Spring Break

You've GOT to be kidding me

Today I'm officially on spring break. Bust out the bikini, it's party time. Not really. All this means is I get to work on my screenplay for a week without feeling guilty I'm not doing work for my class.
The students took their midterm yesterday. I might be too easy on them, with the hints. Since they have already realized I'm a pushover, I will have to wait till next term to be more of a stern no-nonsense teacher who has high expectations, and doesn't ever feel sympathetic towards someone who has clearly blanked on the information. It is the same students who come up and ask questions in a round about way of saying, "I have no fucking idea how to do this," or, "I forgot."
Some people would rather not ask. They are intelligent, but they would rather not ask and get the hint, and turn in the wrong answer.  I respect them for that.
One of my students asked to take the test early, she said, "I booked a trip to Cabo for spring break, and I totally forgot I have class on Wednesday."
I was laughing because that is so silly, and I let her take it early. It was during our class intermission when she asked, so we were in the front of the room, and the students who didn't run out of class to try and test out if the Starbucks line is going to make them late for class, sat in their seats playing on their cell phones. They seemed distracted as she explained she is having a hard time with the class, and subscribed to an online resource where video explain the material. In her words, "I'm paying fifty bucks for math-for-retards videos."
My jaw dropped. First of all, she is too young to say "retard." Thats such an eighties word, and it worked it's way out of popular vocabulary in the nineties when people learned about political correctness. My eyes widened, and I changed the subject. Surely the people playing Candy Crush didn't hear her the first time, but if she said it again, I'd think some eyes might look up. She is a funny girl, and the odds aren't so great that she will pass the class, but I'd be happy to have her in my class down the road when she needs to take it again because she is hilarious, when she isn't dropping R bombs.

Monday I caught someone cheating on a quiz. That night I told my husband about the cheater. I was angry because this kid took advantage of my generosity. This student is a regular at my office hours, and I feel like he's been blowing smoke up my ass all this time, a deceitful ass kisser. In my office hour we work most of the quiz problems, almost the exact problems, before class, so to cheat is asinine since he just saw the answer fifteen minutes prior, and these quizzes are not worth much in the overall grade. I said to my husband, "I'm embarrassed for him. I'm embarrassed for his family." I could have sounded much more sensei, had I finished it up with, "He does dishonor to his family," but I didn't. Seriously though, his face makes me want to blow fire out of my mouth and scorch all the hair off his head.
This morning George and I went to the park with my friend who is a part time elementary school teacher. She said she always feels awful when she catches kids cheating. Her students are 10 years old, so she interprets it as the kid having too much stress and feeling overwhelming pressure. The guy I caught cheating is 20 years old, so maybe he has external pressure to succeed, but in this case, I don't feel sorry for him.
To me, cheating seems like it would be harder than studying. If I didn't give myself a heart attack during the act of cheating then the days following would be a tortuous period filled with hyper paranoia and guilt. The student who said the R word and forgets to attend class might not be able to squeeze by in this class, but the kid who studies regularly, attends class, but cheated on his quiz, is probably going to pass. I don't have any doubt here on who is going to live a happy life, failure is much more than a letter grade.