So here we are, a few weeks into the semester, and the Magazine Writing Crew at Heavenly Gardens Community College has turned in its first real article, after an interminable number of preparatory exercises and real-world projects. Amazingly, quite a … Continue reading
One more class meeting to go. The 102s’ Phaque Phinals are graded; for that section, final grades have now made themselves evident, and I have instilled the same in the District’s official grading system. All that remains now is to … Continue reading
One class down, one special studies section down, two more class meetings to go. Voilà! The magazine writing course is finished, done, lost and gone forever. Grades for that bunch are filed and I’ll never have to think about them … Continue reading
Really. You can’t honor the bureaucracy of a junior college system with the Big Brother sobriquet. So, let’s just call it Little Brother. I fly into class this midday, needing to dismiss the noon bunch early so I can get … Continue reading
Eight more days to go. Four class meetings for each composition section. A week and a half of instruction left, with two assignments remaining for the online magazine writing section and the final essay for the 101s; after that two … Continue reading
Cripes. What an endless semester. This has been one of the most difficult semesters I can remember. In the magazine writing course, which mercifully is online — meaning I don’t have to confront at least one nut case face to … Continue reading
Eleven more days to go. In about four and a half hours, it’ll be ten more days. Right this instant, at four in the morning, we have six more 102 class meetings and five more 101 meetings. So that’s two … Continue reading
Thirteen more days to go. No class on Thursday, grâce á Thanksgiving break. That would be “thanks to Thanksgiving,” a little overkill in the gratitude department. Because of the break, we have seven more 102 classes and only six more … Continue reading
Sixteen more days to go. Tried my damnedest to lure the 101s into an interactive discussion of what’s involved in writing an effective argumentative research paper. Worse than pulling teeth: at least a dentist actually can get something out of … Continue reading
Eighteen days to go. Of the thirteen students remaining in the magazine writing course, five have turned in something in response to the assignment. That response is not necessarily the paper that’s due. Two people are turning in late work, … Continue reading
