4 September. Attendance, Journals

From: M. Hall

To: Students
Subject: Attendance, journals
4 September 2013

I apologize for not mentioning this in class:  Both sections are on the same weekly lesson plan.  Thus, if you miss your scheduled class, make it up by attending the other section’s class (one-week expiration).  When you do this, remind me to erase your absence.

In the busy-ness of beginning term I neglected to verify that you wrote in your journals.  Catch ‘em up – at least one page per class day.  This is a good personal discipline to help you make the transition (“transition” is always a noun, never a verb) from class-change to class work.

You do not (yet) have a due-date for your descriptive essay, but do anticipate; passivity is your enemy.  Be sure to read all the assigned pages in Bedford, on angryverbs.blogspot.com, and on your handouts.

In an era of noise and lights, focusing on one’s work is more difficult than in the past.  Try to develop at home a work space that is hands-off to everyone else (good luck with those small children!), and schedule thirty minutes or so daily when you sit at your desk or table with your books, your thoughts, your assignments.  Make this your routine, your discipline, and when others in your household understand your determination to succeed they will come to respect your work-time.  Avoid the temptations of the Orwellian Telescreen; exile that thing all the way across the house for your half hour.