Wandering Eyes

The school I'm teaching at has a really good reputation. Not only is it an IB school, but it also has a large enhanced/gifted program. For those of you that don't know, IB is considered something special and only a handful of schools in Ontario offer the program, - the school I'm teaching at being one of them. My own high school had it and I actually applied to get in but then withdrew my application at the last second when I learned I wouldn't be in classes with my friends. The silly mind of a teenager did I very much so have.

Anyways, this post has a lesson to it. The lesson is that even the "best" kids in the school are not always "the best." I was supply teaching for another English teacher. A class I thought would be fantastic because they were IB. I had supply taught another IB class that morning and thought it was the greatest thing in the world. Now there's a group of kids that make teachers excited. I thought this second class would be pretty much the same. It was the same, well... with the exception of the CHEATER.

I can't believe I already caught a student cheating on test. Okay, so the test hadn't started yet - but I was giving the class 15 minutes to review their work and out of the corner of my eye I noticed him busy scribbling on his desk. It wasn't even a test, it was more like a quiz. It required students to write down the the definition of each literary device listed. Simple stuff, or so you'd think. But I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt so I made sure he saw me looking and then I looked away - just to see if he would continue writing on his desk if I wasn't looking. He did.

Like most schools today, the rules for cheating (and plagiarism) are heavily enforced.

So what did I do? ... Did I yell at him in front of all his super smart IB peers? Did I rip up his paper and threaten to send him down to the VP? Did I tell him a phone call would be going home to his parents? No. I simply walked up to him, leaned over and quietly whispered "It probably isn't a good idea if you do that. If you erase everything, I'll still let you write the test." He erased.

Did YOU ever cheat on a test? I think at one point we've all cheated on something. CONFESS! I dare you! I remember writing math formulas on my eraser in grade 9 but I always felt intensely guilty after using it...

If anyone were to say that they've NEVER cheated on anything I wouldn't believe them. If it weren't on test then it'd be on something else. Like a person. Yikes.

Well that's all for now.
Keep your eyes to yourself :)

P.S Based on the information I've given about the school, does anyone want to take a guess as to what school I'm teaching at? If you do, just give the school's initials.