Evaluations

Hey everyone. I really enjoyed the presentations these past few weeks. Nice work. This is just a final reminder, and request, to please complete teacher evaluations. Tomorrow is the last day to do this. It's a fast and straightforward process. All you need to do is:

1. Login to UVLink using your UV ID and pin.
2. Go to the "Student" tab.
3. Go to the "Teacher/Course Evaluations" channel in the upper-left portion of the page.
4. Click on "Complete your Fall 2008 Teacher Evaluations."
5. Click on English 1010.
6. Click on the "Evaluate" link.
7. Answer the survey questions and make comments about the instructor and/or the course.
8. Make sure to click on "Submit Evaluation" at the bottom of the page.

I was in Europe when evaluations began, so we got a bit of a late start, but evaluations are important and helpful to me, and I appreciate your willingness to participate.

Have a fabulous holiday season, and thanks once again for a great semester.
-Daniel

It's Finally Time to Relax

I will take my last final tomorrow at 11:00 am for which I feel very ready for. I have been so stressed lately, as have most every student I am sure! I can't wait to be done with this health test tomorrow! At about 12:00pm tomorrow I will be so relaxed and ready for Christmas and New Years. All that I have left after my final tomorrow is to show up to English class on Thursday to watch all of the awesome presentations! Thursday will be a great way to end this semester. I have already given my presentation, so I will not show up to class stressed out, or with butterflies in my stomach. All I will have to do is go and watch, which will be quite a treat if they are anything like those that have already presented. This has been such a stressful semester for me with school, work, and my family duties. I am happy that school is finally coming to an end, well, the semester anyway. I am looking forward to the break between semesters and work. I am ready to relax!!

Confused

I was just looking at our class schedule and realized that there is nothing noted for Tuesday (tomorrow) the 16th... Is this correct? Do we not have class tomorrow? Or is it a mistake? It says our final and genre presentations are on Thursday the 18th. Tuesday is just missing off the calender completely so I'm not sure what to think of it. Are our thursday dates supposed to be for tuesday? tomorrow? If anyone can let me know... it would help me out alot cuz I am so lost over here. lol. THANKS!!!

Christmas Shopping at the Mall is Crazy!

I went to the mall tonight to do some Christmas shopping, and it was insane!! I got there around 8:30pm, thinking it would be less crowded an hour and a half before closing time. I was most certainly wrong!! I have never seen the mall more busy and crowded in my life. I'm not sure if everybody there thought the same as I had, or if this was considered the "slow time" but it was not a fun experience. This did however, help me to realize how much money is spent this time of year.
I witnessed some people spending over $500 worth of merchandise in a single store! I was in line behind a gentleman who spent $1053.88 in a clothing store. I felt that everywhere I went there was someone waiting to rip me off! Everything seemed way over priced: even the so called "sales" seemed to be over priced. I am going to do my best to avoid the mall until the middle of January at the earliest!!

I'm Done.

Well unfortunately i will not be making it to next weeks class session because i will be in puerto penasco mexico vacationing. I will say i enjoyed this class and my first semester as a college student thanks to all you people and Dan. It's been good times and i learned a lot. Good luck to everyone here on out and for the last time here on this blog, Im done.

December sucks...now

Is it necessary for the end of semester, finals, and Christmas to be within two weeks of each other? Maybe it's just me, but I feel like school is ruining my holiday season. By the time all of my finals are finished/failed, I will have about 2 weeks to do Christmas shopping, look at Christmas lights, make a gingerbread house, watch Christmas movies, drink eggnog, and build a snowman. Why do they do this do us? (Not you, Daniel. I'm talking about other, ridiculous professors who are identical twins with Scrooge.)
I'll stop complaining now and get back to studying, but do any of you feel this way or am I being a baby?

Self-Reflective Letter

For some reason, Blackboard isn't letting me upload content today, so I am posting here the information that is contained on the Self-Reflection handout:

Self-Reflective/Assessment Letter

This letter doesn’t have rigid design or content requirements. This is intentional as I want you to see the letter as your opportunity to say what may not be apparent in your Classical Argument and Genre Translation assignments. That is, I want you to feel comfortable discussing issues about your writing and your progress that you feel will help build the rhetorical appeal (logos, pathos, ethos) of your final project. It is, in the end, what the title indicates: a self assessment of your final assignments and, more generally, your progress in the course.

Again, there are no content requirements for this letter, but you might consider the following:

What issues have you wrestled with in your writing? How did you work to clarify them through peer review, reading the text, class discussion/lectures and your own writing process?

Would you now define “good” writing in the same way that you did at the beginning of the course? How have the writing assignments, peer reviews, and discussions of the text impacted your view of good writing?

