Bad + Good

And now for another installment of:  I Can't Believe It!

As I was grading all those essays earlier this week, I noticed that two students submitted papers that were 80% identical to each other -as in, the first 4 paragraphs of their 5-paragraph essays were exactly the same. Today when I handed back their papers, I pointed this fact out to them. Neither apologized or seemed the least bit concerned. Even after I mentioned that this behavior was cheating (i.e. wrong), I still got nothing. In fact, one of the students walked away without saying anything at all -not even goodbye!

On a lighter note, several students demonstrated marked improvement in their 2nd essay from their previous one. Naturally, their grades reflected such progress. It was endearing to observe several of their faces light up when I handed back their papers. I received a few bows of gratitude, and one girl thanked me for the sticker which I'd placed on her essay.

I'm starting to get it. In teaching as in life, you take the bad with the good.