Academic Integrity & Growth Mindset

Introduction

This week in class we talked about in-class discussions, growth mindsets, and academic integrity. Both of these topics were actually very interesting to discuss, and they actually helped me clear some things up within my classes.

Academic Integrity

While this was the second topic we discussed this week, it was definitely the most important to me. Academic integrity varies by definition depending on the school, but in general it always means cheating and plagiarism are wrong. Hands down. No exceptions. It just so happened to work out that I was dealing with an issue of academic integrity in one of my classes at the time. Earlier this week in one of my classes, we had our first exam. It was online which seems to make cheating very easy. After I completed my exam, I started getting notifications from our class GroupMe. Once I scrolled through the messages, I realized someone in my class had decided to share their exam answers in the group chat. I left the chat immediately out of fear of being accused of cheating. I tried to forget about it after this. I wasn't the one who cheated, so it wasn't my problem, right? Yeah, I was wrong. Ironically, we ended up discussing academic integrity the day after this happened, and it helped me realize how much it was bugging me that this had happened. I talked it through in class, and that helped me to decide I should email my professor. Long story short, if you see something that you know is wrong, speak up. Even if it doesn't directly effect you. Don't let yourself fall into the bystander-effect. 

Growth Mindset

On a lighter note, we also discussed growth mindsets. Basically what are your strengths, what are your weaknesses, and what do we think those are for our generation as a whole. Most of our class agreed that our weaknesses fell somewhere with overthinking, public speaking, and things like that. Overthinking and over-analyzing was definitely a big one for everyone. It seems like we all have a habit of scrutinizing all the situations thrown our way. It's not always a bad thing, and being analytical has gotten us this far academically, but when it gets to the point of causing us worry and stress, it becomes an issue. Dra. Mcgrath put it best when she told us that we all find ourselves falling into impostor syndrome. Basically, we all feel like we don't fit in sometimes. We tend to overthink every detail, and think someone is going to find out we're not good enough and kick us out of the position we're in. But, the thing is, that's not going to happen. You deserve to be where you are, you're not faking it, you've made it this far because you're good enough. I promise.

Wheat Thins

On an even lighter note, wheat thins have become one of the most entertaining things about our class. The big thing is seeing how many can fit in your mouth. Most of haven't tried it yet, but one kid in our class is up to 35 I think. That's pretty impressive if you ask me. By the end of the semester I'm hoping we can get everyone in class to attempt it.