Issue with the WRINT class's Change in Teachers for 2 1/2 weeks

Hi, I just got a comment in my guestbook--Gmail had put it into the spam folder, but it was from Nov. 11th. Here it is:

I don't like the exchange teacher thing. Why weren't we informed before it happened? Students do have the right to have a comment about the teaching plan, don't we?

So I have replied in this way, and posted it here so you all will have a chance to read it.

Hello, well, I can give you a couple of answers. First, you WERE informed about the change--nearly a week before it happened. I posted the information very shortly after class on Halloween, 10/31--because that was when Guan Shr first told me about the idea. I didn't know anything about it until about 3 PM on that day; I told you as soon as I knew about it.
If you people had done your homework--namely, checking my homepages regularly, as you should--you all would have known about this sooner. Instead, it seemed that 100% of the students were surprised about the news. Why was that?
Second, yes, you do have the right to have a comment about teaching plans--and you have just made one. Thanks for the comment.
If you want to explain more about why you don't like the change, please do. I don't know what the teacher is doing, but I know it's some sort of teaching experiment that she is required to do. Anyway, it won't affect your grade in my class, and you won't get a grade for her class either, so what does it matter in the end? You need not participate unless you want to!

• I hope you'll willingly participate in her experiment, but if you choose not to, it is your right to refuse; I am not requiring your participation, and I am not calling the roll these weeks. Do what you wish, but do please show respect for Guan Shr and her project, no matter how you feel about it; people with no manners do not earn any respect for themselves.
• Finally, why am I getting these questions, anyway? I already answered them in class on Nov. 7th.
  

Thank you anyway, mysterious student, for sharing your objections with me. I appreciate that; so many people are silent. Please share more info if you want to do so. Is something shocking happening to you? What, in fact, is the matter?? If you want me to make up 2 1/2 classes for you myself, I am willing to schedule make-up classes for you, as long as it fits into your schedules and mine. Let me know.

Chris O'Brien

WRINT group 3 Comments part 2

Hi. I'm now done with group 3 and so far nobody has even come close to earning a passing grade in the blogs! Few have followed the instructions and that's really too bad. Please consider following the directions in the future, unless you prefer not to pass the class. As adults, it's really your decision, but I fear that you would regret making that type of decision, so I'm here to warn you about it. Please check your blog comments for more information. Best to you. See you next time.
Chris O'Brien

WRIT1 Group 3 Comments

Hi there WRIT1sters.

• I have no blog address for Kitty as far as I can find. If you have one, Kitty, send me an email please, or reply to this post if you wish to have a blog grade. (you should want one!)
  
• Ellen and Renee's blogs have only one post each. That's as far as I got so far; if you have more entries then you must give them to me or send me the link right away. Otherwise your grades won't change.
• More later. . .

Chris O'Brien

Comments WRINT Group 3

I'm keeping notes for this group as I go. . .I may add to this later. . .

• Tiffany, I cannot find any way to make comments on your blog. Also, you have not made your articles visible, AND furthermore you're still using Yam.com, never advisable for an English class. Please could you try to fix these problems? You have enough entries, but it is very clear you have neither used a spellchecker nor a grammar checker at all, at least in some entries. Next time please do both and follow the other directions to improve your grade. Please let me know next class when the comments are turned on and the articles are visible. I don't have time to click for new pages for every article.
  
• I see how Mitzi's blog is on Yam, but is set up so it displays all articles fully and is all in English. If you are on Yam but have it set up wrong perhaps you can ask Mitzi for advice on how to do it right. Thanks, Mitzi!
• In general I'm still seeing lots of elementary school type mistakes with number, subjects, tense, punctuation, and so on. Nobody seems to be spell checking or grammar checking, two of my requirements this semester. Do try to follow the instructions I've given you in this blog. Thank you and see you in class. I have not really started grading your mid terms.

Chris O'Brien

Gimme a Break!

