Warriors Don't Cry

Beals writes in her journal, "Integration is a much bigger word than than I thought." What do you think she means by this? Explain




2. Beals writes in her journal that freedom is not integration. Freedom is being able to go to the wrestling match with her grandmother. What do you think whe meant by this? Explain



3. Consider the title, "Warriors Don't Cry." Do you think that is an appropriate title for this book? Why or why not?

Final Exam Schedule

Find it here.

Make-up Exams

All make-up exams must be scheduled this week. They will be given next week. They must be taken in the assessment center. dld

Freedom Rides

Some of you may be interested in this unique opportunity to retrace the steps of the 1961 Freedom Rides.  40 students will be chosen for the experience.  PBS is accepting applications now until January 17^th.  More info is at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/2011/?page_id=2

American Experience Invites College Students to “Get on the Bus”

Be one of 40 college students to join original Freedom Riders
in retracing the 1961 Rides.

May 6-16, 2011: Washington, DC to Jackson, MS
Apply now!

Read the New York Times article.

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.

JOIN students from across the country in retracing the route of the 1961 Freedom Rides. Accepted students will participate at no cost to them. All transportation, hotel and food expenses are covered by American Experience.

PARTICIPATE in an intergenerational conversation about civic engagement.
What does it mean today? What has changed since 1961?
What inspires young people to “get on the bus”?

SHARE the journey.
Through live blogging, Twitter, and Facebook, the students on the bus will be able to share their experiences and, in a sense, bring others along on their journey.

Application period is open!
Application deadline: January 17, 2011
Decisions announced: February 2011

Scholarship available

Federal Lawsuit Reveals Inhumane Conditions at For-Profit Youth Prison

A youth prison camp in Mississippi that houses inmates aged 13-22, is accused of keeping youth in "horrific" and "barbaric" conditions.

One young man was tied to his bunk for almost 24 hours, brutally raped and sexually assaulted after prison staff failed to heed his pleas for protection. Other youth suffered multiple stabbings and beatings—including one youth who will live with permanent brain damage as a result of an attack in which prison staff were entirely complicit.

Get the full story here.

Injustice on Our Plates: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Food Industry

Just by stating the facts they uncovered through their survey, the Southern Poverty Law Center lays bare the troubling relationship between our food and the brutal exploitation of immigrant women.

1989 article in Florida indicates that sexual harassment against farmworker women was so pervasive that women referred to the fields as the “green motel.”²⁰ Similarly, the EEOC reports that women in California refer to the fields as “fil de calzon,” or the fields of panties, because sexual harassment is so widespread.²¹ 

 

 

Today in Class

Thursday, we continued with our classroom presentations, which we started this past Tuesday. We are having some some rich intellectual discussions about:

• The war in Iraq
• The war in Afghanistan
• Golddigging as an urban trope
• Sharecropping and coal mining (literal)
• Similarities between the New Deal's Tennessee Valley Authority and Obama's health care expansion.

I am finding some promising material that I can use to link popular culture with historical ideas. In short, I am assigning students to teach me how to better relate to them.

I'll provide some samples later on.

Asian leadership conference

"Nuclear Tipping Point"

Presentations

We spent part of class Thursday in the Learning Center working on presentations. The students were instructed to take an idea from their journals (this is the writing we do in class, where we use history as a tool to help understand the present), and find some media representation of that idea (an image, song, short video, etc.). After finding the image, they were instructed to condense their thoughts to no more than three bullet points, each using no more than five words to explain how the media is connected with the idea or the course material. These were to be put in text box, in powerpoint, along with the image. Finally, they were to create a google account ( if they didn't have one, already), and upload their Powerpoint slide into google documents. Tuesday, they will present this single slide to the class, and explain it in no more than two minutes, preferably one.

SACS and Learning Outcomes Assessments

http://chronicle.com/blogs/measuring/learning-assessment-the-regional-accreditors-role/27485
Sent from my iPad

Angel difficulties

A student cannot log onto Angel because the error message shows that she hasn't done the mandatory orientation. When I checked my settings, there were no blocks to her login, but she still can't log in. She will call the help desk.

