First 2 Weeks of Class Schedule

PLEASE NOTE!!
There will be ABSOLUTELY NO e-mail contact on Thursday after 745am until Friday morning as this is my birthday and I will be celebrating that after class is over. If you have ANYTHING that you need answered, please get it to me prior to that.

First 2 weeks of class – I meet you! We go over the Bad Letter handout and I explain to you why you need to do well in English (If I can’t tell you this, then the class has no foundation). I tell you to access Angel Online so that you can see the Can You Pass My Class handout with all assignments and rationales on it, the philosophy of education paper (optional), the RACC rules for students (as does every other teacher that you have), and the journals paper (not optional). You will read through the entire journals handout (not optional). I explain to you the syllabus and you will read the To My Students letter (you will sign off on having read this), the Plagiarism explanations, and the Sid Stocker Memorial Assignment Book (to be honest, everything you need to prepare yourself for the first 2 week stretch is listed on there). Here you get the link and handout to get into the Angel site for access to my class. Since this class was MARKED AS WEB-ENHANCED, YOU MUST BE ABLE TO GET INTO THIS VERY IMPORTANT INTERNET LOCATION. Not having a computer is not an excuse. If it is, you WILL NEED TO SWITCH to a class that isn’t web-enhanced since you pay a technology fee to the school, AND you are now accountable to being able to access my items. Thus, you can use RACC’s computers if necessary (they’re not just for Facebook and Myspace). I also tell you that you should get a USB drive to store all of my attachments on (trees don’t have to die for ALL of the handouts that I give to you (and I give you a lot of handouts and PowerPoints to help improve your chances of success)). We go over the introduction to this class Power Point (also available on Angel, which I’m reiterating you must visit). From there, you must send me an e-mail (the only one that you’ll ever send from the Angel site) to prove that you were there and read the RACC Rules for Students), and you will watch the GOOD THINGS IN LIFE video. I also assign you to go online and see the class website (www.onlymypride.blogspot.com), and then you send me the officially marked material (you can’t just send me anything – I need what it tells you to send – anything less than this is zero credit with NO chance for points time 2) so that I know that you know where the website is and so that I know what your RACC e-mail is (by your final class of the week – no personal e-mails – just RACC e-mail via SCHOOL POLICY).
I give you the assignment to read Death of an Innocent and take notes for an in-class quiz on your 2nd day of class. (http://outside.away.com/outside/features/1993/1993_into_the_wild_1.html ) On that day, you take the Death of an Innocent quiz. If you aren’t prepared, you lose your first points because I don’t do makeup tests for any reason EVER (since there are extra points built into the system). If you are prepared, you can inflate your grade since I have bonus points on this test. I’m just saying that you might want to read. On the 3rd day of class, we go over the Death of an Innocent quiz and watch a bonus features video from the movie.
For the 3rd class, you go online and print out the Right Word handout and the Issues in Your Paper handout. In short order, we will go over this. I CONTINUE TO STRESS the idea of completing your journals early. For the 3rd class, you must type a FULL page journal on what made you come to college. The rules for this are in conjunction with the online quiz that you will take by 6am the morning that the assignment is due (in Journal Information). If you do this and the rest of the journals as they are due, you get full credit. If you procrastinate, you WILL lose out on “free points” AND you will find yourself bogged down when other assignments are due. I warn you that while you are very smart and capable (and that I see your potential success), equally smart and capable students have failed this class because they procrastinated doing their journals (and other assignments). This goes DOUBLE for www.mywritinglab.com .
On that note, for the final class of the first week, you will be set up on www.mywritinglab.com . You will have a handout that will help you do this. This is worth points to your final grade. You must be processed by the end of the first week of class AND you must be done with the practice tests by the beginning of class for your first class of week 2. These are not short and simple things. Take the time to do it right. If you do, there will be less work to complete later. Really.
We discuss the concept of journals as a whole. We discuss appropriate college writing.
We take a grammar test so that I can see what you know and to see how you improve by the end of the semester. This will happen on the final day of the first week. While it does not count towards your final grade, it can be worth points to you if you are the high grade in the room. Otherwise, it is solely for my “learning” purposes and to see how much you improve by the first unit’s end. Thus, I can focus on teaching you things that are important to your learning.
I tell you to go online and start looking over the Karate Kid Method of Learning Grammar handout since we begin grammar during week 2. You will have the choice to print this out and bring it to class or to take your own notes. It’s up to you. I suggest printing it out since I know what makes people pass and fail this class.
If you feel like you have extra time, you can always look at stuff like the Image Handout and 15 Rules for Class and Life if you want to figure yourself out and learn how to be better at school and life. They’re not required, but they’re there to help you (if not now, then maybe later).
The assignment for 6am on the final class of week 2 is to access the Jackie Robinson quiz online. You will read the Time 100 Jackie Robinson article and then answer the questions. This is worth 10 points.http://205.188.238.109/time/time100/heroes/profile/robinson01.html
ASAP, I want you to take the opinion quiz on Survey Monkey Dot Com. Your name is not attached to it, so don’t worry about being “connected” to your opinions. We will use the data from this at a later date. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VMFLLNX This may take a while. Give yourself some time to make it happen (30 minutes).
The final class, we will discuss the Jackie Robinson article and go over the quiz. Since YOU HAVE to learn the rules for how to write article critiques before you do them, you will look at what is right and wrong with the sample critiques. Trust me; this is MEGA IMPORTANT! You will then take the peer review quiz on the Jackie Robinson article critiques by class 1 of week 3.