I should be working, but I just can't get rid of this bothered feeling. One of my students plagiarized on her final exam. Pretty blatantly too. Some of it was from something I had written. I gave her an F on the final, and she ended up with a C in the course. She went in to the final with an A! I don't understand it.
I thought it over, and wanted to follow policies. Spoke to the Dean, the Chair, and my program Chair, and they all pretty much agreed with what I did. But, the Dean said that if a violation affects the student's grade, it must be reported to the Chair and the Dean. I have to notify the student first. Then, a letter will go out to the student's parents, she gets a copy, and one will go in her record. "Good graduation present!", the Dean exclaimed when I told her.
So, I just sent her the letter notifying her of what was to come. It really does make me sad. She could have passed the course with an A. Why she did this, is beyond me.
However, I am convinced that this student has hated me all semester. She would sit there and glare at me with a very sour face. Maybe she wasn't. Maybe that's what her face looks like normally, and I misinterpreted her expressions. There are people like that, I kept telling myself.
I gave an anonymous review of the course, and I keep suspecting her to be the one who said that she pretty much hated me, and would not recommend me to anyone else. The best thing about the course, the reviewer said, was that it was once a week for an hour and a half. She rarely said anything in the class (participation is 10% of the grade). I just kept thinking that she was sitting there plotting my demise the entire time I was either lecturing, or we were discussing something.
After sending the email, I am reminded of the student who threatened to break his professor's legs if the grade is not changed that University Diaries wrote about. That's just very scary.
I hope this doesn't turn into a huge drama or broken legs. I really don't have time to deal with either.
Labels: horror stories, plagiarizing, students, teaching
Gak! I've never had to do that, but I've had to deal with a couple of students who thought they were too good for the course (basic career skills class required of all biz freshmen), which brought dramarama from all sides.
I suspected that one of them was the one who wrote on the anonymous reviews that he thought I was the most incompetent um... purveyor of the world's oldest profession.
May you be free of dramarama, so you can enjoy the end of the term!
Mel said...
May 14, 2008 at 5:37 PM