Points, Attendance, and Tech ... Oh My!

The emails continue to pour in regarding a missed point here and there (or *gasp* 2-3 points)! Oh, the HUMANITY! It is VERY apparent to me that a few of you did NOT really grasp the lesson(s) from Kohn (From Degrading to De-Grading). This whole DL model, combined with IB expectations, has created some difficulties for everyone. I provide Assignments (tasks) with GForm surveys to be completed as "check-ins" for seminar prep & reflection. If you do NOT do it (or can't due to tech), then channel your inner Elsa and ... LET IT GO! The fates will help us meet our Aztec interpretation and find that everything balances out in a deserved manner. But, here is yet ANOTHER reminder of some basics:

WILs must be thorough and show the depth of thought. At a minimum, you MUST address/include parts 3-5 (What you learned, answer the WIL question, and then a self-assessment). They should be in paragraph form and follow a typical 5-paragraph essay model. Question #4 is posted Weds PM and the WIL is  DUE by Monday Eve.

Seminars require that you read, watch, and think. You just complete the Pre-Seminar GForm the DAY (afternoon is fine) BEFORE we conduct the actual seminar. I use that pre-work to develop questions/topics for the seminar. The Post-Seminar Reflection GForm must be completed within a couple of days (typically by the next Fri or Mon). I believe it will automatically send you a copy of your response. Seminars also require your attendance - if you are NOT there, you did NOT participate! However, if you completed the pre-seminar work and the Reflection, then you will be OK. Over the course of a quarter, a couple of missed points will be lost in the ether of time (& other seminars). The reason for the seminars is due to the need to collaboratively analyze the material you read on your own so you can synthesize it into a coherent narrative for your own repository from which you can draw upon for formal assessments (essays, exams, etc.). In the beforetimes, we would read some materials aloud in class, but the DL model is better suited to the seminars.

Tech Issues will always be a concern. But, if you are consistently facing difficulties, you must notify the MPS IT gurus. It is unfair to everyone (especially you) if you cannot do what is expected because of tech issues. They can help your troubleshoot, offer you a device, and even get you internet access. 

Exam 1.1 is scheduled for Weds 10-7. It will cover EVERYTHING from Day 1 through Seminar 1.5. It will be via another GForm and must be submitted by the end of the class period. You will be asked to verify that you will not cheat (additional tab, readings & notes in front of you, etc.), which is pointless, anyway. If you do cheat and get a stellar score, then I will assume you are fine with everything and don't need assistance with any processing. Read the materials, review your notes, discuss with others & you will do fine.

If you did not pick up your course materials, you should request a pickup slot ASAP. You were given at least 5 opportunities to pick them up over the previous 3 weeks. 

Lastly, I have made my IBA Planner available for your perusal. It is a LIVE document, meaning I modify it. But t should be useful when trying to plan ahead.

Week 2 Feedback & Week 4

I have archived the individual GooClasses (IBA1, IBA2, IBA4 & IBA5), so EVERYTHING will run through the single GooClass for everyone from now on!

Lectures. That Euro lecture is the ONLY "long & boring" one in my repertoire. I usually do it early when we have everyone's "new" energy & I split it across 2 days - no longer possible, due to DL (sorry). If you look at the Q1 Plan, I decided to shift (mostly) EVERYTHING into "seminars" for the Block days, with W set aside for formal assessment or lecture. But, trust me - my lectures tend to be more engaging and lively than the Renaissance one (which set the stage for European exploration, really). I can always fall back and share some more Aztec culture with everyone - maybe even sample it with someone who may become REALLY annoying. Ask the ToKers - they suffered through a 4-day lecture on Reason & I believe it went well (based on some feedback).

