Thoughts on Technology

It was brought to my attention today that some of you do not have computers at home and are unable to check posts at your convenience. As much as I find this hard to believe because you all seem to know how to use the computers so well I can respect this circumstance. Also, I respect that you have work, and other commitments on a regular basis. However, so do teachers--they are human too. It is because of this that the minimum of one day advanced notice is all that can be promised and also because if this were a traditional classroom model there would be no technology and your success would be solely based on attendance (to receive instruction), participation in class, and your academic output.

I make a conscientious effort to ensure that all my posts are done a day in advance. However, concern was voiced over the issue of not knowing far enough in advance. For example today you were asked to bring a printed hard copy of your chapter in its current state for peer editing today. My first issue with this is is that the use of computer technology in the classroom is a privilege not a right. I indicated two or three times on Friday that hard copies should be brought to class for peer editing. Like any other class I mentioned this in class the Friday before the weekend. Unlike other classes you have been given the opportunity to track the schedule at home on the calendar. The calendar is kept up to date and informs you of assignments, things you need to bring to class and due dates.

I feel that it is more than fair to expect you to come to class on a daily basis as that is the purpose of an education. Many of you have to miss school due to extra-curriculars and personal needs and for those reasons we are lucky to have the computer link with this course.

As well due to the nature of this course, being a workshop course, I asked that you as students make your own goals and deadlines. You were given a calendar and asked to choose a day that worked best for yourself for conferencing and asked to pick a goal you knew you would likely be able to meet in that time frame.

Many students opted to not show up, or to do their conferences late. This exhibits poor planning and initiative, both of which are skills you will need to apply later in life. Also on Monday May 3rd when the peer editing process was being carried out, many of you simply chose not to come. If you have a legitimate excuse for being absent that is fine. However it is an important part of a workshop-based writing class to review works and modify them together.

I treat you with the utmost respect and give you the leeway I think you deserve as young adults to succeed in educating yourselves. However, I can only do so much, in the end the right to learn is yours, the right to succeed is what you make of it and the choices you make will reflect that.

As your teacher I hope only for success and not failure but I can only provide you with the tools and skills you need to achieve success on your own.

You will likely be given the opportunity to review the use of the computer in the classroom perhaps it is not the best option and we should go back to the traditional means of the pen and the pencil.

It is something to consider and the issues of this class will be directed towards the appropriate ears as this issue will not go left undiscussed. I will aim to address your concerns in the future.

Peer Editing:

Monday May 3rd, 2010:

Today...

You need to bring with you a hard copy of your sample chapters or you will be asked to print them in the library. We will be completing a peer editing exercise.

http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/writing/symbols.htm

Thanks in Advance,
Miss S.

Missed Conferences:

Taking Responsibility For Your Education:

If you miss your conferences you lose 2% a day. Up to 10% at which point I will remove 5% a day.

I have yet to meet with:
Ed
Trish
Courtney

If you are not prepared to conference on Monday you will receive a zero.

A final reminder, your sample chapters are due Wednesday May 5th, 2010 (no exceptions unless you have a medical note as this is a summative evaluation).

Monday we will be working in class with your chapters so please bring a printed hardcopy!

Have a great weekend!

Friday April 30th, 2010

Today:

More conferences....

Trish
Courtney
Rosie
Ed

Also.... a fun fact....your sample chapters are due this Wednesday.... May 5th 2010 just something to think about....

You have had so much class time to write so I assume most of you are ready to format on Tuesday!

Have a great weekend!

Sample Fiction:

Thursday April 29th, 2010:

Sample Fiction

Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang By Joyce Carol Oates

"In a small town in upstate New York, during the 1950's a group of teenage girls realize that the odds in life are stacked against them. They come from low income families, and are treated poorly by the men, who seem to run the world.
However, one girl, "Legs" Sandovsky decides to fight back. Seeing the special treatment that male gangs receive from society and the law, Legs decides to form an all female gang, called Foxfire. In this gangs, girls find protection, companionship, and love, something they are denied in their own homes.
Though Legs leads the gang, she is not a writer, so she appoints gang member Mattie Wurtz to chronicle the adventures of Foxfire. This chronicle depicts the adventures of Foxfire as they attempt to change their lot in life. These attempts lead them to conflict with the law, their families and occasionally each other".

Sample Fiction

Wednesday April 28th, 2010:

Sample Fiction:

Geek Love By Katherine Dunn

The novel is the story of a traveling carnival run by Aloysius "Al" Binewski and his wife "Crystal" Lil. When the business begins to fail, the couple devise an idea to breed their own freak show, using various drugs and radioactive material to alter the genes of their children. Who emerges are Arturo ("Arty"), a boy with flippers for hands and feet; Electra ("Elly") and Iphigenia ("Iphy"), the Siamese Twins; Olympia ("Oly"), the hunchback albino dwarf; and Fortunato ("Chick"), the normal-looking telekinetic baby of the family, as well as a number of stillborns kept preserved in jars in a special wing of the freak show.

Oly tells the story of her family in the form of a novel written for her daughter Miranda.

Plot summary

Two time periods are covered: the first deals with the Binewski children's constant vicious struggle against each other through life. They especially have to deal with Arty as he develops his own cult: Arturism. Arturism involves members having their limbs amputated so that they can be like Arty, the cult leader, in their search for the principle he calls PIP ("Peace, Isolation, Purity"). Each member moves up in stages, losing increasingly significant chunks of their limbs, starting with their toes and fingers. As Arty battles his siblings to maintain control over his followers, competition between their respective freak shows slowly begins to take over their lives.

The second story is set in the present and is centered on Oly's daughter, Miranda. In her early twenties, Miranda does not know Oly is her mother. She lives on a trust fund created by Oly before she gave up her daughter to be raised by nuns. This had been urged by her brother Arturo, who was also Miranda's father (via Chick's telekinesis.) Oly lives in the same rooming house as Miranda so she can "spy" on her. Miranda has a special defect of her own, a small tail, which she flaunts at a local fetish strip club. There she meets Mary Lick, who tries to convince her to have the tail cut off. Lick is a wealthy woman who pays poor but attractive women to get disfiguring operations so they may live up to their potential instead of becoming sex objects. Oly plans to stop Lick in order to protect her daughter.

Sample Fiction

Tuesday April 27th, 2010:

"The Afterlife of George Cartwright" by John Steffler

Diary Narratives: The first person

John Steffler

McClelland & Stewart

John Steffler, in The Afterlife of George Cartwright (McClelland & Stewart) goes after the big stuff in a richly imagined account of an eighteenth-century Englishman who sets up in business in Labrador. There is some terrific writing and real imagining in here, and with this book Labrador might be said to enter into literature—but for one, very nearly fatal, flaw: the central device in the story is the ghost of Cartwright himself, riding around modern England like Ichabod Crane's headless horseman, trying to remember the past. Corny, pompous and very embarrassing.

Conferences:
Rosie (missed yesterday)
Ed (still waiting)
Chelsea
Brittany