Summary: In the spirit of Halloween, I organized a movie night for my students. In the same week, I gave out our midterm exams. Navigating how to handle issues of cheating and plagiarism in my classes has been challenging, but it's also led to insightful discussions with myself on the balance between justice and forgiveness.
Halloween
With Halloween approaching, I asked my classes if anyone had Halloween plans - whether it was throwing a party or dressing up in a costume. Since no one had plans, I decided to organize a Halloween movie night at the university campus. In preparation, I shopped for decorations, bags of candy, and tried to find a movie that was spooky but not too spooky that I would get in trouble by the school administration. We ended up watching "The Blair Witch Project" which I personally thought was scary, but it seemed like my students didn't think the same. I guess they had expected to see what the monster looked like, so they were taken aback when the movie abruptly ended without ever showing the monster. Either way, it seemed like my students enjoyed the event (especially the candy).
Midterm Exams
This week, I gave out midterm exams for my four classes. It's our department's protocol for students to take their exams online, but seeing that I've been having problems with pockets of cheating, I decided to make the exams in-person. Yet despite these precautions, I still found a handful of students using their phones and sharing answers in front of me, which was honestly disappointing.
Working as an English teacher, I've been learning a lot about classroom management and management in general. I've found that it's hard to balance upholding justice and being forgiving. On one hand, I feel as if I do not hand out consequences for cheating or plagiarizing, then that pretty much sends a green light for others to keep doing it. Yet, on the other hand, I feel that being strict in policy and giving out zero's may lead to extreme discouragement among my students.
In trying to figure out what actions to take, I have been deeply pondering what are my goals and responsibilities as a teacher. Yes, my written job description is to teach English. However, I also want to help my students apart from academics - to learn that there is virtue in honesty and that cheating rarely goes unpunished in"real life." I know I'm not the sole influence in a student's trajectory - nor who's to say I have any jurisdiction in the non-academic aspects of their lives - but I would hope that I can teach in a way that students come out of my classrooms with more fortified principles.
We had our first snowfall on Monday. Days are getting shorter with the sun going down earlier, and nights are getting chillier as well. Hope everyone's doing well wherever they are@ For your entertainment, I have added two videos from a recent performance - a throat singer with a Mongolian orchestra and a body contortionist-archer!
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