Ok, here's an update.

Today was the first (and only) day professors have been allowed to return to their offices since we closed two fridays ago,  We had a brief window and so It interrupted my early morning grading (hopefully you were sleeping at 5.32am - but I was knee deep in tests).  it took a few hours to get everything I needed for the next six months. And now I'm back to grading

(also within a half hour: the president's staff released info they wanted to fire Dr. Fauci - the leading doctor on the pandemic - that the Senate was not going to be voting on an aid package before the markets opened - and that the Federal Reserve (the USA central bank) was going to open the vaults and turn on the presses and supply an "unlimited amount" of cash to the financial system - basically telling everyone capitalism had died and the economy was no longer functioning - essentially making us 1931.


So thats a lot.  So here's the update on the State of the Classes.



​7wk Classes
7wk classes have begun today.  they are up.  they have all videos, all quizzes, all tests, all study guides currently up.  7wk classes may have a problem with acquiring the textbook.  go to the "READ ME FIRST" module at the top of your canvas class page.  

if theres no money to buy the textbook because the economy has crashed.  call the number in the "READ ME FIRST" module to discuss options and then let me know about the options and what you would like to do.


Always Online Classes.

ok. things should be running fairly smoothly.  quizzes should be fixed for the 102s this past weekend (like friday or saturday).  we are now officially back from spring break.  we have until 12 April to hand in quizzes and tests.  things should be working pretty well.  there may be some housekeeping in the gradebook and whatnot in the backend of canvas - but you should be hitting the videos and the textbook.




Face to Face Classes which are forced to be online
*NOTE* - they do not officially start to Monday - 30 March.  These classes are *technically* still on spring break.  but almost all of the materials for the rest of the semester is up and usable.  So we are essentially a week to ten days ahead of requirements - and 8 weeks ahead in materials (with a few holes needing to be plugged - more on that below)


101 11am Madison 210 Class

Not much has changed as time and resources were directed to other classes after the initial tsunami of material went up.  The China videos went up this past weekend.
that leaves two roman videos (Republic Punic Wars + Collapse of Republic) to get up.  
We are looking at Tuesday creation, editing, burning, posting and linking.


102 9.30 + 12.30 classes

Part 3 of the course is up.  thats 13 April - 10 May.

All quizzes are up and ready to be taken.  They went up this weekend,

9.30 tests were emailed back last week.

12.30 tests have begun going back.  they will all be returned by end of the day MONDAY - 23 March.  

there remains the "End of World War 1" video to post.  which was going into production before the coronavirus shut everything down.  this should be recorded, edited, burned, uploaded and linked on Tuesday - 24 March.

------------------------------------------------

Wednesday will be a run through to make sure everything is working as intended and the final fixes on any missing parts or inefficiencies.  we will see if there any additional materials needed.


Stay safe.
Stay Healthy
Dont go out - flatten the curve
be careful
DONT DROP THE CLASS!
(do the tests and quizzes, even if you do terribly, just do them - our goal is to get you the credit for the class you paid for this semester.)

The Economy in Free fall.

capitalism dead (the FED promising unlimited money means capitalism like 1929 just died - there is no functioning supply/demand economy.)

everything going slowly,

emptied my office - not expecting to return till July - maybe september

so when someone askes: "Man, you ok?"


My response is 1994 Gen-X honesty:

7wk Part 2 - 102 Online Class up.  Still needs to have an intro - coronavirus - written.  school/campus completely closed.  textbooks need to be mailed to the students.


101 class 7wk part 2 - Canvas is soooooo slammed, its just uploading my course content now - 2 hours later.


102 12.30 tests finalized, organized, scanned and emailed back w/. explanation.

102 9.30 still needs to be done - expectation Sunday morning.

updated all the 102 quizzes.  the test banks didnt transfer when the course was created.  Stupid Canvas error.  Why? who knows?  but its fixed.  quizzes now live and question banks secured.  

101 china videos completed and uploaded

102 Face to face class needs a hole plug video on end of ww1 because of updated questions.

101 (face/face) classes also still need roman plugins on end of roman republic.


First confirmed Rowan case of coronavirus.  Dr. Elizabeth received an email.

ASAIK Blackwood has not yet begun doing drive up testing though its been ready for days.  no tests


Everything is terrible and moving sooooo slowly while the news is a like an avalanche of information all day and every day is worse than yesterday.  Cuomo - gov of NY - said we are 45 days away from peak virus contagion.  Hospitals already running out of supplies.

102's coming along
will finish tomorrow (saturday), scan and send.

The State of new jersey is going to be on lockdown like Cali and NYC.  Probably Saturday, certainly by monday.  With no where else to run to and locked in my facilities.  There's only grading and work.

Yeah! Spring Break!

Then the Quiz 03/4 for 102 will be fixed.
Then the China 101 videos will go up, 
then the 2nd 7wk classes will be created.

Sunday means the creation of the remaining videos for the 101 face to faced course.
editing, uploading and posting them.

Grades for Test 1 face to face classes will be put up into the canvas gradebook at some point soon.  but as long as you have the test returned, thats not a terrible worry.  


So Monday.  Will be Everything Complete
All Online Classes
All Face to Face Classes
2nd 7wk Classes

will all be done for the rest of the semester.  You just need to hand in the materials and go about your life.

