One of these things is not like the other...

From the couch of Chris...

Last Friday was a very "eye-opening" teaching day for me. It had been a long week, and with only 1 class to go, I was looking forward to cruising through the lesson plan (that I had already taught 7 times that week) and heading home for some rest. I was excited to see that one of my students had brought a friend to class. Honestly, I actually took this as a little ego boost. I thought, "Of course, my class is so fun and interesting that I'm sure my students' friends want to come!" I was a little confused when I called the attendance and this person raised his hand as if he were one of my students.

Like I said before, I have 8 classes of students that I've only seen once a week for a few weeks, so I figured that maybe I had just forgotten what my student looked like. But this is where technology comes in. During the first class of every semester I separate each class into teams of 3-4. I then take a picture of each team so that I can study it to help me remember names. Here's the picture of the team in question:

During the class break I began carefully studying the photo. I don't think my students realized that I used to work in radiology-- my job was studying pictures and finding things that were different. To name a few, I noticed that today's student was of a larger body type, was wearing different glasses, and had a different mole on his face. Yes, this was overkill, but I wanted to be certain before accusing someone of being dishonest. Take a look for yourself-- can you find the differences?

OK, so it looks a little more obvious when comparing the two pictures side-by-side. I was astounded that my students would try to send in a look-alike just so that they wouldn't get counted absent! And then to lie about it and act like he was one of my students... Friday was not a happy afternoon! Once I "called-out" the impostor I then gave my class a lecture about honesty and integrity. Hopefully from here out there won't be any more behavioral problems with this class!

You know, I think there's one thing that was more valuable to me in this situation than my radiology training: my extensive knowledge of Saved by the Bell. If Preppy ever tried it, you'd better believe I'm on the lookout for it!