Applied integrity in the Community College classroom

Think instructors are suspicious anal-retentive, obsessive compulsive, misanthropes? Could be, but check out corrupted-files.com. This service will corrupt your perfectly good paper that you turn in via email. That buys you 2 days to write, rewrite or revise your paper. The ultimate excuse for an extension - only $4.95!

I'll repeat for the record, I do not allow email submissions for formal papers. A student or two emailed me a paper weeks ago or more. They won't print it off and turn it in. I won't either. Wish they'd talk to me. English teachers often like communication - it even figures in to course objectives.

Often this behavior co-presents with attendance issues. Many young people haven't had to set their own priorities yet, and are just learning how. I'm coming to think excuses can be seen as a form of communication - regardless of their veracity. It's the end of communication that disturbs me. Chronic absenteeism can be a rejection of an institutionally agreed on outcome.

At least it was when I was 19, but I shouldn't judge all by my misspent youth.

And on the subject of communication. The college in general, and the English Dept. in particular are reacting and proacting to the H1N1 / Mondo-flu season. While a hardline approach to absences is what many students typically need - these are extenuating circumstances and times. There will be no excuse from work - or class, but there will be accommodations to allow everyone to more fully participate - even when sick. Not cynical, but not easily played; however, I don't call anyone's bluff when it comes to health.

Our objectives MUST be met for a student to pass. Students will get exactly what they earn. I'm allowing for make up points for those who miss class - Provided they respond or post a new thread to the daily notes discussion thread on ANGEL.

I jot notes (try to) every day during or after class in a discussion forum. Find it in the course documents folder. As long as sick students post to the daily discussion thread by noon the day of class, I'll put an assignment in an online form that best recreates what we accomplished in class. They then have 48 hours make up the points from any place they can find a computer. Posting to the thread is private from the outside world, but shared with other classmates and team mates who care about and depend on each other. That thread could also be used for expressions of "get well" and the like.

All relevant due dates still apply.

On Disasters: H1N1, earthquakes and outbreaks.

The flu has turned up in several of my classes, but in one, there have been 2 reported cases of the illness formerly known as swine flu. One purported to be confirmed by a doctor, and the other of a student who fell ill immediately after a sibling had been diagnosed by a physician, and with identical symptoms. This reminds me of a funny story.

One of my favorite professors ambled in to class during one of the annual Mumps outbreaks in the dorms of a state university. He said he hadn't been to a doctor yet, but he was displaying all the symptoms of the mumps. He asked the class to decide if he should teach that night. There was a long pause for reflection. I'd just gotten married. The potential offspring topic had been shelved, but I wanted that option left open. The mumps can do mondo-bad things to men after puberty, and I had been 29 for a while already. A male relative lost something supremely near and dear to him...

The teacher asked us to make a decision. Was maintaining the impression that grades or the class were more important than my health expected of a grad. student? Luckily nurse working on a Ph. D. put on their official mien and asked us all if we were insane.

But disasters demand common - sense adjustments on everyone's part.

Monday, 9.21.9 is the anniversary of the big Taiwan earthquake of 1999. It hit at 1:47 am. I couldn't turn off a movie and felt a little guilty for being up so late when it hit. Richter scales as far as California measured it at 7.6 or higher at the epicenter - about 30 miles from my house in the mountains of JuDong. Over 3000 dead. It wasn't the weirdest disaster I've dealt with in a class - but it took the highest human toll. Rolling blackouts and aftershocks for months. I later heard "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire and listened to the words for the first time (lyrics, see video) in a really gritty dive and freaked mildly out. Maybe it was all the candles and flashlights. Maybe it was the way we recognized temblors by the sloshing bottles behind the bar. Betel nut and Whisbih may have been involved.

And don't get me started on SARS. My wedding anniversary is on the hottest day of the Kansas summer because of SARS.

The point:

• stay on top of your student email,
• log in to ANGEL often,
• read your announcements,
• communicate with your classmates.
• Let me know if you have flu-like symptoms - by email or phone, im whatever.

Prepare. If you don't have a home computer but your cell phone is important to you - set up a calling tree. We will adapt.