Cheaters and Bird Catchers

This week we only had 4 days of school, but it was definitely eventful. On Tuesday or Wednesday we learned that all the teachers needed to submit mid-quarterly grades for all their students on Friday. None of the administrators or other teachers had talked to us about the grading system so I just decided to do mine based on total points, giving more points for participation and projects, rather than tests since I had been warned ahead of time by previous world teachers that most students do not do well on formal assessments. But I hadn’t giving any tests or quizzes other than a pretest, so I decide to give a quiz in my chemistry and physical science classes on Thursday. I told them about it on Tuesday, gave them a list of topics, and did some review. The quiz was on the small amount of material we had been working on for the last few weeks.

I had also been warned by current and previous teachers that cheating is a major problem here. I think a lot of it has to do with the Samoan culture and the importance of the group rather than the individual. They see cheating more as helping their friends. We had a long talk about this in the beginning of the year. We talked about how cheating isn’t fair to the individual who worked hard and studied, and it’s a form of stealing. Together we decided that the punishment for cheating on a test or quiz was that I would rip it up and that student would get a zero without the chance to make it up. Everyone agreed that this was a just punishment. That is until they were the ones actually caught cheating. I ripped up the quiz of a freshman in my physical science class when he would not stop talking after repeated warnings. His face was so sad and he begged for another chance to retake the quiz that day and the next. I almost gave in because he’s not usually a bad student and is kind of smart, but I knew that if I made an exception for him I would lose my authority in the eyes of all my other students.

And because I knew cheating would be a problem, I made two different versions of the quiz and didn’t tell my students. I only changed things slightly, like replaced certain numbers and key words and moved around a couple questions. But a couple of minutes into the quiz, a girl raised her hand and said, “You gave different tests, huh?” I replied, “How did you know that? Were you looking at someone else’s paper?” She looked confused and said, “No, I just saw our tests weren’t the same,” pointing at the girl next to her. I got really angry then and said, “Keep your eyes on your own paper!!” Two minutes later I had the exact same interaction with another student on the other side of the room. Later when I was grading the quizzes I caught two more cheaters. The word problem on the first version used the numbers 9 and 20, while the second version used the numbers 18 and 8. The problem also asked for them to show their work. Two students with the first version of the quiz had written: 18-8=10. They got zeros.

On Friday I gave all the quizzes back. The scores ranged anywhere from 0% to 110% (I gave a bonus question), but I estimated the averages were around 50-60%. It’s frustrating as a teacher to have kids who get 0% and kids who get 110% and everyone in between all in the same class. So what do you do then? Hold back the top students until the slowest ones catch up? Just keep going with the material and leave the majority of students confused? Teach to a middle ground? I think this is an issue almost all teachers struggle with, but the gap seems to be even more pronounced here in American Samoa. I’ve been thinking about this a lot and could probably write a whole other blog about it. Basically what I’ve decided to do is teach to the middle ground, where most of the students’ abilities lie, while offering extra help outside of class to those who need it and extra worksheets for the fast learners.

Also on Friday I told all the students that I was turning in grades for each them. I said that because I was evaluating them, I thought it would be fair for them to evaluate me as a teacher. I always liked this activity as a student, and, as a first year teacher as well as a first time visitor to American Samoa, I thought it would be really helpful to me to improve as a teacher. I had them each write 2 paragraphs, one evaluating me and one evaluating themselves in my class. While they worked, I went around and talked to them individually about their grades. I think I dreaded saying the words “You have a D” as much as they dreaded hearing it. I had longer conversations with some of the struggling kids about things they could do to improve. Even a couple of the kids that had B’s looked devastated that they received an A. I had to reassure everyone that this was only the middle of the quarter and that there were still many more points to be had. As much as it seems that many of these kids don’t want to be in school, almost all of them really really care about their grades and want to do well in school. I suspect this mostly reflects pressure from their parents, but I also know that some of them understand that good grades may lead to college in the US.

Later that day I read some of my evaluations. Most were very positive. Some had some very good suggestions and comments. Almost everyone in my chemistry class said that I was going over the material too fast. Here are some excerpts:

“Dis class is da bomb!!!”

“You never get crazy like other teachers they get crazy and so mad and kick the kids out of the class.”

“Your teaching style is very slow, not slow but boring no offense.”

“I don’t know what I am good in because when I look at my test I do not think I am good in anything. Sorry about the quiz. I forgot to study.”

“First of all I hardly can hear your voice, you should speak louder so we can hear your beautiful voice. And probably try to be more funny.”

“Your lessons are really cool. You are going to be on my list ‘Best teacher of the year.’”

But this week was not only about evaluations. In biology we have been working on an experiment involving planting seeds. It took weeks to get the kids to bring in all the materials, but we finally started on Wednesday. In the meantime we have been learning about plants. On Tuesday I picked some hibiscus flowers on the way to school and had them dissect flowers in groups. Then they drew pictures of the flower and colored and labeled it. During the project one student raised her hand and said, “Miss Abby, I have a suggestion.” I asked what it was, and she said, “This is the best project ever! I think this is the best class that we’ve had!” I think all the students really liked it but it was nice to have confirmation.

My other bio class was disrupted by bird somehow getting stuck inside the classroom.

Student: “Miss Abby, I can catch it.”

Me: “Really?”

Student: “Yeah, this happens all the time and then students just catch them. Some bad students will just catch it and then kill it,” she made pounding motions with her hands, “but I’ll just let it go outside.”

Another student: “Don’t touch it! You’ll get bird sickness!”

Me: “Ok…” I was still a little skeptical that she could catch this bird fluttering quickly around the room.

Two minutes later she had the bird grasped in her hand, and she walked to the door and released it. My students may not know how to calculate the charge of an ion or label the parts of a flower, but at least they can catch birds with their bare hands. Maybe they can teach me a thing or two.