Boy and Mother Flee to Mexico?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520960,00

Update: Judge Rules Family Can't Refuse Chemo for Boy

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/CancerPreventionAndTreatment/wireStory?id=7592966

Boy Refuses Cancer Treatments for Religious Reasons

Watch more The Wall Street Journal videos on AOL Video

What is a Bindi?

The bindi is arguably the most visually fascinating of all forms of body decoration. Hindus attach great importance to this ornamental mark on the forehead between the two eyebrows -- a spot considered a major nerve point in human body since ancient times. Also loosely known as 'tika', 'pottu', 'sindoor', 'tilak', 'tilakam', and 'kumkum', a bindi is usually a small or a big eye-catching round mark made on the forehead as adornment.
That Red Dot

In southern India, girls choose to wear a bindi, while in other parts of India it is the prerogative of the married woman. A red dot on the forehead is an auspicious sign of marriage and guarantees the social status and sanctity of the institution of marriage. The Indian bride steps over the threshold of her husband's home, bedecked in glittering apparels and ornaments, dazzling the red bindi on her forehead that is believed to usher in prosperity, and grants her a place as the guardian of the family's welfare and progeny.
A Hot Spot!

The area between the eyebrows, the sixth chakra known as the 'agna' meaning 'command', is the seat of concealed wisdom. It is the centre point wherein all experience is gathered in total concentration. According to the tantric cult, when during meditation the latent energy ('kundalini') rises from the base of the spine towards the head, this 'agna' is the probable outlet for this potent energy. The red 'kumkum' between the eyebrows is said to retain energy in the human body and control the various levels of concentration. It is also the central point of the base of the creation itself — symbolizing auspiciousness and good fortune.

(about.com)

BLACKBOARD TROUBLES

Hello Everyone, thank you for your notes. I know BB is having trouble- I have had trouble accessing it as well. No worries. There will be no late penalties. It something is missing or you just can't get it, hang tight and it will be ok. You will have through next week to complete it if needed.

Purity Ball?

I had never heard of such a thing until now...

Abstinence Programs, Government Funding

School Distributed Birth Control

The Verdict is In!

Finally! Jury was 12-0 on all: Breach of Contract, Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Fraud and Malicious Conduct and Punitive. Wasn't sure what the jury was going to do after 3 weeks of this, but they threw the book at him and agreed on every tiny detail...recovery unlikely but yay! for today!

Where I am Today

Here is where I am today: please donate anything you can, if you can via PayPal to the Ortega Family (Santa Murders)...we are at a benefit today raising money for 15 children orphaned by this man's violent act.
Paypal address: ortegafamilyfund@yahoo.com
Whatever (even a few dollars) will help these families. Thank you for your support!

“Santa” Lost Job, Wife Before Attack
Bruce Pardo, the man who, dressed as Santa, killed 9 in a vicious attack earlier this week, lost both his job and wife prior to the murders.

From the Associated Press:

Bruce and Sylvia Pardo started the new year in 2006 with all signs pointing to a bright future — an upcoming marriage, a combined income of about $150,000, half-million-dollar home on a quiet cul-de-sac and a beloved dog, Saki.

But things quickly turned sour and divorce documents paint a bitter picture of Bruce Pardo’s increasing desperation as he lost first his wife, then his job and finally the dog. By fall 2008, Pardo was asking a judge to have his ex-wife pay him support and cover his attorney’s fees.

Pardo’s downward slide ended Christmas Eve, when the 45-year-old electrical engineer donned a Santa suit and massacred nine people at his former in-laws’ house in Covina, where a family Christmas party was under way. He began by shooting an 8 year old girl who answered the door (excited to see Santa) in the face. He then used a homemade device disguised as a present to spray racing fuel that quickly sent the home up in flames.

Pardo had planned to flee to Canada following the killing spree but suffered third-degree burns in the fire — which melted part of the Santa suit to him — and decided to kill himself instead, investigators said. His body, with a bullet wound to the head, was found at his brother’s home about 40 miles away.

The rented compact car he had driven to his former in-laws house was rigged to set off 500 rounds of ammunition and later exploded outside his brother’s home. No one was injured.