Hi, dear WRIT1 and WRINT students. I have to take a couple of weeks off from grading blogs, so I can catch up! I've been overwhelmed with many projects this semester and I've fallen behind, so during the next week (and theoretically over the past week too) I ask everyone to take a bit of a break from blogs. . .at any rate, I don't plan to grade any blog entries that are written during this period. . .between Nov. 5 and Nov. 18. However, if you're lacking in entries for your current period and you have some entries from that period, I suppose you can use those as substitutes so that you won't lose points for not having written elsewhen. I'll be with you in your comments section as long as you give me permission to do so. If not, no grade for you.
Thanks to those of you who are doing such lovely work on the Free Rice bonus. . .though I'm concerned about the possibility of Photoshopping or otherwise cheating, as several students have a vocabulary level of 50--the very highest level, which I cannot achieve myself, and which the homepage states is rarely achieved. It's strange, unless you have either a wonderful vocabulary or else a very good dictionary (or dictionary website) to aid you. At any rate, thanks for 'buying' that rice for the poor.
Chris O'Brien

Groups 1 and 2's blogs--WRIT1 and WRINT--feedback!

Hello.
I'm not too happy to see what you WRIT1 students have done so far--namely, very little. Please check my comments, if you have even given me a blog to see. Those who have not even done that are in more trouble than those who have one but haven't posted yet, but not much--grade wise, that is. Review the instructions and follow them all please.

For the WRINT students, similarly some have done little or nothing so far, and that has hurt their grades. Please do follow the instructions and also keep up with the schedule: three posts every week in English.

Please all students if you use Chinese in your blog too, please please. . . make a label for your Writing class posts that is the name of your class, WRIT1 or WRINT so I can easily find your English blog entries without hunting for them. The "labels" of this particular post are "Grumbling, Feedback, Instructions" as you can see below.
Also very important, show your posts on the page, don't force me to click

"more..."

every time I want to read what you have written. I asked you to avoid Yam and Wretch and those other Chinese-centered blog centers as they are not congenial to English writing, and I am upset to see that so many have used these anyway. Please consider a move to something that supports your new lives as ENGLISH MAJORS. Minimize your daily Chinese. . .this is the only time in your life when you can really focus on your major; don't throw the opportunity away!
Some people's blog addresses seem to have no current blogs attached. . ."404" is the refrain. For some, like Candice's, I cannot find any way to comment, so I can't give feedback. But I am sure there's no such word as "returing". Having a Chinese-only blog host makes trouble for you in this class!
PLEASE remember to spellcheck and grammar check BEFORE you post, guys.

I guess that at least half of the people from Groups 1 and 2 (both classes) got a zero this time; that is no good for your grades, my friends. And most of you who wrote something did not keep up and so still failed. Many have not even given me a current blog address yet. Well, if the weather hasn't alerted you, let me assure you that summer vacation is OVER. Get writing and reading, or reconsider your major.
For those few who have actually kept a regular journal this semester, I want to say THANK YOU!
Chris O'Brien

Behind-the-story Information from Harry Potter Author

There is some revealing information about the backstory behind the Hogwarts characters you may know fairly well available for readers who click here. But is this considered canon? In other words, can we accept her statements if they never appear in the books? Many schools of literary criticism maintain that only until the book is published can the author have any control over his or her text; after that it's in the mind of the reader that truth can be made. What do you think?
Let me know if you want by commenting on this post, please, for some bonus points.
Thanks to the Leaky Cauldron!

Shhh! Secret homework for all WRIT1 and WRINT students

I am sure that by now you know you ought to visit the "Writers' Block" blog--this one--once every week. So if you are reading this before week 6 you're doing right. Thank you.
Show me that you ARE indeed doing right. . .by sending me a link to the most interesting website you know that is available in English. It could be a specific web page, or a site in general (in other words, it could be something like www.yuntech.edu.tw/~oshuhua/keenlinks.html or something more general like www.yuntech.edu/).
Or if you really have something great to share with us all in Chinese, you can include that ALSO. This is not really extra credit; it is homework. If you don't do it you'll get a grade of zero. Please let your friends find it by themselves; they are responsible for their own grades in college classes, not you. The link should be posted, as before, as a comment to THIS POST. Don't send me email about it.