WILs are UP TO YOU! Let your style flow. But, you MUST address questions 3-5 in some way. I have you open with 1 & 2 as a therapeutic venting opportunity (along with 5) while you actually "reflect" upon the past week. The purpose of the WIL is to have you move the week's info from short/medium-term memory into medium/long-term memory. They also let me know what else is going on in WHS, your lives, and what seems to be working (or needs tweaking). These should be deep & thoughtful - not just copypasta from others or mundane gibberish to fill some sort of word count (that does NOT exist, by the way). You can also look forward to some leeway on due dates - but NOT ALWAYS! While "due" Fridays/Mondays, I tend to not read them until Tues. But, again, don't push your luck ... especially when soccer season ends (then until softball begins).

Readings will become more difficult. If you found Zinn, Skidmore, Crosby or Sale difficult, you may find the primary sources even more difficult. We'll read letters, diary entries, speeches, and more. You'll have to analyze and connect them to one another and other information from videos, basic textbook snippets, and even a brief Romo lecture/diatribe. But stick with it. You'll learn together - bounce off ideas, questions, quips, etc. with one another. Nobody knows EVERYTHING (well, none of YOU do, at least - I DO know everything, yet choose to feign ignorance of many things so as to appear as a lowly basic being so as to make you feel more comfortable in my presence). If you do NOT know, ASK - someone else also probably has the same gap. Nothing more to write than that. 

Seminars. I know a large class can be difficult (believe me, I KNOW!) - especially IBA2. If/when GMeet allows for breakout rooms, we'll definitely give them a GO. Zoom is fantastic, as we know, but I know it is NOT secure. I do not want some 4chan mongrels hacking and dropping QAnon, porn, or other crappy stuff onto our screens. We may do what I did Q4 - set up mini-seminars with smaller groups over shorter class periods. With this Block schedule, I think we can make it work, but it gets exhausting and repetitive for me (hey - you're honest with me in your WILs, so I'm honest with you on my blog). We'll figure out what works best as time goes by.

Notes. These should also be FOR YOU! At this point, I hope you have something about the lessons from the Renaissance, as well as some core principles held by Kohn, Zinn & Skidmore somewhere in your journal. You should also be aware of what von Daniken, Crosby & Sale present. Definitely keep track of their respective biases. Oh, and Aztec religion ... can't forget that, can you? Basically, you should always have some summary of what you read or did (for) each day. For most Pre-Seminar GForms, I'll ask for some sort of summary, so you can simply copy&paste to/from that entry and your journal. Know that I will SHARE EVERYTHING with you. Slides, summaries, notes, even my annotations (if I can find them) will be posted AFTER the respective seminar (hey, I gotta keep some secrets for any reveal!). 

Work Time is HOMEWORK. There is no "independent work time" that is assigned during the 2hr block. I give you a break if we are going to exceed 60ish mins, but I do not require an "exit ticket" during the final 5 mins - so I think giving you your homework to complete BEFORE we meet, then letting you go a bit early is reasonable. 

Tech problems prove that ... Poo Happens! That old "dog ate my homework" has a much easier (if not more bogus) excuse nowadays, doesn't it? Just don't expect to use the excuse too often. If you have a problem, FIGURE OUT HOW TO FIX/PREVENT IT! Ask the MPS IT gurus for help - that is their job! Wifi can go bye-bye and play hokey pokey at important times. That climactic scene is ramping up and the Netflix connection has an error and gets stuck at 99% - AARRGGHH! Just deal with it as best you can. Install your updates, restart Chrome, restart the whole machine, offer something to the internet gods ... just try to figure out the problem and fix it. 

Late Work is NOT ACCEPTED. I have provided the Q1 Plan on this blog so you can read ahead (if you want/have the time), and I will post assignments on GooCLass at least 1 week (maybe even 2) ahead of the due date. WILs are not officially posted until Weds PM/eve, but you KNOW what that regular assignment requires. You are given extra days already. There is no way to code things differently within GooClass, but WILs are DUE Friday Eve, but I accept them through Monday & read them on Mon-Tues. Seminar Pre-Work is exactly that and I generally read your submissions the afternoon/evening before we meet. You cannot submit them at 1AM on the day we meet, even worse if you try to sneak it in just before or even after we have started class. I use your Pre-Work comments to frame some of the discussion.

