I caught her cheating.
Mrs. G was giving a quiz to one of her beginning technical theatre classes. While she was writing what the students would be doing next on the board, she asked if I would watch the students. As I glanced across the room, I noticed one girl leaning over and reading her neighbor's quiz. Not one of those brief glances around the room student does when they are trying to think...the sustained stare. Without a word, I stood up, walked over to her desk, picked up her quiz, and sat back down again.
Pause
Cue waterworks
A few minutes later she walked up to Mrs. G's desk and asked if she was going to fail the quiz now. Mrs. G's response was awesome. "What do you think should happen?" I think one of my favorite parts of the whole exchange was when asked why she did it, the student did not even try to say she wasn't cheating. Instead, she retorted, "It's not like I was the only one who was cheating."
Poor kid.
Pretty standard response, I fear, from my own experience. Kudos to you for acting firmly and without fuss.
ReplyDeletebtw, what did the student respond when asked what should happen? I've done that anonymously with a class when I've found plagiarism (asked the class what the consequence should be, allowing the guilty parties to squirm without being identified)... and the class tends to be pretty firm about fairness...
ReplyDeleteI think that was when she threw out the "other people were cheating" defense. Then cried more. Then reminded the teacher she was trying to get her schedule changed anyway because she needed a Health credit and not a fine arts credit. I think the tears she took with her to the counselor's office prompted them to finally make the change.
ReplyDeleteYet again a student thinks they can avoid consequences for inappropriate behavior. :(