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