Emails are becoming a problem. The sheer number and frequency - often from the same people - is becoming ridiculous. Most of the questions are easily answered by (re)reading the directions, text/calling a friend, or simply checking the Daily Agenda (even this blog). While I always welcome your queries, I do not have the time/energy/patience to respond to the same people seemingly always asking similar questions. Frankly, it shows a lack of respect. This whole DL thing is taking  A LOT of time - MUCH more than the beforetimes. I post/publish EVERYTHING and try to be as thorough as possible. 

Lastly, I know some of you may be struggling not only with DL, but with me & my style. That Kohn paradigm is a doozy. But you need to become more self-sufficient and find value for new/unknown (even icky!) things from within yourself. You shouldn't learn in order to get a grade, impress me, check a box, or please someone else. It should be for YOU! You'll not only appreciate yourself, but you'll also actually learn, remember, and know MORE. My expectations are pretty simple, but you MUST follow directions and exhaust every possible "fix" before whining & claiming you did not know. Check the Daily Agenda, blog, peers, even within yourself. THEN pester me (email or text). Keep it short & I am much more likely to read it as the preview and send a quick reply. If you identified something that is the result of my error (rare, like a talking unicorn that poos actual chocolate fudge ice cream), I will admit my boo boo and correct the matter ASAP. Or I'll just deny it, go change the assignment/announcement/expectation and say you read it wrong. Either way, my humbleness or slyness helps me win. 😋

Toodles ...

Week 4 To-Do

1.  Read Pages 105-119 in the WHITE Booklet (Crosby, Sale, Woods, web) by Monday 9-28 for Seminar 1.4 Eden in America.

2.  Write & Submit WIL 1.3 by Monday 9-28.

3.  Read Pages 103-104 (WHITE) and pages 13-14 (GREEN) by Weds 9-30 for our look into slavery in LA. We'll spend A LOT.

4.  Watch Circular Flow Videos by Thurs 10-1.

5.  Prepare for Exam 1.1 on Weds 10-7

    (Do NOT spend a lot of time reviewing things - especially if you've already read them)

a. Adams (Prehistoric Mesoamerica)

b. Skidmore (Why Latin America)

c. Zinn

d. Crosby (Conquistador y Pestilencia)

e. Aztecs (Lecture)

f.  Renaissance & Reformation (Lecture)

Q1 Plan = BOOKMARK ME!

 Anyone here still a Vikings fan? Yeah, 47+ years and they look worse than ever. But the weather was fantastic this weekend … so there is that! Going to the park, playing games in the neighborhood, shopping at the Farmer’s Market, seeing all of the bright, cheery faces of everyone else – right? Oh wait, COVID. Hey, it’ll be a forgotten memory when that vaccine is made available at the end of Oct, so don’t you worry about it anymore … okay? 

Last week, we looked at the origins of quite a few things; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Protestantism, Machiavelli, monarch butterflies, Aztec faith/myth, interesting cuisine, and the whole issue of bias in history.

WIL 1.2 (Morality Through Time & Place) is due tomorrow. I’ll read them through Tuesday, though … but get it done sooner (please?). 

This week looks to be lighter than usual, but you could also try to get ahead, if you’d like:
M/T = Watch “When Worlds Collide” (from the IBA Media Archive). This is NOT the awesome 1951 sci-fic thriller. But it definitely hits close to home for me, and sets the stage for things we’ll explore this qtr.

On Weds, I am currently planning an “All About Romo” presentation. Zinnce bias is such an important thing to address (I made a funny – did you notice?), I think it’s only fair to share my background so you know who is torturing you every week. On Th/Fr, we’ll discuss “Why Latin America” (by Skidmore & Smith). Interesting character, that Skidmore. 

