I am feeling incredibly frustrated right now, and it’s all a result of some major plagiarism from my students.
I love being an English teacher. I love being an AP English teacher. I also love teaching the regular level of senior English.
While I am sometimes disappointed by the lethargy of my seniors, today I am frustrated by the deceit of my juniors.
It’s interesting, teaching such different classes. The AP English students are mainly students who are highly motivated. The seniors are often more apathetic, as English probably isn’t their favorite class and they really just want do perform well enough to pass and graduate. Yes, I am generalizing and I obviously have some motivated seniors and apathetic AP students, but in general, that is how my classes stack up.
Anyway, I find that my seniors will choose to not turn in an essay, which can be frustrating, but they don’t plagiarize. I don’t know if they don’t realize all that is available online, or if they don’t really know how to find it, but the seniors who are failing are usually failing as a result of incomplete work. They just accumulate zeroes.
The juniors are a different story. They almost never accept zeroes, but that sometimes means that they resort to plagiarism when they procrastinate or when they are overwhelmed by the amount of assignments they have for each of their honors and AP-level courses.
There is a huge project that I assign every year to my AP students during the last week of November. It is due the first week or February. They have to read a nonfiction book, complete vocabulary portion of the assignment, and then a written portion. Most of the students who perform well turn in a paper that is over twenty pages long. I am completely aware of the enormity of the assignment, which is why they have over two full months. I give them reminders along the way, but every year, there are students who have not even begun reading their books even though the assignment is due later that same week.
This assignment takes me hours to grade and I know that most of the students also spend hours working on it. However, this year I found a great deal of plagiarism.
Now, it’s easy to spot plagiarism, but it’s still time-consuming, typing sentences into Google, double, triple checking. I call the parents of students who are caught plagiarizing, so that also takes time.
The student received a 0, so all of the time they spent copy & pasting was a waste. My time scoring the essay is a waste. It’s just an altogether tedious process. But usually once I catch plagiarism the first time, it’s done.
Not this year. Because I was disappointed with my students’ time management skills on the last project, I decided to assign another assignment that had extended time. Students had to read 4 texts (an article, speech, essay, and a poem) and respond to questions. They had over one week to complete the assignment (ample time for a college-level class) and turn it in.
But yet again, there was plagiarism. And this time, there was even more of it. This assignment was not that difficult or that large, but I am willing to bet that many of my students waited until the night before it was due, realized that they didn’t have time to read 4 texts, and panicked.
What’s interesting and ironic is that the students find answers online that are typed by other students (who aren’t necessarily correct). So suddenly I have multiple students with the same incorrect answer on their papers and it’s quite clear that they all cheated.
It just makes me so angry though. These students supposedly want to pass their AP exam, but they want to cheat their way there, not realizing that they must go through the process of learning to ever have a shot at that exam. Sure, a paper that is plagiarized (if not caught) may seem like an easy win, but it’s a lose-lose situation in the long run, once they realize that they’re now completely unprepared for their AP exam.
I want these students to have a love for learning, but that isn’t always the case. They love their high grades. They love achieving honor roll. They love the prospect of getting accepted into competitive colleges. But they don’t love the work that is required in the process.
I recently read a book called The Cheating Culture. It took me a while to read the entire book because I found it so infuriating that I could only read it in small doses. It covers cheating in every form: pharmaceutical companies, steroid use among athletes, lawyers, medical billing, government corruption, and cheating in school.
The book basically shows how cheating has become the norm. People who would not be prone to cheat on their own begin to see others who are getting ahead as a result of their cheating, which causes them, in turn, to cheat. It’s a vicious cycle that leads to a nation full of cheaters.
I see this happen with my students. I can’t claim to catch every instance of plagiarism, so I am sure that some students slip through the cracks. Their peers probably realize that and then they begin to cheat because “it’s only fair.”
I have no good solution. I wish my students were all intrinsically motivated to learn, but many of them aren’t. Many of them are, but there are many who just want the A, no matter what. And it drives me insane.
