Choices in writing utensils highlight cultural differences

Sometimes I find myself noticing and focusing on really small differences. Case in point: this past week I keep going back to the idea of how many of my students here use pencils. I find it interesting that in the three countries I’ve taught in the preference for a writing utensil has been unique to each place. In Guinea every one of my students came to class with a red pen and a blue pen. The majority of the writing was done in blue ink with the red used to highlight new entries in the outline form, or to highlight important information. I could never use more then two colors on the board because then my students didn’t know what to do in their notes. Blue and red pens were the only choice they had. I’m not even sure if they sold pencils in the market. I know that I switched to using pens almost exclusively while I was there (unusual for a math teacher). In the US I had to take pens as collateral for pencils whenever I gave a quiz or test. Since there was a greater variety of writing tools available I could be more demanding about what my students used on material they turned in. Pencils were required for any material I collected. However the majority of the time (not for every student) pens were more common. But these came in so many forms and colors that sometimes I felt like I could tell whose work I was looking at just by the ink color. Writing utensils in Savannah could best be attributed to a wide selection or options. In Turkey my students are most attached to pencils. Every single student has a pencil case in which you can usually find at least 2 pencils (usually mechanical), a separate eraser and lead for the pencils. All exams, no matter the subject are done in pencil. In fact I’ve had minor crises when my students couldn’t find a pencil for a quiz. While pens and available and used, it has become clear to me that pencils are their preferred choice. I also find it interesting to think about what these choices mean in terms of neatness. In Guinea, students were fanatical about their paper being clean. What this usually meant is that anything they did they wrote twice. One copy would include all of the mess ups and work; the final copy had to be almost pristine in appearance. In the US we tend to encourage our students to work steadily, simply crossing out anything that they don’t want considered. Sometimes this results in a rather messy final product, but I think actually gives a student more time to think about what they are putting down. In Turkey, like in Guinea, they really don’t like to include work that is not correct. Oftentimes I receive problems which show two little work, where I can tell that some of it has been erased. The benefit of the pencil is that Turkish students don’t have to completely start over if they make a mistake, but they definitely make liberal use of the eraser to end up with a copy that is neat enough and accurate enough in their mind.

Cheating

So I caught a student cheating during an exam yesterday. Great. Just what I wanted. It resulted in twice as much work for me, a giant interruption for the other kids trying to take their exam in the same room and a huge amount of stress for the kid that got caught. What I don't get is why he thought it would be worthwhile to cheat on about 12 words (I picked up a small square of paper, maybe 2cm wide, with a list of about 12 words on it). Really, it couldn't have helped him with more then about 5 points on the exam, and now instead he will probably get a zero (unless there is some loophole that I left open by not knowing the necessary process). I guess I really am an optimist because the entire time I was going to see if what I saw was real I just kept thinking, "no, he wouldn't be cheating that obviously. He's a good kid, why would he cheat?" Although when I picked up a piece of paper he tried to cover up with German words on it I felt it became pretty obvious. The question is what makes a good kid (one who is normally in my top 5 in this particular class for math) get to the point where it was worth damaging his integrity? Admittedly exams are not the easiest time of year, and grades here seem to possess and even greater importance then they do at home. It's just sad that this kid is now going to have to live with the knowledge that he didn't trust in himself enough to take an exam on his own. Sigh.

More jokes

My one class seems to think it hilarious to play jokes on me. The same class that tried to ring the bell using their cell phone hit it again today. I walked out of the room to go grab some paper and left my keys sitting on the desk (for the first time all year). When I returned the door was locked, and they were all sitting in the corner of the room impossible to see from the window in the door. Huh, what do you do now? Well, besides learn the lesson that they're teaching you? I walked back to the office next door, borrowed a key from another teacher that uses the same room, and went back to my room. I unlocked the door, walked back to my desk grabbed my keys, walked back out and locked the door. All without breaking into a smile. So then I had 16 kids locked into my classroom - not really a safe situation, but satisfying all the same. I only left them for about two minutes, well within my hearing range - so I'm not fretting. At least it proved a point and they settled down when I came back in (thinking about if I should lock all of us into the room together - but no, it's to hot to close the door, we need the breeze from the open window and door).

The plus side to my interaction with this class is that when I asked them not to sing since our room backs up to the office of the department head and pointed out that she could hear whenever they did so and then I had to answer to her they quieted right down. It's nice to know that they at least like me enough to not want to get me into trouble. Even if they are joksters who can't wait to try to trick me again.