Fan Competitions and Facial Hair

Even though I'm exhausted, and have many papers to correct and lots stuff to do (not to mention try and watch some of The Big Game tonight--the score is Red Sox 2, Yankees 0 so far, as I proudly posted on my chalkboard late in the day), I decided I have to share some random happenings in my school life.

One: Plagiarism is an awful issue to deal with. I'm having to deal with it in multiple cases with a major research paper I assigned to my students. Then I saw some news item about how its rampant, so one teacher's solution was to have most of the writing done in class. How lame is that? How can a student go through the important process of learning to do a research paper by writing it in class? I think the answer is they can't. So apparently some teachers are caving in to the moral depravity of mankind by having the writing take place in front of them. At the same time they're depriving them of a valuable learning experience. As for me and my class, students will write major research papers. And I suppose until the word gets around that I probably will catch you if you plagiarize, I do not tolerate it, and you could fail my class for doing so, students will continue to cheat this way. The hardest part has been confronting students for whom I have a lot of respect because of how well they have done to date. It's hard when students you have felt good about because of their past performance in your class get caught doing this. Sigh.

In other news, I decided to start a competition between my classes on a fund raiser. No, we're not raising money to cure AIDS, or end world hunger. We're raising money to buy 1, maybe 2 oscillating fans. For my classroom. I told my students it's going to get warm in the room shortly. 60 bucks will buy a sweet oscillating fan that is advertised as being quiet. (Quietness is key; I'm not putting a fan in the room that I have to yell over to be heard, thereby killing my voice in about one day's time.) As nice a guy as I am, I'm not going to spring that money myself. So we will raise it. It's purely voluntary, but the class that gives the most money will be able to eat and drink in class for a week. And we'll all be cooler. My sophomores and freshmen have given very little, but my four junior classes have put in about 45 dollars so far. And the campaign just started yesterday! I'm optimistic that come June a cooling, artificial breeze will be my constant companion in a potentially stuffy classroom. And I'm thinking about future drives for other items: a quiet, quality electric pencil sharpener ($35); an overhead projector ($300-400ish); a movie projector ($1000ish); ok, maybe not.

One thing I found really amusing was the negotiating tactic one class took while talking about this competiton. While all the classes wanted to barter for a better prize, one student suggested I should wear "the sweater" as a reward for them. (See previous post, from months ago for more info.) It has been referred to before in this class, but apparently the baggy sweater that made me look fat made quite an impression on my students. Now I can refer to it as "the sweater," and they all know what I am talking about. I wore it to school once. They still remember it, and are greatly amused by the memory of my wearing it, whenever the topic comes up. So I asked my class how many of them would be better motivated to give money if they knew I would wear "The Sweater" one more time. Hands shot up all over the room. So I promised them to wear it once, if they win. Right now they are ahead of everyone else!

Other fun. I decided to give a gift extra credit question on the test my U.S. History students took. This was it:
What should [my name] do with his facial hair?
A. Shave it off
B. Grow a full beard
C. Grow out the moustache, then curl it and wax it to fit his dictatorial persona
D. Keep it as it is, it's hot
E. I didn't notice [my name] had any facial hair

Many of them answered "C," and I'm wondering if they knew this question was a joke! I guess the joke's on me. Reaction to this question has amused me. One student thought the question was "sick." I think he doesn't have my sense of humor and realize it's a joke. Someone else asked if they were allowed to say answer D. (I didn't know calling a teacher's beard "hot" is a rule infraction). I cautioned some of my students to get the right answer, and expressed a hope with others that they had picked the correct choice. This caused some consternation, as some apparently thought that I was going to give them credit no matter what answer they gave (actually, I probably will, but it was more fun to play it along a little bit). At least one student didn't answer the question (what, too "cool" to answer a silly question? Too bad, no two extra points for you!) "Matt" (again, see previous post) elaborated on his answer, discussing about five different possibilities not listed, such as growing sideburns (which, according to him, would really make me "hot"), or dying it pink, then chose two answers. Haven't decided yet how to score that one.