Professor Jennifer McStotts' Blog » UrbanPlng

UP Grades

profmcs — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:19:41 +0000

Hello!
Glossary 2 grades and exam 2 grades are now posted; both should show up under My Grades, and under the assignment itself, there’s a downloadable rubric for the glossary. Two or three of you also got comments back directly on the document, so look for those.

Re: The exam’s curve. The best score in both classes was an 88. Curving the grades so everyone got 12 extra points put the average at 72 and the median at 68. While not ideal, it is acceptable. I did bear in mind if your exam score was lower than your normal grade when making final grades.

If you have questions, please make sure you’ve looked at all of your feedback, double checked your math, and cooled your temper before you email me.

Have a great summer!

UP Absence Grades Take Two

profmcs — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:50:26 +0000

[ETA: I posted this on Sunday, and though Wordpress says it's published, it's not showing up or sending my email alert, so here's my second try. Apologies if it double posts.]

I’ll be posting the absences grades tomorrow morning, but I wanted to post this explanation of how I calculated the grades.

Normally, my policy is to count each tardiness as .33 absences, but given how many of my 8 o’clock class had that problem, in sympathy I dropped it to .25.

I take the total number of absences, subtract the number of excused absences for which I received documented excuses, add the total number of tardies (times .25), and subtract four for acceptable absences. I’ve decided to also subtract 1 for a reasonable number of tardies (four). The number that remains is the number that I subtract from your total grade, per the syllabus. This number (times negative 1 to indicate that it will be subtracted) is what I’ll be releasing tomorrow morning.

A couple of you have had such good attendance that you will actually be getting extra credit for this. Your numbers will be positive. This is one of those rare cases where a 0 is an acceptable grade.

I’ll post here again next week when Glossary and second exam grades are done.
Best – Prof. McS

Urban Planning – Lynch and Absences

profmcs — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:17:52 +0000

All,

The Lynch grades are there, but apparently no one can see them. I tried re-revealing them yesterday to no avail, but I have another trick up my sleeve. Unfortunately, I have to wait to get in my office to try it, so just be patient.

As for all the questions I’ve been getting about absences – I’ll post absence grades in a special column on your My Grades WebCT page sometime this week so you can know how much, if any, you’ll be losing for absences greater than four. I don’t post them sooner to give time for all excuses to be processed. I’m not going to reply to individual requests about this except in extenuating circumstances.

That said, I’m not going to WA anyone, though some of you will be facing big deductions. Bear in mind that I look at your before-attendance and after-attendance grades, think about your participation in class, and compare how much of your attendance problem was absence and how much lateness BEFORE I enter final grades.

One last thing – for those of you frustrated by our various WebCT problems, know (1) that I am, too and (2) that the college is replacing WebCT next year with something more reliable and less… clunky. While WebCT worked wonderfully for going paperless last semester, it hasn’t this semester, and I’ve been more sympathetic in grading regarding your own tech problems because of it.

Okay! I’ll post here when Lynch has been reset, then when the glossary grades and exam grades are up respectively.

All the best – happy summer! – Prof. McS

UP Class

profmcs — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:40:08 +0000

The back up worked like a charm. None of your previous assignments changed, as I had been afraid they would, and the the thematic papers are now up! I hope to be able to post the Cities in Film and Lit papers before my afternoon class, but I will post again when I finish either way.

Teardowns

profmcs — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:04:43 +0000

In Wednesday in Urban Planning, we talked about teardowns. I promised to share some links and articles, so here they are. Please feel free to share your own in the comments below.

An article on teardowns from the NY Times – subscription required.
The Naperville (Chicago area) comments we discussed.
The notorious teardowns.com
The NPR piece, including the audio files.
The unfortunately dated Save-Hillcrest blog.

Glossaries!

profmcs — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:08:03 +0000

All UP Glossary writers,
The good news is that the glossaries are graded, saved in two places and test opened on both PCs and Macs. They are ready to upload, but(!) the bad news is, WebCT keeps stalling out on the files greater than 3MB, which is most of them. Since it is currently 4 a.m., I’m going to call it a night and finish the uploading of the files before and between classes. I imagine they will be up and released by 11 at the latest. Do email if there is still no grade showing at that time or if (heaven forbid) you can’t open the files.
Note, if you did a PPT, I may not be sending it back because I didn’t put comments on it. If you have questions, you know where to find me.
All the best – Prof. McS

Monday update – all classes and students

profmcs — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:14:56 +0000

Advising first, then Pres Law, then Urban Planning

If you need to see me for advising, go to http://profmcs.wikispaces.com/Advising to sign up.

PLE:

PrEx2 grades and files will be returned – hopefully – before class. First I have to post -

Midterm grades are the average of PrEx1 and 2, nothing more.

The powerpoint today will be posted but possibly at the last minute. I’ll post a big announcement on WebCT’s homepage when it’s done.

The assignment due today – prelim IP work – is now created. Sorry that I forgot it wasn’t up. If you emailed, please do return it as an assignment – it let’s me keep everything in one place.

URBAN:

Midterm grades do NOT include glossaries, which are not yet all graded.

Biographical Analysis Papers will be returned via WebCT later today, and exam grades – once curved – will be posted on WebCT as well.

Glossaries should be up later this week.

Midtown Unveiled

profmcs — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:29:11 +0000

On the current and local events front: “Midtown” Unveiled; project aims to spur transformation of Upper King Street.

The Midtown project will be presented to the Charleston Board of Architectural Review in a special meeting at 4:30 p.m. March 3 in the fourth-floor meeting room at 75 Calhoun St. I know it’s Spring Break, but maybe I’ll see some of you there. (For more information, you can see a city planning document with some great graphics at http://www.charleston.net/midtown/.)

For my urban planning students – does anything about this project make you think of Jane Jacobs? Robert Moses? Cataclysmic money even?

WebCT update – all classes

profmcs — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:38:03 +0000

Hello all.
Your Uploading Practice has been returned. Remember – the only acceptable formats are .doc, .pdf, and .ppt. (Grad students and PLE students, see me if you need to use something different so we can discuss compatibility.)
PLE students – two things.

Your Practical Exercise #1 (PrEx1) will be returned by Monday, midday, if not sooner. I’ll post here when I return them, but in the meantime, please remember to look before class so we can deal with any questions you feel comfortable sharing in class on Monday.
Your readings for all of next week are up – DOTA, NEPA, and Dole.

Thanks! I’m staying home tomorrow to grade but will be in on Friday.

My Photography Policy

profmcs — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:37:27 +0000

As my Urban Planning students and I discussed last week, my policy on using photography or illustrations of any kind in assignments is that the work should either be your own or something you have a license to use. That’s why we covered Flickr and Creative Commons last week.
Well, a thought occurred to me during my own photography research earlier this week, which is that another batch of photographs you have a limited license to use is National Archive material. You can search the Library of Congress, and specifically the American Memory Collection, to find a lot of really fascinating images and material. Maps, photographs, many many things to explore. The entire HABS collection is there under Built in America (link in the bar on the right as well).
Take a look at the Reproduction Rights and necessary attribution information before you use it, but much of it is public domain (or close enough for a school paper).
Comment here if you have questions or other ideas for sources.