Nevermind

I guess I spoke too soon. I just read the plagiarizing student's most recent paper, and, yes, she plagiarized again. Not nearly as much as she did in the last paper but enough to show how incredibly stupid or lazy she is. I honestly think it's the former.

Bizarro part II

Maybe I'm handling situations better or maybe students are getting less entitled or maybe it's just coincidence...

Last week I busted a student for plagiarizing a short assignment. I had debated whether or not to officially turn her in to the Academic Standards committee, but decided that this was unlikely truly premeditated plagiarizing and more lazy, I-didn't-really-understand-the-assignment plagiarizing. There are different types of plagiarism. It's hard to explain what "true" plagiarism is. It's like pornography. You know it when you see it.

I brought this student to my office. Asked her to explain herself. Then gave her the ol' "I'm going to magnanimously not turn you in but you better not do this again" speech. She cried tears of relief and shame.

Two days later, I received an e-mail from her with an attachment. She said that she re-did the assignment, even knowing she wasn't going to get any points, just to show me that she could do it the right way.

Well, look at that.

Wait, what did she say?

A few weeks ago, I called out a student in class for being completely unprepared for leading a discussion on an article the class had been assigned. First time I did that in the senior seminar class. I knew it was going to be embarrassing and I hoped she didn't cry, but I had to do it. She was wasting everyone's time reading verbatim from the article as she "summarized" it for us. This is not the interesting part.

Last week, she was in my office meeting about her research paper that was due yesterday. During that meeting she referred to the incident a few weeks back. She said that she hadn't come talk to me about it because she was embarrassed by how unprepared she was. She went on to say that a few students approached her after class and asked her if she was mad about it. She said that she had no reason to be mad. She was unprepared and I was completely right to call her on it.

Wait, huh? Did a student just take responsibility for her work (or lack thereof)?

UPDATE! Who's surprised?

Back in August I mentioned a student who had outed himself as someone who might not be one to put much effort into the class. I'm not saying that I pulled a Nostradamus here, but I'd just like to say that my prediction was correct. He received a 'D' in the class. Vegas would not have been giving odds on that one.

FYI

I'm not sure that there could be a more perfect story than Twilight. Sure, I understand the criticisms that the book is not the most well-written. But still. It's not the language that makes the book (although it's not as awful as some say); it's the story and the characters. Hoo boy, I love me some vampire/human love.

And, yes, I am over the age of 13.

The end of the semester is always fruitful

Student sends me this e-mail over the weekend:

"I was wondering if you could tell me what grades I received on the paper and journal article review."

Um, the student didn't turn in either of these assignments. I just really wonder what's going through her head before/during/after sending that e-mail. Did she honestly forget that she didn't turn those in? Or is she really thinking that sending that e-mail will imply that she turned in the assignments and it's my error that I don't have them in my possession? Given that she was absent on the day the latter assignment was due, I'm not sure her trickery would get very far with me.

Again!

Okay, I really have to stop responding to the limp noodle hand-raise.

Twice last week, I called on students who weren't raising their hands because I can't freaking tell. One of the student's hands really looked like it was raised and that one was particularly annoying. Since she stayed in that position after I called on her and she told me she didn't have her hand up, I asked the class to turn around and tell me if it looked like her hand up. Nothing better than getting the students to gang up on one of their own.