Grades have been posted.

I finished reading and grading this morning, and I went ahead a posted the grades I felt you'd earned.  If you have any questions about your grade, please get in touch, and I'l be happy to provide further information.  Since the college is closed today due to the upcoming snow, it may take a few days for your grades to process.

Steve

ENG 111 Portfolios Due Today.

Reminder:  Portfolios are due today at 1:40 PM..  I will look for them on the blog address I have listed on the "Forum" tab, in emails from you to sbrandon@reynolds.edu, and/or turned in as physical/hard copy to 231 Massey.  If there is a legitimate reason for the portfolio not being handed in, let me know immediately.  I will be turning grades in within 48 hours of 1:40 PM today.

Steve

Test

Testing...you don't need to read.

Steve

What I learned photos...

Mind-map for group Two:

What we learned this semester. The pictures are up both here and under the resources tab.

Week Sixteen and Final Assignments Are Active.

In the assignment description, I have included directions for turning in your final portfolio.  I'll be in class on Thursday to answer any last minute questions, and I'll be holding extended office hours this week to read portfolio drafts and answer questions.

Please get in touch to set up a time to come by if you have any questions or need a portfolio draft read for ENG 111.

Steve

Week Fifteen Assignments Updated to Include Study Terms for Tom's Second Test.

I have updated the week fifteen assignment description to include the study terms for the upcoming test in Tom's class.  Remember, by this coming Tuesday, 7 December, you should have worked with your group to write up your portion of a study guide for the test based on these terms.  This means you should have posted to your blog a blog post containing a paragraph for each of the terms assigned to you, each paragraph should say:

1)          Who the person was or What the term is.  [3 points]

2)          When was the term important or when the person lived.  You need not provide exact dates: but it should be within half a century.  [ 1 point]

3)          Where the term or person was. [1 point]

4)          Why is the term or person historically important?  Describe their context and influence.  [5 points]

At this point, that is, as you study, it is better to have a richer paragraph with more detail to study.  Remember, the Why question is the most important (5 points).  It needs to explain the person's or term's connections to other important events and personages in history and its effects on other events and people.

Steve

Link for Assignments, Week Fourteen is now active.

As you produce the working draft of your ENG 111's portfolio's reflective cover essay, I thought you'd like to examine copies of working drafts from last semester which went on to produce portfolios of which their owner's were proud.  Here are links to the example drafts:

• http://monicagonzalezengl111.blogspot.com/
• http://delilaholearyeng11103cpspring2010.blogspot.com/
• http://scottrobinsoneng111.blogspot.com/

Please note, these are from a non-Global Connections learning community, so their claims may not be the same as yours.  You should also note how much weaker these drafts are in terms of the use and analysis of evidence than is your own writing.  As a class, you are much ahead in your academic writing skills.

Keep plugging.  The final two weeks of the course are just ahead.  You've got plenty of material to put together a great final portfolio for ENG 111, but you should read these examples, begin shifting through your own evidence, and draft the working draft of your reflective cover essay this week.

As always, write with questions.

Steve

Here's an example of a URL copied into a blog post

Here is an example of a URL copied, pasted, and made active in a blog post.  I went to the page I was instersted in pointing to.  I copied the URL by highlighting the address bar and hitting "cntl C."  I then paste the link into my blog post by hitting, "CNTL V," like this:

http://gettingacluelc2010.blogspot.com/2010/11/top-10-hints-for-better-writing.html

I then highlight the link, and I hit "LINK" on the blogger editer.  This makes the link active, that is, it makes the link one a reader can click on and go to.

That's it.

Steve

Distraction Free Writing Tools?

Lifehacker's hive mind is running a question by their readers, namely, which distraction free word processor is the best.  If you get distracted while drafting, then you might want to consider trying out one of the word processors mentioned:

http://lifehacker.com/5689579/five-best-distraction+free-writing-tools

Steve

No English on Thursday, 4 November

It's 3:00 AM, and I have woken up with a bad case of indigestion.  I've been up and down much of the night and continue to feel unwell.  The upshot is that I'll be staying home tomorrow trying to throw this bug and to keep from passing it along.

I have posted assignments to the course website.  Do these assignments and reading in lieu of a class meeting.  

These things usually only last a day or so, so I'll be back and we'll have class on Tuesday.

Steve

Advice on the "This I Believe" Short Essay

A student wrote with the following concern about the "This I Belive" essay.  I think my response to this student may help a number of students better understand the role played by discussion in critical thinking, reading, and writing; so, I wanted to share the exchange with the class as a whole:

From the student:

"I've completed all the reading and I've been thinking really hard on this. I looked at the This I Believe link you gave us, and that was great, but I'm having trouble with this whole thing in general. I'm not exactly sure what I believe. What I do believe could possibly be considered offending which I don't want to do. I want to be respectful while being honest and I have no idea where to even begin." 

My Response (somewhat edited and revised):

I can't help you figure out what you believe.  This is part of the process of growing into a citizen and an adult, and no one in our society has the right to dictate beliefs to others.  Discussion, on the other hand, is different.  Without discussion and debate, we hurt others by depriving them of our insights.

People being offended by your stating and explaining a belief isn't the same as being disrespectful of their beliefs.  Taking offense at reasoned discussion is the act of disrespect, not sharing belief.  What Jefferson said in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom might help you gain some perspective.  He said, "Truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself, ...she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them."  Your stating a belief and explaining why you hold it is the epitome of respect for others.  We don't share beliefs with those about whom we don't care; we let them live in error.  By avoiding possible conflict, argument, and debate and by not stating what you believe to be true and explaining your reasoning, you remove the possibility of others learning from you and of your view of the world, and you remove all the help this might provide. In short, your accepting others as an audience for truth as you see it, establishes that you are willing to enter into a mutually respectful learning relationship.  

