WEEK 16 - Cell phones (and tests)

School has changed so much over the years. Not only are things like class sizes, standardized testing, and expectations different, but cheating has also evolved with the times. And cell phones have made cheating extremely easy. 

Ten years ago, when I was a senior in high school, only a very small handful of students had cell phones. Others had access to a cell phone, but it belonged to their parents. Nowadays, nearly every high school student has his or her own cell phone. And while most of the time the cell phones are used to communicate (via texting, not calling because that's such an antiquated way of communication) or play games, they are also used to cheat. 

How, you might ask? There are many different ways. First, there is the obvious texting somebody the answer during a test. Then there is the student that takes a bathroom pass and looks up the answer on their smartphone while out. 

If the student hasn't completed his homework, it's all too easy to text a buddy telling him to snap a picture of the homework and send it to him. I have caught students copying answers off of a picture of somebody else's homework.

I don't pretend to believe that I am aware of all of the different ways kids use their cell phones to cheat on hoemwork and tests, but I like to think that I have caught on to a few of these things and have put in place various policies that make it hard to cheat. First of all, no student is allowed to go to the bathroom during a test. Second, if I see a cell phone out during a test, I not only take the phone away, but I will also either give the student a grade reduction or make him/her take an alternate test. And finally, I make my homework worth sooooo little (shhh don't tell my students) that even if they copied from another person, it wouldn't matter since their true ability would show on test days. 

As a sidenote, I've also learned that when passing out a test, I have to personally hand each test to each student (as opposed to handing 6 tests to the first person in a row of 6 and having them pass them back) because I've had students grab a test, but it in their folders, then say that I didn't pass out enough tests. They will then have a copy of the test to show their friends who have class in later hours. 

My hours for week 16:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	12/2/2012	12:30 PM	2:30 PM	2
		4:30 PM	7:45 PM	3.25
		10:15 PM	11:45 AM	1.5
M	12/3/2012	7:45 AM	5:45 PM	10
T	12/4/2012	7:15 AM	5:45 PM	10.5
		9:00 PM	11:15 PM	2.25
W	12/5/2012	8:00 PM	5:30 PM	9.5
		8:15 PM	10:30 PM	2.25
Th	12/6/2012	7:15 AM	5:00 PM	9.75
		8:30 PM	10:15 PM	1.75
F	12/7/2012	7:45 AM	4:15 PM	8.5
		8:45 PM	10:30 PM	1.75
Sat	12/8/2012			0
	Total			63