How to Stop Homework from Devouring Your Time

Stacks of homework papers used to sit on my table, glaring at me. Menacing little goblins.

A good teacher would have graded all that already, right? When we became teachers, we signed away our right to have lives outside the classroom, RIGHT?

Wrong. But I didn’t know that yet.

When “Creative” Becomes “Soul-Crushing”

Last term, I had a mix of brand-new students alongside veterans who’d made it clear they weren’t doing homework. (“I don’t do homework” is surprisingly direct when you’re used to polite deflection.)

I wanted them using English outside class. I also knew that foundations-level students who’d just survived four and a half hours of intensive study weren’t going to tackle traditional homework. They were barely going to make it home conscious.

So I got creative. Really creative.

• “Go to Pops↗ and make a video of yourself ordering something to drink.”
• “Ride the Ferris wheel and take a selfie at the top.”
• “Take selfies with outdoor art all over downtown Edmond.”
• “Video yourself interviewing three people on campus (we were located just across the street from a college campus) using these questions.”

They LOVED it. Everyone was doing the homework. I was a genius!

Except I was dying.

Trying to dream up fresh ideas every week, then watching and reviewing dozens of videos and photos? It was exhausting. What started as exciting turned into drudgery faster than you can say “burnout.”

Here’s the thing…I’d created the exact monster of a problem I was trying to avoid. I wanted to make homework easier for my students, but I’d made it exponentially harder for myself.

Teachers Can Become Their Own Victims

We do this, don’t we? We sacrifice ourselves on the altar of “what’s best for students,” then wonder why we’re so tired we can barely function.

But who does that serve? If the best for them is destroying you, is it really the best?

I went back to regular, short, traditional homework assignments. The kind that takes five minutes to review. But I added a twist: they were optional.

Students who wanted to get ahead would do them. Students who were never going to do them? Well, you can lead a horse to water, right?

But I also had an attendance problem with my higher-level students, so I tied everything together: Do the assignment OR come to class on time. Either way, you get your points. (Yes, we discussed what “on time” means in the USA.)

Attendance suddenly became much less of an issue. Even if they weren’t exactly on time, a few minutes late beat 40 minutes late every single time. This meant we could cover more during class, and students weren’t lost because they’d missed half the lesson.

Total win-win.

Don’t fix what isn’t broken…

But if it’s broken? Then it’s time for a replacement.

Take another look at your class policies. Which ones are making you miserable?

Re-think what your goal truly is. Can you find a different way to meet it? Is there another goal you could focus on instead?

Are any of your policies creating MORE work for you? I’m not talking about mandates or inflexible school policies. I’m talking about the above-and-beyond stuff we seemingly can’t stop ourselves from doing.

We do a massive disservice to ourselves when we keep trying to make something work just because it’s a great idea in theory.

If your students did that to themselves, you’d be counseling them to stop. Be just as kind to yourself as you are to your students.

Stop being a teacher martyr.

Just STOP.

Read more teaching tips!

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3 Huge Reasons to Spend as Little as Possible on Your Classroom

Study Habits: The One Question That Changes Everything

Three Destructive Myths About Digital Devices in the Classroom

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