Key Findings of the 2010 Rice University Houston Area Survey

http://has.rice.edu/content.aspx?id=2638&ekmensel=c580fa7b_8_0_2638_4

Sent from my iPad

Houston's Diversity Challenge

http://has.rice.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=226

Sent from my iPad

Power of the Market - The Pencil

French Pension Reform Protest

Welcome to Hooverville

Today in Class-- October 21, 2010

In class today, we began with the following key terms:

• Hawley-Smoot Tarrif
• Hoovervilles
• New Deal
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
  
• Wagner Act or National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
  
• Works Progress Administration
• Social Security

You should be able to identify all these terms.

In class, we watched the following videos for context




New Deal Programs in Appalachia: CCC, WPA, and TVA

The 9:00 and 10:30 classes compared the TVA the Obama Health Reform Act to the New Deal's TVA within the context of changing the role of government in the marketplace.

The 2:00 class wrote on the debate around Mountaintop removal by coal mining companies in the Appalacians.

For the conservative position on government and the market see Milton Friedman's lesson of the pencil below



To compare U.S. and French attitudes toward labor rights, see French Protests against efforts to raise the retirement age in France below:

Knowledgeable articles about U.S.-Arab relations

National Council on U.S. Arab Relations Publications

Today in class: gender performance and urban diversity

We began class by watching the two videos below to illustrate changes in women's gender performance over time. Then, after discussing Robin D. G. Kelley's "Yo Mama's Difunktional" we did a writing exercise relating tropes about black and brown women's sexuality to kelley's critique of urban sociological findings that tend to reinforce existing stereotypes about diverse urban populations.

Sent from my iPad

Flappers of 1920s:- So granny, what did you do when you were a girl?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3svvCj4yhYc

The Victorian Guide to Women

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO5AuYNWQGA

Do any of these apply to your writing?

• Your writing shows a sound understanding of the book, but it sounds like you write the way you talk. Bear in mind, next time, that writing sounds different from talking. Next time, try writing it down the way you would normally say it. Wait a day. Then read it again for errors. After that, read it aloud, and listen for errors. You might want to seek help from an LSC resource. We have a variety of support services for online students at nhcounselor@lonestar.edu. Or you can just email me.
• Your writing is sound; but next time, I'd like you to focus on just one question, and explore it in greater depth, using lots of evidence from the book and reflecting on it carefully at some length.

Warriors Don't Cry: General comments on disccusion paragraph.

• Only respond to one question. Try to answer it as thoroughly as you can, using lots of evidence from the book.
• Avoid long quotes. It takes time an effort to translate quotes into your own words, but that’s what writing is.
• Be specific in the way you use evidence from the book. Page numbers are helpful, but what is more important is to explain the situation in the book you are referring to, and how that relates to your main point.
• If this grade does not truly reflect your ability, it is possible that you need help with your writing, specifically with proofreading. There is writing assistance available at nhcounselor@lonestar.edu, or just email me.
• Use lots of evidence from the book, and take some time to reflect on it at some length and depth.
  

Cabeza de Vace discussions, HIST 1302 online

I have enjoyed reading your paragraph responses to Cabeza de Vaca. I encountered in your replies some new ways of thinking about the questions I posted to you all, especially regarding the issue of cannibalism. There are points I'd like to make:

1. I only intended for you to write one paragraph. Apparently, that wasn't clear in the instructions, so I graded with that in mind. When doing the Frederick Douglass assignment, choose one question and answer it as thoroughly as you can in one paragraph.
2. Proofread carefully. It's okay to get help with proofreading. I have someone proofread everything I write (except this blog).
3. Give some time and consideration to the question you are addressing. Think it through. Be careful that you don't just restate the question; rather, make a claim of your own. It doesn't have to be original, but it needs to be yours

My comments refer to this rubric:

1. Structure/organization, does the paragraph function as a unit of thought?
2. Evidence, does the paragraph draw specific references from the book as evidence to support the claim(s) made in your paragraph?
3. Analysis, does the paragraph explain logically how the evidence presented supports the claims made?
4. Proofreading, the paragraph should be free of grammatical errors and misspellings.

Volunteer Peer Leader Academy

The Center for Teaching and Learning is proud to present our first volunteer Peer Leader Academy. Peer leaders would donate their time to mentoring and tutoring their fellow students. In exchange for their time, they would be trained according to the College Reading and Learning Association requirements and receive an international certification upon successful completion of training and tutor/mentor contact hours. PLA students would function in a dual role on campus as volunteer mentors/tutors. PLA students will be divided in teams of five and mentor four EDUC 1300 courses.

