Great Opportunity for Students: Charles M. Schulz Award

Great opportunity for cartoonists! Give it a try!

Synopsis: The sponsor, Scripps, provides an award to honor an undergraduate student cartoonist whose cartoons were published in print or online in 2009 by a college newspaper or college magazine in the United States or its territories.

The Award: Charles M. Schulz Award

Program information found here.

Deadline(s): 01/30/2010

Link to full program description here.


Image borrowed from The Comic Book Database.

Precious: Extra Credit

Brainstorming: Ever feel like the world's keeping you down, but you just gotta say f*&# it and make your own path?

See the new film Precious.



Requirements: Your extra credit assignment, should you choose to do it, requires you to see the film and then write a blog post in which you should consider addressing several of these bullets:

• Do not summarize; that's why we have Internet Movie Database (IMDB).
• Praise it or critique it, or both.
  
• How did it make you feel?
  
• What did it make you think?
• What does it tell us about rhetoric used by society, parents, teachers, men?
• What does it tell us about self-image?
• What does it tell us about what we consider to be acceptable in society?
• What does it tell us about identity and culture?
• What does it tell us about...
  
• Do not summarize (don't tell your audience what the movie is about).
  

Word Count: 500+ words

Value: 10 points.

Blog your response and email me the link to that specific post by 8 December 2009.

Richmond Zine Fest Extra Credit

Brainstorming: Have you ever been interested in reading or self-publishing alternative and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) magazines and comics (or comix)?

Requirements: Attend the Richmond Zine Fest and write about your experience in great detail.

Purchase a few zines or comix or see if there are any free ones. Read them respond.

Remember to give specific reasons for your thoughts or feelings. Take notes as you attend this event. Without including specific details, your thoughts are not as meaningful as they could be.

Word Count: 500+ words

Value: 25 points

Due Date: Blog your response and email me the link to that specific response by midnight Monday 16 November 2009.

Bitches Scene & Women Unseen: Hip Hop & Gender in the 21st Century: Extra Credit Opportunity

Brainstorming: How do depictions of women in Hip Hop inform our interactions with, attitudes about, and opinions of women?

This Thursday, 29 October 2009 from 4:30-7:00 pm is the screening of the Bitches Scene & Women Unseen: Hip Hop & Gender in the 21st Century documentary, followed by a panel discussion featuring Maori Karmael Holmes, Ursula Rucker, and Lucy Bell.

UPDATE: You can also watch the documentary here.

Requirements: Your extra credit assignment, should you choose to do it, requires you to attend the film and discussion and then write a blog response in which you should consider addressing several of these bullets:

* Praise it or critique it, or both.
* How did it make you feel?
* What did it make you think?
* How does it relate to knowledge you already have?
* Has it changed your mind about anything?
* What arguments did were made?
* How well were the arguments made?
* Do not summarize; that's why we have Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

Remember to give specific reasons for your thoughts or feelings. Take notes as you attend this event. Without including specific details, your thoughts are not as meaningful as they could be.

Word Count: 300+ words

Value: 10 points.

UPDATE: Due Date: Blog your response and email me the link to that specific response by 1 December 2009.

Michael and Me: An Extra Credit Assignment

Brainstorming: What makes the world, the government, and our heads go round? Ask Michael Moore.

See Moore's new film, Capitalism: A Love Story, and see if it makes your head spin.

Requirements: Your extra credit assignment, should you choose to do it, requires you to see the film and then write a blog response in which you should consider addressing several of these bullets:

• Praise it or critique it, or both.
  
• How did it make you feel?
  
• What did it make you think?
  
• How does it relate to knowledge you already have?
  
• Has it changed your mind about anything?
• What arguments did he make?
• How well did he make his arguments?
  
• Do not summarize; that's why we have Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

Word Count: 500+ words

Value: 10 points.

Blog your response and email me the link to that specific response by 1 December 2009.

Image taken from the movie's website as linked above.

How To: RSS Reader: Keeping Track of Your Colleague's Blogs and Other Websites, Too!

The best way for you to keep up with postings on the various blogs of your classmates would be to register and use Google Reader, which is an RSS feed reader. You don't need to know what the heck this means to use it though. I've typed "Google Reader" as a hyperlink to get you started. If you already have a Gmail account (not the VCCS watered down version), you'll already have a feed reader account. There are other readers available, such as one through Yahoo! mail.

