Author: Sarah Schmerler (Page 5 of 7)

Hi Students,

I am here for you via email and OpenLab messaging if you are confused about the work on the ASSIGNMENTS page. A number of you have reached out, and I’ve responded to clarify. I also hope my video helped.

If you ask me, what is most important? That you write in some kind of diary every day, and please share with us on Thursday (tomorrow) from what you’ve written by posting to OpenLab. I am doing this assignment, too. I will post an entry from my diary shortly.

I am so proud of all of you.

Yours,

-Prof. S.

Me on video. Helping you. Hope this works!! I had a few questions on email, so I made a video.

Hi class!

How am I doing? I don’t know. Lousy. Okay. Freaked out. Fine.

I get up every Monday morning as though we are having class. It gives me a sense of continuity, and I need that.

My son is home with me, finally, so I feel relieved but cramped. We can’t find a spot to put all his stuff.  I still drink my tea every morning as part of my daily routine. I write every morning for myself for about 20 minutes (well, sometimes more and sometimes less). I go outside and practice my hula hoops and walk. It is weird out there.

I decided that we need to begin this, our first full week of class, with Circle Time. We need community.

CIRCLE TIME Activity 1: Agree, in writing, in a comment to the Professor’s post, with the words “I, [YOUR NAME HERE] agree to abide by the rules of Circle Time.”

CIRCLE TIME Activity 2: Write 3 Comments. You will notice that I (the Professor) have endeavored to comment once on each person’s “Diary 2” Entry. Now, it is your turn. Write a comment on someone’s post — preferably someone who has not gotten many comments yet. Also, write a comment on anyone’s post you wish. Write more than one to one person, if you wish. Post a minimum of 3 comments before Thursday, March 26. (As Admin of the site, I see all comments in the dashboard.)

IMPORTANT addition to our site: Become familiar with our new MEMBER ROLL. Scroll down the right-hand side of our site. There you will see the name of everyone in the class who has posted (including yourself). You can easily search for a post this way, as well as keep track of your own work.

Once you are done with Circle Time, make yourself familiar with your new assignments this week on our ASSIGNMENTS page. I post there every week.

I hope you like what I’ve created for you.

Yours,

-Prof. S.

Your COMMENT is needed to this post.

In your COMMENT, you will use the words: “I, [YOUR NAME HERE] agree to abide by the rules of Circle Time.”

This is important. Why? Now that we are in an Online environment, safety is even more compromise-able. You may not share any video, text, image to social media from this site. You may not speak to others outside of our class of private matters discussed in our website Circle. Our safety is important to us, and we can not write well unless everyone knows their thoughts and insights and feelings are safe.

Every link in the chain keeps the circle safe, and this begins with you.

On the new ONLINE Assignments Page, above. Please look at it, and bookmark that page. Here is the direct link.

It is due, class period time, this coming Monday!

Well, I know we talked earlier today about the possibilities, and boom, here they are: We are “on recess” for the next few days. I will find out how the English Dept. plans to handle this situation, and also, inform you as clearly as I possibly can on how to proceed over these next few days.

Meantime, I am going to copy below, verbatim, the notice I just received, and invite you to leave me any comments and suggestions you wish. Please be safe and well!

From the President’s Office:

All CUNY schools will have a five-day instructional recess March 12-18. There will be no physical classes on campus. Students and faculty will be working on getting ready to have classes delivered via distance-learning for the remainder of the Spring semester.

CUNY’s 25 campuses, including dorms, libraries, research facilities, and essential on-campus services will remain open.

During the five-day recess, we expect students, faculty and staff to finish their plans to transition all instruction to distance education. Starting March 19, classes will resume in distance-learning form for the remainder of the Spring semester.

As always, the health and safety of the University community remains our top priority. These measures allows CUNY to continue serving its students while alleviating pressure on our areas during this public health threat.

More details will follow.

Stephen M. Soiffer, PhD

Special Assistant to the President

City Tech (New York City College of Technology)/CUNY”

This will morph into another assignment. For now, it is simple: Watch this video. I would prefer you do it with no distractions around you, and if the room is dark, even better. It will last about nine minutes, and on this first watching just respond in comment to this post by Friday: how does what you saw here pertain to what you are reading on these blog posts and to how you are feeling in general? Why do you think I assign this to you now? If you would like to look on the Internet for the Eames’ and tell us more about who they were, that would be great!
Enjoy!

I think I was coping really well with the coronavirus situation until yesterday, when I started to feel…worse, sort of about everything. Even trivial stuff. Do I have enough waffles? No? Why is that important? How often can I wash my hands? It’s like I’m looking for reassurance from trivial things — things, that I know on a logical level don’t really help, and yet I want them.

Only one waffle left? Oh no! That’s my favorite tea cup, btw. I always need tea.

I’m definitely hibernating more than usual, and am watching way more TV than ever. It’s what I want to do, or so I tell myself.

I don’t think that hoarding or over-shopping or panicking are good ideas. No. Yet, to reassure my boyfriend, I went and did some more major grocery shopping, and took a cab home. I don’t want to be one of those people cleaning out the store shelves, but it’s almost like that behavior, itself, is what’s catching.

My brother has helped me a lot. He has been through so many things, and is much older than I am, and his phone conversations help me put stuff in perspective. He thinks that the more cases that are reported, the better things are actually getting, because that means that people are actually being properly diagnosed and that the countries’ health organizations are finally getting into gear and becoming more effective in stopping the spread. He also told me that lots more money is being allocated to stopping the spread, and that funding, itself, is going to help. He thinks things will get worse, but that means, in a strange way, that they are definitely going to get better. Should I believe him?

I burnt the waffle after all.

One good thing I am noticing out of all this: I really value community much, much more. I am so grateful for the fact that I get to see good people, in dedicated groups and settings, all the time. People who live in isolated areas can’t say that.

Hi Class. I hope you are all well. It’s going to be important in the coming weeks that we all be able to communicate easily, and it’s also possible that we may need to communicate long distance. So: I have a new assignment for you. Write a Blog Post. Here. To This Site. Here is the prompt:

How are you feeling during this conronavirus situation? What is helping you cope? What behaviors are you noticing in yourself or in others? Do you have any insight or news or advice for your fellow students? And finally, can you list at least one or two positive things that are coming out of this experience for you?

Feel free to upload photos to your post. Please comment or refer to other posts as you read them in you post(s). We want 100% participation. We want to flood the course site with posts and words. Yes, this will count as credit in UNIT 2: Genre. 

I will change the privacy settings on our website so that only those of us who are Members of the site will be able to read it.

thank you.

stay well!!