As the end of the year is quickly approaching at Benilde-St. Margaret’s, students are continuing to raise grades and complete late work. For some, there seems to be an increase in busy work from teachers. Students feel teachers are cramming in worksheets and projects before the end of the year and students are frustrated.

Some students feel that their advanced classes tend to have more busy work at the end of the year. Many students don’t find a purpose in their worksheets. “I get the most busy work in honors biology. The teacher gives us coloring sheets or an Amoeba Sisters video with the worksheets that seem completely unnecessary to what we’re learning,” sophomore Ellery Schoen said.

There is some input that students have on what teachers could do to improve the experience. Students have busy schedules and are participating in a variety of different activities. “Teachers could realize that we have a life outside of school and we don’t always have time to do all of the homework that is really just busy work. We have sports and activities that also take up our time and our lives don’t revolve around school,” Junior Mandy Cronin said.

There are also recommendations to give meaning to worksheets. Students want classwork that relates to the material and helps them learn. “I feel like if they do more projects, or assignments that actually have a meaning behind them it would be better. Because some of these [it feels like] do them to take up class time I find it very unnecessary,” Schoen said.

Teachers feel differently about so-called “busy work”. Teachers want to prepare students for their upcoming summatives. “I don’t feel like I give more busy work necessarily at the end of the year. I just think often times, if a unit ends, and we have our summatives coming up that there are some assignments that get assigned that contribute to those summatives. So it’s things that can help kids accomplish some of those more effectively,” English teacher Paul Canavati said.

As the end of the year homework piles up, spreading work out might be beneficial to students, but also to teachers. That way there is less work for teachers to grade at once. “I think that teachers could spread out the worksheets and give you longer amounts of time to complete the homework. They could give more homework at the beginning of the year or in the middle just so it doesn’t pile on at the end,” sophomore Addie Morris said.