What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

How to handle a teacher issue (1 Viewer)

Cjw_55106

Footballguy
For a quick background, my daughter is a junior in high school and depending upon the trimester, is ranked somewhere in the top 5 of her class and has a GPA over 4, Is in the national honor Society, the link crew club, student council and pitches for the softball team. None of this is a credit to me, it’s just the kind of student she has always been.

She is currently taking a college level Spanish class and recently received a 5/10 with a comment from the teacher that this work is at a MUCH higher level than the last daily work she handed in and questioned, how much of this is actually your Spanish? I don’t like to jump to conclusions so I asked my daughter what’s the deal? She said the daily work is basically pass/fail. It takes her about 10 minutes. This summative assignment she said took her an hour and in her mind, would not be at all surprised if it was a much higher level of work being done. She responded as such to the teacher and the teacher finally did change it to a 10/10 with a comment that she still thinks this is at a much higher level than a third level Spanish student.

At some point during the ordeal, my daughter did start crying, which isn’t surprising to me, but still pisses me off. My first inclination is to let it go and move on. But every time I think about it, it pisses me off because to me, if she cheated she should’ve been given a 0/10. I think the teacher didn’t have the balls to do that so I think she thought if she gave a 5/10 it would send some sort of message. My feelings are, if you’re going to accuse a student of cheating, give them a zero and between the teacher, the student, the parents and a counselor or principal, we should talk about the situation. 
Of course this is open to everyone, but I would love to hear the opinion of someone like @Ilov80s or other educators on the board as to their opinion on what parents should do. 
 

tldr; daughter accused of cheating and I’m pissed. 

 
Sounds like you aren't giving your daughter the benefit of the doubt. Have you point-blank asked your daughter if she cheated?

 
I can not speak for the Spanish teacher. I have taught 8th grade for 21 years. I know how an 8th grader writes. There are a few every year who are above that level and you can pick them out in week 1

a few weeks ago I gave an assignment to research a Native American group and do a small 6 slide google slide presentation. We have talked about copying and pasting and using your own words. 
 

a student hands it in and I KNOW it’s not his work. I give him a zero but give him the opportunity to redo it for a full grade. He replies to my message with

um, what

NO

and resubmits it. The next time I have him in class (we are hybrid), I call him over and ask him if he copy and pasted. He again says no. I ask him if he is sure. He says yes. I then show him the exact web site he copied from AND here is the best part, I show him the active links still in his slide show because he copy and pasted it  

he then says, oh, I just copy and pasted that one line. I then read his work and the web site article. He changed little words and said because he did that, it was his own work  

I explained it doesn’t work like that. Gave him another chance and he turned in the same work with the links still active

so, to answer the question, teachers just know

*** not saying your daughter cheated, but maybe the teacher is basing it off their experience  

 
 I would say cheating normally results in a zero and you are probably right that the teacher was hedging. Unless there is some weird school policy there we aren’t aware of. I don’t like how the teacher handled it. I never mark down an assignment for cheating or accuse a kid of cheating without either catching them openly or speaking with them first. Usually it’s pretty easy to determine if it was cheating or not. As for what to do about it, that’s more difficult. What do you hope to get out of it is my question? Are you totally certain she didn’t cheat? The smarter the kid, the better their cheating usually is. Teachers are certainly wrong a lot but my experience is when they suspect cheating, they are right more often than not. Just like any job, you get a sense for it. There are ofcourse also crappy teachers or teachers with bad attitudes who are out to get kids or just aren’t good at their jobs. Do you know any other staff in the building well enough to talk with them off the record and get a feel for what this Spanish teacher is like?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
BS move by the teacher. It's all or nothing when it comes to cheating. You can't half it to send a message and hope they roll over. Talk to your daughter CJ, find out if she cheated, or maybe the daily stuff is a throw away assignment that isn't worth nearly as much in the spectrum. I remember I used to not put much effort into certain assignments because in the breakdown it was 1.5% of the grade and took like 30% of my homework time. To me it sounds like the teacher is on a power trip depending on how different the writing is.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
To me, your daughter is old enough now to fight her own battles. I would stay out of it.  She's going to run into a-holes like this  in college, I view HS as prep for the next level and she needs to stick up for herself.  To me, sticking up for yourself is a bigger lesson than anything she'll take from that Spanish class, just my 2 cents.