I'm sorry I'm not one of those "Lets have class on Twitch at the same time every day!" types.  I'm a "you have stuff to do, let me get out of your way" type.  Its not the most immersive college experience - but it respects your time.


Be safe.

Remember to respect the women who fought over toilet paper - they knew the lockdown was coming

love your family and your friends.

stay tight with your community - dont be alone.


email me if you need anything.

​*hearts*

Grading

+

Got attacked by A Goose while on a walk
fought off angry goose

+

went to Wegman's to witness a man made disaster.
no social distancing
no changing of gloves
no wiping down of machines

old people coughing on other old people.

no paper products. no canned tuna, no pb or J. 
no cheese, butter, or bacon


but, plenty of SPAM - condensed meat!

Thursday

102 tests graded, collated, scanned, emailed.

101 - china videos edited, uploaded to youtube, added to Test 4 video section.


Friday

101 - Missing roman videos recorded, edited, uploaded, added to test 3 section

101-102 - tests created

​Final check that 101-102 completely finalized for rest of semester.


Saturday

​Second 7wk classes created online for their Monday Start.




This is a hopeful schedule.  but the correct order of things.  If you need anythign email me on canvas.

Both 102 classes have been updated.
New modules
New calendar
new office hours
all test guides up (Tests 5,6,7 - to come)
new instructions for class - see announcements
all videos for the semester posted.


10 classes updated, 3 classes changed over from face to face to online,
2 7wk classes completed invented
Online classes updated to reflect coronavirus scheduling.

​be safe. 

102 9.30 am is pretty much done (need to create the quizzes)
test study guides are up + videos for Test 2,3,4. due in april.

102 12.30 is getting started.

​Need a break.

Max von Sydow died recently - best best swedish actor of the 20th century
this is his most iconic role and his most iconic scene
The Seventh Seal - by Igmar Bergman

Ok,
got a lot done.


1. Cleaned up the Module Page

​2.  study guides for rest of the year are up.
         
*NOTE* it was decided in class to break up Test 2 into Three smaller parts
So Test 2 is now Test 2 (Greeks), Test 3 (Romans), Test 4 (China and India)
the effect of this is to have smaller tests on more concentrated elements of study guide.
It also means, we will drop the lowest test grade from tests 2-9 (test 1 can not be dropped as it is the test taken under normal circumstances and incorporated the entire first five weeks of material.           

(this is in addition to the already stated policy of dropping the lowest quiz grade)


​3. Due dates for quizzes and tests have been updated.
12 April is now the due date for Quizzes 03, Quiz 04, Test 2, Test 3, Test 4

Quizzes are available to take now.
tests become available the thursday before they are due
All tests  are now due on a Sunday.


4. Quizzes 05, 06 will be available on 13 April and due 10 May
Tests 5, 6, 7, 8 will all be due Sunday May 10.


5. Videos are now up, mostly.

Videos for tests 5-9 (due 5/10) are all up.

Videos for greeks are all up

Videos for romans are mostly up - 2 videos need to be made

videos for india are up

videos for china have to be edited and posted.



6. Tests:
Tests will be 25 questions per test for the rest of the year.
The answers are taken from the video lectures.


7. studying

you need to organize your notes in ways that HELP you when the test arrives.  if you just have paragraph after paragraph or have taken no notes - you will fail.  if your study guide is not arranged in a searchable way - it will not help you.

this is your time to PROFESSIONALIZE your notes, your knowledge.  you either need to review the notes so much that you know the answers blindfolded or you need to create notes that are easily viewable and searchable at t glance.

open note sounds easy.  ITS NOT.  it is far too easy to be lulled into a false sense of

"i take good notes" (no he doesnt),

"i know the stuff" (she says flipping through pages not knowing the sections on the persian wars from the punic wars),

"I wrote everything down" in exactly the same shade of blue, the same bubble script, the same line length, the same full pages, the same, the same, the same so that the whole thing is an indecipherable totem of time wasted.

BE CAREFUL!


​Remaining videos to come during Spring Break Week.

Up First HIS 101-06.

Start with the linking of the videos
then the updating of quizzes.
​then the test study guide

People who had trouble completing exams Tests 1-4 have been emailed.

Students emails had to be cross referenced to gradebooks and then to tests
(don't ask, its a bad canvas waaaay of doing things)


but this means the HIS-DOL classes are ready for the post-coronavirus situation.

Scene from the Big Short.  Why Capitalism + Disaster = Personal Catastrophe.
This is what we are looking at.
This is what I want you to understand,  
The effects are compounded - they lead down the road - they affect everything


The economy is crashing.
Hourly workers are going to loose their jobs
if the govt doesnt help (see French Revolution 102!) ppl will lose thier homes
Suicides will go up
homicides will go up
homelessness will rise
children will drop out of school and never recover that education
women will be physically and sexually abused at higher rates 
minorities will end up in jail for longer sentences
banks will foreclose on houses and credit cards
racism and misogyny goes up and fascism becomes more appealing (102!)

3% of 150 million people is 4.5 million ppl could die at the current rates of infection in europe.  there arent enough ventilators in the country, hospital beds, nursing aids to take care of the elderly (who die at 15% not 2-3% - which is the average)

Be Safe out there.  And Dont Dance over your good fortune.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion_(Blake) for some of the references to William Blake's Poetry

see also one of the Best William Blake References in Movies. 

"William Blake!"
"William Blake? What do you mean William Blake?"
​"I mean William Blake"