Table of contents
To-do
Reminders
Please complete at your earliest convenience
- Drop by during Get Stuff Done Club (Wed. 1PM-2PM; Thu. 11AM-12PM: Online) or make an appointment using my Google Calendar for your initial check-in. Complete by Friday 6PM at the latest
- send in the link to your website/blog
By Monday 11:59PM
Response post:
What: Write a blog post of 200-400 words, responding to George Orwell’s essay “A Nice Cup of Tea”, and add the post to the category FYS106 on your website. You can respond in different ways:
- develop an idea from the freewrite we did in class, and from our (all too brief) chat in class about the text
- how did the “pointing” and freewrite allow you to go beyond the first impression of the text? How are you now seeing this essay in a new light?
Add an image to brighten up your post, and if you refer to online materials, add them as hyperlinks in your text itself. Add a title, you can be creative!
Where to find images: Google image may be your go-to, but there are also copy-right free, public-domain images available through Trexler Library: https://libraryguides.muhlenberg.edu/open/images
How: Don’t just write and post straight away. Instead, take the time to write a draft, maybe even do another freewrite to create a few new ideas, and rewrite to help you clarify some ideas. You can draft and rewrite in Word or Google Docs, and then copy-paste to WordPress and tidy up the formatting.
Tip: If you prefer to write by hand, you can post the image of your final written piece as your post, but expect that most of your professors will want you to submit your work electronically, or at least typed. Please make sure your handwriting is legible, and the image is large enough (or can be enlarged)
Did you know? What you see in the newspaper, in a magazine, and even on professionally curated social media feeds has been through multiple revisions, even if it looks like it flowed straight from the pen (or keyboard) of the author.
Checklist:
| I wrote a blog post of at least 200 words, and no more than 400 words. |
| I added it to the category FYS106 on my blog. |
| I added an image to the post, with ALT text describing the image, and a caption. |
| I checked that my post appears on the internet the way I want. |
| I sent Dr. D a link to my blog if I did not do this yet (otherwise nobody knows where my blog is!). |
Optional extras: College skills 1: Email etiquette and keeping on top of your email
How do you write an email to your professor? And how do you make sure you don’t drown in your inbox? Check out these two tips and the two related writing exercises: College Skills 1: Email
Suggested completion for Exercise 1: Monday, 11.59PM
TIP: You can complete these optional tasks anytime, or not at all, but the information I provide is useful to help you navigate through college and good habits are easier to establish early on in your career! Also remember that more opportunities to write and get feedback are useful in making you a more confident writer.
By Tuesday 12.30PM (start of class)
We will talk about various policies, and you should come prepared to jump into the conversation at the time, or even start the conversation before class via our Google Chat Room.
Reading: Alfie Kohn, “The Case against Grades.” https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-grades/
- Read this text in advance of class. You may print out a copy to annotate, or read it on the screen and take notes, or use Hypothes.is and annotate in our group teaglobalhistory (more about that below)
Guiding questions: (to help you think about the content of the text)
- What is extrinsic motivation? Intrinsic?
- What does Kohn mean with “… grading for learning is, to paraphrase a 1960’s-era slogan, rather like bombing for peace.”
- Do grades measure what is important?
Questions for us:
- What has to happen for you to give a course (this course!) your highest effort?
- How would a teacher know you gave your highest effort in a task, even if your work is not yet of the highest quality (because you’re still learning, and making mistakes, messing up, and “shitty first drafts” are part of the learning process)?
Prepare for discussion about Classroom and Participation policies:
- How would you like your fellow students to behave to create the optimal classroom atmosphere, to enhance our learning as a group?
- What about chit-chatting, playing online games or texting to friends, getting up in the middle of your presentation to go to the bathroom,… does it disrupt your learning? Do you do it, and if so, why?
- How to prepare before class to take part, and what should happen when students show up repeatedly without preparing?
- …
- All of you are excited to be taking classes in person again: why?
- What is the added value of being together in a room?
- What can we do in a classroom to make sure you get that extra special experience?
- What other ways are there you can think of to show participation, that do not involve raising your hand and jumping into a discussion, or answering questions?
- Measuring participation in this way benefits a particular type of student: what if you’re not one of those?
- How can you be a member “in good standing” in our Learning Community (which goes beyond the shared classroom time)
Think about these questions in advance, and write down your thoughts in a notebook or document. We will use this in class. Your brain needs time to ruminate on these questions, and having ideas ready by the time you get to class will free up space for more thoughtful discussion.
Tech stuff: Set up Hypothes.is
Chrome web browser works best for Hypothes.is. These instructions assume you use Chrome.
- Go to web.hypothes.is to sign up for your account.
- You can use an alias. If it doesn’t look anything like your name, please email me your Hypothes.is alias so I know whom to credit for great insights!
- Install the Chrome extension for hypothes.is
- Video tutorial: Follow the instructions in this video from IT/DLTOP for setting up an account if you’re not sure how it’s going!
- Join our class group: teaglobalhistory (<– click on that link, and then “Join group”)
By Thursday 12.30PM (start of class)
Reading: Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. Fifth Edition. Endymion Wilkinson, c/o Harvard University, 2018.
- PDF (<– click on the PDF. When asked for password, use the password in the email I sent on Saturday (9/4). You can also find it on the Canvas page with all the info we’d rather not have floating around where everyone can access it, via Modules on Canvas.)
- We read section 36.12 of the electronic edition of this massive tome with useful information for researchers on Chinese history. This is from the section on Food. It contains basic history, references to other sections in the book, and references to studies in many different languages. This text is not aimed at undergraduates, but you can still get a lot of answers to your initial questions about tea from this text!
- Key question: what is the origin of tea? what is the origin story of tea?
- Many of you had questions about tea in our first few meetings. Can you find answers here?
- What are some of the most surprising things you learned about tea, and its history, from this piece?
- Take note of the sections you did not understand: we can puzzle through them together, or you can post in the Google Chat Room in advance to ask for clarifications.
- Which parts make your eyes glaze over?
- Which parts seemed important, but you had to slow down or re-read, and/or still did not get?
This is maybe your first encounter with an academic reference text, so take it slowly, and crack open the dictionary for the English words you don’t quite understand. Don’t rush: like a good cup of tea, you’ll get much more out of this if you slow down and savour it.
By Sunday 11:59PM
Short blog post/writing exercise, details to follow.
Slides
- Tuesday: “Boring Stuff?” –> use this to add your ideas in answer to the questions
- If you were not in class: add your notes in slides 8 and 13, after reviewing the previous slides and comments.
- Thursday: “In the beginning” (Origins of tea)
Where to get help
- Get Stuff Done Club: Wed. 1PM-2PM; Thu. 11AM-12PM, or by appointment via Google Calendar
- All online, use the Zoom link in my email signature or via the Canvas page
- Google Chat Room and the (anonymous) Padlet (both also useful for chatting, sharing fun stuff)
- DLAs: Digital Learning Assistants: virtual drop-in times (for everything) and via Zoom: Workshops (see poster): Hypothes.is, WordPress, Voicethread [useful for other courses!]
- Writing Center: Online appointments and in-person drop-ins available. Check the schedule
- Trexler Library History Subject Guide (we will visit the library later in the semester to learn how to use all of this!)
- Safety on/around campus: report an incident