 
BS move by the teacher. It's all or nothing when it comes to cheating. You can't half it to send a message and hope they roll over. Talk to your daughter CJ, find out if she cheated, or maybe the daily stuff is a throw away assignment that isn't worth nearly as much in the spectrum. I remember I used to not put much effort into certain assignments because in the breakdown it was 1.5% of the grade and took like 30% of my homework time. To me it sounds like the teacher is on a power trip depending on how different the writing is.
I'm not a teacher but maybe the teacher was confident the student didn't do all the work themself and because the student is a really good student they gave them a 50% to make sure they got the point without killing their grade. 

I would go to my kid and make absolutely sure they didn't cheat and then if they wanted I would talk to the teacher to see if something could be worked out.

 
I'm not a teacher but maybe the teacher was confident the student didn't do all the work themself and because the student is a really good student they gave them a 50% to make sure they got the point without killing their grade. 

I would go to my kid and make absolutely sure they didn't cheat and then if they wanted I would talk to the teacher to see if something could be worked out.
I agree. Talking to his daughter and seeing if she didn't cheat is best. I'm just not a fan of the teacher giving the five. Pull the student aside at end of class when all the grades are handed back and have a chat about it when everyone wanders out. If she didn't cheat, great, if she did, it would have been handled more effectively.  

 
How many different pitches does she have and can she locate her fastball?  What's her speed on her fastball vs her change up?

How does she respond to adversity on the mound?

Oh, on the cheating thing?? I've got nothing...

 
I can not speak for the Spanish teacher. I have taught 8th grade for 21 years. I know how an 8th grader writes. There are a few every year who are above that level and you can pick them out in week 1

a few weeks ago I gave an assignment to research a Native American group and do a small 6 slide google slide presentation. We have talked about copying and pasting and using your own words. 
 

a student hands it in and I KNOW it’s not his work. I give him a zero but give him the opportunity to redo it for a full grade. He replies to my message with

um, what

NO

and resubmits it. The next time I have him in class (we are hybrid), I call him over and ask him if he copy and pasted. He again says no. I ask him if he is sure. He says yes. I then show him the exact web site he copied from AND here is the best part, I show him the active links still in his slide show because he copy and pasted it  

he then says, oh, I just copy and pasted that one line. I then read his work and the web site article. He changed little words and said because he did that, it was his own work  

I explained it doesn’t work like that. Gave him another chance and he turned in the same work with the links still active

so, to answer the question, teachers just know

*** not saying your daughter cheated, but maybe the teacher is basing it off their experience  
The poor students are almost always poor cheaters as well. My favorite was a kid who clearly copied their Chem test from the kid next to them word for word. Including all of the doodling. Including a heart with  NA + CB with an arrow through it. The girl sitting next to him was Natalie A and her boyfriend was Colin B. I guess the cheater thought it was some equation with sodium and something else. That was a heck of a laugh.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks all for the replies. I did ask her if she cheated and she said no. I also asked what type of cheating are we talking about here and she said she assumes that the teacher thinks she used a translator, which She told her she did not. I 100% believe my daughter because A, I have never caught her cheating before in her life and  B, if she did cheat, I wouldn’t of heard anything about this. She came to my wife and I with this, it isn’t something I found out about on my own. I would think logically speaking, if a kid was actually caught cheating, the last thing they would do is tell their parents. She came to us because she was irritated/pissed off.

