Cheaters never prosper

Last week I gave a quiz, for which there were two different copies passed out to the room. The quizzes looked identical, but some of the numbers were changed so that if a student copied from another version of the quiz, I would know.

I caught 7 cheaters this way. I did not tell my cheaters that I caught them. Instead I called their parents. By now, though, they should all know that they have a zero on that quiz. When I made my phone calls to parents, I was met with a range of responses. Some parents responded with "Don't worry; I'll take care of it." to questions that almost put the responsibility on me. One woman asked if I was going to change her son's seat. Um, a seat change isn't going to change your son's integrity. Perhaps your son should pay more attention to the lesson instead of the girl sitting next to him. He's spending too much time on a girl who really doesn't require that much wooing, if you get my drift.

Unfortunately, I sometimes think about my job as a game. Even though my real goal is for the students to learn, I can't help but think that I won this round. New Teacher beat them again.