Finis
The semester is finally over and I couldn't be happier to be at home. This year was, for many reasons, horrible. There was the house, my teaching schedule, and this one particular awful section I was teaching. II though last spring was bad when I had to practically manhandle a male student who was shooting spitballs into a pentecostal girls hair. I mean--give me a fucking break. In that same class a different student was arrested in the middle of the midterm exam. (I think he stole an ATM machine--one that spews right wing messages on the receipt.) Anyway, I almost missed them compared to this one section I was dealing--forty percent of the class failed. Several of them plagiarized and then lied about it, appealed it, and dragged the whole process on for months. Ruined the class.
My children, ages three and four, have already figured out that it is better to tell the truth than to lie about it.
Anyway--enough. I'm sure none of those kids will ever sign up for a class with me.
The writing all wee has been going well, but of course no finished anything. I'll neer understand people who are prolific.
posted by Alison Pelegrin @ 7:46 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Hell, you're prolific compared to me. I've written maybe one full poem in the last three months. It drives me crazy. Maybe later this summer, after the first term is over (end of June), I'll get back in shape. I've got to--the book contests this fall and all.
I only had one plagiarism case this term, but a friend of mine had 10 out of 19, and he's a real professor who never teaches freshmen.
Did I ever tell you about the student I had at Arkansas who missed a week of class and came back claiming she'd had Tuberculosis? That, in fact, the whole class needed to be tested for Tuberculosis, since they'd all be exposed? She actually walked in and announced her fictional TB on the day she returned -- right before an essay exam, no less! -- which caused a rush on and a panic at the health center. ...she got, like, expelled, dude. :-) I wrote about it.... http://amyletter.com/exile/oz15.php
The University of North Texas' Comp classes require students to submit their papers electronically. The system then checks the paper against a mammoth data base in order to stop plagiarism. When it occurs, the system flags it, and gives me the actual passage and document the student stole from. It's great. Then there's no debate.
Is this the same U of TX where student papers are graded by 2 graders, not their teacher? I read about that...
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