A teacher's rant....

[mugsy]

Ok, I have had a B.A.D. day! My kids spent the day cleaning my room and preparing for their final tomorrow. The bell rang after 5th period to go to lunch. Two girls stayed after class and told me one of my best girls had stolen copies of my final and was handing it out to other kids. SOOOOO...after I told the girls to tell the kids the tests had better be on my desk when I got back, I marched down to the assistant principal's office to see how she wanted me to handle the situation. Now, keep in mind we had 55 minutes for lunch today rather than the usual 40 minutes...I never got a lunch and was late getting to class because I had 6 kids in her office trying to figure the whole thing out. As of right now, I've heard that one kid has in school suspension tomorrow and may or may not be able to take the test and one is suspended and will take a zero...the culprit is still denying she did anything even though 3 of her friends told the asst. principal that the girl had asked another girl to take the fall because she was already flunking. ALL of them tried to cover for the culprit instead of coming clean and now all of them are suffering consequences. I'm wondering if the culprit will not receive a failing grade (even though she is currently carrying an "A+") for the grading period. The assistant principal was NOT amused and neither was I considering I had to spend 3 hours retyping the test and now have to go in early tomorrow morning to copy the test AGAIN...not to mention the fact that my aide had already made 120 copies (3 pages, back to back) of the original test, wasting all of that paper, when we have a paper shortage.

I cannot figure out WHY they decided to do this. I have given the kids ample opportunities to get the necessary papers for the test. They are even allowed to use the papers on the test! And to top it all off, the questions are directly in order of how the papers should be arranged in their folders (and I went over the order again today). I guess it's the thrill of doing something "bad" and not getting caught. Now, at least 6 of them face some not so nice consequences. ARGH!! I know they're 14, but, dang!

Oh well, that's my rant! Thanks for listening!

[Cinder & Smoke]

I cannot figure out WHY they decided to do this.

Now, at least 6 of them face some not so nice consequences.

Wonder what the "spin" will be when the kids start telling Mom & Dad
the "Kids' Version" of the Tail?


/s/ Phred

[lizbud]

I'll bet it turns out that the kids were the victims in all of this. Poor babies. They are sooooo misunderstood.

[catnapper]

You and my husband should compare notes. He goes over the test question for question the day before the test. He sends them home with the "study sheet" which is basically the test. And what does he get? A whole lot of C's and D's. He's told classes that the test is all true/false with the whole page being T F T F T F T F just to see if they are listening. They're not because only one or two kids out of each class of 30 actually answers T F T F T F T F

Once, out of frustration he gave the kids extra credit. Actually, *I* gave them extra credit because I visited his classroom at lunch one day. The extra credit question was "Name Mr. Xxxx's favorite cat" THAT question they all knew the answer too So now he tries to give the info to them in terms they can relate to, like friends, family, contemporary famous people. It helps some but others still have zero interest.

[Cataholic]

Clearly, Mugsy, this is entirely YOUR fault. You should not expect your kids to not steal the exam. You should not expect them to 'fess up. Those are traits to be found ONLY in us old'sters. Not these mature, overly responsible, ready for the world teens.

I will personally organize a mass demonstration, to peacefully demonstrate, in front of your school if this poor, misunderstood "yout" of today is punished in any fashion.

Shame on you!

[caseysmom]

Wow if I was a teen reading this if I didn't have an attitude about adults I would be getting one real quick!

[Cataholic]

Wow if I was a teen reading this if I didn't have an attitude about adults I would be getting one real quick!

That is hysterical! Someone posts about a child STEALING the final exam, and passing it around, yet, you find the absuridy in what people (me, I presume) post about it?

LORDIE, beam me up, Scotty!

[caseysmom]

I think the original post is fine but the whole mommy will bail all teens out attitude is really amazing. I wonder if you will take offense to this kind of thing when Jonah is a teen and you are not bailing him out but trying to teach him good life lessons and everyone assumes he is evil and so are you because he is a teen.

Of course I believe stealing is wrong, don't twist what I am saying. The poor misunderstood youth of today comments are really beneath you.

[Karen]

It's amazing, but also not.

I remember back to high school, when people would cheat off my paper for Mrs. K's Biology and Physiology classes. Mrs. K. was no dummy, either. One girl, a lab partner of mine who always panicked at test time, especially pop quiz time, was particularly enterprising. One day we had a pop quiz, and it was simple multiple choice, so the answers were just a column of letters. Mrs. K. realized I was done, so she walked over and picked up my paper. As she continued walking around the room to supervise, she held my answers behind her back and upside down, so Robin followed her around turning her head to read my responses, before dashing back to her seat. I was astounded that she didn't get caught. Mrs. K. caught other cheaters throughout the year, and was never amused. Any cheating resulted in a zero for that quiz or test, which of course wreaked havoc with one's grade. Three girls a year older than I ended up having to do massive extra credit work when their cheating scheme was discovered - they barely passed that term, when they were usually honor roll kids.

[Cataholic]

CM- I can only assume, since I haven't been there yet, that I will treat/raise Jonah the same way I was raised. My parents did not 'bail me out'. Nope. I paid the price, when I was stupid. I might have been punished at school, but, the punishment at home was a whole 'nother matter.

Just like PM said, and I am paraphrasing here, "can't assume all of us will do the same(presumably as you are doing with your kids)when time passes".

I don't believe in fighting my child's battles, nor my friend's, siblings, etc. And, I would not talk trash about my child, or my relative on here, either. I can tell you IF Jonah did some of the things I hear about on here, I wouldn't be broadcasting it. I would be hanging my head in shame. I would be in counseling, with him or without him, not broadcasting it.

For the record, I do not assume all kids (or their parents) are evil. Way too broad of a statment for me. I seem to know alot more 'good' teens than I do the ones I hear about on here. Maybe that is because any bad egg would be on the way fringe of my life than instead of in the middle of it. I have seven siblings. None of us raised to any level of perfection. BUT, I can say, even years later, in retrospect, none of us did the sort of things I hear about on here.

[caseysmom]

I just don't like broad generalizations in regard to any group, I have always felt strongly about that be it minorities, women, pitbulls, whatever..

[IRescue452]

Anything to cheat. I was surprised when a professor at college didn't know about writing answers inside the label on a water bottle. I remember once when I was younger the person next to me was cheating off me, so I wrote in some bogus answers and later asked the teacher if I could retake the test because so and so was cheating off me. I got a retake, the other kid didn't. Sucks to be them.

[Pawsitive Thinking]

I could never be a teacher - wouldn't last a week without throttling one of the little darlings

[dogzr#1]

For some reason, I'm not surprised. Sounds like something the kids at my school would do, and I don't say that in a way I'm proud of.

However, all through school so far (elementary and middle) I have been labeled the 'smart one' out of my classes. So if there's a test or something, most of the err...not so smart people sit next to me to copy off my answers. The thing I like to do though when I notice someone is cheating of of me, I fill in all the wrong answers and then pretend I'm putting my name on top. My 'cheater' will turn in their paper while I'm filling out my name. Then when they sit I change all the answers to the right ones. Works like a charm! I don't know how many people I've caused to fail an important test.

[Freedom]

Oh my, Dogzr#1, I used to that TOO!!!

Hard to imagine honor students involved in this test stealing (first post). It has to be for the thrill, because they surely don't need it to pass. And they best learn thrills come with a price, now.