Healing Up

Rode to basketball last night. I had to, since the best way to get over an accident is to get back up on the bike and ride it...isn't it? I hadn't played ball in at least a month, probably more, so, I was terrible on some levels, but, at least I didn't have any trouble keeping up. Usually, after a long dormant period, I feel like the first couple of games are strenuous--I am out of condition. For some reason, last night, I never had that re-acclimation period, I was good from the first.

This morning, it's back to work for Day Two of the Great Plagiarism Summit of 2009. Yesterday, we planned our agenda and began devising a statement on academic integrity. We decided to develop some department-wide strategies for instruction on plagiarism, what it is, how to avoid it, etc. We had a very interesting conversation about consequences and focus and decided that our focus in addressing these instances would be positive. We will have the opportunity to help students see the error of their ways, through discussion and consequence, and reteach some strategies that students may have missed the first time around. We also decided to have students sign an academic integrity agreement at the start of each term. Many of the examples of academic codes and plagiarism statements that we looked at successfully employed such "honor statements" successfully. We decided to incorporate that aspect into our plan.

Granted, we are simply drafting a document that will be brought before the department as a whole for discussion. Most likely, some things will change, but this has been a good process for the small group of us who volunteered for this committee. I am glad I was there yesterday, and I look forward to going again today.

And, as La Fashionista suggested, after our meeting, I just may go back and show that sidewalk what's what!

Please note: above screen capture borrowed from Context over Dogma.