on Friday and sent home on that same day.  It is the same routine week after week.  It's even the same routine as in Kindergarten.  Before anything else happens on Friday morning, they are to get their folder and library book out and turn them in.  It's a bit exciting, all that activity, pride (relief?) evident on their faces when they turn both in and are relieved of responsibility for just a little while.  It's an accomplishment for a little kid to complete the pages, get them put back in the folder, put the folder in his/her backpack and then also remember (after 28 reminders) to turn it into the tub.
     Sometimes, however, students are extremely hard of hearing and fail to get it out of their backpacks and into the tub, even when I've told them to before they come in the room, even as a bunch of them are turning them in right before their very eyes, even when I tell individuals to do so, and yet when they are seated on the floor and I ask each student if he/she turned homework in, there is still someone who exclaims, "Oh!  I forgot!"  What's it like to be oblivious?  It must be nice, I'd love to try it!
     This year, I was thinking about Natalie's (not her real name) proclamation about the dog, and the general (seeming) inability of 6 year olds in general to follow the routine.

     Here is the amazing (really, not) thing I made in hopes that it will imprint on their little minds that the dog doesn't like your homework any more than you do, so get it done and turn it in:
   

     

It's kind of a roundabout process, but it's kind of a look into how the mind of a teacher works:

• This summer, I was cleaning out my closet and found a plastic Ikea magazine holder.  I never once used it and it wasn't assembled.  So what was my thought?  "Hm...I wonder how I could use this in my classroom?"  I set it aside.
• Last week I was surfing on Really Good Stuff and saw a cardboard "The Dog Ate My Homework" collection tub that cost $19.99.  My thought, "Hm...that's cute.  But I don't want to spend $20 bucks plus shipping and I can make that a lot cheaper."
• Two days ago, I was shopping at the Dollar Tree in the Teacher aisle when I came across a package of 2 classroom posters.  One of the posters was of the above dog with a piece of notebook paper in its mouth.  My thought, "Hm...I could use this for my homework collection tub."
• Last week, I got to my classroom for the first time since June and started sorting.  As things started taking shape, I came across my Ikea magazine holder.  I made the connection between the magazine holder and the poster (lightbulb!).  So I dropped everything and obsessed on making the new homework tub.  Priorities.

     I think it's cute!  My hope is that more kids will remember their homework on their own because it's fun to give it to the dog.  Who knows...that kind of thing would've worked on me at that age.  

**I can't for the life of me find the magazine holder on the Ikea website, but really, any tub you already have would work.  I just cut the poster apart and used postal tape**