Random, Random 2.0

[ti-amie]

Making students hand write their essays
Teacher Support &/or Advice
I teach 12th grade humanities, and in my classes, students do a fair amount of writing. Our school does not issue Chromebooks; students bring their own laptops to class, which as you can guess raises all kinds of frustrating issues: texting, scrolling the internet, online gambling, TikTok galore, ChatGPT usage, etc. Every time I've talked to my admin about this, and stressed how much of a problem it is, I'm told it's my job as the teacher to monitor their computer usage as best as I can. (Lol, yeah, OK.)

I've decided that moving forward I'm going to require students to handwrite as much of their work as possible. The problem: so much of their handwriting is atrocious. Some of this is due to dysgraphia, which allows for accommodations, but for many of them, they just don't want to pick up a pencil and write. They rush through, don't take it seriously, don't think it's "real" work if it's not on a screen.

Nevertheless, I would like to have their semester exams be entirely handwritten. I'd also like to spend some time in the weeks before having them practice writing out longer answers on paper. I want to even start grading them on their penmanship - mostly to get them to slow down, take their time, not rush, and practice organizing their thoughts on paper. (Again, in cases of dysgraphia, I will of course provide accommodations - though the sad reality is that the students who will need these are some of the worst offenders when it comes to ChatGPT and distractions. Sigh...)

In my estimation, going back to hand-written work is the only way to ensure they aren't being distracted by dopamine hits or using ChatGPT to write their answers (which is an insane problem at my school that no one at the top seems interested in addressing.) I literally cannot spy on the computer screens of 15+ students at once. And until we get our own Chromebooks, where we can block certain websites, or simply turn off internet capacity, these behaviors will never change.

What do y'all think: is this a hill worth dying on? Or am I setting myself up for impossible frustration? Am I better off just washing my hands of this issue and accepting the fact that I cannot control what they do on their own computers? That until my admin wakes up and realizes the problem they're creating, students will just continue to do what they do?

Bigger picture, I'm at the point this year where I have to decide what's worth swimming upstream for, and what's not. At the end of the day, my conscience feels rotten allowing students to get away with things I know will hurt them in the future, but I also have to acknowledge when it's just not within my control.

Thanks, everyone, for any insights.

Quick edit: sorry, I should've given more context about my school. Without getting too much into it, I teach at a small independent school that doesn't give consequences for student behavior (I'm not exaggerating; I could write an entire dissertation on this.) So even if I caught them doing something they shouldn't, the best I can do is give them a "redirect," document if they don't comply, take off participation points from their grade (which they don't really care about), and hope the admin follows through (which they won't.) I'm also not allowed to confiscate their laptops; parents would absolutely freak. I know that sounds cynical, but it's the reality of the situation.

[Owendonovan]

I'm going to push super hard this year for us to award only 1st, 2nd, 3rd place trophies at my school's gymnastics competitions we do. Currently every student that competes gets a medal and there's no placement, highest score gets the same medal as the lowest score. I believe that's called an exhibition not a competition if you're all getting the same thing regardless.

[ashkor87]

Certainly not a hill worth dying on..I am/was a teacher too, but grad students..telling them not to use the internet would be absurd and actually not what one wants them to learn. So I allowed them to use the net, even cut and paste, chatGPT etc but their grade would depend on an intense 'defence', orally, with me.

[Suliso]

That defence idea works with grad students, totally not if you have 150 undergrads in your class.

[ashkor87]

Student: 'can I turn in my paper without citing all the sources?'
Teacher: 'No' #1

1: William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, scene 1, line 96

[ashkor87]

That defence idea works with grad students, totally not if you have 150 undergrads in your class.

I had 65, MBA students

[ponchi101]

I don't think anybody is saying that we need to raise kids to be computer illiterate. The world runs on computers.
The point is that they have to be literate in other forms too. Including the traditional ones.

[ti-amie]

I opened a Blue Sky account and I'm happy to see that lots of people who kept me on the hell site have done the same. I haven't found the ATP or WTA accounts over there yet though.

[dryrunguy]

I opened a Blue Sky account and I'm happy to see that lots of people who kept me on the hell site have done the same. I haven't found the ATP or WTA accounts over there yet though.

I opened a Blue Sky account for Eurovision stuff. I will keep Twitter for horse racing for now, but Blue Sky, so far, is significantly less.... cesspoolish.

[Fastbackss]

I opened a Blue Sky account and I'm happy to see that lots of people who kept me on the hell site have done the same. I haven't found the ATP or WTA accounts over there yet though.

Bluesky has been so refreshing.

I looked for you but couldn't find you?

Megan is over there already

Ps - much like dry said - I have to keep Twitter because most racing people will not migrate

[mmmm8]

That defence idea works with grad students, totally not if you have 150 undergrads in your class.

Or 30 pre-teens

[skatingfan]

I don't think anybody is saying that we need to raise kids to be computer illiterate. The world runs on computers.
The point is that they have to be literate in other forms too. Including the traditional ones.

Should we teach them to engrave stone tables, or writing on papyrus? Hand writing an essay is not a skill that the current generation is going to use. Every project that they complete in school, or in their work life is going to be done on a computer, and submitted electronically.

[Suliso]

Oral defence of your work is obviously a much better solution, but unfortunately teachers/professors often have no time for that.

[ponchi101]

I don't think anybody is saying that we need to raise kids to be computer illiterate. The world runs on computers.
The point is that they have to be literate in other forms too. Including the traditional ones.

Should we teach them to engrave stone tables, or writing on papyrus? Hand writing an essay is not a skill that the current generation is going to use. Every project that they complete in school, or in their work life is going to be done on a computer, and submitted electronically.

You are taking it to the extreme. Yes, I don't think you should have to write down an essay by hand. That is, as you say, something that is not done anywhere anymore.
But your hand writing should be clear enough that you can leave a post-it with a brief instruction for somebody, and they should be able to read it.
You should be able to read a clock (how this conversation started). It teaches you how to interpret graphical data.
And about the hand writing an essay. It is not to prove they can do that. It is to prove that they did not ask some bot to write the essay for them, in lieu of having the teacher keeping an eye over their shoulder while they write it.

[ti-amie]

I had two accounts on Xitter. One was focused on tennis and the other was focused on my other interests. I deactivated the second account today after finding everyone and every topic on Blue Sky. The NBA has set up a hashtag there but I don't expect the tennis tours to do the same any time soon so I will keep the tennis focused account on Xitter for now.

ETA: The WTA is there. Once the ATP shows up I'm done with Xitter.

I also found MLB and the NFL.