"What the Heck?! Wednesdays" focus on the heart-warming, ridiculous, and sometimes frustrating stories from our school days. Teaching in Turkey is trying and difficult. We come home exhausted, and our days off are nothing short of precious. That being said, we love our students. Most of the time. They are creative, silly, smart, obnoxious, loud, affectionate and adorable. And they make for some delightful stories. Enjoy...
I am of the opinion that every teacher has an age group that is their preferred age group, mine is pre-k and maybe early elementary school. It is absolutely not High School. As teachers in a school with students ranging between age 4 and age 17 we are often come in to contact with children older than we are used to teaching.
Sometimes when sitting in the office we are asked to watch students as they take tests or finish an assignment. That means I am asked to look for cheating or sneaky and suspicious behavior that may not be appropriate for test taking. This means I am forced to be seen as an "authority figure" for children in my least preferred student group, high school (cue scary moment music.)
One day 4 students were in our office taking a German test. I noticed that 2 of the boys were making eyes with each other in the way that boys who are cheating on a test might. I decided to have a little fun and jokingly let them know I saw what they were doing in hopes they woud give up. First attempt foiled...Score one for me.
These boys were obviously struggling with this test as they were in the office for almost 2 hours. They both spent most of that time asking their teacher about specific items on the test in hopes that she would give a small clue to the correct answer. Regardless they still seemed to think that cheating was their only option. This next attempt was a coordinated drop-off maneuver similar those you might see James Bond attempt to foil, when he isn't busy selling out with a bottle of Heineken.
Here's how it wen't down. One student wrote down some answers on a post-it sized paper. He then placed it in the designated location, probably said something like "Atatürk has left the building" and went over to his teacher to ask a question. The second student then retrieved the paper from the pick up point and slid it under the table in hopes that he wasn't caught.
Unfortunately for him, my supervisory abilities were strong that day and I watched the whole thing go down. Keeping with my jovial attitude from before I decided to have a little fun and let him off the hook easily. I leaned over his shoulder and asked if the paper had the right answers on it or if his friend was wrong. Stunned he said "No. Only paper." at which point he held up the back side of the paper. I shouldn't have worn my "I was born yesterday" shirt to work that day.
So I told him "Give it to me, I'll throw the paper away." He proceeded to make a big show of ripping it up into large enough pieces that he could still read the answers.
I reiterated, "I'll just throw it out, give it to me."
Like any good double-agent caught in the middle of a difficult situation, he swallowed the evidence. Thats right, he quickly tossed the papers into his mouth and chewed them up. He wasn't going down like that.
I am of the opinion that every teacher has an age group that is their preferred age group, mine is pre-k and maybe early elementary school. It is absolutely not High School. As teachers in a school with students ranging between age 4 and age 17 we are often come in to contact with children older than we are used to teaching.
Sometimes when sitting in the office we are asked to watch students as they take tests or finish an assignment. That means I am asked to look for cheating or sneaky and suspicious behavior that may not be appropriate for test taking. This means I am forced to be seen as an "authority figure" for children in my least preferred student group, high school (cue scary moment music.)
One day 4 students were in our office taking a German test. I noticed that 2 of the boys were making eyes with each other in the way that boys who are cheating on a test might. I decided to have a little fun and jokingly let them know I saw what they were doing in hopes they woud give up. First attempt foiled...Score one for me.
These boys were obviously struggling with this test as they were in the office for almost 2 hours. They both spent most of that time asking their teacher about specific items on the test in hopes that she would give a small clue to the correct answer. Regardless they still seemed to think that cheating was their only option. This next attempt was a coordinated drop-off maneuver similar those you might see James Bond attempt to foil, when he isn't busy selling out with a bottle of Heineken.
Here's how it wen't down. One student wrote down some answers on a post-it sized paper. He then placed it in the designated location, probably said something like "Atatürk has left the building" and went over to his teacher to ask a question. The second student then retrieved the paper from the pick up point and slid it under the table in hopes that he wasn't caught.
Unfortunately for him, my supervisory abilities were strong that day and I watched the whole thing go down. Keeping with my jovial attitude from before I decided to have a little fun and let him off the hook easily. I leaned over his shoulder and asked if the paper had the right answers on it or if his friend was wrong. Stunned he said "No. Only paper." at which point he held up the back side of the paper. I shouldn't have worn my "I was born yesterday" shirt to work that day.
So I told him "Give it to me, I'll throw the paper away." He proceeded to make a big show of ripping it up into large enough pieces that he could still read the answers.
I reiterated, "I'll just throw it out, give it to me."
Like any good double-agent caught in the middle of a difficult situation, he swallowed the evidence. Thats right, he quickly tossed the papers into his mouth and chewed them up. He wasn't going down like that.
Posts