@Ilov80s gave some good advice however, I do not know other teachers well enough to ask them about this teacher. It doesn’t help that this teacher teaches from home, even on hybrid days when the kids are in school. I also do not have an answer for him when he asked, what do I hope comes of this? I’m just really pissed off and I don’t appreciate that this teacher can make an accusation and then just walk away as if nothing happened. To me, cheating is a huge deal and you can’t half ### it. if you’re going to make an accusation, we should definitely be involved.

I also agree with @Sullie In regards to kids fighting their own battles. I’ve been a youth coach for many years and at about 14, that’s what I tell the kids and parents at the first meeting. I want to hear from the kids first and if we can’t resolve the issue, then the parent can get involved. I guess maybe I should take my own advice on this one and move on.

 
I know you asked your daughter if she cheated, but is it possible that she used a tool that she wouldn't think of as cheating but that significantly improved her translations?  If not and she just did it out of her own studies then it will be shown to be ability over some other method.  If it's the latter, I appreciate that kids should start to learn to fight their own battles but that doesn't mean Cjw should just stand back.  It would be worth it to let the teacher know that you don't believe she cheated but you take the accusation seriously and will be monitoring yourself, but that if it is as you expect and she did not cheat you would be looking at an apology from them to your daughter because an accusation like that is extremely serious.

 
I agree that the teacher was hedging, possibly in an attempt to get your daughter to admit something.

If the teacher really thought that your daughter used a translator, it would be pretty easy to replicate the process to show some clear evidence.

 
Not saying anything about your daughter but, in general, don't assume smart kids don't ever cheat.

Some of us were smart enough to avoid work that we deemed unnecessary.
I 100% understand that. I just don’t envision a scenario where she would come to me and tell me that she got caught cheating. In this case she came to me and told me she was accused of cheating, which to me is very different.

 
I 100% understand that. I just don’t envision a scenario where she would come to me and tell me that she got caught cheating. In this case she came to me and told me she was accused of cheating, which to me is very different.
That's probably exactly why she did it.  Smart kid indeed.   :grad:

 
I know you asked your daughter if she cheated, but is it possible that she used a tool that she wouldn't think of as cheating but that significantly improved her translations?  If not and she just did it out of her own studies then it will be shown to be ability over some other method.  If it's the latter, I appreciate that kids should start to learn to fight their own battles but that doesn't mean Cjw should just stand back.  It would be worth it to let the teacher know that you don't believe she cheated but you take the accusation seriously and will be monitoring yourself, but that if it is as you expect and she did not cheat you would be looking at an apology from them to your daughter because an accusation like that is extremely serious.
I guess my biggest overall concern is if I take a hard stance, it could hurt my daughter in future grading. Language isnt as cut and dry as, say, math. What used to be 10/10 could easily become 8/10, 7/10

 
If someone had accused me of cheating in HS, I'd have had them on the carpet in front of the principal.  I doubt I'd have bothered to tell my parents.  Of course, given the current situation, marching some idiot to the pricipal's office is a bit more difficult than usual.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I guess my biggest overall concern is if I take a hard stance, it could hurt my daughter in future grading. Language isnt as cut and dry as, say, math. What used to be 10/10 could easily become 8/10, 7/10
I think you are doing right by treading lightly.  But you may want to have a casual "concerned how can I help" conversation with the teacher. Computer translated Spanish is pretty easy to spot. Comprende, mi amigo?

 
I doubt it was a translating app that was the concern for the cheating. The Google translator and other ones I’ve seen don’t do a perfect job translating and I would think instead of the teacher saying the work was too good, the teacher would say it seemed like a translation site was used. My thought would be the teacher thinks another person more fluent in Spanish did the work. 

 
This is a tough one, but I think since it has been fixed I would forget about it unless something similar comes up in the future.

Also, I am still totally super pissed that I took French in stead of Spanish in school.

