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ESL forum >
Message board > Not your own work...
Not your own work...
mena22
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Not your own work...
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I really get upset and extremely sad when I read the posts here every morning and find out that a lot of them have to do with "stolen" worksheets - some are indeed stolen from other members, but the majority are scanned worksheets or copies, taken from books or webpages.
In the first case, "stolen" worksheets, I feel truly disgusted, really angry, and I can�t even think that it is a teacher, an "Educator" who�s doing that.
In the second case, scanned worksheets or copies from books or webpages, it�s not anger that I feel, but sadness. Like firstime said a while ago, it takes us a huge amount of time to prepare and make a good worksheet and, in spite of knowing that we cannot expect everybody to spend that kind of time working for school (we aren�t really paid for that extra-time!!), we do expect people to take their work, and ours, seriously, by being honest and showing respect for all the other teachers in this community, and, ultimately for themselves. And the only way they can do that is by uploading their own work to share with us. Whenever I realize a member uploads a worksheet that is not his/her own work, I feel tricked, and I have all the right to feel that way, because that is against the rules of ESLPrintables.
I truly hope those people - both in the 1st and the 2nd cases - take some of their time these holidays to rethink their attitude and that in the forthcoming year they�ll share with us their own work, and no one else�s.
I wish you all a nice day!
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15 Dec 2008
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offstage
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Dear ESL Members,
First of all, let me tell you that I think your worksheets are superb! I could not agree more with you Mena. I think it�s time people stopped "stealing" and it�s time people stopped looking for stolen materials. What�s our main objective here? It is to exchange good quality materials. Some of them are not worth even looking at, and in this case, they are likely to be fake ones. We have so many things to do, so many ideas to share - it is not fair to jeopardise this. For those who are just copying and pasting, let them feel their wrongdoing by themselves. For those who are creative and honest, let them get their credits by themselves. Life is not fair and neither is the professional life. People want to profit at any rate, but, I truly believe that this is not profit. They are cheating on themselves. Seasons Greetings from Ursula Viessa, Sorocaba, Brazil. |
15 Dec 2008
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Vickiii
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Hi Offstage,
Although I share your sentiments - I hate to see so many negative comments about stolen worksheets - I unfortuanetly can not agree with you on stopping our vigilance. The problem with those who steal is that they don�t feel their wrongdoing. A lot of people believe that it is ok to break the rules as long as you don�t get caught. For this reason i suggest reporting using the system available - but not reporting on the discussion forum all the time - as it just makes the community look depressing! |
15 Dec 2008
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cheezels
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I am in complete agreement with Mena and Vickiii, and I think its unfair to say we "go looking" for stolen worksheets. That I think is actually untrue. I know for myself I have been surfing the ESL sites a lot lately specifically for HOW to teach certain points etc as I am new to the whole ESL teaching thing... and therefore I can and do recognise a lot of the recent stolen materials simply because I have been to the site that it was copied from. No one I would think has the time or inclination to sit down and go through every single worksheet to see where its from. I will continue to report those whose worksheets are a blatant copy and paste from a website that I know. We teach our kids about honesty and doing the right thing! As far as I know there is no exception clause in the honesty policy for teachers who don�t want to play by the sites rules. I strongly believe that if you don�t share the vision and the ethos of Victors site ... then you shouldn�t be here.
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15 Dec 2008
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wolfy
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I agree that all stolen material should be marked as such, but I�m concerned that when they are posted in the forum with a link, they just get downloaded even more. �Victor is pretty vigilant and deletes the ws he is notified about, but I would hate to think he received an email every time that checkbox was ticked. �He�d receive 3 or 4 emails per stolen worksheet and probably wouldn�t be able to get anhything else done. �I do hope that multiple comments about the same thing is not increasing his workload.
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15 Dec 2008
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marmar363
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Hi,
I think there is no need to mention the stolen worksheets in the forum. If you use the reporting option, it will be removed before tomorrow, and the user will not get the points.
Wolfy, there is no problem at all if many users report the same worksheet. I just get a message saying "this worksheet has been reported by 4 users". |
15 Dec 2008
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wolfy
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Thanks for clarifying that, I was a bit worried for you, I imagined you receiving �thousands and thousands of message. |
15 Dec 2008
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