I believe that one of the most important ingredients of learning is simply being there amongst others who are learning alongside you. Therefore, I weigh attendance highly in your course grade. Please strive to be present for every scheduled class meeting. In class, you not only benefit from lessons, explanations, exercises, and activities, but you also hear the answers to other students’ questions, as well as schedule updates.

Class begins the second the clock strikes our start time, so if class is scheduled for 10:00, it begins at 10:00 on the dot, not 10:01 or 30 seconds after 10. For full daily attendance credit, the very second that class begins, I look for students to be seated at a desk with notebook, printed materials, and writing utensils in front of them. Backpacks, purses, phones, and earbuds should be stowed away. Let's call this "clocking in" for class.

You may be physically in the room, but you are not "present" until you are clocked in. Clocking-in means that you are ready to learn at a moment’s notice; if you’re still zipping and unzipping, getting out materials, checking your messages, etc., you are not yet engaged in the class or ready for learning. If you are not clocked-in when class begins, you may be marked "tardy."

If you do have to miss class, please let me know before the class period and communicate with me (and/or you classmates) after the class period for important exercises, readings, assignments, and updates you missed. Rather than distinguishing between excused and unexcused absences, any missed class can be made up by attending an extra conference (not included in those already required) within a week of the missed class period.

If a student misses fewer than 15 minutes of class (either by arriving late, leaving early, or both), they will be marked “tardy” for the day. If you arrive late, be sure to check with me after class to be marked on the roll for that class meeting.

Participation may also affect your daily attendance score. You can show that you are engaged and willing to participate by volunteering to speak when volunteers are called for, speaking when called on, engaging in all writing, note-taking, or research activities, responding to questions that I or other students pose to the class, and offering you interpretations and perspectives during class discussion.

I encourage you to have a laptop with you, but please wait until instructed to have it on your desk before setting it up. There will be times in nearly every class period during which I'll expect your desk to be clear except for a notebook and writing implement.

Please remove earbuds before you enter the classroom, and keep them out until verbally permitted.

You should always aim for established deadlines. But I know that life is full of obstacles and delays. Falling behind can feel overwhelming and cause you to become discouraged and consider giving up on the class--I don't want this to happen! I would always prefer to work with you on catching up than to see you go. The key, again, here is communication! If something is going on to delay your work, talk to me about it. If you think you'll need an extension, ask for one. In fact, if there's anything that you're not sure I'll allow you to do, just ask. The worst that can happen is that I'll say no and offer an alternative. If you do need an extension or want to talk about a make-up schedule, I'll usually ask you to propose the updated deadlines so that the agency to complete your work on schedule remains with you.

Sometimes, if the weather is nice, we may hold class outside on the campus instead of within our scheduled classroom. If you arrive to class late and the room is empty, check for a written message guiding you to our current location. If, for any reason, you expect holding class outside could be difficult or uncomfortable for you, please email me and let me know as soon as possible!

Delgado Community College requires that students adhere to the highest standards of academic integrity. Students are entrusted to be honest in every phase of their academic life and to present as their own work only that which is genuinely theirs. Plagiarism or other falsification of academic work is a serious breach of College standards. 

Plagiarism is defined as any attempt to represent the work of another as one's own original work. More specifically, plagiarism is the direct appropriation of the language, thoughts, or ideas of another—either literally or in paraphrase—without appropriate notation of the source and in such fashion as to imply that the work is one's own original work. Plagiarism can be as small as a partial sentence taken from an outside source without proper credit or a basic sentence structured taken from an outside source with a few words changed. No matter how small, plagiarism cannot be accepted. I've found that most cases of plagiarism that I encounter frequently are one of the two above cases and are usually committed by accident or ignorance of the rules. There will never be a penalty for asking me before you submit a composition if certain language is considered original, or if you've accidentally committed plagiarism. Please talk to me if you ever feel unclear on this or have any questions at all pertaining to academic honesty!

All out-of-class compositions will be submitted an originality checker (Turn It In) before the work is graded.

Depending on the nature of the case, a student guilty of academic dishonesty may receive penalties ranging from a grade of "F" for the work submitted to expulsion from the College. 

Here's my main message about academic honesty: Please never let mere convenience become more important to you than your natural right to think for yourself.