As for the GooClass, I think I/we have come up with a solution to the problem of To-Do, Submit, and OCD issues (trust me, I know!).

For videos, you’ll simply “submit” that you did it – on the honor system. Don’t lie and be exposed.

For Seminar readings (& annotations/markups you’ll complete a Pre-Seminar GForm survey (often attached to the same Reading Assignment post).

For WILs, you’ll just write (& submit … for now) the file that is created when you open the assignment.

I’m still trying to determine how/if we’ll do formal/standard exams. I like them because they help YOU figure out how to read, study & prepare, while I enjoy them simply as another means to torture you. 

The GooClass will display reading/watching/HW assignments, but you can also get out ahead and tackle some things this week if you have the time. The (remaining) FULL Q1 “plan” is presented below. Please complete the readings/viewings before the task date!

M 9-28 / T 9-29 Seminar 1.4 Eden in America?  
Discussion Questions: Is paradise born from perspective, or is it a reality? What were some of the non-human/economic consequences of European conquest? How did the Spanish defeat the Indigenous Populations? What if...? What was life like in the Americas? What bias does Sale exhibit or point out?
Read: Conquistador y Pestilencia (Crosby), Conquest of Paradise (Sale), and the articles on Native American environmentalism. Pages 113-119 of Unit 01 Reader (WHITE)

W 9-30 TBD

Th 10-1 / F 10-2 Economics & Slavery

M 10-5 / T 10-6 Seminar 1.5 Conversion
Discussion Questions: What connections can be made between Colonization & Conversion of the Americas with the founding principles & attraction of Christianity? How feasible would it be to convert ALL of you to.....?
Read: Colonial Foundations (Skidmore) Hispanic Background (Keen). Pages 135-153 of Unit 02 Reader (WHITE)
Watch: Crash Course World History 11: Christianity from Judaism to Constantine (YouTube)

W 10-8 Exam 1.1 (Still working out how we’ll do this, but it will cover EVERYTHING from day 1 through Seminar 1.5 Conversion

Th 10-8 / F 10-9 Seminar 1.6 Machiavelli
Discussion Questions: What is his Pattern of Argumentation/Thought? What are the characteristics of the IDEAL ruler? Was the use of atomic bombs on Japan justifiable? Is conflict (war) a part of human nature? (Is war inevitable?) Can Foreign (& Domestic) Policy be driven by morality?
Read: Machiavelli Rdgs. Pages 120-120 of Unit 01 Rdr (WHITE)
Watch Who’s Afraid of Machiavelli (BBC) via YouTube

M 10-12 / T 10/13 Exam 1.1 Debrief

W 10-21 Guest Lecture (actually a video of a lecture)
Watch: Biography of America 03: Growth & Empire (TBD)

Th 10-22 / F 10-23 Seminar 1.8 Colonial Latin America
Watch: The Mission (TBD) – fantastic, but slow film (great score, btw)
Read: Las Casas materials (pp 154-169), Keen LAC 7 The Evolution of Spain’s Indian Policy (pp 170-176), Keen LAC 6 Govt & Church in the Spanish Indies (pp 177-187)

M 10-26 / T 10/27 Exam 1.2 ???

W 10-28 Economics: Friedman vs Samuelson
Watch: Crash Course 33 Capitalism-Communism (youtube)
Watch: Brazil: An Inconvenient Truth (Dailymotion)

Th 10-29 / F 10/30 IB Exam Question Deconstruction & Answer Development
You’ll be placed into a group and assigned a question to answer in a slideshow (2-3 mins)

M 11/2 / T 11/3 IB Exam Question Share-Out
Present your Slides to the rest of us!

W 11-4 11/5 Seminar 1.8 Reparations
Watch: Freakonomics A Roshonda By Any Other Name (dailymotion) first 22 mins
Read: Robinson OR Horowitz (online)

A Rebirth

 A briefer brief! I have shared my slides & even my actual notes via GooClass. I promise that if/when done in-person, my lectures are much more engaging - and I will do my best to modify the what & how of such information dumps & processing in the future. 

