| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

repeat

Page history last edited by Laura Gibbs 3 years, 2 months ago

 

Returning Students

 

WELCOME BACK! It is always so nice when people come back to do the other class. Below you will find some notes for those of you who were in one of these classes before. If you took the class in Fall 2020 or Spring 2020, you will find only a few small changes, but if you took the class earlier than that, there may be some bigger changes. Either way, please make sure you do read the instructions for the assignments to learn about any changes, and of course if you have questions at any time, just let me know. Then, if you can reuse a blog post from the past to complete the assignment, you can copy-and-paste the post and/or update the post as needed.

 

Break weeks. Trying to anticipate and plan for this semester has been really hard... last semester was stressful, and this semester even more so (I say that writing on January 11, when COVID numbers are surging in Oklahoma, and before the inauguration on January 20). So, the biggest change for the class this semester is that I've built in TWO break weeks: Week 5 is a break week with no required work, and Week 10 is also a break week. I don't know what this semester is going to be like, but it looks hard from the very start, so there are two break weeks. For those of you who would rather finish early, you can use those weeks as a way to finish up two weeks early if you want. As a result of those two weeks off, there's not a project pass like in previous years; instead, there are two weeks off for everything, including the project. Details here.

 

Class book! Also, the microfiction anthology that students wrote in Fall 2020 turned out GREAT, so I really hope that will inspire a lot of people to contribute to an anthology this semester. If you are a returning student from before Fall 2020, definitely check out the Anthology from Fall 2020. I was so impressed by the stories people contributed, and I hope people will want to make another book this Spring.

 

Blogger interface. For those of you using Blogger who were not in the class in Fall 2020, heads up about a change in the interface: during Summer 2020, Blogger rolled out a new mobile-friendly interface (with a lot of features similar to the Google Sites interface). So, if the last time you used Blogger was Spring 2020 or earlier, you'll notice some changes in the interface. You can let me know if you have any questions about that! (I updated all the screenshots, etc. in Fall to reflect the new interace.)

 

Here are some specifics on the orientation stuff:

 

WEEK 1 ORIENTATION ASSIGNMENTS.

 

Week 1 New Blog. Please create a NEW BLOG for the class you are taking this semester so that the blog post labels will not be all jumbled up between semesters. You can create another Blogger blog, or you might want to use OU's Create.ou.edu option to get a domain name of your own, using WordPress for your blog. Either way is good! 

 

Week 1 Favorite Place. If you want, you can copy-and-paste from your old Favorite Place post if you want. Alternatively, you could write up a new post about a different place, one that you did not write about before; either way is fine! If you do re-use the old post, make sure you read through it carefully to see if there are any changes or additions you want to make. And when you copy-and-paste, you can use the Tx button to clear out any formatting that copies over from your old blog template to your new blog (Tx means "clear text formatting," and it's a very useful editing option for any web-based content editor).

 

Week 1 Introduction.  If you copy-and-paste your Introduction post from last semester's blog, please make sure you also update the information for the new semester. As you saw last semester, the Introduction is the post that the most people read at your blog, so it is worth taking a few extra minutes to include things that your readers might enjoy — pictures, links, video, etc.

 

Week 1 Storybook Favorites. For the Storybook Favorites assignment, you need to write a new post this time that focuses on the Storybooks for the class that you are in this semester. So, it is the "same" assignment, but now for the other class. I hope you will have fun looking at the new range of Storybooks!

 

Week 1 Growth Mindset. If you want to refresh yourself on growth mindset, you can watch the videos again that were part of the assignment last time OR you can choose two videos from the Growth Mindset playlist and watch those videos instead, using what you learn there as the basis for your blog post: Growth Mindset Video Playlist. Another option: I wrote up my own blog post about growth mindset and ungrading, which you might be interested in reading and/or the chapter I wrote for a book on growth and ungrading which is coming out this year. I would definitely be curious to hear your thoughts about the intersection of growth mindset and grading in school.

 

Week 1 Assignments Overview. Everything here is the same, although the extra credit options are arranged a little differently, and there is one new extra credit option (a group check-in and sharing space). For your blog post, you can reflect back on your experience with the assignments last time and what you want to do the same or differently.

 

Week 1 Tools Overview. I think this should all be the same basically. Then, for the blog post, you can look back on the tools that were most helpful to you last time, thoughts you have going into the class this time, etc.

 

Week 1 Time Management. Since there is a list of different articles to choose from there, you can either re-read the articles you chose before as a refresher, or check out some different articles from the ones you read last time. Either way is good!

 

Starting in Week 2:

 

Feedback. For the Feedback assignment in Week 2 and again in Week 3, you can choose different articles to read from last time and write up a new post. Since there are lots of good articles to read, you should write up new posts for these assignments instead of copying the posts from last semester.

 

Extra Credit. There are a ton of extra credit options, so you should have plenty to choose from that are new. I'll be adding new Tech Tips to the list also, but I probably won't get to that until Week 2 or 3. And if there is some browser-based tool you used for class before that you think would be helpful for other students, let me know!

 

I think that covers it, but if you have any questions, let me know... and I hope you will have fun with the new semester!

 

 

Brevity Comics by Guy and Rodd

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.