Key Battle

"Could I see the answer key?"

Freshman math. I had gone over their homework answers, and then I gave them a practice test to work on.

Howard had not had his homework out when I read out the answers. This should have been a red flag. But I figured checking his answers late was better than never, so I let him see the key.

(Junior-level math and sometimes sophomore-level, the teacher will leave a key the kiddos can see. Generally, they're really responsible with using it.)

Twice I passed Howard on my way around the room. Both times he was talking to his neighbor, the key forgotten on his desk.

"If you're still not checking your work when I pass the next time, I'm taking this back."

On my third time by, Howard was busily copying the key.

"Did you even do the homework?" I asked.

He hadn't. And he begged me to bring back the key.

We argued. He explained that he needed the homework points to help his grade. I pointed out that the homework was supposed to be done by him, not copied. He didn't see my point.

So much so, Howard asked again later (twice!!) if he could have the key back. I pointed out that he had time right then to actually do the assignment. (We were on two hour block periods for state testing.)

Did he do it? Of course not. He didn't even do the new assigned work.

Gee, I wonder why his grade is so low.

Did you ever copy your school work? Did you like math?

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Finishing It Up

U.S. history, second semester. It was the last block (two hours) of the day. I had a class of fourteen. They had bookwork, and they spent the time in near silence.

Mostly they appeared to be working. Well, except for two boys who had their heads down on their desks.

It seemed to be one of those days that don't make the blog. Until...

End of the day. They packed up and left. I had taken the turned in work and stacked it neatly in one pile and left it on a desk at the front.

I was finishing packing up my stuff when I noticed I still had one straggler. He was one of the boys who had been asleep. For a moment, it looked like he was going to slide his paper into the stack, so I went about my business. (I don't consider the work late if they turn it in as they leave. If he had handed it to me right then, I would have put it in exactly the same spot.)

But, instead of sliding his paper in, he pulled another paper out. And then he was busily writing something...

Um, no.

I shooed him away. He had only managed to copy one answer, leaving two full answers on his paper. (He had done one on his own earlier.) He sought about for a good lie, but he couldn't come up with one.

Student logic. He had slept for much of the two hours, and he figured he could make up in the work in what? Five minutes after class? Seriously?

Of course, this didn't take into account the other three assignments for that day. (He was copying the worksheet, but they were also assigned four questions from the book and an outline of the chapter.)

Perhaps I should have let him copy. The page he had pulled? It belonged to the other student who had been sleeping.

The Easy Way

It was only the second week of school, so call outs are light. And, they're unplanned, so I wasn't shocked that the lesson plans were rather sparse. While I could have had them go on to the next section (math class, so the next section was about exponents), enough of them were still working on the polynomial section that I didn't feel it necessary.

I did my usual walk around. Several students had finished the assignment. One boy had two assignments on his desk. One complete and one not.

As it wasn't a test, I didn't mind them working together. And, if a student wanted to check his work against a neighbor's, I didn't have an issue with that. But these were not simple problems, and the boy appeared to just be copying his neighbor's work...

I asked the usual question. The boy said he understood the assignment. Okay, fine. "Explain how you do this to me," I challenged.

He hemmed and hawed. But not for too long. Pretty quickly he relented and admitted that he didn't understand how to do the assignment.

Okay, then. I can help with that.

I don't think they get how bored I am when they don't need my help.

And besides, they can copy the answers to the assignment, but this practice thing isn't going to be graded. And if they don't figure out how to do it during the practice, they won't have any idea what they're doing when it's time to take the test.

I think that's a lesson some of them are going to have to learn for themselves.

Ximena's Help

Um, yeah, so I'm totally cheating today. The girl in the story--not named Ximena. Although, I do generally change students' names. (They are minors, after all.) And I have run across a girl named Ximena. She's three years younger and a pleasure to have in class. Not blog-worthy at all.

(In case you're wondering, her name is pronounced "humena", so my title is an alliteration. Kind of.)

I was back at the continuation high school. It's been a while. The computer class. They were working on computer literacy, career planning, or the yearbook. Every class had some of both (although there was only one period of yearbook).

