Cheating and plagiarism happen. I knew that in theory, but it was a disappointing thing to deal with in my own classroom. In a particularly bad season of this, I realized that I wanted to find a way to hold students accountable to high standards of academic ethics while teaching them why it so was…
Category: Being Human
Seeing Humans Not GPAs
I had to say it again this week. I’m always kind of sad when it happens. A struggling student finally agrees to meet with me (Hallelujah!), and I find out that the reason they’ve been delaying is the embarrassment. They are ashamed about their performance (even if they’ve really been trying) and avoid me because…
Find yourself a mentor-or two-or three…
I was sitting in a meeting a few weeks ago in a very frustrated state of mind. Something good for students was being proposed, and the negativity of the response just reinforced the need for the proposed change! I raised my hand repeatedly to no avail, wanting to point out the irony. I was not…
Student Feedback Week
This week a lot of my time was spent listening to my students. I handed out a mid-semester evaluation form in one class and spent a whole class period gathering feedback on a brand new series of assignments in another. I also had several one on one conversations with students and participated in a career…