Last week, I had a shock! Now please understand, not many things shock me (when you get to my age!) - but last Monday, I was sitting at my desk marking some papers. A student (who will remain nameless) came into the office, and I could see that they were holding an essay in their hand. Quickly, in my mind, I began to wonder why this was, as I'd already had an essay from them.
They said, "This is my corrected essay. The last one I gave you, well, the first part was from the internet, but the rest was mine. However, my conscience wouldn't let me rest, and so I have corrected it. Is that ok?" Is that OK??? Wow! I was shocked! :-O
This was the first time in my (nearly) 7 years that a student had confessed to cheating BEFORE I found them out!! Usually, I have to be a detective and confront the student with their plagiarism. Usually, the student will then confess, although recently, I had a student who, even though they admitted that they copied it from the internet, insisted that it was their work because 'it was what they wanted to say'!! (If you can understand the crooked logic of that! :-))
Was it ok?? For sure it was! I happily accepted the corrected essay & disposed of the faulty original one. What the student didn't know was that I had already marked it...I'd noted that the first part was a bit 'vague' and 'general', but the rest of it was ok. I didn't totally suspect cheating, but then again, it wasn't as obvious as some previous culprits!
It struck me afterwards that it is a great joy for a teacher to discover when a student learns something more important than a 'maturita topic'...that they have learnt about character. Maybe I am teaching the right things? I certainly hope so ;-)
