About the present and near future

Hi everyone, I hope class went well today and that you had a good opportunity to get to know your group and figure out what direction you want to take your group project.

Informative Briefs
Your grades are up. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like additional feedback.

You can find links to your speech videos on YouTube by going to the "assignments" tab, clicking on "informative briefing," and opening the document with YouTube links for your section. Feel free to comment on your own videos in a reflective manner and to comment on your classmates' videos in order to give them feedback -- those comments will count as your weekly requirements.

Wednesday's class
We have a great guest speaker coming in this Wednesday, I will be posting his bio soon. I will make the trip to campus for this occasion -- to be there to welcome him, listen to what he will be sharing with us, and later work with you guys as you meet with your group to brainstorm potential interviewees and interview questions.

Remember that your your group blog post is due by class time on Wednesday.  ALSO, you will turn in interview questions in class on Wednesday.


Friday's class
On Friday we are scheduled to review for the midterm. Unfortunately, I'm will not be able to get myself to campus because I'm still on strong pain killers which make me less than lucid. The reason I'm going to class on Wednesday is because our guest speaker will be taking over and I can just sit and listen with you all. I don't think sending in a substitute for the midterm review is the way to go because she/he wouldn't necessarily know what we have covered and what will go into the midterm.

So after some thought, here is what I came up with -- your midterm study guide is now posted under the "resources" tab. Instead of reviewing in class on Friday, I have created a Facebook group for our class. I started a discussion for our midterm there. Feel free to ask ALL of your midterm-related questions by commenting on that post. By creating a thread under that ONE post, the class (both sections) will benefit from reading what other questions your classmates have asked, building on those, and asking additional questions.

Though I encourage you to post on the group wall so that the rest of the class can see the discussion, feel free to use the new group chat feature to chat with me and ask me any specific, individual questions in real time.

Here is the link to our Facebook group: http://on.fb.me/comm107fall2010 -- Feel free to bookmark it on your browser!

Please let me know what you think and if you have any other ideas.

Also, please let me know if you're NOT on Facebook! I don't mean to exclude anyone because they're not a member of the site. Whatever you need, we'll work it out.

Midterm
Your midterm will be proctored by a substitute. Please be there on time. No exceptions.

Post-midterm
Some of you have brought up the note cards I made you fill out at the beginning of the semester. Those WILL make a come back. We will practice impromptu public speaking more and more after the midterm.

Please work with your groups as diligently and with as much dedication as possible. The first group is scheduled to present on November 1. PLEASE NOTE: The end-product of your group projects is NOT a powerpoint presentation given in class... it is a DYNAMIC class session. You will be taking over the class on that day and you need to share what you have learned with us with an engaging class activity.

Finally...
I want to apologize for my upcoming absences. Know that I'm always available online and that I'm trying to keep up with everything going on in the class and the blog as much as I can while also resting and recovering.

See you all Wednesday!