Major News

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the course. (Our first order of business is to come up with a cool name for me to call you all. "Majorites" is a bit scary and "majorettes" is a bit silly. Extra credit to someone who can come up with a better tag.) I'll be putting announcements on this page having to do with course requirements, changes in these web pages, and other matters. Between this page and the main page, you should get a good sense of what's new and upcoming in the course. So I recommend checking out both those pages every time you visit the course web site--at least once a week.

5/7/04
Hey all, I'll be in the office today from 11-3. Next week, my hours will be: M 10-12, 1:30-3 [from 12-1:30, I will be in the English Reading Room, Fenton 127, with you all]; T 10-1:30 [from 1:30-3, I can be found in Fenton 158 with my ENGL 345 students]; W 1:30-4:30; Th 12-3; F 2-5.

5/5/04
Hey all, I'll be in the office today from 9-12 (normal hours) and 2:30-4:30 (extra hours) today--Dr. Ouchie's toe does not appear to be broken, and it looks like my doctor won't need to see me. So let's plan for the following hours the rest of the week: Th 1-3, F 11-1, 2-3. I'll announce my additional office hours for exam week ASAP.

5/3/04
Hey all, I'll be in the office today between 1:45 and 4 instead of the usual office hours for the same reason I've given myself the utterly demeaning nickname, "Dr. Ouchie." See the listserv for the embarrassing details.

4/30/04
Hey all, I'll be in the office today between 11:30 and 3 if you want to drop by. Also, the assignment sheet for the final research project is up and running.

4/26/04
Hey all, just got back in town, so I'll only have office hours today (M) from 2-4; I'll have the following hours the rest of this week: T 12:30-1:30; W 9-12, 2-4:30; Th 12:30-1:30. I'll be out of town this coming Friday, so if you want to see me, please shoot for one of these times.

4/23/04
Slight changes to the office hours I announced in class on Thursday: Th 12:30-1:30, 2:30-4:30, F 11:30-2. Also, very good news: most of the books that were on order to be put on reserve for the course have arrived!

4/21/04
Hey all, the meeting I was in this morning took longer than expected, so I'm changing around my office hours for today (W) to 11-12, 2-4:30. Sorry for the inconvenience!

4/14/04
Hey all, I'm feeling super-sick right now, so I'm going to go home for the rest of the morning. I'll try to be back at 2 for my appointment with some students, but I can't guarantee I'll be able to stayin the office till 4 as planned. Sorry for the late notice; hopefully resting a little today will mean I can teach and make my appointments with students tomorrow afternoon (when I should be in the office from 2-4:30)....

4/7/04
The assignment sheet for the third critical essay is now up and running. Let me know if anything's unclear!

4/2/04
Change in office hours next Monday, 4/5: 10-1.

3/17/04
Forgot to announce in class yesterday about a change in office hours today, Wednesday: 11-2. Sorry for the late notice.

3/15/04
Change in office hours today, Monday: 12:30-3:30. Sorry for the late notice.

3/4/04
The assignment sheet for the second critical essay is now up and running. Let me know if anything's unclear!

2/26/04
It's only taken a month (ha!), but I think the syllabus on the main page of the course web site is in its final shape. If you want to print it off to make sure we're all "on the same page," so to speak, feel free to.

2/24/04
Change to office hours for tomorrow (W 2/25): 9 am-12 noon, 2-4 pm. Also, see the main page for the--hopefully--final pairings for the group pedagogical project! Finally, congrats to ENGL 426-01 for eking out a 1-person victory over ENGL 345-01 and ENGL 345-02 in the Great Listserv Race of 2004!

2/23/04
Change to office hours today (my wife may have an ear infection and 2:30 this afternoon is the only fast appointment we could get): 10:45 am-1:15 pm. Sorry for any inconvenience!

2/20/04
Thanks to everyone who's joined the listserv and signed up for a group project. Right now ENGL 345-02 is one person away from pulling off a miracle in the Great Listserv Race of 2004--if Lindsey Geiger can join the ENGL 345-01 listserv before Rory O'Boyle does in ENGL 426-01 or Amy Pollinger and Lance White Eagle do in ENGL 345-01--or before these folks let me know they're withdrawing from those classes--her section will win the race despite having their list accidentally deleted earlier in the semester! Reminder on the group pedagogical project: all the names of the people in the group pedagogical project can be found on the main page of the course web site, underneath the readings for the weeks when their group will be going.