As for the Renaissance, we are definitely looking forward to our own post-pandemic renaissance! The Europeans experienced some radical change over 200 years after a couple of centuries in stagnancy or decline. The power & influence of the church waxed & waned, so much so that it even splintered (again). Cultural shifts, paradigm shifts, even population shifts all occurred during and after this renaissance. The BIGGEST takeaway from this first lesson-of-the-week is the importance of sequencing when it comes to cause & effect. Do NOT focus on specific dates (unless I zero in on it) and focus on what precedes each event/decision. Consider alternative outcomes and even alternative initial decisions/actions. 

Please make sure you pick up your materials from WHS, read Zinn by Thurs/Fri, and plan&complete your "To-Do" items in ALL of your classes (but IBA should be #1, except for ToK). 

We have our first 55-min lessons tomorrow with a lesson on Aztec Sacrifice for history (I LOVE doing this one, but NOT having a live & in-person audience will continue to be weird.

Q1 Week 2

 We begin "regular" instruction this week, with modifications, of course. I periodically have to lecture & accept that doing it via GMeet is not optimum as I have neither the technical skills, nor the time to produce a video with pizazz. So bear with it and absorb the info as best you can. I have decided that, while we are required to adhere to synchronous teaching&learning, I will NOT be recording & sharing my lessons. We are expected to be "in class" at scheduled times, so be there!

Please make sure you complete the survey & share a link to your IB History Journal via GooClass and SUBMIT WIL 1.1 by tonight. I will be reading them tomorrow afternoon and I DO NOT accept, nor read them late (especially since they are "due" on Fridays). Also make sure you read&annotate BOTH Zinn articles for Seminar 2 this week. You will have to read "Why Latin America?" by Skidmore for NEXT Week's Seminar 3.

For this week, we begin with an overview of the Renaissance & Reformation in the form of a lecture on M/T, with W now set aside for another lecture on Aztec Sacrifice. Th/F is when we will discuss the Zinn readings & a brief look at the Treaty of Tordesillas. 

The Renaissance&Reformation slides are VERY basic - simple text & no images. I usually add some fun stuff, but I do not have the time and I also cannot have the same "interplay" with you that I normally apply when lecturing. For this one, I usually just post a single image on big screen and tell a story from my notes - but this DL thing just doesn't work well for that method, so I simply adapted my notes into a slide show we'll run through as I ramble and explain links & provide additional context.

For NEXT week (9/21-9/25), you'll have M/T to watch a 90-min video (When Worlds Collide, 2010 PBS)at your leisure. Please find some time to download it from the Media Archive. Weds is my "All About Romo" presentation, when I give you a brief account of who is teaching you. Th/F is set aside for Seminar 3: Why Latin America? (Skidmore).

I will NOT be available at Pearl on Tuesday for IBA Booklets pick-up. I WILL be placing what is currently available (Units 03-06) in your pickup pile for WHS distributions/pickup at school during the following dates&times:

• Tuesday, September 15: 10-4 pm
• Wednesday, September 16: 12-6 pm
• Thursday, September 17: 10-4 pm

If the Unit 01/02 Booklet is NOT included in this pickup, we'll figure out a time & place for you to get them. Remember that ALL MATERIALS are ALWAYS available via the GooClass.

Remember that missing a M/T or Th/F is the equivalent of missing 2 regular class days. While there are no "points" for attendance, it does affect your takeaway, participation, and ability to provide insight into your WILs. 