And, of course, there were the ones not working on any of the above. Even though they should have been. This was the continuation high school, after all.

But the boy was on task. It was an assignment on workplace safety. Things like how should one lift something and how one responded to fire alarms. He called me over to ask the answer to the last question, which was something about what causes back pain.

He chose an answer and hit "submit" for the whole thing. He got 79%. He needed 80% to pass. Helpfully, the submission screen gave him a list of what he'd gotten correct and what he'd missed. But he couldn't go back and fix his answers.

I wandered away. The next time I returned, I discovered the boy and Ximena working on the assignment again. Redoing it. Only this time, they were utilizing Ximena's phone. She had pictures of various screens--the question screens and the submission screen.

Um... Cheating...?

No, they said. These were the boy's answers. Ximena had just taken a picture. Of his answers. And whether they were correct or not. So, they could retake the questions and get them all right this time.

Deep sigh. Well, at least it was on task.

That next time through, he got 83%. So, he passed. And as that was the last assignment for the class. He had finished.

It just kinda left me with an odd feeling.

Would you consider that cheating? Or, was he just redoing his own work? What did you post for X today? Did you cheat, like me?

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Earth Science Shenanigans

A certain type of student takes Earth Science. The kind that I have to keep an eye on.

I did my usual walk-around and noticed a boy copying from another packet.

"I didn't get the notes."

Me: "That looks like the assignment, not the notes."

"But it's all right here. It's easier to copy."

I took the packet he was copying from, noted it belonged to Kevin, and moved on.

Miriam claimed to be completely done with the assignment. I doubted this, but I got distracted by something else. Upon returning to her side, I noticed she had gotten out her packet--her blank packet.

Me: "You told me you were done. You lied to me."

Not that it bothered me. Or seemed to bother her. I get lied to numerous times a day. But sometimes I like to point it out.

I stood over her, waiting for her to get to work. She refused. She flipped open the cover of the book when I asked her to open her book. She "couldn't find" the right page...

Later she called me over. I hoped rather than expected that she had an assignment-related question.

"How old are you?" (To which I gave my now standard reply.)

They'll do anything to avoid doing work. Sigh.

After I finally distanced myself from Miriam, I turned to find Kevin throwing something across the room. Something that made a metallic clang when it landed.

Since the period was over in two minutes, I let Kevin know that he would be receiving a referral for that the next day. (Too bad I didn't catch the other boy who was throwing stuff at Kevin.)

If only they put half as much effort into completing assignments that they do into avoiding assignments...

What's your favorite procrastination activity? (Please don't tell me it's throwing things at people.)

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Your Own Work

"What did you get for B?"

"What did you get for C?"

"For D?"

They were doing a worksheet on the skeleton. Each letter pointed at a different bone. Instead of looking it up in his book, Alejandro asked classmates for answers.

Well, that's one way to do it. I guess...

Alejandro's desk was empty of all but the worksheet. No book. No notes.

I quickly put a stop to his trolling for answers. Many of the students did not reply, but a few did. I mean, it's one thing to ask a classmate to help out when you're stuck, but quite another if you're not even trying.

*shakes head*

(Of course, this turned out to be the least of my issues with Alejandro that period...)

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Does this story worry you about today's youth? (Alejandro is in the minority. Most students diligently complete assignments.) Did you ever try to get your fellow students to do your work for you?

Fight Talk

They started off describing the time they got arrested in Redondo Beach. Then the conversation veered into fighting--who they beat up, when, and whether they "won".

I know this because I heard every word. So did most of the school, I'd imagine. Probably the elementary school across the street heard it as well.

I knew I wasn't going to get any work out of them. (I suppose I could have tried harder...) I asked the boys to take their volume down. They didn't have to project their voices quite so much. The room wasn't that large, and they were sitting next to each other.

This, of course, they did not do.

But the rest of the class was on task. Certain questions about the assignment repeated all day. I turned to help a student with one of these.

One of the boys suddenly turned in his seat to the boy behind him, asking about question number 2. (This was more than 45 minutes into the period.)

