We survived!
Though, not for lack of trying on the part of Mother Nature. A gigantic winter storm swept through the Midwest and much of the United States last week, playing havoc with driving conditions and forcing the university to shut down operations for two days. I used the extra time off to lesson plan, watch the directors' commentaries on every horror movie DVD I own, and catch a cold. (Who says you can't be productive in your spare time?)
Last week was also unique for the fact that my boss's boss, the director of INTERLINK, was in town to observe and/or audit our program. He had originally planned to observe each teacher (there are eight of us) in both our RW and CS classes to make sure that we are operating as close to our student-centered focus as possible. However, due to the weather, he only observed a handful of us -- myself included -- in either our RW or CS class. I'm going to state the obvious: having your boss's boss looking over your shoulder isn't exactly a stress-free experience. Though we knew he was coming weeks in advance, most of us planned activities for the week that were specifically tailored to showcase as much student participation as possible. Whether or not we hold to the same standards when we're not being observed is debatable; I think it's human nature to want to come off as competent and so we all make adjustments when they are needed.
Still. I think I did well. I mean, he observed my CS class for about an hour (which we spent doing student presentations) and had only minor notes during the one-on-one feedback session that afternoon. In this case, I think my newness was to my advantage. I said, "I know I'm young enough and new enough to teaching to be sure that I don't know everything. I'm not going to get it perfect out of the gate. What works for one class might not work for another and the reverse is also true. I am okay with making mistakes. If I learn from them, I get better." Which seemed to be, you know, kind of what he was looking for in the first place.
New challenges already this week: today I had to deal with my first instance of student plagiarism. I asked one of my students to write out, in their own words, a summary of everything that has happened in the novel (
The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe) up through Chapter 7. The student e-mailed me what they had written and, by gummit, if it wasn't lifted verbatim from eNotes.com. (The student didn't even fix the
formatting issues -- spacing, font size, indentation -- but just copy/pasted things exactly as they were seen on the Web site.) I asked one of my mentor teachers what I should do in this situation, as INTERLINK has no step-by-step policy for dealing with plagiarism (even though they take a "no tolerance" stance against it). She told me that it was important to nip this issue in the bud, so I e-mailed the student immediately and informed them that the assignment they submitted was unacceptable because it had been copied from eNotes, that they would receive a "0" for the assignment, and that they were in danger of failing the class if they continued to plagiarize sources. I blind-copied the student's CS teacher, as well as my boss.
I didn't take any pleasure sending that e-mail or sniffing out plagiarism. Honestly, I knew that it was a problem in universities and most other academic settings and that I would have to deal with it eventually. But at the same time, I'm just like, "Geez, just how
stupid do you think I
am? If you can find this stuff online, so can I." I'm also fortunate in that this week -- Week 5 -- has a block of time set aside for one-on-one evaluations. On Thursday and Friday, I will sit down with each of my students and let them know how they are doing in the class, where/what they need to improve, and whether or not they will pass to the next level if they continue to perform as they're performing. There's going to be a lot of "tough love" at these meetings, I can tell.
