Friday, March 20, 2020

Dear Students:

In just a few days, on Tuesday, March 24, we will begin our regular classes. But this time, we will “meet” online.

Going completely online, in the middle of the semester, will be a challenge for all of us!

To preserve as much continuity, and familiarity, as possible, I want us to start out with our regular class schedule. Let’s try to make it work, and then evaluate it.

Here is what I have planned for the week ahead:

I have set up Group Discussions on Canvas for this coming week, Tuesday, March 24, and Thursday, March 26.

You go to our course space on Canvas, then to “Discussions” – a link on the left-hand margin.

Read the Assignment for that class day. I have made it very simple – discuss the HW passages assigned for that day.

In some cases, I have added additional passages for you to discuss, after you have discussed the passages assigned for HW. Please discuss these as well.

I suggest that no one post more than 2 sentences at a time. Long posts are very hard to follow!

I have created a group discussion space for each group in our class. They are named “Group 1”, “Group 2”, and so on. You have already been assigned to your usual group.

I have set the Group Discussions to begin at the beginning of our class, and to end at the end of our class.  So, you must have your in-class discussions during that 75-minute class period.

In future weeks, I will explore how we can have all-class discussions -- live A/V discussions --during the second part of the class, as we are used to doing.

I’m not going to try this for the first week. I do not want to throw too much technology at us at one time. It’s best to incorporate this new technology slowly, so we all feel more comfortable with it.

* I have also created a web page titled:

Announcements Concerning

Moving Classes Online

March 2020 - End of Spring Semester

This is linked on our Home Page. I have inserted a table into our Homework Page to remind you to check this page a couple of times a week.

However, I will always send you all announcements by email first, and post them on this page afterwards. So if you check your email, you will not miss anything.

* * * * *

So, I will MEET YOU IN YOUR GROUP ON CANVAS on Tuesday!

Let’s try hard to make this work!

Sincerely,

Grover Furr

English Department