Welcome!

Happy spring semester 2012, and welcome to my English 101 blog! I'm Niki, and this is my tenth semester teaching Writing I. I've taught at both Missouri State University (where it's called English 110) and at Ozarks Technical Community College (English 101). In the past, my classes have done their blogging (my classes' version of journaling) here at Blogger on a private class blog, but to simplify things, we're blogging on Blackboard. Of course, I don't want to limit my students getting to experience some outside sources, so I'm starting this blog primarily for my students, but also for anyone who wants to follow the progress of my class each semester. I'll do my best to offer a little context for my outside readers while remaining brief enough that my students don't have to re-experience the exact same lecture they received in class (yikes!).

I'll be posting some of the highlights from some of the more interesting lectures and discussions, as well as posting supplementary information and media for my students' benefit. Some of our discussions run out of time, so a great way to keep thinking about some of the concepts and debates is to dig a little deeper later on that day.  I won't always post after every class, though I will try to post each week with at least a highlight of where we're at in the semester. Feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed or to receive emails when the blog is updated.

This is also where you'll get to hear a little more from me and how I feel about some of the topics. I don't want to hinder the my students' stories with too many of my own while we're talking, so I may give my own perspective here where you get to read if you want, or ignore it if you so choose. :)

Well, I guess we'll see how this goes! Enjoy!