🔆 Class expectations 🔆
- Be respectful to everyone in the class.
- This means that you wait your turn to speak, you don’t cut people off or interrupt them because you feel more important, and you try to understand someone else’s point of view. We all have bad days, but as much as possible, let’s try to keep that out of the classroom.
- Attend class regularly and on time. I will take attendance and keep track of it.
- High school is 5 years of training to be a responsible adult. You cannot show up to work and meetings late every now and then and expect to keep your job.
- IF YOU ARE ILL (or absolutely need to miss class due to emergency): you MUST contact me ahead of time as much as possible.
- Deadlines exist for a reason!
- I will try to give you as much time and guided help as possible, but it’s up to you to use your time wisely. If I give the class 1.5 hours to work on something but you mute and turn off your camera to go play video games or waste your time in other ways, that is your responsibility, and I will not give you extra time after that.
- Remove yourself from distraction as much as possible. Please prioritise your learning.
- Ideally, you’ll be in a room where there is not much noise or distraction. Move somewhere else if you need to and can do so.
- Ask for help or clarification while class is in session.
- If we’re all online and you need to ask for help, please ask! You never know if classmates are also wondering the same thing.
- Otherwise, you can email me or leave questions in the Teams classroom, too.
- CAUTION: Your teachers are NOT online and accessible 24/7. E.g. If you ask me a question at 10PM, I won’t reply until the next morning. Please don’t send something in the evening and get upset that I didn’t reply – your teacher is human, too!
- All work that you do in this class must belong to you! No cheaters allowed.
- Nobody should “help” you by doing any part of the intellectual work for you. We will discuss this in more depth later, but there are real and serious consequences for students who give me work that isn’t completely their own.
- Try! Participate, discuss, be an active member of this class!
- You will not learn if you don’t try. You will not improve if you don’t participate in the learning process. The worst excuse that students give me is, “but I didn’t know”. My reply to that is usually, “Well, did you try? Did you ask?”
- I will give you the tools that you need to succeed, but you actually need to use these tools.
⚠ PLAGIARISM ⚠
A common misconception that people have about plagiarism is that "it's okay to take a little". No, it is absolutely not okay!
- What is plagiarism? It is when person A takes the work of someone else and claims that work as theirs without properly crediting the original source. Work can be written, spoken, all forms of music and other media. Basically, if the idea did not come from person A's brain and they submit an assignment with work taken from other sources, they have plagiarised.
- What is NOT plagiarism? Common knowledge and proper citation of sources. Common knowledge is "all adults were once babies" or "humans are made up of about 70% water". As for proper citation, we will learn how to do this using MLA8.
- Interestingly enough, nearly all teachers encounter students who have tutors or family members that write essays and do assignments for them. This isn't plagiarism, necessarily (unless the person doing the work did copy from somewhere else), but it IS cheating and will be disciplined accordingly.
- How much is "acceptable" plagiarism? None! Plagiarism ranges from directly copying and pasting even three or four words in a row to similarity in ideas. Many institutions say that even 1% of plagiarism is too much.
- What if I didn't mean to do it? I just forgot to credit the source. That's why you need to take notes in your own words and edit your work carefully. You can and will get reprimanded for accidentally plagiarising.
- How do I avoid committing plagiarism? We will learn how to cite and credit sources properly. Often, students plagiarise because they do research on the internet and like some other source's ideas. Many students will then believe that they thought of those ideas, but it was because they did research and read other people's ideas or explanations. Other times, it's because students are desperate to finish an assignment, so it's easier for them to copy and paste some things here and there to finish their homework on time. This is not an acceptable reason to plagiarise. There is NO good reason to plagiarise, and in case you want to know why teachers will not simply overlook one case of you plagiarising, here is why:
The above screenshot comes from UBC's website. This is their policy on students who plagiarise. The reason why teachers in high school also do not allow students to copy and cheat is because we don't want you to form that habit and then get expelled from university. All schools are different, but almost all high schools will make a note in student records that a student has plagiarised assignments or cheated on tests, so let's work on preventing that.
🤔 Other questions and topics
This list is not in any particular order.
- Can I have an extension on an assignment?
- That depends. My general rule is as follows: if you have a legitimate reason and ask me for an extension at least TWO days before the due date, I will most likely say yes. If you ask me for an extension at 3AM or the day the assignment is due, I will say no.
- HOWEVER. I do have exceptions. If you are a typically responsible student in the class and have simply run out of time due to things outside of your control, yes. I have known some very responsible students who had family emergencies, and these students asked for some more time even the day their assignment was due.
- If you wasted working time, didn't ask me for help when you should have, or otherwise managed your time poorly, my answer will definitely be no.
- Can I do more assignments to boost my mark?
- No. Even in a regular year, I would say no. The reason why I don't let students do extra assignments to boost their mark is because I give you enough practice and guidance when you're in class with me. You shouldn't need to do extra work.
- I hate working with others. Can I just do this group/partner assignment by myself?
- No. Part of growing up is learning how to work with others. This means learning how to communicate, make decisions, and work with people even if you sometimes disagree.
- I have a system of self-reflection after projects that SUBTRACTS marks from people who don't contribute to the group, so if you have done your part to the best of your ability and tried to make it work with your group, then you should be fine.
- My partner/group and I are not working well together (nobody doing work, only a few people doing work, some people bossing us around). What should we do?
- I am not going to play counsellor and help figure out issues for you unless I really think the group is toxic and needs my interference. For the most part, students will try to make things work. I always talk to students about how to communicate effectively. I will help only if absolutely necessary.
- Can my tutor/parents/siblings/friend proofread my work for me?
- Yes. They can give you feedback and suggestions for how and what to improve.
- They CANNOT edit your work for you or do anything to your assignment that would make it not your work. The people who want to help you will often have good intentions, but if they are fixing your assignments on their own, rewriting parts of it for you, telling you word-for-word what to write, doing your research or any part of the work that I ask you to do, you are submitting work that does not belong to you, and that is not acceptable.