Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 1 (August 26)

 Greetings!

We've started out our new school year well.  I'm looking forward to working with this group of students.  Below are the Class Notes for this week.  Every week I will send out notes similar to the ones to these.  I include the topics of the class and the direction of instruction.  At the bottom of each email I list the homework and links to the blot, to the Google Classroom assignments,  and to any other helpful information.

I almost always start class with a Quick Write and sometimes with a Word of the Day.  I use a variety of prompts for these short writing opportunities that give students a chance to shift into a writing mode.  These prompts are sometimes serious but usually light-hearted.  For our Words of the Day, I like to choose unusual words, words of current interest, or words with interesting backgrounds.  I especially enjoy looking at the etymologies of words and trying to figure out the journey of the word from its ancient meaning and the modern meaning.

For this week's Quick Write I asked students to respond to these 3 questions:  1) What do you need to be successful this school year?  2) What do you need from others, including me, to be successful this year? 3) What can you do for others in order to help them be successful?

We had 3 Words of the Day:

education -- fr. L. educare, to lead or bring out -- the act of teaching or receiving knowledge

teach -- fr. OE takn, token, to show, point out, declare -- to show or explain how to do something.  

heteroclite -- fr. Gk, hetero, different and klitos, a bend or inflection  -- a person who deviates from the norm and/or chooses and unusual/uncommon path.

I'm afraid I had some difficulties with the Zoom aspect of the class.  I used by Samsung Tablet, and I think some of the settings were different from the one I usually use.  Next week I will have my computer, webcam, and new microphone.  I apologize for the problems that it caused for my students attending via Zoom.

Much of our first class of the year is spent taking care of logistics and looking at some Class Resources.  I gave the students a Class Policies handout, a syllabus, and a checklist of assignments.  These are important documents that will help us be organized with our work this year.  (Note:  Parents, please read the class policies and initial it)

In addition to an overview of the topics in the class, we discussed Google Classroom.  All of the materials and assignments will be posted on Google Classroom.  If they haven't, students need to sign in to their chatclasses email and then join the Google Classroom for Writing 3.  

Students will help with some of the teaching this semester.  On the Student-Led Sign Up document, hey signed up for topics related to research, writing, and plagiarism; they are to research these topics and present the information to their classmates.  

I introduced the first writing assignment of the semester, Essay #1.  The bulk of the semester will be spent writing a hefty research paper,  but I want the students to begin the year with a shorter essay so that I can get to know their writing styles and so that they can "warm up" their writing skills.  

Assignments for Next Week

Writing 3 Class Policies (signatures needed)

Student-Led Topics Sign Up

Essay #1 Rough Draft  (Please use the Google Doc template attached to this assignment.)

Essay #1 Outline 

Before school started assignments

Welcome Back #1

Welcome Back #2

Welcome Back #3

Links for this Week:

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 1 (August 26)

Mrs. Prichard's Guide to Technology 2021 - 2022 (on the blog)

Mrs. Prichard's Guide to Technology 2021 - 2022 (on Google Classroom)

Writing Assignments Checklist

Writing 3 Fall Syllabus

30 Steps to a Research Paper

Essay #1 Requirements

Welcome to Writing 3 @ CHAT!

Greetings!

This is just a short note to say "Hello!" and to welcome both students and parents to my Writing 2 class at CHAT.  (I see a great mix of familiar and new names on the list. ) 

I'll be sending a longer, "here's what you need to know before school starts" email over the weekend, so this is just a brief greeting.  

This year I will be using Google Classroom for all of the assignments, so if you don't already have one, you should be getting from Mrs. Nelson a student chatclasses email for your child who is enrolled in this class.  My practice is to send all class emails and updates to parents and students, so if you want to use another email in addition to this one, please let me know.  

I hope you've had a good, fun, and relaxing summer.  And I also hope you're looking forward to a new school year.  I know I am!!

