Half way there!

Good morning folks! Today is Friday June 27, 2008 which means we are officially half way through the summer semester! Give yourselves a pat on the back for surviving this far! Here are a few important reminders.

1. Grades: Right now I'm all caught up on grading (shocking, isn't it?) which means that the grades listed in the "Points so far" column of the gradebook are accurate after you have declared today's Digging Deeper points. Many of you should be very pleased and a few of you should be pretty scared.

2. Want an idea about your final grade in the class? Some of you with low grades need to consider your "earning potential" for the rest of the class and make a decision as to whether or not you want to stay in the class or drop.

• To do this, look at the "Points so far" column in the gradebook: you can see that so far you've had the opportunity to earn 205 points. There are a total of 470 points that can be earned in the class which means you can still earn a maximum of 265 points in these last 4 weeks.
• Now take the total points that you've earned so far and add 265 to them and divide by 470: that will give you the highest possible grade you can earn in the class.
• For example, if I've earned a total of 90 points in the class, that means I can AT BEST earn a total of 90 + 265 points, or 355 points. To figure out what my maximum final grade in the class would be I divide 355 by 470 to get 0.75 or 75%. This means that if were to score 100% on every single assignment for the rest of the semester, the best grade I can get is a C.
• That, of course, doesn't include extra credit. There are still 7 or 8 more Final Thoughts assignments that you can complete and a few more odds and ends that will probably pop up before the summer is over (for approximately an additional 20 points of extra credit).

3. Want to get out of here? I am absolutely NOT looking to get rid of any of you, but I do want to make sure that you all know the option to drop the class still exists. You can drop this class with my permission up until July 7th (a week from this coming Monday). If you are thinking about dropping, let me know ASAP because I have to send the appropriate emails since I'm not in Norman to sign drop slips.

4. Now....what's due today? Your Chapter 5 Digging Deeper assignments are due tonight by 8 with responses and declaration by 11.

5. What's coming up? Tomorrow's Saturday, so there's nothing officially due....unless of you course you would like to earn 2 points extra credit for turning in your Chapter 5 Freelance Writer assignments a day early! Get them to me by Saturday (and send me an email when you've posted) and I'll add 2 points to your grade.

6. Random rant about germs....I have been reading over the discussion board posts from the last two chapters and I just wanted to say a quick thing our two about germ-killing (discussed in Chapter 12). In particular, I'm referring to anti-bacterial soaps, toys, socks, t-shirts, plastic bags, and other consumer products. Folks, these products are harmful because they promote the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Although it is hard to find non-anti-bacterial soaps nowadays, you really should buy them if possible. They work as well as anti-bacterial ones, without promoting the evolution of resistant bacteria. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are among the greatest threats to public health today, and it's immoral for companies to keep pushing antibacterial products simply because people are uninformed and paranoid. [OK, the rant is over now. I feel better. :)]

That's it for today. As always, you know where to find me! Enjoy your Friday and the rest of your weekend!

Heather