Cheating! Cheating?

On Friday I gave a quiz, and when the students were done, they walked up their quizzes to the front of the room. As one boy was handing it in, I happened to look at his arm, and big as anything, he had some of the formulas scrawled on his forearm (sp?). It was so big and blatant, and he saw I was there and he wasn't acting suspiciously, but I had to comment on it anyway. His rejoinder was that it was there to study all day. Hmmm. He's a smart kid, and he really didn't need to cheat, and I'm apt to believe him, but what a poor decision .... or maybe it never crossed his mind to cheat, so he wouldn't even think it was suspicious. Trust me, I've had cheaters before, and you can sort of spot their "shiftiness" and "guiltiness" in their actions.

It reminds me of when I was a freshman in biology, and our teacher had given us previous tests to study from during class, and we were to turn them in at the end of class. I ditzed out and took the tests home and didn't even realize it until class the next day, so then I went up to the teacher (thinking nothing of it) and handed them to him and said I accidentally took them home. Well. You should have seen the look on his face, it all but screamed, "CHEATER". His words were basically to that effect, too. I still remember it to this day. For the rest of the year, I shut down in his class. ....

I don't want this to happen with this kid, so I guess I should have a discussion with him.