I wasn't surprised to find the principal and a district official had dropped in. (I heard they were coming before class.) I was surprised how quickly the boys went from fight talk to a pretense of doing the assignment.

As soon as the visitors left, the boys went back to their previous conversation. Naturally.

But before the end of the period, they suddenly got busy. Curious, I checked their desks to find them busily copying the finished work from one of the girls in the class.

Sigh.

I took the paper from them. They did not protest.

Why, oh why, do students do this? They let the boys goof off for the entire period, and then give them their hard work to copy. I don't get it.

Copying the Word Search

It was another Friday at the continuation high school. The assignment was a word search.

(It was an ordinary word search, much like the one the math class did. It had a bunch of letters from which the students were to find the words that were listed at the bottom. I'm sure you've seen them before, but in case you're unsure, they look like this.)

The continuation high school students aren't the type to voluntarily work on anything, so the word search was worth a lot so long as they finished it and turned it in by the end of the period. Easy enough, right?

For the first two classes it was easy. They finished fairly quickly. But the next group...

I passed out the word search. I called the roll. Then I went about straightening up from the last period (gathering all the collected work and paperclipping it together). As I settled in to observe the group, a couple of the students nearby noticed that something was missing.

"Where did the papers go?"

Turns out they were going to copy the previous period's finished word searches. Because, you know, it would be too hard for them to do on their own. (The papers were stashed in a pile under other piles because I know this trick, so I hide previous periods' work as a matter of course.)

Shortly thereafter, another student approached. He wanted to know where his word search from the previous day was (the teacher gave some students the assignment a day ahead). I didn't know. I wasn't going to look. When I questioned him, he admitted that he just wanted his assignment so he could let others copy it.

Several students congregated in a group in a corner. One finished. The others pounced. Oooh, a finished one; one they could copy.

(Until I took that paper from them.)

If they only put in as much effort into doing the work as they do in trying to find a way around the work...

Oh, by the way, does anyone know of any good YouTube videos that would be school appropriate? I had access, and putting a video on in the background might have helped things. I think it's about time I complied a list for days like this one.  

Not Enough Time

Today I covered a biology class.  The teacher left three study guide worksheets for them to do.  The assignment was due at the end of the period.

Sometimes, teachers leave assignments that the students can't possibly finish, and they make it due at the end of the period.  I appreciate the consideration.  The teacher wants to make sure that the students don't have time to goof off and make trouble.

Unfortunately, the students haven't figured this out.  They seem to think that they have to figure out a way to finish all that work.  They seem to think that if they don't finish, they'll be penalized.

So, they figure out a way to get all the work done.

They break into teams.  Student one does one worksheet, student two does the second, and a third student does the third.  Then they swap and copy.

I know this trick.  I was on the lookout.

If they do it in teams, they finish in the amount of time that it takes to do one worksheet, and then they have that time to goof off.  The teacher needn't have bothered to put together the extra work.

I tried to tell them that if they didn't finish, it wasn't going to be the end of the world.  They just needed to do what they could get done.  The honors students didn't finish.  Some of the students in the regular classes did.

I did my best to catch the copiers.  At least I didn't have the behavior issues (well, I did in one class, but that's another story).

Sharing the Assignment

It was 3rd period at the continuation high school. Government class. They had a two-page worksheet. About 10 minutes before the end of the period, I looked over and found a student copying his classmate's assignment.

"Do your own work," I said.

He had his excuse ready. The boy and the girl were "working together". He had done the first page, she had done the second.

Um, no.

The boy argued. It was easier for him to copy (naturally). He could read the question, see the answer, and understand what he was supposed to learn. Searching the text for the answers would only confuse him. And take too long.

I've had these sorts of discussions before. This boy was notable in that he continued to argue long after most students give up. I think he thought I would eventually relent.

Finally he returned the worksheet to his neighbor. He didn't get much done after that. The period was just about over. But then again, he didn't get much done before that. He had used the period to talk to his neighbors, mostly about braces, retainers, and such.

Some day they're going to figure out that "working together" does not mean each does half and copies the other half. I hope.