I haven't blogged anything lately, and I think it's because I really only have something to say when I have strong feelings about something. And I haven't really been that riled up lately. I mean, I made another dress and put it on Howie, but this time I didn't even take a picture.
Though I might....
However, tonight I got super angry/annoyed/insulted/disappointed, and I just wanted to share.
So my class that I'm taking is over today. We had this group project due on Sunday, and I finished all my bits on Saturday. I posted them along with my sources so that the compilers could easily do their jobs.
I logged in earlier today and flipped through the posts and got the general idea that people had been working on the project. I figured they'd finished it and turned it in. But I was wrong.
I got a phone call this evening from Antwoine, one of the guys in my class. He was pretty upset that it hadn't been done and hadn't been turned in. I tried to sympathize while frantically logging on to the class to see that it, indeed, hadn't been finished or turned in.
The guy who was supposed to compile the project had misread the syllabus and thought it was due on Monday.
This did not make me mad. I have done plenty of dumb stuff, and I always feel horrible afterwards-- especially when it affects other people, like a group project. This guy apologized and explained his mixup. No biggie-- to me.
Since he hadn't done it, though, I felt like I could step up and do some final editing. I'm good at it and I like it-- and it's what I do all day anyway. So I start the final comb-through of our group's paper. Some people are stronger writers than others, and some people had just put a list of information instead of a couple paragraphs. I can deal with that. I didn't rewrite the entire thing (congrats to self for such restraint), but I did make it flow a bit better.
However, I got to one of the last sections, and instead of sounding like a research paper on our videoconferencing system we'd chosen, it sounded like a cheesy advertisement for an electronic classroom enhancement program. I did a quick google search, and lo and behold! it WAS a cheesy advertisement for some other program.
Ok, I've written before about how much I hate it when my students turn in plagiarized crap as if they'd written it. I feel insulted that they've tried to pull the wool over my eyes and get by with doing nothing. It's also frustrating because it takes just like 5 minutes longer to read the stupid material and then summarize it in your own words.
So imagine how I felt when I realized that had I not done some major editing at the last minute, MY NAME would have been written on this project with a huge, stupid, mismatching plagiarized section in it! It had nothing to do with the rest of the paper, except that they were both made up of words. It was very clear that this team member had never even visited the videoconferencing website-- because if he had spent one minute there he would have known how off-base he was submitting what he did.
And this guy wants to get a Master's degree and become a teacher! I am horrified.
In addition, this guy was supposed to write our paper's conclusion. His original conclusion had been just a rip-off of the introduction. Yeah, our teammate who wrote the introduction had a few words for him then! So this guy rewrote the conclusion, taking bits of random paragraphs throughout the paper and stringing them together as if they were a conclusion.
What a loser! I hope he doesn't get his degree. We don't need teachers like this. There are enough students like this already.
Though I might....
However, tonight I got super angry/annoyed/insulted/disappointed, and I just wanted to share.
So my class that I'm taking is over today. We had this group project due on Sunday, and I finished all my bits on Saturday. I posted them along with my sources so that the compilers could easily do their jobs.
I logged in earlier today and flipped through the posts and got the general idea that people had been working on the project. I figured they'd finished it and turned it in. But I was wrong.
I got a phone call this evening from Antwoine, one of the guys in my class. He was pretty upset that it hadn't been done and hadn't been turned in. I tried to sympathize while frantically logging on to the class to see that it, indeed, hadn't been finished or turned in.
The guy who was supposed to compile the project had misread the syllabus and thought it was due on Monday.
This did not make me mad. I have done plenty of dumb stuff, and I always feel horrible afterwards-- especially when it affects other people, like a group project. This guy apologized and explained his mixup. No biggie-- to me.
Since he hadn't done it, though, I felt like I could step up and do some final editing. I'm good at it and I like it-- and it's what I do all day anyway. So I start the final comb-through of our group's paper. Some people are stronger writers than others, and some people had just put a list of information instead of a couple paragraphs. I can deal with that. I didn't rewrite the entire thing (congrats to self for such restraint), but I did make it flow a bit better.
However, I got to one of the last sections, and instead of sounding like a research paper on our videoconferencing system we'd chosen, it sounded like a cheesy advertisement for an electronic classroom enhancement program. I did a quick google search, and lo and behold! it WAS a cheesy advertisement for some other program.
Ok, I've written before about how much I hate it when my students turn in plagiarized crap as if they'd written it. I feel insulted that they've tried to pull the wool over my eyes and get by with doing nothing. It's also frustrating because it takes just like 5 minutes longer to read the stupid material and then summarize it in your own words.
So imagine how I felt when I realized that had I not done some major editing at the last minute, MY NAME would have been written on this project with a huge, stupid, mismatching plagiarized section in it! It had nothing to do with the rest of the paper, except that they were both made up of words. It was very clear that this team member had never even visited the videoconferencing website-- because if he had spent one minute there he would have known how off-base he was submitting what he did.
And this guy wants to get a Master's degree and become a teacher! I am horrified.
In addition, this guy was supposed to write our paper's conclusion. His original conclusion had been just a rip-off of the introduction. Yeah, our teammate who wrote the introduction had a few words for him then! So this guy rewrote the conclusion, taking bits of random paragraphs throughout the paper and stringing them together as if they were a conclusion.
What a loser! I hope he doesn't get his degree. We don't need teachers like this. There are enough students like this already.
8 comments:
Wow.. makes me glad I'm not in school.
I check almost everything against google, email, patterns, information... and I bet that guy does too. U'd think he'd realize the connection.
Hope u get an A!
That sucks for you...and the rest of the group and his students (if he graduates) ohmygosh! it is awful...that is all I have to say about that... :0~
What an idiot! Did you chew him out?
You'd think that he would recognize the importance of doing honest work, even if it wasn't the best work. Why would he want to be a teacher if he isn't planning on being honest with his own teachers?
So this story gives me two pet peaves. 1st the cheater guy. I hate it when people cheat, and even more when they get away with it. Did you "tell" on him?
2. Group projects. Someone always ends up having to do more work and if another group member(or members) is lazy, stupid, or a cheater the other members either have to make up the difference and the bad group member gets away with it, or they all get bad grades. my roommate just pulled an all nighter because she was the compiler and only a few of the other group members got there stuff in. So she did their work so that she could pass the class, but they will get to pass too now. grrrr for "group" projects.
Wow. Unbelievable. And you just KNOW he is going to be livid with his students when they do the same thing! This is why group projects are so stupid! There is always one person who ruins it for everyone else.
It's really too bad that people are able to divorce learning and teaching. I don't understand the mindset where he can think that he wants to teach, when he can't even figure out how to learn himself. I hope you get all the credit of figuring it out.
What a dumbhead!! Ugh. I can't believe he is in *graduate school*. If he hates learning so much, he should know by now that he doesn't have to be paying for a degree; he could just go flip hamburgers somewhere.
I'm glad you caught it before it was turned in (although part of me hopes he does get caught cheating so he reaps the consequences.) (Okay, I suppose I should hope he mends his ways and never cheats again.)
And, like Emily and some others, I hate group projects, too. :-P
Post a Comment