A sad first

Today was the first time in my last 5.5 years teaching language that a student had the courage to bring his workbook for me to check and he had "fake" answered nearly all of the activities, mostly in English or unintelligible gibberish. For three whole chapters (out of four).

So sad! :-(  [Big sigh...]

Choosing not to do the work is one thing, buy attempting to pretend you did it just feels so awful to me! I couldn't yak to him in private, so I just quickly mentioned that he had not done the work and reminded him that it was 20% of the grade. He looked a bit upset and even slightly surprised/annoyed that he was caught. I also told him that I'll be on campus on Thursday if he decides to do the work.

I think I will send him an email. What do I say, though? I truly love these kids and want them to learn, but that was very upsetting. Did he think I would t notice? I also said to him the the activities are important and necessary and that's how one learns. And mentioned that his grade will probably reflect the lack of practice. 

Sigh... Sometimes it's hard to be a teacher! Especially at this university. I had the exact opposite experience at the other school. This young man simply disappeared halfway through the semester, but he came back two days before the final and took the missing tests and did great. He obviously did all the work. He is getting a zero for attendance (10% of the grade), but he'll pass with a good grade and a clear conscience.

I wish the semester had ended without this bitter experience!