 
I doubt it was a translating app that was the concern for the cheating. The Google translator and other ones I’ve seen don’t do a perfect job translating and I would think instead of the teacher saying the work was too good, the teacher would say it seemed like a translation site was used. My thought would be the teacher thinks another person more fluent in Spanish did the work. 
Maybe that is a good way to get involved, ask the teacher what makes her think cheating occurred? I would think such an inquiry would be pretty unconfrontational? I am interested in what would make work "too good" in a college class. For the record, my daughter has a 98.66% currently in the class.....which makes the "too good" remark even more interesting. 

Side note: As far as I know, my daughter doesnt know anyone that speaks Spanish regularly. 

 
Maybe that is a good way to get involved, ask the teacher what makes her think cheating occurred? I would think such an inquiry would be pretty unconfrontational? I am interested in what would make work "too good" in a college class. For the record, my daughter has a 98.66% currently in the class.....which makes the "too good" remark even more interesting. 

Side note: As far as I know, my daughter doesnt know anyone that speaks Spanish regularly. 
Yep I think that’s the best approach: just take the seeking more info approach. I will say with Spanish, doesn’t matter how smart or good of grades a kid has, its a different language. There’s only so much a kid would be expected to know and perform at.  If a kid in 3rd grade has been writing at a 3rd grade level and then produces a writing assignment at the 7th grade level, it would look like cheating even if the kid was a straight A student.
 

The simplest answer is probably your kid is really half assing these participation assignments and it appears to the teacher that your kid doesn’t know much. So when all of a sudden their test is perfect, it set off red flags.

 
Yep I think that’s the best approach: just take the seeking more info approach. I will say with Spanish, doesn’t matter how smart or good of grades a kid has, its a different language. There’s only so much a kid would be expected to know and perform at.  If a kid in 3rd grade has been writing at a 3rd grade level and then produces a writing assignment at the 7th grade level, it would look like cheating even if the kid was a straight A student.
 

The simplest answer is probably your kid is really half assing these participation assignments and it appears to the teacher that your kid doesn’t know much. So when all of a sudden their test is perfect, it set off red flags.
If that is the case, the class itself is useless. How can you be inept and have a high A? We are now halfway through the semester. 

 
look what you have to do is going to take a little work but i think it will be worth it first you construct a circle about half an acre wide and then you erect a giant steel dome over it out of girders and then you cover it with scraps of metal and barbed wire and you put up a sign that it is the thunderdome after that you and the teacher hope in while your neighbors chant two go in one comes out and who ever comes out wins and the other one has to admit they are wrong except the loser is dead so they cant technically admit it but everyone will know and that my friends is the meaning of thanksgiving take that to the bank bromigos 

 
What trimester is she in?
I'm still not sure what to make of this. Could be an innocent question or a brilliantly executed joke. 

When you say trimester, are you talking about grading periods (we have semesters here) or talking about being preggers? 

 
I'm still not sure what to make of this. Could be an innocent question or a brilliantly executed joke. 

When you say trimester, are you talking about grading periods (we have semesters here) or talking about being preggers? 
If his daughter is pregnant that could explain why she’s falling behind in Spanish class. 

 
I'd demand a meeting with the principal.   Stuff like this can't happen.   My daughter is a high school junior, and when her French teacher pulled something similar I had a meeting with the principal and my daughter's counselor.   They took her out of the class and switched her to an online course through BYU.   The principal confided in me that they wanted to fire the teacher but had nobody available to replace her.  

 
I 100% understand that. I just don’t envision a scenario where she would come to me and tell me that she got caught cheating. In this case she came to me and told me she was accused of cheating, which to me is very different.
I understand this. Same thing happens with my oldest. If she is rocked and comes to me for help, she’s legit. If she lied/cheated/was a part of it, I would never know about it. She would have taken it to the grave. 

 
Boy am I an idiot. I sent my sons off to college and told them to handle their own problems. The only time I found out one had a problem with a course was when he dropped it (before add/drop deadline). Only time I got in touch with their school was older sons freshman year when there was a financial aid screwup and they shut off his meal card so he was going hungry four hours from home with no car.