Basically, an RSS feed reader allows users to feed updates from various web sources onto a single page. Let's say you enjoy skimming through six different blogs a week, but sometimes forget one or another. Now you'll be able to see all updates on a single page by using one of these readers.

How do you know when you can add a page to your RSS feed reader? Simply look for something like this and click on it:



Image um..."borrowed" from these folks.

The Sketchbook Project

Want your artwork work in a museum?

Click here.

American Library Association's Banned Books Week - Extra Credit

September 26−October 3, 2009

Click here for more information.


For some videos related to Banned Books Week, click on the following links:

100 Banned Books (2008)

Banned Books Week: Puppet Book Banners


Extra Credit: For 10 points extra credit choose a banned book, read it, and write and post a 500 or more-word response to why you think this book was banned (think historical, cultural, etc. context) and why you believe it should not be banned.

Blog your response and email me the link to that specific response by 1 December 2009.

Extra Credit Opportunity: Hispanic Heritage Month

This month is Hispanic Heritage Month!

Your next Extra Credit Opportunity for 10 points is this:

On Thursday September 24th in the Pungo Auditorium at 12:30 pm is "Praising Our Hispanic American Cultural Patchwork" presentation by Dr. Gabriela Christie Toletti.

Attend this event and then create a new blog post and write 300-500 words on your reaction and response to Dr. Toletti's presentation. Do not summarize, but think and react to what she's presented. Again, do not summarize. Respond. I want your beautiful thoughts!

Blog your response and email me the link to that specific response by 15 October 2009.

Learn more about how TCC is celebrating on this page where I got the image.

How To: How do you know if you've received a comment on your blog?

To set up email notification to inform you that you've received a comment on your blog, you'll want to go to "settings" and then "comments" and scroll down until you see "Comment Notification Email", which is where you shall enter whatever email address you use frequently.

As I assess your work on your blogs I will likely leave some sort of comment for most of you, as time permits.

Still Blogging?

To my students past and present,

If you continue blogging past the end of the semester I encourage you to email me or post a comment on this post to let me know.

If you create any new blogs (not used for English 111 or 112) please let me know and I can include an additional links list for future students, as well as for myself, because even if you've finished my course, I'm still interested in your writing and how you express yourself.

How To: Adding Images, Adding Links, and Citing Images

I've recently had multiple students asking how to add images and links and how to cite images, so here is some quick "how to" information:

To add images: If you're not using an image you own, I suggest going to Google.com and click on "images." Once you've done this, type in some keyword(s) of what you want to search. Peruse the images and once you've found one you like, click on it, and then press "See full size image." Then copy that URL (web address).

Now you can go back to your post, put the cursor where you want the image and then click on the little blue picture frame in the toolbar and once that new window pops up, paste in the image URL into the white box that says...URL! Then read and accept Terms of Service, check it off, and click upload and your image should appear. Make sure to give credit to the author or source of the image. Plagiarism is not acceptable.

To add a (hyper) link: After you've written your post and saved it, you should highlight whichever word(s) you want to act as a doorway to your hyperlink. Then click on the little image of the chain link over the globe and paste in the URL (web address) of the site you want to link to, like I'm doing here for TCC's site.

To add links lists: From the dashboard you can click on "layout" and then click on "add gadget" and then click on "link list." Then you can title it something like, "Favorite Web Pages" and add those links.


To cite your images: When you have the post open, you click on that little chain over the globe image and then add the address of the image you are citing, unless you are the author of the image, then you can simply cite yourself with a parenthetical citation crediting yourself. The same idea of an MLA parenthetical citation applies to any images you do not have the actual web address for. Please note that the link to the image source does not comply with MLA standards, but is acceptable for this assignment.


Additionally, you can do a Google search for this same information in case mine does not make enough sense (which my lessons don't from time to time...) or you can try Dummy's Guide to Blogger.


Students should email me with any further questions. Do not post any comments with questions in them as you will probably not receive an answer until the semester is long over. Questions are what email is for.

Students, what should I write about here?

I'm aware that some of you actually read what I've posted here, yet I don't post very often these days.

Part of me wonders, what is it my audience wants? Well? What do you want? Do you want to know more details about my policies as an instructor? My experiences with teaching? What I'd like to do in my classes if given free reign? Experiences as a student? What I think of the higher education system?

Please comment. Give me ideas. Write me a prompt. Help me satisfy your brains.

Mmm. College brains. So syrupy.