I just keep muttering to myself under my breath or in my head, “You have a plan… stick to the plan…”
I caught a girl cheating in class using ChatGPT on her writing assignment. I walked past her, told her that was a stupid way to cheat, tore up the paper and asked her to try again without consulting her AI Assistant.
Two weeks later I was brought before a disciplinary committee because she complained that I embarrassed her. The meeting was odd because they were very surprised that I admitted to doing it. However, when I mentioned that she had cheated, they were totally surprised. They assumed I did it because I was being an asshole or something… suddenly all of their righteous indignation melted away.
So I was moved to teach another class and a different teacher was brought in to take over teaching my class.
This is not really a punishment for me because I still get paid and now I move from a class with 42 students to a class with 3 students. However, the class I taught has lost a month of class time and still has to complete the remaining projects but now with only 3 weeks left.
Furthermore, I have since discovered that it was even brought up in the administrative meeting. I have a friend who sits on the Executive Committee (someone said, and I had not thought of it this way, I have a spy… and things I have said have created significant changes in policy) mentioned that they tried to spin it as my fault, but she pointed out that the student had cheated, and the head of the department acted like that was the first time he’d heard it.
I had office politics in any country.
But I’ve since learned 2 lessons from this situation…
First, that cheating is tacitly tolerated. The student who cheated received no consequences and, since I no longer teach the class, feels rightly rewarded - like she “won” - for complaining that my reaction to a student cheating, and telling her that she cheated, is inappropriate.
Second, that despite what the leadership says, they do not support the teachers. The only reason I “got away” with it is because I happened to be in the right.
I think this is going to be a long two years.
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