Yeah, I get being upset that a teacher accused her of cheating but that's still between the two of them unless there are chances of "Honor Code " expulsions.

 
Boy am I an idiot. I sent my sons off to college and told them to handle their own problems. The only time I found out one had a problem with a course was when he dropped it (before add/drop deadline). Only time I got in touch with their school was older sons freshman year when there was a financial aid screwup and they shut off his meal card so he was going hungry four hours from home with no car.

Yeah, I get being upset that a teacher accused her of cheating but that's still between the two of them unless there are chances of "Honor Code " expulsions.
Thanks. I'll consider this when she gets to college. 

 
Also to be clear since so many laughed at my post. I meant poor student as in not a strong student, not that they being low SES. I’m sure most people got that but wanted to be clear. 2020 and all that.

 
Thanks all for the replies. I did ask her if she cheated and she said no. I also asked what type of cheating are we talking about here and she said she assumes that the teacher thinks she used a translator, which She told her she did not. I 100% believe my daughter because A, I have never caught her cheating before in her life and  B, if she did cheat, I wouldn’t of heard anything about this. She came to my wife and I with this, it isn’t something I found out about on my own. I would think logically speaking, if a kid was actually caught cheating, the last thing they would do is tell their parents. She came to us because she was irritated/pissed off.

@Ilov80s gave some good advice however, I do not know other teachers well enough to ask them about this teacher. It doesn’t help that this teacher teaches from home, even on hybrid days when the kids are in school. I also do not have an answer for him when he asked, what do I hope comes of this? I’m just really pissed off and I don’t appreciate that this teacher can make an accusation and then just walk away as if nothing happened. To me, cheating is a huge deal and you can’t half ### it. if you’re going to make an accusation, we should definitely be involved.

I also agree with @Sullie In regards to kids fighting their own battles. I’ve been a youth coach for many years and at about 14, that’s what I tell the kids and parents at the first meeting. I want to hear from the kids first and if we can’t resolve the issue, then the parent can get involved. I guess maybe I should take my own advice on this one and move on.
My friends dad sent a letter to his 4th grade teacher titled "The B**ch From Hell" with some nasty remarks how this teacher treated my son. Got him pulled from her class and put in another class. 

In all seriousness if the teacher has tenor and they are in the wrong there's very little can be done. When I was in middle School I had support classes (Did when I was in HS ) and had an IEP AKA Individual Education Plane. Some students it was simple as more time for tests, taking the test in a support class room, having someone read the questions to them, more time on a project, being able to use a calculator etc. Stuff that some students would need more help with. Anyway my math teacher in 8 grade was horrible. My IEP teacher and my English teacher hated her and most of my teachers told my mom if anyone could get rid of her it was my mom as they knew how good she was at handling issues. Nothing was ever really done about it other then she had to go back and regrade my work. I had an issue with my Social Studies teacher who use to grade us on spelling as well which was in my IEP they couldn't take off points. He didn't realize it as we would have another student grade our papers. When he found out he was apologetic and wanted all my papers back to regrade. I went from a C+ to an A and said it was mostly spelling errors in my papers and I had the answers right. He told me to give my paper to a friend I trust next to me and have them grade it and not take off spelling which he would tell that student to not do as well. It worked. As for the 8th grade teacher nothing happened and she just retired 3 yrs ago. 

If I were you I'd bring this issue up to the grade level principle and the School level principle and your daughters counselor. Asl them for an explanation on the teacher and maybe an investigation and if the teacher was in the wrong they should be punished. Also tell them if it is a teacher's error you want the teacher to publicly apologize to your daughter and you. I got great respect for teachers as I have numerous friends and family who are. However I hate outline teachers who give the rest a bad name. If there was cheating ask why you were not brought into this? Among other questions. I think you should be involved here in someway. Maybe not taking the initiatives but it seems at point your daughter still doesn't have an explanation why the teacher believed she cheated other than a translator. 

 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top