Police found a second car rented by Pardo late Saturday, but Covina police spokesman Lt. Pat Buchanan said the bomb squad did not find any explosives in that vehicle.

The slaughter came six days after Pardo and his ex-wife appeared in court to finalize their divorce. Police believe the dead included Sylvia Pardo, 43, and her parents, Joseph Ortega, 80, and his 70-year-old wife, Alicia. Other suspected victims were Sylvia Pardo’s two brothers and their wives, her sister and a 17-year-old nephew.

Police listed the victims as unaccounted for because coroner’s officials said the nine bodies were too badly charred for immediate identification.

15 children have been left without parents.

End of Year Schedule

End of Year Schedule:
April 24, Friday: In Person Class (Paper Due)
April 27, 29, May 1 (MWF): In person Class- Required Film for Final
May 4, 6, 8 (MWF) ONLINE CLASSES
May 11, 13 (MW) PRESENTATIONS 15 (F) Final Lecture
Wednesday May 20, Final Exam

Happy Earth Day

I'm driving a Prius this week.
Do you recycle? You should.

Schedule

Good Morning-
Obviously I am held here and not sure what day they are releasing me. So today is online (as usual) but for Wednesday & Friday plan on being in class regardless as I had a movie planned. You will be answering questions as you go for Wednesday and Friday. I will have Skype on this morning if you want to "call" or just call me as you usually would if you have any questions.

What would you do?

About thinking you Know Someone's Story just By Looking at them...

After you watch this, know that sometimes you just aren't right in your assumptions, no matter how right you may feel. I just thought this was a wonderful example.


Britains Got Talent 2009 Susan Boyle (Singer) (HD) - The top video clips of the week are here

Extra Credit Offer

2 points to the first student who takes on the job of compiling Chapter 7 OR Chapter 8 slideshows. I just finished Chapter 7, reformatted those that needed to be formatted, did a couple of corrections, picked a theme, and it disappeared along with my internet connection.

You will be getting a head start on your assignment/ studying for next week/ final exam...so it will kill two birds with one stone... any takers? They will need to be back to me by Friday afternoon:)

Chapter 7 is ready to work on now (all under discussions)...and Chapter 8 is going to be ready tomorrow after everyone is done, but I suppose you could get started now.

Two students, one for each chapter, 2 points each.

First one who emails me @ kholmes@uu.edu.

Chapter 7 Quiz Results

Column Statistics for: Chapter 7 Quiz
Count: 19
Average: 8.3
Median: 8.0
Maximum: 10.0
Minimum: 6.0
Standard Deviation: 1.33

Everyone add one point to your score- there was a glitch. It won't show in BB, I will just be adding it at the end to your score.

Happy Wednesday!

Would you want your parents to harvest your eggs or sperm if you died?

DALLAS (AP) - Nikolas Colton Evans had talked about how much he wanted to have a child, but the 21-year-old died after he was punched and hit his head on the ground in a fight. That would have been the end of it, if it weren't for his determined mother, a court order and a urologist.
Missy Evans has harvested her dead son's sperm and hopes to find a surrogate and one day raise her son's child. It's a decision that ethicists say raises troubling questions; one called the potential offspring a "replacement child."
Evans isn't concerned about what others might think. She says she is only doing what her son would have wanted.
"He would love me so much for doing this," she said.
Austin police say Nikolas Evans was punched during a fight on an Austin street early March 27 and then fell to the ground, striking his head. He died April 5. Police are still trying to identify the person who hit him. READ THE REST HERE

If you aren't sure who Long Duck Dong is...

(From your text reference on p.258)
CLICK HERE

More on Sexless Marriage

Sexless Marriage Talk

Twitter and Social Networking

HOOKING UP

CLICK HERE

Grade Stats for Chapter 6

Column Statistics for: Chapter 6 Quiz
Count: 22
Average: 8.3
Median: 8.0
Maximum: 10.0
Minimum: 5.0
Standard Deviation: 1.39

Project Implicit: Harvard

PDA Clip

Racism Experiment

These are all over Campus

Hello :) Some of you are still using "but I didn't get the email" as an excuse. You can't miss these flyers that have been all over campus, all year. I think I see 7 on the way to classes in the morning. For those of you that missed my announcement in class last week about the BB email system: Make sure that you have your forwarding email set up in your PROFILE...it is in a strange place- along with your hobbies etc. Just pick the email that you use the most and it will forward everything that comes to you in the Blackboard email system. You can't reply to it, but at least you know it is there and don't have to log in constantly.