Blessings, 

Mrs. Prichard

Mrs. Prichard’s Guide to Technology for 2021 - 2022

Greetings CHAT families!

Last year because of the potential restrictions from COVID-19, I put all of my materials and assignments on Google Classroom.  For many students, Google Classroom helped them keep track of assignments, was a repository of any handouts from class that they had lost, and offered an online way to complete homework.  Considering those benefits, I will again be using Google Classroom for my classes at CHAT.  Below are explanations and descriptions of some helpful resources to help you get set up for the year.

Online Option using Zoom.

• If at any point we require distance learning this year, the classes will meet via Zoom

• Students who are sick or out of town can attend my classes via Zoom.

• Follow this link:   Tamera Prichard’s Zoom classroom.  (password:  chat)

• Note:  Google Classroom offers a Google Meet address for the classes, but at this time I will not be using Google Meet

The G-Suite for CHAT Classes

Kim Nelson has assigned an email account with chatclasses.com to all of my students.  (Last year’s students will continue with their emails.)  This is essential for using Google Classroom and the multiple tools that come with the G-Suite for education.  Mrs. Nelson has also made some videos and a teaching sheet for using your CHAT email account and getting into Google Classroom.  She uses an Algebra 1 class as an example, but the steps will be the same for my writing classes.  

• How to Sign in to Gmail and Google Classroom for CHAT students

• How to Forward Your Email and Create a Filter

• Intro to Google Classroom for Students (20 minutes)

• How to scan a multi-page document using Genius Scan (free) and get it into Google Classroom  (Note:  Genius Scan is phone app that scans documents and saves them as PDFs.)

• Student Quick Guide to Google Classroom

• Another Google Classroom Tutorial

Google Drive

• With the G-Suite, students have access to Google Drive, which is a multi-dimensional platform for documents, slides, spreadsheets, etc.  Think of it as a filing system for your digital content.

• To get started, students should create separate folders for each of their classes.  For some classes, they might want folders within a folder.  (e.g. A Writing 2 folder could have subfolders for Essays, Grammar, Literature.)

• A well-organized Google Drive will help students stay better organized with their school work.  

Google Classroom

• All assignments for the semester will be posted in Google Classroom even if we’re face to face.  

• Students will be added to the roster and will get an invitation to join the class.  Follow the links in the email.  Parents will also be added.  If you prefer to not be added, let me know.  

• The assignments will come in one or more of the following formats:

• An attached Google Doc on which students can type

• A quiz or form that students can complete

• A discussion question on which students can type a comment or respond to a classmate

• An assignment where a student can upload a document or some other type of electronic work

• Students will need to remember to “Turn in” their homework via a button on the assignment page.

• Google Classroom has an attached gradebook and should be used for checking for missing work.  This year I will be using it as my online gradebook.  

• Google Classroom also has a calendar that keeps track of due dates for assignments.

Communication

• Email:  My email is tammy.prichard@chatclasses.com.  (Some of you have my older gmail account, so please change it to this one.)

• Blog:  I send weekly notes in an email and post them on the class blog.  I will also use the blog for sharing other information, such as videos, websites, etc.

• Writing 1

• Writing 2

• Writing 3

Finally, the 2 most important questions

• “Where to find worksheets and materials?”

• Attached to Class Notes emails.

• Attached to Google Classroom assignments

• In the shared folder for your class

•  Writing 

• Writing 2

• Writing 3

• Note:  These documents can only be accessed by students with CHAT emails; they are also set to be “View Only.”

• On the grade book after the assignment has been posted on Classroom.

• “How can students hand in homework?”

• When we’re face to face, all work can be handed in physically in class

• For face to face OR distance learning:  Via the Google Classroom assignment (using the attached document or uploading material)

• If and only if the Rocketbook app is not working or a student is still in the process of figuring out Google Classroom

• Send an electronic version (i.e. pdf, Google docs, or Word document – NO Pages or photos) via email.

• The specific name of the assignment must be in the subject line.

• Send only one assignment per email.