Last week I caught a student cheating during an exam. She was using her cell phone to look up answers. When she saw me walking to her, she slyly slipped her phone into her bag, but it was too late. I walked up to her desk, pulled the exam off her desk and pointed to the door. When she met me in the hallway, she feigned shock and denied cheating : “I was texting my boyfriend!” she said, as if that improved her predicament, considering that cell phone use results in immediate expulsion from my class. But she was caught red-handed. It is still mind-blowing to me that college students cheat. Aren’t you supposed to get over that phase … [Read more...]

One of my friends once employed a desperate ruse to outsmart her professor. To avoid being called on in class when she had not read the assignment, she pretended to be sick. She covered her face with yellowish liquid make-up and smudged brown eye shadow under her eyes to simulate dark circles. That way, she figured, she would not be marked absent but could just sit in class and not be expected to participate. The ploy worked: not only did the professor not call on her, he demonstrated serious concern and alarm at her condition! After hearing this story, I vowed to always call on the “sick” students—just in case they were faking. A … [Read more...]

It is painfully obvious to me that most students today have no idea how to take useful class notes. Whenever students struggle in my course, I ask them to make an appointment with me and bring their notebooks, because their note-taking style can usually tell me at least part of the problem. Sometimes this means I see neat, tightly organized notebooks with well-marked tabs and highlights. But that’s rare: Usually I see notebooks that are bursting at the seams with lose papers or covered with random food and beverage stains (at least, I hope that’s what they are!) But no matter the condition or presentation, student class notes usually … [Read more...]