Thursday, March 4, 2010
1st Period: Algebra II Quiz day
Man,
I have been telling my Algebra II Class to make sure they have their squares learned up to 20... (ex. 5 squared is 25.....they had to know up to 20). They also had to know their perfect cubes up to 10 (ex 2 cubed is 8, 4 cubed is 64).
I told them, that at sometime this week they are guaranteed to have a quiz, in which they would have to fill in all 30 of the answers to the squares and cubes. They would have 90 seconds to complete sed quiz, with no calculator. Well, today was that day!
Here's what I THOUGHT was going to take place. I would give everyone a sheet, they would fill it in within the alloted time, and boom, an easy quiz grade.
Here's what happened....
I told my class, when I give you the quiz, leave it FACE DOWN..... we will start it all together. Of the 7 rows in my class, as I started passing out the quiz to the 2nd row, a freshman, (lets call him VJ) turns his over and starts perusing through his quiz. So I see him, and make a blanket statement to the class:
"Make sure that you leave your quiz face down." He continues to look at it. So, I send out another friendly reminder.... "Almost done....make sure you are rehearsing them in your head....and it should still be face down on your desk." He still kept looking over it....didnt even get it.
So I look at him, "VJ, dont look at it!!" Poor guy..... got scared when i snapped at him.
Next Step:
"Ok..... you will have 90 seconds to complete the quiz when I say go. Remember...when I say pencils down....put them down. I want to her 24 writing utensils hit your desk at the same time; And No Calculators."
So, in 90 seconds, what can go wrong? Let's count:
1. 10 seconds into his quiz, VJ picks up his graphing calculator and starts punching away. My response: I started laughing.....
2. J-Dubb (girl) leans over and starts looking at CT's answers, and decides they are better than hers and writes them down. My Response: I point out the cheating to my TA, and keep laughing.
3. I see two students using their cell phones as calculators....so I announce: "So far, there are 5 zeros... any other takers"
So after I say time up pencils down....I realize the one flaw in my plan...I didnt give students a chance to put their name on their paper. So I give them all 4 seconds to scribble their first name.....(In my head I thought it was a fool proof plan.) So I saw 5 more kids try to fill in problems they didnt get to, during the 4 second "NameWriting" Period.
So that means..... I now have more than 25% of my class, who I know cheated......
And here is what I did....
I pulled up a chair in front of the class, and I laughed. I laughed for like 2 minutes until I tears streaming from my eyes!! I couldnt even speak 3 words without absolutely cracking up.....
5 minutes later. A student, lets call her Amy, is texting during my class. For the third time, I tell her to stop. She doesn't. So I yell "Think Fast" and toss her a dry erase marker underhand style, hoping to get her attention. She looks up at me, stares at it, and then the marker hits her in the forehead. I thought it was funny. Amy did not enjoy my humorous sentiment...... she picked up the marker and put it in her purse, and said, "I guess I'll be keeping this."
My response: I walked over to her desk, picked up her phone, and said. "I guess I'll be keeping this, RULEBREAKER." And put her phone in my pocket. Fair is fair right???
She wasn't happy. I was thoroughly amused. My class was entertained, all, but the ones who will receive a grade of ZERO on their quiz. Another quiz tomorrow!!!!
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Dwayne, this is tooooo funny! I see this all the time - they don't listen, there's a consequence and they whine!! The good news is most of them will learn from this. It's the ones that won't that worry me....
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