I have died and gone to heaven. I recently discovered that my phone service allows me to do three way calling! I spent Sunday afternoon chatting with Vicki and Cara, Sunday night in my favorite chair, knitting and watching the Oscars with Cara and Flair. Then yesterday morning it was Ricki & Peggy. I have been sitting on a gold mine this entire time and never knew it! it’s triple the fun (now I sound like a gum commercial).
As I am typing this, I am watching the E! Channel’s Fashion Police show. They are claiming that viewers phoned in and declared Beyonce the best dressed. This is not to be believed. That woman looks like a perpetual pageant queen. Actually a very funny thing happened during Sunday’s Oscar phone call. Flair and I were saying how hideous Beyonce’s dress was and suddenly Flair thought she heard someone saying that Armani did the dress.
flair: OMG she just said Armani made that gown no way did Armani make that thing
me: are you sure she didn’t say My Mommy?
I hope that reads as funny as it was – it was a side splitter for sure!
Hopefully today will hold some laughs – I am off to do battle at D#2’s school. I was raised by teachers and I kid you not when I say that every female on my mother’s side of the family were teachers. I do not interfere, preferring to let them (both the kids and their teachers) do their jobs. This has been a wonderful policy and both girls have done marvelously well in school.
Well, D#2 has been accused of plagiarism. I take this kind of thing very very seriously and if I thought for one minute it were true, believe me heads would be rolling around here. I might be all fun and laughs with the girlfriends, but my daughters have an entirely different opinion of me. They think I’m kinda scary. And I am kinda scary. Anyway in a four page paper, the teacher claims that because D#2 did not cite the thesaurus used for translating one word of old English (they are studying Macbeth) that this is plagiarism and she should get a 0 for her work. None of the papers used citations. Up until this moment, D#2 has maintained a 98 average in this class and gets glowing comments on all progress reports. I would also like to add that this very teacher is also the faculty adviser for the National Honor Society. They had a preliminary meeting for all students eligible. When she walked into the room and took a head count, she announced that this was way too many students. Since that day she has accused five students of plagiarism. I think it’s a load of crap and I am requesting a meeting with the teacher, the principal, the guidance councilor and D#2. Wish me luck – I am so not used to this. I need to channel some calm yet fierce energy instead of this wild furious hysteria I am feeling.
and before I forget, your pig of the day
purlingswine 
Good luck, I have had to deal with teacher on my children’s behalf. In situations like that I find it hard to be calm.
I was not a fan of Beyonce’s dress. Or many others, for that matter. But Helen Mirren, that lady’s got class.
Good luck today. It won’t be easy but you’ve got to play the Mama Bear.
Oh, I had someone like that as an English professor in college. Walked in the first day and told us that X number of people were going to fail the final paper for plagiarism. Huh?!? I became one of his targets – he actually thought I should cite the date Martin Luther King JR. was born. It’s a national holiday, I think that makes it common knowledge.
My mommy? Too, too funny.
Good luck with the school!
Dude. I am ready willing and able to kick some ass. Just tell me where and when.
Re: the plagarism charge – too, too suspiciously coincidental. Not citing a thesaurus as a reference is in no way plagarism. I don’t even know that it’s something to deduct points for. Kick some butt!
Kick some teacher butt!!! I had a sap of a National Honor Society Advisor in high school who was just as loathsome. Good luck!
All my fingers and toes are crossed for you and your daughter. I hope you bring a bookmarked dictionary with you!! If a teacher can’t operate with a basic understanding of the meaning of “plagiarism”, should she really be the NHS advisor?!
Hi Ann,
Good luck with the meeting. Stay focused and cool. Think of spinning, how you have to stay constant, or your yarn will look like crap. Ehr, novelty. Although I like novelty. Wait. I think I’m getting off topic. Yeah. Stay focused and kick some overzealous teacher butt.
Take care,
Rosane.
Good luck at the school. Sometimes the school needs to see who’s boss.
ergh, kick that teacher’s butt. That is ridiculous!
I love today’s pig :)
I cracked up at “My Mommy” :)
That’s my kinda mothering Ann. Kick ass!
Oh, and by the way, what school would NOT want to boast having many honor students? That just doesn’t make sense.
Avery uses the three way calling on my phone all the freakin’ time. I have no idea how he figured out we had it or how it works.
Go kick ass, that plagarism charge is totally ridiculous.
Not citing the freaking Thesaurus?
What COULD Beyonce wear that wouldn’t look like pageantry? I can’t even come up with a silhouette… is it the way she carries herself?
LOL at My Mommy. Good luck with the teachers today,
The thesaurus? Seriously? I’d like to see her teaching certificate…
you go girl!!! kick some butt at that school!!! I have never heard of needing to cite a thesaurus, and I had the most awful, hideous, strict, rude, (I need a thesaurus) English teacher in high school. If THAT guy didn’t require citing the thesaurus, it’s crap.
I don’t come out of the woodwork often, but I’m with you on the plagiarism thing. I think you should calmly and persistently explain that if your child missed a citation that was PART OF THE ASSIGNMENT (in other words, every other paper would get marked down for missing citations, too), then she can be docked some points for that missing piece. Calling it plagiarism is beyond ridiculous.
Maybe take a printed definition of plagiarism in with you. Make sure you CITE your source.
Good luck. The teacher must be under some weird pressure, whether self-imposed or not, to week out students. Strange at a high school level.
Oh yeah, some other advice that might help you — try to find out what the pressure is for the teacher to behave like this. Sympathize (if at all possible). Then tactfully point out how this plagiarism charge doesn’t serve whatever pressure it is (because it probably doesn’t). You know, try to make her see why agreeing with you will help HER. It takes some teeth gritting to do this, sometimes, but it’s worth it to negotiate this way, in my experience.
Good luck at D2’s school. Hopefully, you will be pleased with how your discussion with her teacher goes. You certainly have an issue that needs to be resolved one way or the other. Remain calm. Imagine your FAinPA is sitting across from you and hopefully you will be able to express your concerns in a pleasant and effect manner. Easier said than done at times but we are pulling for you!
Hmmm, if citations weren’t required for the paper, then where’s the plagiarism? If citations had been required, then at the very least it would have been failure to cite a source. Big deal. If that’s the worst thing my students did I would be thrilled. If anyone can handle this situation perfectly, it’s you and your wicked sense of humor.
Good luck! I hope you kick some ass. Keep us posted. :)
Citations for a Thesaurus? My, my, how things have changed. That does sound a bit like she’s trying to trim her classload. With a load of BS.
My Mommy? LOL! Now that is the only line that’s made me regret not watching The Oscars.
(not that I would have heard the line watching the Oscars! You should host!)
That definitely sounds like she’s just searching for excuses . . . very suspicious! You go, girl!
want me to send somebody?
WTF with this teacher?!?!?! She sounds like she’s out to ruin some kids’ lives. How can there be too many kids eligible for NHS? Shouldn’t the amount be something the school should be proud of?!?!?
Best of luck kicking her a$$
Hey there- Good luck and let us know how this goes. It’s good that you come from a family of teachers, because you’ve seen the other side. Teachers, as you know, are pretty underpaid and undervalued, and a little honey goes a long way toward soothing their tired souls.
Of course, some of them are also just bitches.