Teachers make it more difficult to steal ideas BY AMARA BAKSHI Staff Reporter
“[Online school] made it way too easy for kids to cheat. It made the answer so available.” sports leadership teacher and Athletic Director Here at Sequoia, both Canvas and Google Melissa Schmidt said. Assignments have plagiarism checkers that There is a difference between teachers of are attached that show teachers what work separate subjects as well. A science teacher is the students’ own, and what work is from may have a different experience with academic the internet when you disonesty turn an assignment in. than a foreign Although this has helped language many school students and or English administrators, there are I feel like students who are teacher does. is still a certain amount of plagiarizing are mostly due to “I feel like worry that comes along them feeling overwhelmed. at least the with it. It may help a lot of Like they don’t have time to do classes that I students with their work, something, they weren’t able taught didn’t yet it still does not eliminate to give the assingment the time have as many all of the dishonesty in the and thought that was required to issues with classroom. [plagiarism] get it done, so they will result to After doing distance cheating in some way. because I learning for almost two wasn’t giving years, teachers and students Hannah Singh, English teacher like reading may not see eye to eye on q u i z z e s ,” the subject of academic E n g l i s h dishonesty. Even some teachers at Sequoia I-ICAP teacher Hannah Singh said. “I don’t have a different view on whether plagiarism is typically give tests like you would see in a a big issue in a learning environment. While math class, all the assessments are very much schooling online, teachers across the United authentic in the sense of their writing of States ran the risk of students looking answers some sort or presentation of some sort and of up online to tests and papers. course.”
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Teachers and school administrators are putting more thought and effort into the content that they are assigning to their students. “What changed for me is my approach to assignments. I had to do a lot of thinking about how I could design assignments. It was hard.” Schmidt said. “[Being online] really put into perspective for me like, why I am assigning, what I am assigning, is it actually going to help students practice the necessary skills to the best of their ability online, or is it just busywork,” Singh said. “I think a lot of students benefited from getting rid of some of that busywork.” Even with all of these precautions, students can still cheat in their writing. Another reason students tend to turn to cheating in an academic setting is the pressure of failure. Some students become too involved with their schoolwork that they forget the actual content of what is being learned. It becomes too much to take on and tudents can easily get overwhelmed. “I do have a lot of work and sometimes I think it’s easier to look up the answers.” freshman Charlotte Dugoni said. “But then I’m gonna get in trouble from teachers and that stresses me out.”