The key here is explanation rather than defense.  You are explaining why a belief is important to you and why you hold it.  You are comparing and contrasting it with those held by others as a means of clarifying your own belief and setting it in historical context.  

Establish your ethos carefully.  Maintain objectivity throughout, and be careful to maintain a tone of respect and exploration of your own belief.  If you do, you should be fine. You might want to look at the chapter from Writing Today on memoirs and note the advice Rick and Chuck give on establishing ethos through telling a personal story.    

Steve

Assignment Link for Week Eleven Is Now Active.

The assignment link for week eleven is now active.

Steve

Classes Cancelled 30 Sept/5 Oct.

If you are lucky, this announcement is catching you prior to your coming into campus.  If not, I am sorry for your inconvenience.  I came in with every intention of teaching today, and I made it up through noon, my first couple of classes and half my office hours; however, I'm just not up to teaching this afternoon.  The kidney infection wins, and you need to work on your revision for your first formal history/English paper on your own.  Remember, the final papers are due to be posted to your blogs on Monday, 4 October at Midnight.

Physical copies are due in class Thursday, 7 October.  Physical copies are left justified, double spaced, twelve point type, with one inch margins.  In the physical copy, there should be no extra spacing between paragraphs.  The start of paragraphs are indicated by indenting five spaces.   On each physical copy, make sure to begin the first page with your name, HIS 111/ENG 111, "Doctors Brandon and de Mayo," and the date, all on their own line and left justified; then, you double space, enter your title. The title of your essay is center justified, and you double space prior to beginning your first paragraph.  Block quotes, that is, quotes longer than four lines, should be placed in a block paragraph, and the whole paragraph is indented by five lines on the left.

Again blog copies are to be posted by Monday, 4 Oct. at midnight.  Blog copies should be single spaced within paragraphs and double spaced between paragraphs.  Since the extra space denotes the start of a paragraph, you don't need to indent the first line.   Since we know the classes the blog post is for, there's no need to list the class, and the same is true for the date, since your post is time stamped or Tom's or my name.  The title is the title of the post.  Block quotes should use the quotation feature, which can be accessed by highlighting the quote and hitting the large quotation marks in the blogger editing window.

Note that both classes are cancelled for 30 Sept and 5 Oct.  Today's classes are cancelled because of my illness and the fact that Tom has already taught both his sections for the week.  The hope I'd be well enough to teach today didn't pan out.  The classes on 5 Oct. are cancelled because it is Convocation for the college, and all classes are cancelled.

For those who might be concerned, I am feeling better, and I should be well by next week; however, the kidney infection has turned out to be fairly serious.  I just missed spending time in hospital, but I'm now a couple of days into the antibiotics, and the bed rest and cranberry juice seem to be doing their trick.  I'm just not as strong as I thought I was and could only make it through noon today, so there's no need to worry.

Steve

Saturday night, I began developing a dull pain around my kidneys or in my lower back.  I'm not completely sure what is going on, but movement is no worse one way than another, so I'm betting it's not my back.  It got much worst during the drive back from the Triad Sunday, and I plan a doctor's visit today see if there is anything he can do to help.  At present, getting up and around is painful and just laying around is no joy; so, you should expect:

1)  I'll not be holding office hours today; and,

2) Weekly assignments may be a day or two late being posted.

If our ENG 111 class meeting tomorrow is in any way affected, I will post an announcement here to let everyone know.  For right now, assume we will have class.

Steve

No office hours Monday 20 Sept.

Don't worry.  I'm just taking a day off.  We will have class this week, and I'll double up student office hours on Wednesday from 10:00-2:00 to make up for missing today.  

Steve

Dr. Brandon will not be keeping office hours today, Tuesday 10/14

ENG 111 is cancelled today. HIS 111 will meet as scheduled. Your assignments will be posted on the website. As always, write with questions.

Steve.

Links to Week Three and Week Four Assignments Now Active

Tom and I had a chance to meet this morning and finalize the assignments for Weeks Three and Four.  I've made these links active.

As always, write with any questions.

Steve

"Actor" and "character" don't seem to be related.

After class, I used the Oxford English Dictionary to look up the history of both words.  "Character" comes from the Greek, "kharakter," meaning, "to engrave or to mark."  "Character" came into English by way of French, and it first came into English usage in the 1300s.


"Actor" comes from a Latin root, which means "to do." It began being used to refer to those who play act in the late 1600s.  The OED sites the first instance as Sidney's Defense of Poetry.


Still, the connection between one's actions and one's character is clear, and actions and character go back at least as far as the Greeks in Western society.  In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle says,

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way… you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.  

The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. 

Welcome to the Website for Global Connections

Welcome to the website for the Global Connections Learning Community. 

Here, you'll find announcments from Dr. de Mayo and me.  You'll find weekly assignments.  You'll find resources and syllabi for HIS 111 and ENG 111, and you'll find means of getting in contact with us.  Finally, you'll find "the Forum."  The forum is where you'll find your group assignments, contact information, and links to your blogs.

Right now, only a few of the blog links are filled in, as many folks have yet to share their blog address with me via the Contact and Consent form.  If you haven't yet filled out the Contact and Consent Form, you can do so by following this link. 

If you need help setting up your blog, look for directions under the "Resources" tab, and you should feel free to contact me (Dr. B), if you need any help getting your blog set up.

Under the resources tab, you'll also find a link to a drop where you can download Dr. de Mayo's power point presentations and links to articles and handouts given in class.

As always, write with any questions.

Steve