Students: First day of class To Do list.

First off,
Welcome. I'm looking forward to teaching you this year. We're going to try something different, and we'll see how it goes. As this class is primarily about turning you into a fully functioning human being that's capable of forming and defending your own opinions in an adult fashion, we're going to exploit your generation's love for the internet.

Step 1.
If you don't already have an email address that is in the format of mylastname.myfirstname@somethingthatisn'tembarassing.com

I am going to require that you get a gmail address that is in the format of myfirstname.mylastname@gmail.com

This will be for a completion grade. This is due before the next time I see you. You either get a 100% for doing it in time, or a 50% for doing it late, or a 0% for not doing it at all.

Step 2.

You're going to e-mail me at mr.ajjarapu@gmail.com and notify me if your address is different than what I would expect to see based on what I am looking at in Gradespeed (i.e. you go by your middle name, or nobody uses your given name for whatever reason, or perhaps you have a very common name and your address is now Michael.Smith276@gmail.com or something else that I would need to know).  Your e-mail should say something like...

"Hello Mr. Ajjarapu,
This is ______________ from your ___ period history of rock class. Please not that my e-mail address is exactly/not exactly what you would expect based on what you see in Gradespeed.

Sincerely,
________________"

This will be another completion grade. Spelling counts. Grammar counts. Being appropriately formal counts. This will also be due before I see you next, and the same grading applies.

As you get to know me, it'll seem wierd that I'm requiring this of you, but keep in mind that it's only because I care. Most of your classmates either don't know how to write well, or don't care to prove that they are capable. These are skills that you will need at some point in your life, and not just because you're getting tested on them in order to graduate.

Step 3.
Go to blogger.com and sign up for a blog with an appropriate name. You can be clever, but be clean. You will e-mail me your blog's address, and we'll share that with all of the classes. This is where you will post twice weekly for completion/content grades. You may blog more than that for extra credit if you have poor grades that you would like to raise. You may not cram a bunch of blog entries in at the end of the six weeks to inflate your grade.  Your two entries are due by Saturday morning, when I will read them over coffee and breakfast.  No late assignments will be accepted. It's either on time, or it isn't. I think that that is more than fair.  Extra credit blog entries will have a maximum grade of 90%. They will be averaged into your grade as if they were regular assignments, so a bunch of poorly done extra credit blogs will LOWER your average. Your zeros, or other lower grades, will also be averaged, they will not be dropped. I hope that that is clear enough.

At least one of your blog entries per week will be about what we listened to in class. You may cite allmusic.com but you may not cite wikipedia.org.  Both of your blog entries may be about what we listened to in class. No more than one of your blog entries may be about current music that you're listening to, IN THE WEEK THAT YOU ARE LISTENING TO IT.  Keep it current and start hipping us to new stuff. In new music blog posts, you may reference other blogs of note or music industry magazine sites and reviews.

If you don't know what to talk about when it comes to classic recordings that we are going to listen to in class, start learning to talk about music in terms of influences, texture, complexity and other musical and sonic qualities. Start reading lyrics at home, and listen to the albums on spotify so that you can start registering an opinion on lyrics. Do NOT just say, I like it because it rocks, or I hate it because it sucks. That is a surefire way to get a zero for a completion grade.

If you don't have access to a computer or the internet, you should figure out where our library is and when you can use it that isn't during your classes. What I'm saying is, you don't have an excuse to not do this, and if you really feel like you do... please drop my class and save us both the headache.

This is your chance to write about something that matters to you, and about a bunch of albums that might not mean anything to you.  Still, those albums meant something to someone once, and it might benefit you to ask and answer the question "Why?".

Twice a week for a completion/content grade. A finished blog with proper grammar and spelling is worth a passing grade of 70%. If you're mildly entertaining, and slightly insightful, that's an 80%. If you're actually intelligent, funny, and draw novel conclusions, or state daring opinions that you then defend, that's a 90%. If you do all of that, and you make me chuckle or laugh at what a smart cookie you are, that's a 100%. Easy enough?

That's four grades for the first week, plus two grades a week for the next five weeks after for a total of 14 grades for the first six weeks. There might be more assignments than that, but I'll call audibles from the line of scrimmage as needed.  Some people are great at participating in class, and some people aren't, so this is kind of the great equalizer.

Get to work, but don't work ahead.

Mr. A.

p.s. Get a spotify account so you can listen to most of the albums we cover outside of class. You can sign in with your facebook account. You're responsible for any information you miss in class in the case of a quiz or a test. Allmusic.com is your friend, and you should bookmark it.