I know you’re getting antsy about grades; be assured that progress is taking place behind the scenes.

Remember that I had 3 classes to grade, 2 dissertations, syllabi due tomorrow, and a class to plan for next week - all of this going on simultaneously. Plus, these projects are huge. Deadlines and priorities rule!

I will likely need at least til Monday to get grades finalized.

Course evals: we have 24 of 27 done. Thank you! Still hoping for 100%. Last day will be May 12.

On another note, because I had to turn in the syllabi so early, you can view the preliminary EDIT 6380 syllabus here. Note: I am tweaking assignments, so don’t do any of them yet! If you’re just dying to get a head start, you are safe to begin reading either textbook (from the front) and doing the exercises. This early activity, however, is not required or expected. It’s ok with me if you show up unread on the first day of class. If I were you, I’d enjoy a little time off. There will be much more info coming next week about the Cataloging class.

Thank you for your patience!

If I haven’t told you before, Lisa’s budgeting information can now be found connected to the Content page in the Budget area.

Course evals: we are up to 81%!  Thanks to all who have done this.  Not sure if you have?  There is now a check-off area in the Gradebook (it says done/not done).  It’s very easy to think you have done this when maybe you forgot to click “submit” or something.

The grading crush is on!  All assistants are finished with preliminary grading and now the “pile” is in my hands.

This will not go quickly.

In the meantime, don’t forget to do your Course Eval - so far 19 of 27 have - 70%.  That’s great, and thanks to the 19.  But I want 100%!   And remember, I can only see who has participated, not what was said, and so there is no grading conflict.

I have lots of updates for you over the next few days.  I’ll start with the most critical today.

• Holly’s baby is here! Audrey arrived on April 30 at 11:23am, weighed 9 pounds 7 ounces, and is 22 inches long. Congratulations!
• Do the course eval! It’s open now.  So far, 15% have already completed it.  I will bug you about this often until we get to 100%.
• All Order projects came in. We’ll contact you if a file can’t be opened, etc.  The team is already hard at work.  We will work on determining course grades first; I will go back with a fine tooth comb a bit later to determine the definitive scores.
• We are nearly done with your field experiences (which were, on the whole, excellent!) and hope to post grades over the weekend.
• I’ve started working on the Cataloging class.  In a few days I’ll start communicating with you about that, in case you want a head start.

And now, some words from Beth:

About Internships: I have read all the contracts I have received and responded to them.  All Gwinnett interns, I compiled a list tonight and responded “got it!” to everyone’s message board who posted for Gwinnett.  Grading the finishers (from Cohort 6), understandably, has to take precedence for about the next week.  If there are real time issues (and there are a couple of you in this situation) I will still be on the lookout.

Please send me an email through WebCT with your e-permissions if you have not done so.  (I hardly ever check that email, so please don’t use it for any other reason, but will check it over the next few days.)

Whew!  A lot has happened since I blogged last - most of it involving long meetings and trips to Athens that don’t directly concern you.  I hope this helps explain my silence, however.

As far as I know, I am caught up with communication. I plan to be home-based for the next few days and any last-minute concerns about the Order are fair game.

We are swamped as far as projects, grading, etc. goes - please be patient as we prioritize tasks according to deadlines.

One note of progress: remember Lisa’s presentation last semester on News Shows?  This is now loaded up in WebCT/6300 - note: EDIT 6300, not 6340 (because this is where it belongs in our curriculum).  I also connected her Circulation/Promotion outline to the EDIT 6340 agenda.  Thanks, Lisa!

Here are some “intercom announcements” of middling importance:

• Don’t sell your Bishop text!  I’m starting to think about EDIT 6380 just a tad and I see several sections in there that apply.
• This blog will continue on to talk about EDIT 6380.
• I will be asking Ed.S. students to subscribe to the AP blog as well - but no need to do that yet.
• Remember Beth’s reference presentation of March 29?  I uploaded it into WebCT6340/Resources and referenced it from the Content page.
• Similarly, I’m working on uploading Lisa’s files into WebCT.

One more thing: I am working on a scheme for Cataloging to deal with the absentees.  Since there will be several on each day (all with prior commitments, etc.), and since this is just a good practice, we need a capture mechanism for in-class events.  It won’t substitute for actually being there - and it’s still critical that as many people as possible attend, for critical mass and groupwork purposes.