We kindly request your assistance in recruiting students interested in becoming volunteer mentors/tutors in this academy.

Student requirements to prequalify are as follows:

1.) 3.0 GPA

2.) Grade of A or B in content area they are interested in tutoring

3.) Faculty Recommendation

4.) Orientation

5.) Commitment to 15 hours of training (10 hours tutor training and 5 hours mentor training)

6.) Commitment to tutoring and mentoring 50 hours per year (25 hours tutoring and 25 hours mentoring)

7.) Successful completion of at least one semester at LSC-North Harris

Great Debates

http://www.peterpappas.com/journals/greatdebates.htm

great debates

Tuturing is available!

Linda Quintanilla, one of our very experienced adjunct history instructors, is providing tutoring this semester in the Learning Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM

Old England, New England

free web apps (writing aids)

Find them here.

Ch. 1 discussion prompt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7aZTkiZiP0

eVista section is online!

HIST 1301, 2:30-3:50: Your section is online. Let me know if you have questions or problems.

Blog threads for online students

For 1301 "U.S. to 1877," your blog will discuss the following two video clips. How do the different points of view expressed in these video clips agree with each other? How do they disagree. How do they relate to the textbook treatment of ancient American peoples?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgnmT-Y_rGQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw1plQa5-Hs

1302, U.S. since 1877. Your blog will discuss how Chief Joseph and the Nez Pearce relates to "The New West" in Chapter 18 of the textbook. If the link doesn't work, cut and paste the url http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd8hYb7BhAA

HIST 1301, 11008 (MW 2:30 class) quizzes

There is a problem with eVista, and the course is not online, yet. This is being worked on, and I hope it will be ready in time for class Monday. The first quiz will be due January 31, so there is plenty of time.

Books not in stores--what can you do?

• I am hearing from students that the books are still not in the stores. What can you do?

1. You can probably find the textbook at the book stores. A lot of other professors use the same book, Tindall/Shi, America: A Narrative History, Vol. 2, 7th ed.
2. You can order the other two online or give it a week and see if the book stores get them in.
   

Books for all HIST 1301 students online and ftf (face-to-face)

Some of you have had questions about the books. Here is the information. Any publication of the Douglass Narrative is fine. I'm using the one from Bedford/St. Martin's Press.

Tindal, George Brown and and David Shi, America: A Narrative History, Vol. 1, 7th edition ISBN [978-0-393-92732-0].

De Vaca, Alvar Nunez Cabeza, The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). ISBN: 080326416X.

Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

Update on books, etc.

• I stopped by the off-campus bookstore today, and they don't have our books in, yet. I don't know if the campus bookstore has them yet, either. Don't sweat it. I build the schedule knowing that there will be problems the first week.
• If you are in my face-to-face [ftf] HIST 1301, 11008, we don't have an eVista section right now. Weird, I know. We'll have to do without until my people can get it for us.
• The other two ftf sections are up and running. Let me know if there are problems, because there are always glitches the first week, and the sooner I learn about them, the sooner I can get them fixed.
  

Online Tutorial

Find it here http://nhmccdvista4.blackboard.com/webct/urw/lc28228938311031.tp28251635594031/previewtoc.dowebct?viewtype=preview&TOCLinkId=28251727239061&TOCId=28251643162031

Technical support here
http://lonestar.edu/lsc-online/student-support.htm

Other support services
http://lonestar.edu/lsc-online/online-learning.htm

HIST 1301 and 1302, online

Tonight, I'm going through all the settings and preferences to make the stuff work the way it's supposed to. I'll probably get some of it wrong, so let me know if anything doesn't show up where and when it's supposed to.

An earlier version of the syllabus had the wrong ISBN for the textbook. That is fixed. You're looking for Tindall/Shi, "America: A Narrative History (Norton) 7th ed., Vol. 1 for 1301 and Vol. 2 for 1302.

Welcome to Spring 2010 U.S. History

Here's a couple of ideas to help us communicate:

1. Please let me know what section you are in, for instance: HIST 1302 1W003. Or you could just say you're in my online 1302 or my online 1301 or my face-to-face [ftf] 1301
2. When I post notices here, look at the section number carefully before you respond. Make sure the message is meant for you. I'm basically teaching three separate courses, and they all get different announcements.

Let me know if you have any problems at all, so I can help you fix them. That way we both succeed.