In an era when communication is instantaneous, teachers can interact with students at any hour through tools like Canvas. Such great power now comes with great responsibility.
Last spring, Legislature passed a bill stating that teachers cannot assign homework due the next day if the school day has already ended. The rule is not yet in the handbook, but it is in full effect.
“If the school day ended at 2:55 and the teacher posted it at 2:56, you don’t have to do the homework now,” senior Gaby Germanos, member of Legislature, said. “Teachers have to make sure that by the end of the school day, [their students] have all the necessary materials.”
The bill was passed because some students complained to Legislature about needing to get work done at certain hours of the day, while others complained that teachers were posting homework on canvas late at night, according to Germanos.
Co-chair of Legislature and social studies teacher Jennifer Martin said that Legislature is trying to stay ahead of the game as more and more teachers go online and start using Canvas.
“The Legislature is meant to educate teachers that this is actually a problem,” Martin said. “And when they behave that way, it has a detrimental impact on the students.”
The bill not only restricts assigning work over canvas past school hours, but also affects other media for assigning work, according to Martin. If a teacher says he or she will have a packet on their door for students to pick up, it must be there before school gets out that day. Otherwise, students can’t have the work due the next day.
Martin said that it isn’t rare for teachers to assign work after hours. She has posted homework on Canvas past the end of the school day herself.
“I think it’s not an abuse of power,” Martin said. “You’re pulled in 20 directions. You say to yourself as a teacher, ‘Oh yeah, that homework, I forgot to post it. I’m going to post it for you guys, don’t worry.’ Then you realize it’s 5 p.m. You get an email from a student saying you never posted it, and you post it.”
Martin said that this is about disorganization on the part of the teacher and that posting assignments late at night is absurd. According to the minutes provided by Martin, the vote to approve the bill was unanimous.
Germanos said that some of the teachers on Legislature were even shocked to hear that other teachers were posting homework so late after school.
“For the most part, everyone agreed that it was a good idea,” Germanos said. “The kind of teacher who joins Legislature is responsible enough to post things earlier, so I think they were kind of appalled that there were teachers who don’t do that.”
Alex Friedman can be contacted at [email protected].