Starr Sackstein, MJE, NBCT

Circa 1995ish, camping with my family upstate NY. My mom and I are sitting by the fire in the morning before the day’s activities.

“People say you are scary,” one of my students said. I’ve heard students use all kinds of less than colorful adjectives to describe what to expect of me in my classes. The fact is, my high expectations and reputation for challenging course work have made me legendary (maybe even infamous) at my school…

And I like it that way.

Yesterday, however, while I was at the college library with my AP students, I opened up about myself as a person. Understanding I have a reputation to uphold, I’m not worried that my candid honesty with the small group of seniors will destroy the Trunchbull persona to other students; if anything, I think my humanness may have allowed me to connect with these kids on a deeper level. Read more »

Students in the AP class know the down side to Plagiarism, but we too often take for granted that they understand; we must teach, practice, repeat until we know they know.

No teacher enjoys second guessing a student’s integrity. That child who has failed to submit work often or doesn’t work in front of us. The one who submits a paper that seems just a little too good. The pit in our stomachs when we place any given quote into Google only to find several documents that been mercilessly stolen from and passed off as original.

I’ve had to staple printed internet sources to projects and/or papers, whole sections highlighted and confront students about their work. Aside from feeling disappointed, hurt or betrayed that the student has not sought my help or angry because he/she believed they’d get away with it, I have to ask myself what I did to prevent it or encourage it.

Cutting and pasting is just too easy with the availability of excellent resources online. It was harder when we were kids; we had to copy directly from a book, whole pieces of information that may have been harder to detect. The temptation, however, to avoid thinking for ourselves has never changed; plagiarism palpably seduces students: control c + control v makes a challenging assignment appear simple.

Teachers have quite a task helping students understand what plagiarism is, why it shouldn’t be done and how to avoid it.

Too often we mention it, but never really explain what it is and more importantly how to NOT do it. Read more »

Students work in the new computer lab at the Queens College library

We’re back at the Queens College library for the second part of our research. Now is the time to write the bulk of the their papers.

The period between first and second draft is the most critical in the process as now is the moment to start adding appropriate evidence to support ideas posited in the the first draft.

The day will begin with a lesson on how to add research into the paper with proper MLA parenthetical citation.

Read more »

Taking a siesta, one of my students decides to rest for a moment; no surprise but this is the work ethic that has prompted added challenges come this time of year. Reaching students like this one is a teacher’s biggest challenge

At this point every year, the inevitability of defeat seems imminent for a small group of students. I can see the light leaving their eyes and cased acceptance of a summer spent indoors embraced; class right now becomes the waiting room of failure and a breeding ground for insubordination.

I refuse to accept this outcome.

Watching the above happen today to a small group of my sophomores, a student asked, “Do they offer summer school for this class or will I have to take it again next year?”

With the question still lingering in the air, I tweeted my despair and frustration away,  to be met with the exact encouragement I needed from other awesome teachers who reminded me not to give up. Read more »