Day 28

Why do students feel the need to cheat? One of the Giggle Girls decided that she was going to allow another student, Big Shot Senior to cheat off her assignments. From the story that she told me, he was pressuring her to give him the assignments because he couldn't finish them. She gave in and gave the assignments to him. Well, that just means that he received a 0 on the assignments, and she will receive a 0 plus an F as a final grade because this is the second time that she has allowed someone to cheat off her. It will be interesting to hear from her parents, if they ever respond to my e-mail, about what is going on and it will be interesting to see what the administration has to say to either back me up or side with the parents. They weren't going to tell me anything until I started pressuring Big Shot Senior as to why her name was on his assignment and he finally gave in and told me that he pressured her into giving it to him and that he was sorry. Well, thanks for the apology but according to the department rules, they both get 0s. And Big Shot Senior isn't doing all that well in the grade department anyway.

But the term will end in a few weeks, so now I've got students coming and trying to make up assignments from the first of the semester, which according to my late work policy, I will not accept, but at least they are trying to now turn them in.

I've got a few students who feel like they can do whatever they want, whenever they want and they won't listen to me or to their other classmates. It hasn't been that bad lately, but the past few school days have been kind of rough. It seems that the "novelty" of being in high school has worn off and now they realize that it is just like any other schooling that they've had, only a bit harder.

Last week I went to a seminar on using iPods in the classroom and I was given an iPod touch to use in the classroom. It has been kind of interesting. It is nice to be able to have some music or something floating throughout the classroom, but downloading apps that actually apply to the class is hard enough. I really don't want to pay too much for an app that I may only use occasionally. But the students got a hold of the iPod and asked if they could play a few of the games that were on it. I gave it as a reward to those students who were actually on task or even ahead of everything. I let one student who is a bit slower play with it today because he has been working really hard and showing up for intervention and after school help, so I gave him a few minutes to play.

I just wish that it was Thanksgiving break or Christmas break already. At least we get a 4 day weekend coming up in a couple of weeks. That will be nice.