- We take attendance for EVERY class, except for the first week of school and otherwise noted. Attendance is 25% of your grade.
- Excused absences are those that are documented through the Dean of Students office, and infectious sicknesses with documentation (like the flu).
- Absences that can be made up (with some limitations) are school-related activities such as sports, debate team, etc, post-graduation job interviews, and grad school interviews.
- These MUST be cleared in advance with me. You are responsible for finishing your makeup work before the end of the semester.
- Unexcused absences include: work, sleeping in, mild illness, your computer dying, etc.
- If you are absent 3 or fewer times during the semester, you will get a bonus of 8 attendance points at the end of the semester.
- I do not take absences personally. You know how much time and energy you have vs. the demands of your life. Just don’t ask me to give you points for classes you did not attend.
- If you have SSD accommodations that include absences, please make an appointment with me at the beginning of the semester and we will discuss options.
- Ask permission, not forgiveness. I am much more likely to work with you if I know what your needs are in advance or as soon as possible.
Category: Expectations
For my repeat students and students taking multiple courses this semester: Please read
As you (meaning those of you who have taken my classes before) know, I have a variety of guest speakers present during the semester. Some of them you have seen before, and some of the presentations are the same. Some are not. Here is a list of presentations you can either skip if you saw them in a previous semester, or skip one of if you are taking two or more classes during the semester with the same presentation:
- Center for Child Protection
- Meg’s presentation on LBGTQ parenting
- Seedling Mentors
You must notify me and the TA if you want to get attendance for the one you skip. Do this via email to the TA, and cc me. Here are the ones you can’t skip:
- Blanton Museum
- Dr. Reiz on attachment theory
- All other scheduled presentations/guest speakers/instructors
For when your profs insist you use a gendered pronoun:
Summer 2019
I have office hours, usually in my office from 12:45-1:45 on Mondays, but contact me if you’re not in my class because I move around depending on the weather. I will be on campus daily until the end of the second week in July. I will be out of town from July 28-August 5. You can contact me for meetings via email or text.
Please note I will be doing a limited number of grad school recommendations in the Fall semester, so please contact me ASAP if you need one.
Writing Flags: Stuff you should know as of Fall 2019 courses
Here are the things that your APA papers must be or have:
- Hanging indent – they are annoying, but they are required.
- Alphabetical references – nonnegotiable
- No second person (you, yours)
- In-text citations. Attribution is vital. Sometimes it takes a bit to get a feel for when to use attribution, but we have time.
- Basic formatting – Double spaced Times New Roman, 12pts. Cover page on large papers.
Things I will annoy you with so many times that you will eventually give in:
- Sentence case on titles – I am not going to knock points off your final paper if you don’t catch all of these, but do your best. Most auto-citation stuff (including Zotero) won’t fix this, so you have to go back through and fix it. Do it the first time you cite and you won’t have to worry about it later.
- Spacing – Pretty much every element in an APA reference has a period and a space after it.
- Formatting of in-text quotes. They are different depending on whether you are quoting or not, and APA is different than MLA. Watch a tutorial or read the basic page on it in the Purdue Owl and you should be good.
- Download Zotero. It will help you catalogue and organize your references, and you can drag and drop citations. You can thank me in grad school.
Things I won’t bug you about that I or other teachers may have bugged you about in the past:
- First person. If you are describing anecdotal information (personal experience) it’s fine. If you are describing your research method, also fine. Just don say, “In my opinion” because that’s implicit and weakens your statement. More details here.
- “They” as a non-gendered pronoun. APA will likely incorporate this in the next round anyway, and gendering is tricky. So you can say, “They were a good friend” instead of “He or she was a good friend”. Hallelujah. If the gender of the subject isn’t identified, you don’t have to do the whole he/she/one/pluralization dance anymore.
Dr. Michelann Quimby 