Sometimes we as teachers want more for our students than they want for themselves. So I will continue working as hard as I can to motivate and inspire them, but at the end of the day, the cards are in their hands.
It’s so easy as a teacher in America today to be bogged down in the negativity that surrounds education. Many days, it seems like teachers are more busy with data, evaluations, observations, parent contacts, growth plans, IEPs, 504-plans, 21st-century skills, Common Core State Standards, Marzano / McRel / Danielson standards, SGOs and a variety of other acronyms that bombard us, rather than focusing on what is really the most important: our students.
So rather than writing a rant about the sometimes crazy alphabet soup of acronyms that is our job as teachers, today I want to take the time to remember some of the things that allow me to continue to say that yes, I do love working as an urban high school English teacher. Here goes…
1. Helping students to acquire (or maintain) their love for reading
I have a classroom library that is full of a wide assortment of books. All of my students are welcome to check out a book at any time. My honors students are required to read one independent reading book each marking period, but I find that many of my other students also opt to check out books just because they can, and it’s easy.
They don’t have to actually go to a real library; if they see something that catches their eye, they can just borrow it and bring it back whenever they finish. I recently had a student who enjoyed his book so much that he begged me to keep it. I buy the books at Goodwill ($2 for hardcover; $1 for paperback), so when a book does go missing (or if I choose to give one to a student like this who simply adores a particular book), it’s not the end of the world.
I have had students who thought they hated reading who later realized that the problem was simply with the books they were picking. Once they found a genre that interested them, they were hooked.
2. Reading their journal entries
My students have to write a journal entry every day. Often, these are responses to quotes, or questions about material that we have been working on. Sometimes, students get a “free write” and they can write about anything they choose.
This was today’s “Do Now” journal entry:
Some of the things that I learn about my students are extremely interesting. I love it when they trust me enough to open up and share some of their thoughts/fears/hopes with me. It humbles me at times to realize the tough events that some of my students have experienced in their lives.
3. Witnessing their creativity
I currently teach British literature, so there isn’t much time for creative writing, but some students opt to write poems or raps as part of their daily journal entries.
I am sometimes blown away by the creativity of my students and I am thrilled to see the pride that they have in their work.
I also try to utilize assignments that provide options for students to draw something, to make a collage, or create a video. Again, it is amazing how many of them are such brilliant artists.
Below are some of the drawings that I received when I asked students to draw their own rendition of Grendel:
4. Helping students to perfect their college and scholarship essays
Most students dread writing their college essays, but it is one of my favorite things about teaching seniors. I force them to really dig deep to find the most significant stories and events in their lives that have shaped them to be the people they are today.
Sometimes it takes three or four thrown away topics and partially started essays before one really works, but when a student finds one that works, it’s so exciting for both of us. I love being able to help students to find that anecdote that can best show a side of themselves that colleges cannot see from their list of extracurriculars, their GPA, or their SAT scores.
Recently, I’ve been looking over their scholarship essays with them, helping to give them advice.
In my old school, we had an awards night when the scholarships were presented to the students. This was one of my proudest nights as a teacher, seeing truly deserving students getting financial help for college.
5. Writing recommendation letters for students
Okay, so sometimes this isn’t my favorite. Sometimes there are students who are perfectly good students, but who I don’t really know that much about to really write them a great recommendation letter. I don’t like to write vague letters just putting their resume into nicer sentences.
But I have students each year who truly impress me. Often, those students are not the ones with the highest grades in my classes. Rather, they are the students who have tremendous character, especially considering that they are only 17 or 18 years old. They are the students who are genuine people who seek to better the world.
Or maybe they’re those struggling students who have shown tremendous improvement. Maybe in September they were barely passing, but by the time I am asked to write a scholarship recommendation letter in March, I am blown away by their progress.
It is these students whose recommendation letters I LOVE to write. I often have too much to say and I have to stop myself from going on and on. That’s a pretty great problem to have.