Take care and have a good week. If anybody still has not posted their blog address in a comment to July 9th's post, please do so before your class in Week Six; that is a grade for you too. 100% or 0%--your choice!
Please remember to keep to the schedule of 3 posts or more every week, all on different days. That is important to your grade. Also remember that you must do your own writing; don't copy from a book or the Web.
Chris O'Brien

Welcome, Writing Students in WRIT1 and WRINT!

Greetings, all 四應外一 students (in the Basic English Writing class) and students in the Intermediate Writing class. I'm Dr. Chris O'Brien.
This is the home blog for our class 5511, 初級寫作（一）, or Basic Writing I, nicknamed WRIT1, and the Intermediate Writing class, nicknamed WRINT, in your own Google Group nickname and elsewhere.

During the first week of this semester, you should do several things.

1. Send me your information from my homepage (www.yuntech.edu.tw/~oshuhua/)
2. Join up to my Google Group from the same homepage, reading my special instructions and using the right kind of "nickname": WRIT1, underscore, then your English name, underscore, and then the last 3 digits of your student number, like this: WRIT1_Nelly_063. All email you send me should use this nickname in the subject line, please.
3. Set up a free blog on Blogspot (www.blogger.com)--please do not use a blog service where everything is written in Chinese, as I don't read Chinese.

• Please do not have music playing on the blog, and let me see the text of your posts when I view the page with your blog (some services such as "yam.com" or "wretch" break these rules a lot, so please avoid them. Life's too short to keep turning off your music or search separate pages just to see what you wrote.)
  
• Also, please set up your blog so that anyone can comment; sometimes in the past people had me beg for permission just to give them instructive comments--what a drag! Path from Blogger: Dashboard > Settings > Comments > Who can comment? USE "ANYONE"

4. Please respond to this post (in other words, comment) and give me your Group nickname and the address of your blog.

• You should get started writing during the first week of classes.
  
• Please use ""WRIT1" as a tag or label for each of the posts on your own blog that you want me to grade, so I can see them all together, apart from any personal posts that I should ignore.
  
• You should write three times a week or more every week for this semester.
  
• Please remember that this is practice for college writing, so please use good grammar and spelling, and use paragraphs. Please use a spell-checker and grammar checker before you post.
  

• Remember that the goal is to practice writing carefully and correctly, frequently! I won't grade more than one post per day, so don't bother "scatterposting," that is, posting twelve times in one day, as some students have actually tried to do before!
  

I'll update this post as the semester approaches. Have fun writing!

Chris O'Brien

Your Blogs: a change in requirements. . .a nice change!

Hi, my dear students. I wanted to make sure you all know that I'm requiring several fewer weeks of your blogs.
Originally, I wanted you to write all the way to the final week of the semester (the 18th week), but now I'm only grading you up to the end of week 14: June 3rd.
That in effect means that I'll give you only two grades:

1. all the weeks from the second week of classes until the first due date you had on the Google calendar, (this first period has already passed) and
2. all the weeks from the week beginning with the first due date until the last day of the last week of required blogging, which is June 3rd: this coming Sunday.

• Please just make sure that in that second period you have at least three entries per week, average. Please recall also that the goal is to write frequently, not just to write three times for each week. Some students have been writing up to six entries on a single day, and I don't count the extras. They should be written all (or nearly so) on different dates! If you write too few times one week, write more frequently the following week, but don't just write two weeks' worth of entries all on one day. That is not really meaningful practice, and most of these entries are not worth your time or mine.
  
• If on June 3rd you still don't have enough entries, however, I'll give you another week to catch up.
  
• I won't count any entries after June 10th for your grade, so catch up this week or suffer the consequences!
  

Don't forget, also, that this coming Tuesday you should have a full draft of your essays with a title, citations, and a Works Cited page (a separate page!) in place. We'll be doing some group work next week and you'll be helping each other to spot any sort of mistakes and making suggestions, etc.

Please try a diamante and/or a haiku for next Tuesday if you want bonus points from that. That might help some of you who didn't have such a good blog grade first time around. Further, recall that you can get extra points at any time by fixing George Bush's broken English (a new bad English quote each time you refresh this blog's front page!). Help yourself to get a good grade, and have fun doing it! C'mon, try!

Sincerely,

The Sideburned Instructor