Week Two

Hi everyone – Well, we made it to week two! I think most of you are figuring out OpenLab and please don’t hesitate to email me with questions. It takes a little time to get the hang of, but once you do I think you will like it. Plus, it gives you experience with WordPress, which will potentially be valuable outside of this class – I know it has been for me.

Before I review the assignments for this week, I want to highlight a little bit about my teaching philosophy. First, I want this course to feel like a community of learners. That includes me. I learn a lot from you and what you post. I am not an authority figure who is here to police you, make sure you are doing everything, and penalize you if you aren’t. I am more like a community facilitator who guides where we are going and offers feedback but does not judge or penalize.

So what does this mean about grading and deadlines? I am flexible. I wish I could get rid of grading completely, but I can’t. This is why grades are given based on how much you DO rather than how perfectly you master the material. So you can feel free to mess up and have it not hurt your grade. As far as deadlines, I would love it if you can meet all of them, but I know we are all human and things come up. If you look at the syllabus, I give you some “freebies,” as in you can miss up to three posts of each kind without it impacting your grade. If you find that you are struggling beyond this, please reach out and we can figure something out.

The reason I teach this course is that I believe that the more people who understand gender, oppression, justice, etc. the better. What I hope is that you finish the semester with a deeper understanding and willingness to take this knowledge into your own lives to make the world a more just place to live. I will treat you like I hope you will treat me: with compassion, kindness, and respect.

And here are the assignments for this week:

Add a Profile Image

If you haven’t already, add an image to your OpenLab profile. It doesn’t have to be a picture of you, but it can be. It will give those of us who are visual thinkers something to picture when we read your posts and responses. Here is a tutorial on how to add an image if you need some help:

Reading Reflection Number 1

This week you have two short readings to do. Readings can always be found hyperlinked in the course schedule. For this week you have two readings:

  • Sex & Gender 101 by Kyl Meyers. This is a piece from Kyl’s website “Raising Zoomer” which is focused on gender-creative parenting.
  • Feminist Politics: Where We Stand by bell hooks. This is a chapter from the book Feministm is for Everbody by bell hooks, who recently passed away. In it, hooks outlines her definition of feminism. Please note I have provided the entire book with this link, but you only need to read the one chapter, which starts a few pages in on the PDF, after the introduction to the book.

I suggest the first thing you do for the week is to complete these readings. Take your time and go as slowly as you need to. This is new information for many of you and might be hard to wrap your head around. After you complete the readings, go ahead and write your reading reflection. Do this by Wednesday, February 9 at 11:59 pm.

How to Create the Post

  • 1) Click on the black plus sign in a white circle at the very top of the site (in the black bar) to start the post draft:
  • 2) In the title box, type the title “[FirstName] [LastName] Reflection 1“.
  • 3) In the body of the post, type your response to the prompt.
  • 4) On the right side, choose the post category “Reflection 1.” Your post will not publish without a category.
  • 5) Click the blue Publish button on the top right.

Discussion Post Number 2

The prompt for Discussion 2 asks you to reflect on the readings. So please do those first. Make your post by Wednesday, February 9 at 11:59 pm. You will also want to respond to at least three of your classmates’ posts by Friday, February 11 at 11:59 pm.