T Blog

I understand the urgency many students feel to find out what grade they got on semester-long project or their draft, and I’m working industriously this week on carefully reading, responding to, and evaluating each portfolio.  Then I’ll be hard at work calculating those final grades, which I’ll then submit to the registrar.  These tasks are my priority this week, not, I’m afraid, answering individual emails from concerned students who want to know sooner than everyone else what they got. So to the 10 people who emailed already and the 20 who are probably about to, no, I can’t tell you what your grade is yet.

This is a link to the Gabcast test post I just created in the 6 o’clock class: http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&query=&b=play&id=8538&cast=71988&castPage=

My HW 44 test podcast is attached. hw-44.mp3

My podcast is on the Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/TracysHw44

Easy download page for the LAME encoder (which you need if you’re recording your podcasts with Audacity ): http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/ . Right-click on the link http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/libmp3lame-win-3.97.zip if you’re using Windows, http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/libmp3lame-osx-universal-3.97.zip for a Mac. This is much easier than I made it look in the Thursday 4 o’clock class!

The program Audacity can be download from the Audacity Download page at  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ . Have fun!

My podcast test hw-96.mp3HW 93 is attached.

My test podcast for HW 109 is available on the Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/TracysTestPodcastForHw109

hw-109.mp3My test post HW 109 is attached.

Let’s see if this feed for Gabcast podcasts works:

<a href=”http://www.gabcast.com/casts/8538/rss/rss.xml”><img src=”http://www.gabcast.com/images/feed-icon-24×24.png” alt=”RSS Feed” border=0></a>

My test podcast 104 can be viewed on the Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/TestPodcastHw104

hw-104.mp3

Individual conference days were announced and we discussed the reading in Riverbend (7-41)–What parts did you find upsetting or surprising? We view videos, the  BBC News series “Five Years, Five Iraqis” at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7305270.stm and the Daily Show’s “The First Five Years” at http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=164644&title=iraq-the-first-5-years
.  Finally we did peer review of seven-page drafts using the “What Can You Remember?” method. I collected a copy of seven-page draft, and returned three-page drafts with checks, check-pluses, or check-minuses.

Thursday HW 35B and the ten-page draft are due. You already have the instructions for these.

We had a small class Wednesday for the 12 o’clock students who couldn’t come to the Thursday night talk with Laura Clawson. We discussed Baghdad Burning (students had read the introduction and first two posts, and did peer review of the three-page drafts, using a new four-question “What Can You Remember?” form.

Homework for Monday is the 7 page peer draft and HW 35A, the Letter to Riverbend.

On Tuesday, I handed out updated calendars for the rest of the semester. PLEASE TEAR UP YOUR YELLOW CALENDARS AND REFER TO THE NEW ONE FROM NOW ON.  This is available only in paper copies right now, so if you missed class on Tuesday, get a calendar from me on Thursday.  Other important announcements–I’ve received a lot of late assignments and “instructor drafts” that were exactly the same as the peer drafts–down to the check mark from the last time I saw the same piece of paper! So I’m giving a little but asking for a little: I’ve streamlined some of the assignments for the rest of the semester.  You have a few less than originally planned, and I’m doing away with Digital Dropbox until your final instructor draft on the last day of the class–my part of the bargain. However, I will no longer accept late instructor drafts, nor will I accept emailed assignments (no matter how good your excuse is). They must be received on paper in the beginning of class the day they are due. 

Also on Tuesday, we watched the rest of the video A Room of One’s Own, and then annotated Chapter 3 of the book.

On Thursday, 2/27, we’re meeting in our regular classroom and then walking over to the library for our third and final session with library liaison Assistant Professor Deng Pan, on evaluating online sources. I’ll hand out the instructions for HW 32 to HW 36.

Assignments due Tuesday: HW 31, three page peer draft of semester-long project, and HW 32, Responding to Riverbend.