Please check your video & audio settings before joining the GMeet (or Zoom) ON TIME, of course. Your image must be complete and visible with light. You cannot hide in the shadows, nor display a wall or a fraction of your face. These are norms & expectations for ALL classes. I will have to remove you from the GMeet (& eventually the course) if you are not complying with our norms - neither of which I want to do. Simply pretend you are sitting in your seat in my classroom. So please check your camera (& microphone - so we can understand you!). If you have a camera issue, please check with MPS IT support or I can recommend a USB option via eBay that serve me well, are relatively cheap (under $20) and arrive pretty quickly. For sound, I picked up a Guitar Hero USB mic for $5 from Goodwill that sounds MUCH better than my laptop or earbud mics.

Regarding video playback, I highly recommend VLC as your media player. It plays EVERYTHING and you can adjust speed, audio sync and even search for subtitles (which I usually add as a separate .srt file). Speeding things up to %125 is usually fine & cuts your overall time use! However, I do NOT recommend speeding up ANY Crash Course videos by John Green. He seems to already pop some amphetamines with cocaine and a double shot of espresso with a Red Bull chaser before filming each episode. I tend to SLOW his down to 80ish% of regular speed.

That is all I have for now. Remember that you can email/text me (I'm working on adding everyone to my GVoice Contacts list, but it has become more complicated & time-consuming than I had anticipated (importing a GSheet is NOT working correctly). The week's weather should be nicer than last week and expect some air quality issues as NoCal & Oregon continue to burn. Hey - at least we can be safe in believing that Climate Change is a Chinese & Democrat hoax, never to seriously affect us. 

Stay Safe & Healthy (and get your flu shot)!

De-Grading

 Well, we had our first seminar - or attempt at one. We'll have to figure out a better way to invite & maintain engagement, but it should get easier with more experience. our NEXT seminar is scheduled for Weds, concerning Zinn & his view of history. Please come prepared to discuss (listen, think & share!) his main points and any criticisms you may have. Also do not forget to write your first WIL (failure) and please SUBMIT it when you are done. Also run through the To-Do category via GooCLass and get everything else "done" as I plan to move it ALL next week (after the Zinn seminar).

On Mond-ues, I will be giving a lecture. I am working to revamp my notes and see what works best for delivery. I usually just have my page of notes, post a graphic and then "teach" but that may not be best with DL. The seminar is scheduled for Weds ( I may move it), with another (more fun & entertaining) lecture exploring the origins of monarch butterflies rounding out the week.

If next week "works" well enough, I will post a Q1 calendar so you can map out and plan your workload accordingly. 

Enjoy & have a SAFE weekend!

Bienvenidos & Basics! (9-8 & 9-10)

Weirdness, I know. I think we'll all feel "off" for quite a bit (forever?) this academic year. While I know about 20% of you, and know of probably another 25%-30%, that still leaves at least half you as new to me. Getting to know someone via GMeet in a class with others will be difficult (& awkward?). But we'll do our best, right?!?!

For our first day, I walked you through my GooClass and we tried out some things. You can see my Posted Daily Agenda, blog, and EVERYTHING through the GooCLas, and even see many things via my MPS-WHS Teacher Page. I even assigned some HW *gasp* that should be completed by our next mtg (Thurs or Fri). But, if you forgot, fell asleep, or simply missed something, I hope you can (re)familiarize yourself with that Day 1 experience by reading the rest of this first blog entry.

First off, I hope you received my first present (Romo IBA Emergency Print) within your WHS Grocery Bag of Gifts from last Monday. It included a syllabus (read it!), an explanation of the Weekly WIL (What I Learned), your first seminar rdg (Kohn's "From Degrading to De-Grading" for Thurs/Fri!), followed by some seminar tips.

The WILs, combined with the seminars are the BIG things to focus on. I HATE "busywork" and while I may assign some things that may seem as such, I will NOT collect & grade it - blech! I'll suggest you organize thoughts & notes, collaborate, and push one another to justify positions.

I submitted a print request for ALL Sem 1 Rdgs into Unit Booklets. They should be available for distribution/pickup soon. When I have the info, I will share it with you. Just know that EVERYTHING is always available via the Google Classroom. I emailed class codes & GMeet links, but if you are still confused/lost/switched, just email me for a gentle reminder. 