How has the concept of visual rhetoric impacted your research and/or your writing?

How have you worked through the peer feedback you have received? Have you received contradictory advice? If so how did you handle it?

How has research impacted the way you write? How have the ideas of others impacted how you have made your argument in your Classical Argument and your Genre Translation?

What else do you want me (your reader and the person assigning you a grade) to know about you as a writer? You might think about this in terms of logos, ethos, and pathos; that is what do you want me to know in order to strengthen the logos, pathos, and ethos of your final project and your performance this semester? Note that merely asserting that you are a much better writer will NOT build your ethos or credibility or grade. I do NOT want a bunch of empty statements like “I’ve learned so much about writing this semester” and “I’ve really improved my writing” and “you are the best English teacher in the universe” (actually, this last one is okay :P). In all seriousness, though, as with the claims in your essays you will need to demonstrate/prove what you have learned. Also, note that it is not required that you have made massive improvements—one can write well for this class and engage with the process and text without necessarily making huge improvements as a writer.

Thanks.

Presentations

I thought the presentations went excellent today. I just wanted to tell Lila and Katelin that their presentations rocked. I loved how ya'll got emotional and I could tell you really cared about the topic of your choice. So passionate!! Lila, those girls are SO cute and you all have voices of angels! Katelin, your poem was so simple but so moving! And everyone else, Trevor, thanks for helping me understand sports better. Josh, I will now look at movies alot different, Zack, your really confident and funny! I'm looking forward to the rest! And of course, Daniel, you are an excellent teacher, as proved by presentations today. I know not one of us could have done the same with out your teaching!

Medical Care

So, on Thursday November 20th, I was getting trained to give the residents (I work at Beehive Nursing Homes) their medication, but before I had to take a TB (tuberculosis) test, which they just stick a needle in your arm, inject stuff, twist the needle around a little, and then you go back and they check it 48 hours later to see if you have tuberculosis (or if your body has been introduced to it). Anyways, I'm usually always a little scared with needles and I get all hyped up, even though I've had 5 shots in my bottom and 2 IV's and countless times getting blood drawn, like I said, it's all in my head. Well, the test went fine, so I was like oh I'll watch this next one, and I was okay for about 2 minutes and then got tingly, saw black and woke up on the floor with tons of pain in my back and head. I guess I had fallen out of my chair, started to seizure, but then stop and rocked my head on the wall. Well, the nurse who took my TB test, did nothing about it until another lady called 911 for me, bless her heart! They then arrived and asked me millions of questions, and each question at least 4 times. Well, I took a trip in the ambulance, without them even calling my family, or telling me which hospital I was at! And so I had to call my mom and tell her, oh but which hospital was I at? She went to Timpanogas and then they directed her to Utah Valley, well about 2 hours passed, while I'm laying there strapped to a dumb back-board, that isn't too comfortable for those who have been on one. They finally come to take me to get X-Ray's and of course they find nothing wrong. Now, I'm wondering why the heck I never got asked if I even wanted to go in the ambulance to the hospital in the first place. Because now I have to pay a bill for it. I also think it's ridiculous the amount of time I spent there! And 4 times my mom went out to the area where the nurses are to ask them if I could have water or something, but everytime she went out, she found 5 nurses sitting chatting with each other laughing, while I sit there on the most uncomfortable thing of my life. And, they just said oh yeah, hold on we'll ask. Well of course I couldn't have anything, but then finally I got my X-Ray's and was ready to go, well, actually I had to wait another 45 minutes to get the nurse to take out my dumb IV. The way hospitals do things (especially Utah Valley) is so asanine. I couldn't even believe it. And they just stick us in these rooms, and yes of course I was fine and I would never put my needs especially those with a real wound (gunshot, overdose, broken limb etc) over mine, but I wanted to get the H out of there and off the back board which didn't help my already hurt back. The way medical things are handled now days is so ridiculous. And I just can't wait to see what Mr. President plans to do with Health Care.

Thursday and Friday

Hi everyone. This is just a reminder that I will be in my office all day on Thursday and Friday to meet with students and answer any questions you may have regarding the Classical Argument paper or the Genre Translation assignment. My flight from England was delayed, and I am just now getting home, so I will be coming in a bit later than I had anticipated tomorrow, but I will still be there all day. I will be in my office from 10:30 AM to 8 PM. (I may be there a little earlier, but I will be there by 10:30 for sure.) On Friday I will be there from 8AM to 8PM.

Oh, and my dissertation defense went really well. Thanks to those of you who wrote me about it.

-Dr. Westover (still sounds a bit weird, but I'll get used to it)