2/16/04
The reserves list is up on the web site, but it'll take awhile for the library to actually get them all ready for you to use, so be patient.

2/13/04
Just wanted to let you know that the syllabus on the main page is now up to date--including the change in the reading for Go Down, Moses for next week that I announced in class Thursday, along with updates to the composition of the groups for the pedagogical project.

Sara and Rory still need to decide on what group to join, or whether to form a group of their own.

2/11/04
The assignment sheet for the first critical essay is now up and running. Let me know if anything's unclear!

2/9/04
OK, the Great Listserv Race of 2004 is almost over: ENGL 345-01 needs only Amy Pollinger and Lance White Eagle to subscribe in order to win, while ENGL 426-01 needs only Rory O'Boyle and Greg Powell! ENGL 345-02, recovering from the crushing blow of having their listserv erased, still needs a miracle: 10 people have not joined (or, in many cases, re-joined) the list. I've put up the critical essay page, but the actual assignment sheet is not yet done--sorry!

2/3/04
OK, so here are the names of the people who have not yet subscribed to the listserv: Eric Edwards, Sara Lawrence, Dan Malerk, Rory O'Boyle, Greg Powell, Heather Reinard. And here are the names of the people who have not yet given me their preferences for the group pedagogical project: Sara Lawrence, Dan Malerk, Rory O'Boyle, Ann Wittmeyer. Consider yourselves warned--your names will appear on the board in class Thursday if you have not remedied the situation! Oh, and if that fails to motivate you, consider this: ENGL 345-01 is 3 people away from winning the Great Listserv Race of 2004!!

As the above link should indicate, I've also got a rough version of the group pedagogical project assignment sheet up and running--check it out and let me know if you have any questions! I'm looking to finish a draft of the critical essay assignment sheet tomorrow morning.

2/2/04
In the Great Listserv Race, ENGL 426-01 and ENGL 345-01 have 6 people to go, while ENGL 345-02 has 7 to go. It's going to be down to the wire!

1/30/04
Hey all, I made a mistake yesterday--forgot that there was a department meeting at 3--so I'll most likely be in the office between 2:45 and 3:00, not 2:45 and 3:45, as planned. No, wait, great news--the meeting I thought was at 2 today is for next Friday, so I get to have been in the office from 1-3 today now! A found hour--amazing!

I've also updated the main page to reflect the latest round of group pedagogical project preferences, which keep trickling in. Remember, the goal is to get everyone in a group by the next time we meet!

1/29/04
OK, I've updated the main page to include the names of people who have gotten their requests for the week they want to do the pedagogical project during fulfilled (how's that for horrible syntax?!). In general, I've tried to put the group pedagogical projects on Thursdays. I also updated the listserv page to include more "what if?" situations inspired by actual stories from real students this semester. Finally, I wanted to let you know I'll be in the office till about 2 pm today and from 1-2, 2:45-3:45 tomorrow (outside my official office hours), and remind everyone who hasn't yet joined the listserv or sent me their top 3 preferences for the week of their group pedagogical project to do so.

And I'd like to officially announce the existence of the Great Race for the Listserv 2004. As of 1:30 pm today, ENGL 345-02 has had 20 people join thus far, followed by ENGL 426-01 with 11 subscribers, and ENGL 345-01 with, uh, 6. However, when you look at the race in relative, not absolute terms--in terms, that is, of how many people need to join for everyone in the section to have--then ENGL 426-01 leads with 7 to go, followed by ENGL 345-02 with 8 to go (and loads of momentum!), and ENGL 345-01 with 12 to go. So ENGL 345-01 is not as far behind as, oh, say, Dennis Kucinich is in the Democratic Party Presidential Nomination process--and in fact can pull a John Kerry-esque comeback with some concerted effort. ENGL 345-02 and 426-01 must avoid this coming weekend the kinds of pitfalls that have tripped up previous Democratic frontrunner Howard Dean. I would hope that we can finish our Great Listserv Race of 2004 by the time voters make their choices in the next round of primaries (seven states at once!)--February 3--and certainly that it doesn't drag on as long as the Democratic primaries are likely to....

1/28/04
The main page, this page, links page, and the listserv page are now up and running. More to come!

Reminder: don't forget to join the listserv and send me your top three choices for the weeks you want to do a group project during.

ENGL 426: Major American Writers, Spring 2004
Created: 1/28/04 11:58 am
Last modified: 5/7/04 2:45 pm