I am going to ask each person to contribute to this effort. If two people are each responsible for each class hour, the burden will not be heavy on any one person.  I can also see that it will benefit us all.  I will explain this to you in detail in upcoming posts.  For the moment, be thinking: if your task is to “capture” class activity for one hour or so, how would you do it - using equipment you already have access to?  I have lots of ideas, but I bet that you could add to my list.  More to come, obviously, on this subject.

I hope your projects are progressing well. Note: I will be busy with weekend events and then meetings Monday and Tuesday.

Thank you all for a wonderful parade of Saturdays throughout the year. We should have probably made a big deal out of the last semester meeting, but I know I’ll be seeing you sooner than we can all catch our breath.

A few updates:

Congratulations to Jennifer M and Ammee R and all of their families on a dual Cohort 7 birthday - April 11. I believe this is a first for UGA-SLM. At least it is in my memory. Two healthy babies - that’s a real cause for celebration.

Much less interesting: I updated the agenda from Saturday and made the changes regarding Internship information promised in class.

We have a plan for grading all of your work. No penalty for early submission of Orders. Send your questions as needed!

One great thing about having class on Saturday is that we often finish meeting before the normal semester ends - because we’ve put in our time (2,250 minutes).  I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been motivated by the idea of finishing early.

The agenda is close to being ready. One topic for the day is a preview of the Internship.

I updated the Final Project/Order description today to include the e-submission process.

In all the discussion about this final project, it’s easy to overlook the Field Experience - those are due Saturday. Remember to bring your pix or other “evidence” for a casual show-and-tell.

By now, all teams should have received feedback on their Orders. We provided major feedback via email, and the picky stuff will show up on your print copy on Saturday. If you personally haven’t seen electronic feedback, check with your team - one person in the team (at least) will have received it.

• One more caution about multiple targets or multi-faceted targets: tight focus makes this assignment easier.  Yes, you are allowed to have multiple foci.  It will make your life more difficult if you have multiples, however.  In real life you will have multiple targets, but give yourself a break while you’re learning!  Another idea: focus on one area; if you can’t come up with enough “stuff” to buy, then add the next focus area.
• Holly’s comment to the last post led me to clarify the assignment; I added publication date to the short list of consideration file fields. I can see where slight differences between the descriptive documents (the Final Project description, the Consideration file description, and the Order Draft description) could have been the basis of some confusion. Thanks to Holly for pointing this out.
• Amount clarification: we found another old reference to $2000, but that didn’t seem to cause a problem in the draft. To be crystal clear: you must spend a minimum of $2500. If you use the padding method for avoiding the backorder problem, a 25% pad ($2000 + .25×2000) is recommended. However, $3000 is a nice round number to shoot for, if you are padding. Please note that it’s easier - and recommended - that you go over rather than under (unlike on The Price is Right). (That is, in real life, you will quickly accumulate a large consideration file; it will be tough gathering “enough” items to purchase the first time.) There’s no need to spend a lot of energy in whittling a large list down, as long as you include a Do Not Exceed $xxx statement.
• Details that could be addressed here or on Saturday: methods for prioritizing; and the meaning of “classification” for the order list. I’ll do it here if it seems urgent, or on Saturday if not quite as urgent.

Don’t forget to look back one post to the suggested dates. There’s still time to provide input on those.

We are entering … correction, we are IN a very hectic phase of the semester - this last month as big assignments (and even dissertations) are due across the range of all my students. So we must all prioritize! Good luck with that, since I’m struggling with it too!

Thinking ahead to Fall 2008:

Most of you will take EDIT 6900 (M.Ed.s) or EDIT 7340 (Ed.S.s). For the moment, I’m scheduled to teach both of those and I am planning accordingly. (You never know how faculty assignments can change, but I’m not aware of any such changes for the moment.)

There are six Saturdays available, if we include Aug 16. Here’s the way it works:

• Everybody saves the dates (9a-3p) for now.
• Early in the semester (perhaps on Aug 16) I’ll publish more specific times.
• Sometimes I will need one class or the other, and other times I will need both classes simultaneously.  Most often, it will work like this: EDIT 6900 first third of the day, EDIT 7340 last third, and overlap in the middle third.
• There will be significant online work (asynchronous, but not discussion board) because this time frame does not constitute enough “seat time” (2,250 minutes are required).

For right now, the most important thing is to run dates by you. Here they are  - and I will “listen”  to your comments at least through Apr 12.

Aug 16, Sep 13, Sep 27, Oct 11, Nov 1, Nov 15.

Global due date will be Dec 1 for all classes.

We will talk about this, of course, on Apr 12.