RhenoThai
- 2005-05-22
Don't worry about it. That kind of thing is common here in Thailand. Your colleague is like a drop in the bucket. Besides, he may make trouble for you at your school if you rat him out and you've a few more months on your contract.
Don't underestimate the power of a Thai teacher when it comes to Thai students--Thai students are nothing but sheep. Your students would make your classes a living hell if your torpedoed colleague asked them to.
Yeah...let that sleeping dog be.
RhenoThai
Elephant
- 2005-05-22
I'd do it, but I'd wait on doing it. If you did talk to your fellow teacher's grad advisor, he'd probably laugh it off like it's not a big deal. If your colleague then found out you spilled the beans, I guarantee HE'D treat it as a very big deal. If you think your students misbehave in your classrooms now, let your colleague egg-'em-on to misbehave as retaliaton for something like this. It would then suck to be you....very much. Thai students treat Thai teachers like gods.....and view us Farang as 'hired hands' that can be disrepected at will. They'd walk off a cliff for a Thai teacher if told by one to do so.
If you ARE going to drop the bomb on your colleague, wait until your contract is up. Make the run to his university just before you get on the plane outta here. Blow the whistle, jump on the 747, and then never look back. Every little bit helps rooting out cheating. I'm so sick of cheating and cheaters here.
Good luck. I'd like to see this guy crash and burn.
E
SiamSap
- 2005-05-22
I teach English in Thailand, and I have a Thai English teacher 'colleague' who's going for his master's degree. This guy should be going for his grade-school degree, actually. And this guy is 40 and has been teaching English for 17 years. He once asked me if one places the definite article 'the' in front of plural proper nouns! No kiddin'!
Anway, my colleague once asked me to help him make up some lessons for his classes, or at least that is what he told me he was using the material for. After providing him with enough material for about four lessons, I found out he wasn't using my contributions for his classes at all. He was really submitting MY work to his graduate advisor and passing it off AS HIS OWN.
Should I bust his ass?
SS
Elephant
- 2005-05-22
I forgot to mention in my post the fact that when I give multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank type tests, I use an answer-bank at the top of the test. Answers to all the questions are given in the answer bank, along with several non-English answers. Each question is thus not accompanied by answers, which eliminates the temptation of students to simply CIRCLE an answer for each question.
One non-English answer I LOVE to use is the 'Thaiglish' pidgen 'Where you go?'. It took a semester of work to root out this expression at my school.
I'm sure anyone who has taught here in Thailand can think of all sorts of Thaiglish answers for his own tests.
Don't get pissed off at cheaters and cheating--have fun stifling cheaters.
E
It didn't take but a few days after beginning work as an TEFL instructor here in Thailand to realize one fact about Thai students: cheating is a viable option in the land of Thai. At my school, not only is it widely practiced in every subject, but it is also encouraged by the instructors. After spending half a semester trying futily to root out the cheating infestation in my English classes, I decided to adopt a much more creative approach than just saying 'no'. Through my efforts, I've learned some tips that may help you, my TEFL brethren, to stifle the cheaters in your own classrooms.
Homework
1. If you give homework, make sure you actually collect it and grade it. If you never collect homework, most students won't even do it. This means these students won't learn the material to begin with and will then need to rely on cheating when quizzes, tests, or exams are given later.
Quizzes
1. When giving students written quizzes, ask students to pass in completed quizzes as soon as they finish. This keeps any quizzes that are completed early from discreetly circulating through the classroom before they are turned in.
2. Don't return graded quizzes until the next class period. In a large class, it is hard to keep track of those who've finished and those who are 'posers', that is, students pretending to be finished but are really waiting on graded quizzes to be returned so they can snatch them and copy, copy, copy. When the class is over, accept no quizzes after that time. This will help force posers to finish by the closing bell.
Tests
1. Use multiple-choice, fill-in-the blank type questions with no numbers or letters assigned to the choices. This forces students to write in complete answers and not just a simple letter or number. In my classes, students often call out answers to each other in Thai during quizzes and tests. I don't mind. On my tests, anyone giving assistance will be forced to speak complete answers, and anyone receiving assistance will be forced to write complete answers. Both must be done in English if cheating is going to succeed in my classes.
2. When giving a test, make up several versions for each class. Any answer spoken by a 'provider' will be meaningless to anyone with a different test version. The more versions, the better (and the more comical).
I've found these strategies to be extremely helpful in gauging my students' true abilities and motivating my students to try harder. After a year in Thailand, I've learned that if the proper strategies are used, cheating CAN be reduced in places where cheating is as entrenched as it is here. Indeed, cheating can even be turned into a learning activity, especially if cheaters are forced to speak or write complete answers when taking quizzes and tests.
Elephant