We started with you downloading a 6-min video excerpt to be watched later in the lesson. I anticipate lag, glitches (sound?), and other difficulties if/when I ever plan to show something "in-the-moment" so I am asking students to download the videos from my IBA Media Archive GDrive beforehand - this was practice.

After watching the video, I then read some excerpts from two short readings:

• von Daniken Chariots of the Gods? - which was to explore the (ridiculous) theory proposed by the video. Yes, it may seem plausible, but there are some underlying components that must be brought to the foreground. von Daniken is a Swiss "academic" who questions how some civilizations were able to do things that were unimaginable (to his European ancestors, at least). He theorizes that it was only through alien intervention (like, real Extra-Terrestrials) did things like the pyramids of Giza, the temple bases in Teotihuacan, and the city of Machu Pichu get built. I mean, when all you can look back on from your own continent is Stonehenge, it does make the Euros out to be a bit pathetic, right? In reality, those "brown people" civilizations were able to devote resources to such grandiose construction partly because they were pretty unified culturally & even conquered politically by others within the region. Europeans spent A LOT on constant fighting for control over one another, so whatever was built was simply destroyed in the conflict. This also explains why the Europeans advanced militarily (even technologically) and were then able to conquer other parts of the world.
• Adams Prehistoric Mesoamerica - explained the concept of Mesoamerica as a term used to define the region of central/southern Mexico and Central America. The Aztecs & Maya never called themselves Mesoamerican - it is a term developed in the 1920s and formalized by 20thC academics as a means to help study a region & people. Categorization helps us sort and process information. But even people & places developed at different paces over not only place, but time. Settlements differed between highland and lowland. And the lack of a wheel was not due to a lack of imagination - it was due to not having a large domesticated animal; able to pull a wheeled cart. People moved better on foot and by canoe, so goods also traveled the some way. In fact, there were wheels on toys - so the tech was there, just impractical in the ways Europeans, Africans & Asians would apply it.

Via the Google Classroom, I asked you to do some "housekeeping" things, like complete my survey, create & share (THE LINK!) an IB History Journal (just to help you keep organized). I will NOT grade it - you may simply want a place to copy&paste material we cover in class. A paper notebook is perfectly fine!

I also formally assigned some assessable work:

• The Kohn (From Degrading to De-Grading) (due Thurs/Fri for our first seminar)
• I rarely (if ever) will “check your notes/annotations.” As seniors, you either know how/why or you don’t (& will suffer in your own way). Annotations are FOR YOU TO REFERENCE during seminars and just for study/reflection.
• WIL 1.1 Failure due by Monday Sep 14
• Zinn Readings (Use & Abuse of History and Why Students Should Study History) for Seminar 2 (next Weds 9-16)

We have a 2-hr block on A & B days. While I do not plan to ever use the FULL 2 hours, I may go over or under an hour each time. I think we went about 80 minutes today, but I did give a 10-min break about midway through. There are some days that will be "check-in only" as you will have a reading, a video or even collaborative work to complete without my hovering. If/when we figure out a rhythm, I'll share my FULL calendar with you, so you know what to expect ahead of time. I do not want to get ahead of myself (or you) right now as we navigate the apocalypse.

Overall, my expectations are simple - Read, Learn, Think, and Participate.  If you keep up and contribute, you'll not only earn a nice grade and be prepared for the IB History HL Exam, but you should be ready to tackle college with some valuable experience.

I can be harsh, but never cruel. I am honest, have high expectations, and want to prepare you better than I was when I graduated from Washburn 30 years ago (wow - that is painful to write). NEVER hesitate to ask for (or even offer?) help. We will need to rely on each other more than ever before - and I certainly hope we find a way to familiarize ourselves with one another - that is more than half the fun of this job.