Is it wrong to hate your students?*

I am so glad the semester is almost over. I am so tired of having to tell students in my big general education course to stop talking & texting during class. I'm ready to pull out my hair.

That is all.

*There are some good ones in there, but the obnoxious ones are the most noticeable, unfortunately.

(One of) My least favorite things about teaching...

I ressurected my paper assignment in my big freshman course this year after a one-year break. You may recall that this happened two years ago. Go ahead and read it.... 

I found myself retelling that story to a colleague the other day and it got me thinking about the whole issue of plagiarism again. This time, I have not reported any students, but have had two students rewrite their papers because the content was too similar to web content (based on Turn It In reports). The papers were not wholly plagiarized, but there was quite a bit of word-for-word copying in each one. 

Am I wrong to not report it? Can these students really be that ignorant that they are committing plagiarism? By backing off from the hard stance of reporting all cases, am I just letting serial plagiarists cheat their way through college, since any instances are not being reported? I have mixed feelings about it, but given my last experience, it was hardly worth the trouble- especially since I don't think the student learned anything from it. 

Even aside from the cases where I've had students rewrite their papers, I still find smaller segments of text that match other sources- if it's less than 15%, I don't worry about it, but I sometimes question that, too. It's no wonder people don't like to assign papers in their big first-year courses. I have encountered plagiarism in upper level classes, too, though. One semester (before Turn It In), I googled a passage of text from a student paper and found the whole thing on the web. I reported her to the chair, and in the meeting, she admitted everything and took a zero for the assignment. In another class, I deducted a large portion of a grade for one student paper, because a lot of it was not original and started checking their first drafts the next year (when I had to have a student- one of our majors- rewrite his paper). The problem is so widespread, that I have to wonder how much of it is truly ignorance and how much is cheating. Either way, it's an aspect of teaching that I loathe to deal with. 

What experiences have you had with plagiarism in your teaching (or other fields)? Does anyone feel like they have a good handle on it or have university policies that are favorable to the instructor?

Conference reflections

Well, D and I made it home last night and H picked us up at the airport. We went out to dinner at our favorite place- which was almost closing and didn't get home until after 10:00. The trip was good overall and I am feeling physically better than I was before the trip. I didn't get to do any spa treatments at the conference (children were not allowed and I had no place to leave D). It was nice to get away from Small College Town for a little while, though. 

I was not thrilled with the conference this time, though. I have attended this meeting twice before, but it was in cities where I had lived, so there were lots of locals that I knew. This time, I knew about three people (and not well). I felt like a complete outsider- also because we didn't attend any of the social gatherings, including the lunch (that I paid for). I asked the organizer if D could come and just share my plate of food and she said it was OK, but only because there were some no-shows and she seemed quite irritated about it. We decided to go eat elsewhere. 

I gave a poster instead of a talk and ran into that same old problem: "Are you a PhD student?" I played it off as a compliment that I look young, but was really quite annoyed about it. I'm almost 39! Is it so hard to believe that I am a tenured associate professor?? Maybe I'm overly sensitive, but it just brings up all sorts of confidence issues for me and I start second-guessing everything about my research. But then, that is silly, too- I am a co-PI on a federally-funded grant and was presenting research from that grant. Why should I feel like this? I don't seem to do well when I strike up conservations with other conference attendees, either.  

The whole thing just gives me a major case of impostor syndrome (which I tend toward, anyway). I feel like never going to another conference and forgetting about ever going up for full professor, because I don't know how to schmooze or make connections within my discipline. Ugh. 

I'm sorry to be such a Debbie Downer over here lately, especially because it doesn't reflect my actual mood most of the time (as those who know me on Facebook know). I am hoping to have a productive summer of research (yes- we've all hear THAT one before!), and get a paper written. Today, I am playing catch-up from my week away by writing a lecture for tomorrow and other teaching chores...

The conference was in a BEAUTIFUL place (I wish I could post pictures, but it would give me away- they're all on Facebook!) and we got to visit Adopted Home State before that, so the week away was definitely good for me. Now, if I can just survive these last two weeks of the semester!!!

Another trip around the sun

It's been a year since this happened, and I have totally come to accept it and feel like I have moved on, but it still makes me sad to think about it. I don't think anyone else knows that it was today and I didn't want to mention it to H, while he's back at home and I'm here in adopted Home State with D (visiting my mom). So, I am just 'marking' the event without sharing (except for you guys!) While I may have recovered from that sad event, I have not been feeling quite myself. I was making myself physically ill before this trip, by stressing out over EVERYTHING. I was shaky, dizzy, light-headed, having digestive problems, nightmares, migraines, etc. I am feeling normal since we got here, so I am no longer convinced that I must have diabetes or a thyroid problem (which was only adding to my pre-trip stress). I only have about two weeks left in the semester when I get home from this trip, so I am hoping to keep myself together then.

Tomorrow, D and I are off to Mountain Resort for my conference (I dragged her along since she has spring break this week). I am very tempted to take advantage of their spa and have a massage or facial while we are there. I am also almost hoping to get snowed in (they've been having TONS of snow there)- except that I want to get home to see H. I'll post some pictures from there, but here's one from this leg of the trip:

It is definitely good to get away from Small College Town for a while- I hadn't left town since last August!! I also got to see my Stepdad for the first time in two years. I'm glad the semester is almost over and I will be able to get to things other than teaching soon!