Today I got caught cheating. We had to turn in a bunch of assignments for English. I borrowed my friend’s packets to check if I had everything. On one of the papers, I apparently didn’t do a question that asked us to analyze a quote. So during the 15 mins break we had, I decided to copy down the quote on my friend’s hw, but was planning to write my own analysis. My teacher caught me writing the quote and thought I was copying my friend’s answer word for word. He took the hw away, and gave it to our English teacher. Our English teacher gave us half credit because she was able to sympathize with us, because we honestly did not know that this was considered cheating.
What I’m worried about is my math teacher because apparently he gave me a referral for cheating. I’m sure that this will negatively impact my college applications. At the time, he did not ask for an explanation, and I don’t think I actually deserved a referral because it wasn’t that severe of a situation. I’m unsure of what I should do now, whether to try to appeal the referral or to just live with it. If I don’t manage to appeal it, how will I deal with it during my college admissions? I would like to add that I’m a freshman.
I would just wait until your junior year and then ask your gc. Also, don’t keep other students’ yet to be handed in homework in your possession. It appears that your friend was also penalized for this sharing of HW but you don’t seem to worried about that person’s future.
Of course I worry about my friend. But it was my math teacher who gave me the referral, not our English teacher, and our English teacher understands our situation, so she will most likely not get this on her record.
Wait, so you don’t care that you copied your friend’s work, but your only concern is how that will look to the colleges?
You are blaming your math teacher for catching you doing something unethical.
It doesn’t matter that the level of cheating doesn’t appear to be “severe”; what matters is that you take ownership.
It’s an issue of trust and maturity.
In order to get into the colleges, you need your teachers to support you. If you can’t gain their respect, you will have major issues.
You need to worry about present issues with your teacher and not worry about how this will look to the colleges.
It seems like she was writing down the question, not copying the answer. But her friend had given her all her own work, which she got caught with.
I don’t quite get how checking your friend’s packet to “see if you had everything” on the day it was due was going to help you. You either had all the assignments or you didn’t. There was no guarantee that your friend had them all, so it really doesn’t seem like a good reason to be looking at their homework.
It sounds like you were each supposed to find your own quote and analyze it. Analyzing a quote your friend found is doing only half the work. I think that 9th grade is old enough to understand that copying from a friend’s homework is cheating. I don’t think you’re going to get very far if you appeal by saying yes, I cheated, but it wasn’t a big deal. Do your own work and when you’re a junior ask your GC what’s on your transcript.
I would check with your guidance counselor ASAP to see if this information will be reported to colleges or not. High school takes these things far more seriously than grade schools, and there is little wiggle room on the matter. Hopefully you have learned that lesson and will respect the rules and behave accordingly going forward.
You owe your friend a huge and sincere apology, and probably even a gift card to Starbucks or something. If you had caused my daughter to get half credit, no matter how inadvertently, on an assignment she completed in good faith, I would not have soft and fuzzy feelings about you hanging out together.
Were you all supposed to analyze the same quote (the one your friend had written down) or each find your own to analyze? It’s not clear from what you’ve reported.
At a college that has an honor code, you and your friend would have faced suspension from the school for at least one semester.
The fact that you are poo-pooing all of this and making excuses that it was the math teacher making the referral, not the english teacher making the referral demonstrates that you have no are not willing to be accountable or take responsibility for what you did, you are just upset with the outcome. There is no right way to do something you know was wrong. If you needed to seek clarification for the assignment, why didn’t you go directly to the teacher?
I understand your situation just fine. You were asked to provide a quote and analyze it. In the 15 minutes you had, you chose to copy a friend’s work instead of using google.
Stop making excuses. The reason you were caught cheating is because you cheated, not because your math teacher is uncaring.
Do your own work. Figure out without help what you owe-- your friend was apparently able to do this all by himself; I’m not sure why you weren’t.
You were lucky to get half credit and not get a zero on the assignment. For that you should be thankful. Don’t make any excuses to rationalize your behavior.
Don’t make excuses and ask for a direct apology from your teacher during their spare time. You might get roasted but at leas you will get back on their good side
We all know that kids, like everyone else, make mistakes.
At this point the ball is in your court. You can continue to blame others for what happens. Or you can choose to be an adult, own up to what you did, and apologize to both teachers. And take this as a learning experience; from this point onward do your own work.
There is no “not that severe a situation.” You cheated. Cheating is like pregnancy-- there’s no matter of degree involved.
Unless this “advice” was poorly phrased, it’s the student, not the teacher, who should apologize.
And what’s a problem with an English assignment have to do with the math teacher? Was that who caught this?
Maturity and solid thinking do matter. You’ll need to see how the hs reacts, but you can change your thinking now.