6. Fostering within them a desire to travel
On my wall behind my desk, I have a map that looks like this:
I labeled all of the major places I have traveled to, along with one picture from each place. To many of my students, being able to take all of these trips seems completely unfathomable, which gives me a good time to explain to them a little bit about my own story.
I explain how I definitely did not grow up as a rich kid who just traveled overseas all of the time. I admit that I was actually terrified of airplanes and didn’t want to go anywhere that required one, never having gone on a plane until the spring of my senior year of high school.
I then explain that it is only because I really worked hard in college in order to get a good job that I am able to go on these trips. I also try to teach them about saving money, explaining that I don’t have a nice car and I don’t have clothes with designer labels because for me, travel is my main priority. I would gladly drive around in my old, dented car and wear clothes that I bought on clearance at Kohl’s, or that I’ve had for the past ten years while still being able to travel. If I did the opposite, then sure, I might have a flashy new car and fancy dresses, but in the long run, will that really lead to happiness?
I show them that, depending on their effort and their priorities, traveling doesn’t have to be an unrealistic ideal.
7. Moments when students understand that my tough love was just that — a form of love
I am not an easy teacher. I’m not mean or irrational in my expectations, but I maintain pretty high standards. Many of my students resent this. They want extra credit points for very little effort. They want perfect scores on incomplete assignments. They want an A on anything that was completed, regardless of the actual quality or correctness of the work.
But most of my students eventually realize that I just want what is the best for them. For some, they realize this by October. Others may realize it in the spring, some upon graduation, some years in the future, and some may never realize it, and that’s okay.
I love it when I hear a student explaining to his peer how he knows that I’m just trying to do what’s best for him.
Now that it’s spring, I have had some students who have thanked me for being a tough grader because they have realized that their writing has improved.
Others are beginning to understand that the workload in college won’t even compare to their current homework load, so they appreciate that I’m doing my best to prepare them now.
I know that some of my students hate my class because it requires more effort on their part than some of their other classes, but I’ve learned over my years as a teacher that that is fine. My goal is not to have every student feel that my class is their favorite. My goal is not for students to like me or to be their best friend. My goal is to teach them.
8. Teaching them to be good, moral citizens who seek to make the world a better place
In my AP class, I have what I call the “Be the Change” project. My students must choose three causes to research in order to write their end of the year research paper. I use the word “cause” intentionally because it is so vague.
I introduce the project by sharing a slideshow that I created of the various groups I have volunteered with, the mission trips I have been on, and the places I donate my money. There are major things like going to Haiti to provide professional development to teachers through Project Teach, to much smaller things like donating to the church Giving Tree every Advent.
Students have researched major organizations like Habitat for Humanity and the Peace Corps, to much smaller, more local charities and volunteering programs.
Though many of the students may never actually volunteer for these organizations or make donations, some of them do, and that makes it all worth it. One of my former students chose to go on a spring break trip to Louisiana to volunteer to help rebuild from the chaos that still exists in some places in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. I know that part of the reason he had the idea to go there was a result of completing his Be the Change project.
Sometimes, I am the one who ends up learning about new programs that exist or finding new charities to donate to. I learn so much from my students.
It’s great if I can help all of my students to be avid readers and coherent writers, but I also really want them to be good people. I want them to care about the world around them.
9. Helping some of them to grow in their faith
In my last school, I was one of the advisors of Youth Alive, a faith-based club. We would complete community service activities, like making bagged lunches for a local soup kitchen, baking cookies for the custodians, and cleaning up our courtyard.
We would also spend time simply talking about life, faith, peer pressure, or any topic that happened to be on their mind. It always amazed me how I was there as the adult, as the advisor, but so many times it was my students who were really teaching me so much about my own faith. Seeing their trust in God during certain times when they were facing major issues was nothing short of amazing.
Standing with a Youth Alive poster at a club fair
In the school where I work today, I’m not advising any specific clubs, but there are still times when students will come to talk to me during free periods about their faith, their churches, and their youth groups.
