vocab!

Midterms started today, and I used a test generator for part of my test. All the questions are on point, but the test generator uses some vocabulary words. So over the course of the hour and a half test period, I've had many students ask questions about what words mean. I guess this is just a running total, for future reference for myself - also, I assume this list will be added to as the week goes on.

• upheld
• malice (x2)
• statutes
• bipartisan (x2)
• reactionary
• curtailed (x5)
• typifies
• regression
• diplomacy
• subjugation (x6)
• amnesty
• high ground
• civil liberties
• inferior (x2)
• reparations
• abolitionists

Found it!

Over the weekend, I decided know is as good a time as ever to start to try to understand and tackle student loans. Since signing up for them about five years ago, I haven't paid attention (or money) at all. I'm still a full-time student until June, and payments wouldn't start until November/December so I'm good there.

But when I checked over the weekend. I found out I owed $18,000 less than I thought it did. Awesome right? Sadly no. I found all the money I owed this morning, so everything is now back to normal.



yay.

closure

Ended up finding technically 9 cases of plagiarism in those research papers. Some were a very minor degree (forget bibliography & no quotes were used in paper), used one definition from the dictionary, took something from the internet word for word without quotes although there was a proper citation in the bibliography, etc.

One case, a girl took direct lines (phrases up to multiple sentences) from 5 different websites. After meeting with the academic vice principal, we decided to only pursue 1 of the cases (the egregious one) in terms of an "academic integrity" issue.

The girl got a zero on the assignment (worth 45 points total), has to serve multiple detention hours, and cannot be inducted into an honor society (NHS or subject honor societies) in the next round of inductions (April).

Her class was first period yesterday, I had to explain what plagiarism was (by order of the VP) and go over proper citations. I didn't look in her direction the entire time. After that we started reviewing for the midterms coming up. I asked the class a series of questions, called on people randomly (including her) and the class went smoothly. I think she appreciated I was in no way making a scene or calling attention to her.

So here's to a smooth rest the year.

plagiarism

Yay plagiarism!

In these research papers, so far (one class left to go over) I've found one girl who massively plagiarized and six other students who plagiarized in a smaller degree.

Why are kids to dumb?

Research Papers

On December 15th, I assigned a 3-4 page research paper about WWI on a topic of the students' choosing. The assignment was due January 5th. I've graded one full class so far and generally they've been good until I came to the last student of the class's paper.

Requirements: 3-4 pages, 12 point Times New Roman font, 1" margins, etc.
First off, he handed in his paper a day late (the penalty is that 10% of the total points is subtracted from your grade). Secondly, if you are ever going to email a teacher your paper - send it as a PDF so that all those little tricks you used to make your paper longer can't all be fixed back to what they should have been originally.

This future leader extended the margins and used justified alignment. But the paper still looked weird, the font was TNR like it was supposed to be and was 12 point the whole paper. I talked to one of my roommates and we discovered you can change the spacing between each word too. This kid had set it to "extended spacing" so that his paper was that much longer.

First is a picture of how his paper was formatted when he submitted it. Second is his paper with proper formating.

kids are great.

Odd

A group of students during study hall, called me over to ask a question about calculus. Most times, I can manage to figure out how to help the kids with what they're working on whether it's history, math, spanish, or science. Other times, when I have no idea I have one of two options that I turn to depending on my mood:

1. Tell them I have no idea and I can't help them
2. Make it up and sound convincing

The group asked me what a specific term in their Calculus textbook came from. I felt like making stuff up ... so I did. I explained an elaborate story of an Italian mathematician in the mid 1600s and the hatred of an ex-girlfriend who he wanted to shame for the rest of history. The kids believed me and I walked away.

About 10 minutes later, two of the students came up to me in awe in the fact that I knew the term. I told them I was joking and in actuality I had no clue whatsoever. They then had a look of even more shock and awe on their faces. Apparently they googled the term and my made up fictional story was actually correct (to some degree). 

Pretty awesome, huh?

Debate Team

Yesterday (from 3:30pm to 8:30pm) I help judge a match/meet (whatever it is) for the Debate Team. The debaters had to argue for and against space exploration. Here are some of the pearls of wisdom I learned while listening to the debates:

1. North Korea doesn't have any long range missiles but they can hit target in Israel, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
2. The leader of North Korea is Jim Kunill
3. The capital of North Korea (Pyongyang) is pronounced [PIE-GONE-YAY!]
4. Iran can shoot a missile 3 kilometers, which can hit Israel
5. It is cheaper to explore the oceans rather than space because all you need is scuba gear.

our future lawyers and politicians everyone.