Cheaters...

Hi everyone... sorry it's been a while, but I've been busy with school stuff. And since Kelly hasn't had any good teaching stories, I thought I'd give you one. So here we go...

It appears as though I'm going to be failing two students for cheating tonight. We'll see what happens once I get to lab. I've never actually had to fail someone for cheating before... but there's a first time for everything! So the rule in all of my classes and labs is that if I catch you cheating the first time, you get a zero. The next time it happens, you fail the class... no exceptions. And I've had to give people a zero before... but that usually scares them enough to never do it again. Well, not these two!! So I've got a couple in my night lab (bf/gf) who I was worried about from the start. And while people are allowed to work together on their labs, in the end, they should have at least slightly different answers. After all, no two people write exactly the same. So some of their labs were a bit too similar for my tastes, but I couldn't really prove anything. Well, then we had a lab about epidemics and community health and the students had to choose a disease that they thought was important in the community or world and then write what the causes, symptoms, treatments, etc. were for the disease. Nothing too big. A quick internet search could give them all of the info they would need. Well, these two idiots both turned in a typed sheet that had the exact same info!!! They just wrote the name of the disease and then made a list of the information I wanted and printed 2 copies!! Do they think I'm THAT stupid?!?! So of course they got a zero on both labs and I wrote "who did this work?" and "DO NOT CHEAT!" So I thought that would be the end of it. Well, yesterday they handed in labs where they answered one question with the EXACT same diagram. No one else in class even used a diagram... so it was fishy, to say the least. But it looks like a diagram that was copied out of a book... so officially, it wasn't enough to catch them on. I did write on their labs that it was too similar to the other person's (aka, I'm watching... so don't screw up). And then I went and made copies of this lab just for my own records (I stupidly didn't make a copy of the first lab with the obvious cheating... but it's okay... I still have yesterday's and today's to catch them on. And if it comes down to their word or mine, mine will be the one that gets believed) I also am pretty sure that the girl has just written some of his labs for him because the writing looks WAY too similar... but trying to catch them on handwriting would be near impossible... so I just have to deal with it. So then we get to yesterday's lab. The first part of the lab was spent watching a movie... and the idiot guy completely fell asleep through the movie!! I just watched him sleeping, not writing the answers to any questions. The girl, of course, was awake and alert taking notes. So how much do you want to bet that they both come in to lab tonight and his paper will have all of the same answers?!?! And if it does, then I've got them both... and they will fail the class. Now, the girl saw me looking over... so she KNOWS that I saw him sleeping. So if she lets that idiot copy her notes (or if she writes them FOR him!!) then she fails also. So we'll see. Maybe they'll show some shred of intelligence and actually NOT cheat. But considering that they haven't seemed to take me seriously or learn yet, I doubt it. So yeah... good times. So needless to say, I'll know tonight when I get their labs. And if they cheat, then I'm going to have a chat with my dean tomorrow morning after I finish teaching my class just so that he knows what's going on, etc. I want to make sure that they will actually get the F in the class and it will be on their record. And also I want him to know their names so that if they enroll in another Biology class, the prof can keep an eye on them. I know that he'll completely support me on this since he is REALLY big of being tough on the students and not letting them get away with stuff, etc. But yeah... it's just amazing to me. The funny part is that tomorrow night they take their final. So if they do cheat, I'm going to tell them before they take their final that they're failing the course... and they can take the final or not... but it won't matter. They're going to fail anyway. So they will have come to lab every night, participated, sort of done the work, etc. and they're going to fail the class on the last day because they were stupid. Seriously... you'd think that if people were going to cheat they'd be better at it!! Oh well... I really think that they don't think I have the guts to fail them... I guess they'll find out tomorrow!! So yeah... interesting stuff.

And that is my story for the day... I hope you enjoyed!! Have a great one!