Monday/Wednesday students, for Monday, 3/31 you should do HW 32, responding to Riverbend. The handout for this is: HW 32, 33, 34, 35A, 35B, and 36, or you can read the directions below. Also, the updated calendar is available. I’ll give you printed copies on Monday.
Calendar for Mon/Wed (revised 3/36/08)

HW 32: Responding to Riverbend
for A Blog of One’s Own: Women and Authorship in the Digital Revolution
For Mon/Wed students, due Mon. 3/31. For Tuesday/Thursday students, due Tues. 4/1.
· First, read the foreword and introduction to Baghdad Burning (Riverbend vii-ix).
· Please also review Chapter 2 on “The Art of Summarizing” in They Say/I Say (Graff 28-38)
· Write a post of 150-400 words that achieves these two main things:
· Summarize the Foreword and Introduction. Try to capture all the main points, and don’t write a boring list summary. Remember to mention the work by its full title, and to be clear when you’re summarizing Soueif and when you’re summarizing Ridgeway. These two authors are, of course, distinct from Riverbend.
· Compare the Soueif and Ridgeway’s account to your own memories or impression of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq since 2003. How are your own impressions similar to or different from the account in of the war in Iraq in the text?
· Provide MLA in-text citations giving the page number(s) of the parts of the text you refer to (both the text as a whole and specific passages you discuss).
· Spell-check. Give the post a descriptive title that includes HW 32.

The noon section of ITW 101 is cancelled for Wednesday March 26, as our my office hours for today.  You’ll be receiving an updated calendar for the course later on, but here’s the short-term plan:

On Monday, 3/31 we’ll meet in the regular classroom and then go to the library for our third information literacy session.

Students who can’t come to the 4/3 6 pm special speaker time will do peer review on 4/2.

Our next peer review will be the 7 page draft on Monday, 4/7.  If you need or want guidance before then, please feel free to come to my office hours which are Monday 2:30-4:30, Tuesday 2:30-3:30, and Wednesday 2:30-4:30.

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Laura Clawson will be coming to speak to you, the Blog of One’s Own students, at 6 on Thursday, 4/3.

Dr. Clawson blogs under the blogger name Miss Laura on the political blog Daily Kos, and on Blue Hampshire (under the name Laura Clawson).  She teaches sociology at Dartmouth College, and has a background in English and American Studies.

Dr. Clawson has also joined our online social network, Keene-Ning, so that students can post questions on her wall. To encourage discussion, I’m offering extra credit for this. Any question relevant to our course work or Dr. Clawson’s work will provide an extra homework credit. The two best questions will earn a free half day’s attendance credit.

On Thursday, April 3rd, we have a special speaker coming to talk to our class, Dr. Laura Clawson, who is a blogger on Blue Hampshire and Daily Kos.
Dr. Clawson will be coming to the 6 pm section of the class, and I’m emailing to ask all of you who can do so to arrange to come to on Thursday, 4/3 6 pm. Those of you who can come to the Thursday 6 pm section will be excused from your regular class time (Wednesday 4/2 at 12 o’clock or Thursday 4/3 at 4 o’clock).
-I understand that some of you have other classes or perhaps jobs or athletics commitments at Thursday 6 pm. If you have a class and would like me to write to your instructor, I’d be happy to do so. (Your other instructor is under no obligation to consider our event more important than their class, but I’ll write a nice note and maybe they’ll decide to be generous and let you out of class.) If you can’t come Thursday at 6, you can’t. We’ll have a regular class for those who can’t come at night. I’ll be handing out a form in class next week to ask you to tell me in writing whether you can come to the special time so I can plan accordingly.

Please go to Keene-Ning to complete HW 24–which asks you to write an explanation of Chapter One of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own as if you helping a younger family member understand it.

Today are individual conferences instead of regular class. Arianne, Cara, Paige, Dayna, Kori, Stacy, Gretchen, Alison V, and Chelsea, you’re up today at your appointed times.