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Why the Blog?

I began this blog when the heavy winter storm of January 24–27 closed the college and kept most of us indoors. As I write this on January 29, I realize that we probably still need it. Winter is not over yet, and a lot of us cannot get to campus every day. I currently have 57 students on my rosters for my three sections. Yesterday’s incoming emails included five requests for excused absences due to sickness, and I know that a couple of teams are on the road and will miss the Friday class. That means something like ten percent of you will not be able to attend.

Winter will continue to fight us.

What to do about it

One of the great problems of college courses—and everyone has the same problem—is that the schedule is very tight. We only have fifteen weeks and a ton of material we must get through, so we simply cannot take a day off. You cannot take a day off either. Even if your car will not start or the team is in Memphis for the weekend, you need to keep going. Another thing about my English classes is that they are primarily made for skill-building. Yes, we will have class sessions in which I tell you things and you (I hope) take notes so you can remember them, but most of the value of this course comes from doing the writing and keeping up with the reading. For several years I did the English composition curriculum for AU’s Correctional Education program. The people in prison could not interact directly with me—all they had was a DVD of my class presentation, a textbook, and my written comments on the writing they submitted. They had to do the work themselves—keep up with the reading and the writing. That philosophy was in the back of my mind as I set this course up.

So here is the plan as we push forward into winter:

  1. Do the Blackboard reading BEFORE the class session. I am not going to read it all to you in class; I am going to assume it is already inside you, and as the semester proceeds, I will treat that reading more and more as background material.
  2. Keep up with the writing assignments, and do not postpone them until the last second.
  3. Remember that I am requiring four Writing Center sessions (and it is really a good idea to do more than those four this semester). The Writing Center can do remote visits if you are sick or unable to get to campus. The whole point of the Writing Center is to give you one-on-one coaching to help your writing improve.
  4. I am certainly OK with you sending me a copy of the essay you are working on and asking questions.
  5. Keep me informed if you are missing class because you are sick or on the road with the team. Several of you are in the military, and when your obligations there keep you out of class, that is certainly an excused absence, but I need to know about it.
  6. We will have two more of those in-class handwritten essays this semester. If you are sick or on the road with the team when we do them, you can schedule a make-up with the university Testing Center.

I intend to keep this blog running as informal communication—especially useful for times when you (or I) cannot make it to campus, so take a look at it from time to time.

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