Since I teach in a public school, I never talk about religion during class. I do wear a crucifix necklace almost every day and it’s nice to see that students notice that, or they may notice that I mentioned something that I saw at church and they feel comfortable to come to ask me questions or just chat about things that are going on in a religious sense.
10. Seeing them all dressed up at Prom
I love going to Prom and seeing my students dressed to the nines, so happy to finally be the seniors. It’s also cute to see how excited they get to see their teachers and to take pictures with us.
11. Watching them walk across the field to get their diploma
One of my favorite days to be a teacher is graduation day. It is amazing to see the smiles on their faces as well as the faces of their family members as they walk across that stage. Some of my students have been the first member of their family to get a high school diploma. For others, they will be the first ones going to college.
To see their hard work pay off makes me feel like a proud mom, sending my child off onto the next chapter of his life. Except in this case, I have hundreds of children all being sent off at once. It can be really emotional to say goodbye to them, not knowing if or when I will ever see them again.
I’m really disappointed that I will miss graduation at my school this year, especially since this is the first year since I started teaching that I have had all seniors. I will be in Kansas City, Missouri grading AP English Language & Composition exams and it’s been really sad telling that news to my classes. I will obviously find another time to say goodbye, but I know that it won’t be the same.
12. Receiving emails from students who have graduated
Thanks to the internet, I do end up hearing back from many of my students. I have received emails thanking me for pushing my students so hard to develop their writing.
I’ve had students tell me that projects they have been assigned in college English classes are almost identical to certain ones we did in my AP class, so they have thanked me for preparing them well.
Sometimes I even have a student who will randomly email me with a question about an assignment that they need to complete for college.
13. Getting visits from former students
Upon moving to New Jersey and starting my job in a new high school, I realized that my former students would no longer be able to come back to visit when they were on a college break.
In my last school, students would usually come by around Thanksgiving break or their spring break to stop in and say hello. It was always great to hear about how college was going.
It was also a humbling experience to realize that they were taking time out of their break to come back to chat with a teacher rather than doing something else with their time.
14. Receiving heartfelt notes of appreciation or small tokens of gratitude
I don’t teach with the intention of receiving presents, but sometimes kids really surprise me.
During my first year of teaching, I started out the year teaching 7th and 8th grade reading and language arts. I’ll never forget when a girl came up to me in the morning to give me a gift. It was a huge cucumber (literally as big as a watermelon) that she had grown in her garden. It was cut into four wedges (one for each of her four core teachers). It was so cute to see the pride she had in her gardening skills.
More recently, before Christmas this year, I had a student who made a Charlie Brown Christmas tree for a bunch of his teachers. He wanted to give presents to us, but he didn’t have too much money to spend. He told me how he went to buy a Christmas tree with his mom and he noticed all of the sawed-off trunk ends laying on the ground. He asked if he could have them, and of course they let him. He drilled a hole in the middle of them, put in a branch, and made this:
I was having a particularly stressful day the morning that he gave that to me, so it was the perfect pick-me-up. I was incredibly touched by the thoughtful gift.
15. Experiencing funny moments with them
There are so many hilarious moments that I end up forgetting, but I try to write down the best ones in a journal that I keep. On a day when I’m particularly stressed out, I will sometimes go to that journal to remember some of the funny, innocent, or downright ridiculous things that students have asked me.
The funniest reoccurring moment is any time a student accidentally calls me “Mom.” I remember having done that in 4th grade and feeling so stupid for calling my teacher “Mom,” but apparently it happens all of the time.
I have so many funny student stories, but that will have to be a whole separate blog for another day.
So although education in America is far from perfect, and I could write a litany of blog posts about the many things I would change about education, I sometimes need to take a step back and be thankful for the positive moments.
I am a teacher because of my love for my students. Some of the current educational trends that I may not believe in will probably be gone in a few years. Things are always changing, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.
Many teachers are leaving this field because of some of the recent changes, but I still have an obligation to my students, regardless of the laws. I still want to help them to become better writers and better citizens, and I plan on continuing to do just that.
Peppermintfrost 