Making sure they don’t cheat
Gave my undergrad class a mid-term today and the reason I’m mentioning it here is that it was also a spot of uninterrupted knitting I managed to get done after a long time. Close to finishing the vest. I cannot believe this is turning out to be so mind-numbingly slow. But I was thinking: knitting works very well during exam supervision (or as they say back home: invigilation!) and I cannot believe I have not done it before. You cannot really read anything because you have to keep glancing up and looking around. After some serious cheating in my classes last semester I cannot afford to just hope they’ll all be good. So I took some knitting in today and it was perfect; it was mindless stockinette so I didn’t have to look at it either. I had my eagle eye on them all the time and I finished the front. Now only the bands and finishing remains.
What I find remarkable is the shocked look students will give you when they realise you have a life outside the class or some skill outside the lecturing, grading and occasional yelling.
Anyway, hopefully just a couple more weeks and then I’ll be posting pics of FOs like crazy. I had a strong temptation to go into my LYS yesterday on my way back to check on winter yarn sales, but I resisted. But I am looking for some Cascade 220 or some Elann Highland Peruvian for the Ribbed Cardigan pattern, which I bought sometime ago. On a side note, I still find these fancy names for patterns a little odd. The blog revolution seems to have brought it on since it makes it easier to identify patterns, but I still can’t bring myself to say, "I’m making a Ribby Cardi." Or, "that’s Ana, my alpaca sweater." Taking christening garments a bit far, eh? But then I sniffed at the whole blogging thing too, so let me not say any more.
I just read about a survey that showed something like 75% of students have admitted to cheating in the last year. I was truly shocked! I guess I am kind of a goody-two-shoes, but I would never have dreamed of cheating when I was in school!
The article that talked about that survey said that cheating has supposedly gotten worse due to the availabilty of text messaging, on-line term paper purchasing, and also the message of our culture and from these kid’s parents to “win at any cost”.
Anyway, glad you found a good (fun) way to keep an eye on them! Can’t wait to see your finished projects.
Hi Fran,
I just came over from AS and I am seriously impressed with your knitting. I am so totally amazed that you can knit and keep and eye on students etc. When I knit (started knitting only recently and realised what frogging meant when I had to do just that to my first scarf sob!), I have to totally concentrate on my knitting. On the invigilators front, what did you do with the cheaters in your class, I am curious.
Mallige
lobstah, I’m sure a lot of that percentage are in my school, grrrr. I’m sure text-messaging makes it all a lot easier, but have no idea how to stop it.
Mallige, thanks for stopping by and for the compliment! and good to know you’re knitting too! my ability to knit (only stockinette, mind you) and keep my eyes somewhere else comes from long hours of mindless TV watching. Keep at it, it will come to you too. What scarf pattern and yarn were you using?
As for the cheaters, I only found out afterwards that the cheating had occurred after comparing answer books and the same wrong answers, mistakes, etc. but didn’t have conclusive proof. I was just extra vigilant the next time, but there’s a regular university procedure for reporting students if you catch them and have evidence.