When the wind blew, it rained. When the wind stopped, it stopped raining.
The sun was blinding today.
I bought two bags of Easter Dove chocolates: one dark for Husband and me because we like dark chocolate, and one milk because I needed to stress eat.
Yes, I'm avoiding writing about the plagiarizer. Ethically, I feel like I can't discuss it until I reach a point far enough in the future to say "Once, a student ______" and no one be able to guess which student, which class, which semester, or even which school.
Once, I had a student attempt to excuse her/his incomplete final paper and overabundance of absences with the following statement: "I have two months to live." Once you have looked into the eyes of a student who says she/he is dying and say "I'm sorry for what you must be going through, but you cannot pass this class without doing the work and attending class," other "pity me" excuses pale in comparison and are easily handled.
Note to students: My sympathy does not equal you passing my class.
And the student who said that she/he had two months to live, was alive three months later asking me to support a retroactive withdraw, the reasoning for which did not match what she/he had previously told me.
3 comments:
If I had two months to live, the last thing I'd be doing was arguing grades. I'd drop out of school and go see the world (or as much of it as I could afford). Aren't students fun. I hope the plagarism situation is resolved quickly and to your satisfaction.
It seems to be resolved now. There were complications, but the student decided to be honest, so all seems to be going smoothly (at least for now).
I once had a student who told me that her brother committed suicide in her room and left a note saying she was to blame. She also told me that his depression was due to the sudden death of their father.
I believed her until she came to my office to discuss make-up work. I mentioned my own rather recent loss of my sister (at the time just over a year before) and how hard it must be to lose both a father and a brother -- she looked at me for a moment like I was nuts and THEN remembered her lie.
Thank goodness another faculty member called the student counseling office and asked them to verify this -- they asked her for supporting documents, she ignored them, since she was local they searched for death notices for the father and found nothing. Finally they called her home to give belated condolences to mom -- who didn't know what they were talking about.
Finally, they gave the student until finals week to come up with some shread of evidence that the story was true, she didn't and failed out of school.
Funny thing is that I saw her in the halls of my CC the next year. She smiled and waved, then realized who I was and walked the other way...
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