last blog post from me... probably

Thank you for your honest feedback in class today--I really appreciated it! I wish I had more time to respond to each concern and question, and if you'd care to have a further discussion, I'd love to :)

Anyway. Good luck studying for the final. I encourage you to work in your groups and study together, especially with punctuation and the RA section. I will see you in our classroom next Wednesday at 2:30PM. Be on time. You don't have to bring paper; I will bring it. Just bring a pen/pencil and your brains.

...and food. I am willing to offer a few extra credit points to boost your final grade if you bring food for the class. I would rather not have a bunch of junk food... an excess of sugar during a final might not produce the most desired results. But I'll leave that to your discretion.

I'm willing to answer any questions about your Issues Paper grades, but as I've said with the other papers, wait 24 hours, read through my comments and the rubric carefully, and then we can talk.

IF you are taking a couple extra days to finish your MMA, make sure to get it to me this week. After this week, no can do.


Also, see you next Wednesday! Good luck with finals!

just because i love you

I've mentioned this to a few groups, but I thought I'd put it on the blog so everyone would know. Your MMA portfolios are absolutely, no exceptions, due on Wednesday at the beginning of class. However, I realize that you haven't had a lot of time to work on this assignment, so if you need an extra day or so to complete the webpage, that's okay. Just let me know on Wednesday if you'd like a couple more days to work on it.

Again, portfolios are due Wednesday, but if you need more time to finalize the webpage, that's not a problem.

We're going over the study guide for the final exam on Wednesday, and plus other fun stuff, so don't miss! Not that any of you would; you're all awesome. 

ALSO, I almost forgot. For your very last blog post, you will write a couple of paragraphs in response to the following questions:

• Did you like the blogs? 
• Did you like posting assignments on your blog instead of turning a paper copy in during class?
• Have you enjoyed reading your peers' blogs? Was it useful to you to see everyone's responses to the assignments? 
• A lot of these are yes/no questions, but make sure to explain your answers. Basically, I just want to know how you liked the blogs and if/how they were useful to you in this class. 

As per usual, post before class on Wednesday. 

friday's class

On Friday during class we will meet in the library, room 2233. I'm giving you the whole class to work with minimal interruptions from myself. I will be there, however, to answer any questions you may have. Please make good use of this time!
I'm excited to see your websites! I hope things are going well. If you have any questions, email me or remember them for Friday. Check the syllabus and course schedule to make sure you're aware of what's coming up the last week of classes.

I'm going to try and come Friday with a study guide for the final exam. As we mentioned in class, the final is absolutely mandatory. We will be meeting as a class during a scheduled time to take the test. (I put the date/time on the syllabus, but check the BYU website to make sure we're all on the same page.)

Also, I've been meaning to tell you this, but one of your final assignments for the class is to complete the student ratings for this class online. You've probably been getting emails about it. The due date is on Friday the 13th (next Friday), but I'd like you to get them finished by the last day of class.

See you on Friday!

blog prompt for wednesday AND an interesting article about cats

I didn't have a chance to properly defend my love of cats in class, mostly because I was being attacked by several dog lovers who didn't give me the opportunity to speak. What did we say about addressing your counterarguments fairly?? Have we learned nothing??? Well. Click here for a delightful article about why cats are awesome. It does say that most cat lovers are weird, but you already know how weird I am. I've accepted it.

I do want to say, however, that I also love {some} dogs. Some dogs are too jumpy and hyper and clingy and stupid, but others are wonderful. One of my favorite pets growing up was a dog. But I've been bitten on three different occasions by dogs, and they were all rabies-infested ugly muts in Uruguay. I think that's what tipped the scales for me. Dogs can be awesome, but I am more devoted to the feline species.

BUT that's irrelevant to your blog post for this week. I'd like you to select one of the websites you posted on your blog last week and analyze it according to the design principles we discussed in class today {contrast, color, composition, proximity, alignment, repetition, rule of thirds, etc.} You can pick either an effective or an ineffective website to analyze.

Please do an in-depth analysis. I want you to think hard about this one. If after learning some design principles you decide that one of the websites you chose was actually ineffective {or the other way around}, you are welcome to change your mind and tell us why in the post.

Happy blogging! And good luck putting together your websites.

i.p. portfolio/ multimodal info

Here's what you need to include in the I.P portfolio:

• Cover sheet
• Rubric
• Final draft (STAPLED!!)
• Annotated bibliography (the one I commented on)
• Outline (again, the one you gave to me)
• First draft (same as above)
• Peer reviewed draft (printed with the comments)

Okay, and here's the info for the Multimodal Argument:

Website builders:

• Google sites
• Wix
• Weebly
• DevHub
• SnapPages
• Webs
• GetShopped
• Webnode

Online tools:

•Pixlr.com (free photoshop)

•TinEye.com (reverse image search)

•Harmony Drawing Tool (draw online)

•PhotoshopLady.com (tutorials)

•Color IQ Test

•Goo.gl (shorten URLs)

Any questions, just email me! I will get back to you Monday morning. Try to meet with your group before class on Monday (if you can't over the weekend or Monday morning, try to meet sometime on Monday). You should have a website started by Monday at some point. 

yay! new design!

what do you think?

intro to multimodal argument (friday)

On Friday we'll begin the very last unit of the semester! Crazy how time flies (when you're having fun, right?) Okay, so you do have some reading for Friday: Supplemental Guide, pages 55-60. Easy enough! 

Also, please send your peers their papers today, so they have sufficient time to revise. As I mentioned in class, go over the paper and make any other comments you want to, correct grammar, etc., and then write a 150-200 word end note detailing your suggestions for their paper's improvement. Use the rubric as a reference for this end note, so you are hitting all of the important points in your review.

BY THE WAY, I was a little disgruntled to find that many of you merely googled "ineffective websites" instead of finding them on your own. Shame, shame, shame. 

I think that's all. See you Friday!