Boy, was I sure stupid (charitably, naive)! I had kinda suspected that my Reading and Writing Commerce sophomores were getting and giving help to each other on our weekly quizzes, cause the class average for the five point things was usually around 4.5, which is way higher than when I did the class with the same quizzes basically in the spring semester, but I was lazy and wanted to keep using Google Forms for quizzes because 1) I'd made them already for the spring semester class, 2) I don't have to mark them because Google does that, 3) I don't have to waste time in class handout out paper quizzes and collecting them, and 4) I was stupidly thinking that by having Google Forms mix the question order as well as the order of multiple choice options within each question I was making it so they couldn't look over each other's shoulders at their smart phones to get answers so easily...
BUT--I found out to my chagrin after last Thursday's class (and our ninth quiz) that they can easily send each other emails with the correct answers while they're taking the quizzes, which I what I happened to see one especially clueless girl doing... I should have known, of course. I should have thought of that... but as it didn't seem to happen last semester when we were having classes online, I just assumed it wouldn't happen this semester when we're having classes in person at school. I guess it must be that when doing classes online, they don't communicate with each other as much as when they're in person, so they couldn't "help" each other so much or at all with online classes... But the temptation and opportunity are too much to pass up with in person classes. ANYWAY, that means, sigh, that I'll have to start giving them paper quizzes (and collecting the dirty things) or becoming more scary about cheating etc. etc. And for their final exam, I sure will make it a paper test and not use Google Forms for it. Apart from that shocker, things have been going OK, I suppose. The weeks have been flying by, and we're now getting close to the end of classes (my last ones of 2021 will be on Christmas Eve, though I'll have about one last set of classes after the New Year holiday before exams). I'm struck by how much Japanese my English major and Pharmacy Interactive English class students use when they're in small groups and supposed to be communicating in English. I think it's gotten worse than before. There are one or two students in each class who, in fact, are, seemingly, incapable of talking in English at all. The majority could do it if they tried. So that's disappointing. But as I get older, I get more detached feeling about such things. Maybe ... maybe I'm giving up? I do really enjoy my American Culture class fully, as well as my graduate school classes. And what the heck, I like all the kids in all the classes anyway, despite their tendency to cheat or use Japanese too much. Just a couple more weeks till vacation!
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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