Sunday, May 30, 2004
Today really feels pushed. I have had a parade of students coming to my home all day, to correct mistakes I made in grading papers. Most of their requests are justified – my poor math in adding up the marks, or my not finding where they hid answers to questions.
The average on the test was still in the low thirties, but I have many fewer zeros, and one hero even got 102 points – out of a possible 120 counting the two extra credit questions.
I gave one kid a zero because I thought it was obvious from his paper that he had cheated on both the extra credit questions. He came to my home, wanting more points and not understanding that I had given him a zero. That was a shocker to him. Of course he said he didn’t cheat. I sat him down, gave him paper and told him to show me that he knew how to do the problem. It took him a long time, but he got one of the problems and owned up to copying the answer on the other. He used a different formula than I had taught, and we talked about how he found that formula. Turns out he has been studying quite a bit on his own. He really is a pretty good student, and I didn’t want to a student who is putting in this kind of extra effort fail. So he agreed that docking him 15 points would be fair, and that resolved the issue.
I did take time out to go downtown today, and the only flights I can book for Myrna are horrendous. Forty-seven hours from Guatemala to Dar es Salaam, with a stop at Atlanta and big layovers at New York and London. But it is the high tourist season, and not much is available. But I have to get her OK before signing her up for such torture. Since I need to buy the tickets tomorrow before I leave for the IST, we are in crunch time here.
Now I have to get myself packed, and copy my grades so I can hand them in first thing in the morning.
The average on the test was still in the low thirties, but I have many fewer zeros, and one hero even got 102 points – out of a possible 120 counting the two extra credit questions.
I gave one kid a zero because I thought it was obvious from his paper that he had cheated on both the extra credit questions. He came to my home, wanting more points and not understanding that I had given him a zero. That was a shocker to him. Of course he said he didn’t cheat. I sat him down, gave him paper and told him to show me that he knew how to do the problem. It took him a long time, but he got one of the problems and owned up to copying the answer on the other. He used a different formula than I had taught, and we talked about how he found that formula. Turns out he has been studying quite a bit on his own. He really is a pretty good student, and I didn’t want to a student who is putting in this kind of extra effort fail. So he agreed that docking him 15 points would be fair, and that resolved the issue.
I did take time out to go downtown today, and the only flights I can book for Myrna are horrendous. Forty-seven hours from Guatemala to Dar es Salaam, with a stop at Atlanta and big layovers at New York and London. But it is the high tourist season, and not much is available. But I have to get her OK before signing her up for such torture. Since I need to buy the tickets tomorrow before I leave for the IST, we are in crunch time here.
Now I have to get myself packed, and copy my grades so I can hand them in first thing in the morning.