Contact info for March 29- April 5

My time zone is 6 hours ahead. Feel free to Skype if it is reasonable, OR email. Please no calls or text messages. I have to leave my phone on for my family, but I can't afford student calls too :) I will check in as often as possible. See you soon!

Reminder for 1st Draft Due Friday

This includes copy and paste and copy and word-change around.

How do you make it your own words (paraphrase)? Read the section you think is interesting. Then put it out of sight, and write what you think it said/ meant and then add (Smith, 2009) at the end. This will help you avoid using someone else's words as your own becuase that is all that you see.

Please check BB for more feedback given yesterday to the first poster :)

Midterm Stats- 91% Average, Wow!

Count: 22
Average: 61.7
Median: 63.0
Maximum: 70.0
Minimum: 49.5
Standard Deviation: 6.08

Schedule Reminders

Wednesday March 18: MIDTERM

Friday March 20: Regular Schedule, 1st Draft Due (see earlier blog posts, BB)

Next Week: Spring Break!

Following Week (March 30, April 1, April 3): MWF all online, as I am speaking in Luxembourg. So some of you will be thrilled, some of you sad to have three online classes in a row!

Our first week back together (April 6, April 8) will be MW will be in person, Friday is a Holiday (April 10)!

The calendar (in BB), amazingly has stayed up to date all semester, so it is a great place to check to make sure what we are doing, and on what date. The Blog is also frequently updated.

PresentationFeedback & Midterm Information

Hello All-
Great work today Dusty and Maria! They set the bar high for everyone that follows.

For Monday, we will have 3 groups presenting so let's be careful with time. We may need to have a "halfway" warning from someone in the audience ;) You really only have two minutes to set up in between partner groups. What helps is putting all of your video clip links onto the slides so you don't have to search them out (and you can just click on them in order). Watch for typos. Both of you should read through them first- you can catch most mistakes that way:)

If you are cut off due to time, just refer everyone to your slides in BB...

Dusty and Maria will be putting their slides on BB under discussions (midterm) for a reminder with a little bit of info on what Eastern Orthodox is (just one slide, very basic D & M). There will be about 3 questions from each presentation- so being present is important.

I know how early 8 am is, but do try and participate as much as possible in presentations, it makes the presentation much easier for you- you too will be up there soon:)

Thanks for a great class!

Dr. Holmes

Chapter 5 Quiz

Column Statistics for: Chapter 5 Quiz
Count: 22
Average: 8.2
Median: 8.0
Maximum: 10.0
Minimum: 6.0
Standard Deviation: 1.05

Second Chance at Chapter 5

To those who did not complete the quiz, I am reopening it from now until 7:30 am. This is the last chance you have for it. I will not accept any excuses as to why you didn't get it done, or offer further extensions on the quiz. Please let your friends know.

Make sure you have read the chapter as I am only allowing 20 minutes to complete the quiz on this round- which means you don't have time to look up every answer as you go.

From now on, it is EXPECTED that you are checking for updates in BB and on the Blog (as well as obviously reading your email), and if you don't understand what is there, I am happy to answer any questions that you may have.

TIP: If you want to know when email comes to BB, just put a forwarding email address in your profile settings and you will get a copy of the email to the address you check all the time (that is what I do).

See you in the morning for presentations!

Dr. Holmes

Chapter 4 Quiz Results

Column Statistics for: Chapter 4 Quiz
Count: 17
Average: 9.5
Median: 9.5
Maximum: 10.0
Minimum: 9.0
Standard Deviation: 0.50


MUCH better. It appears that this quiz was much easier for you all in general. :)

Nepotism- What is it?

nep⋅o⋅tism   [nep-uh-tiz-uhm]
–noun
patronage bestowed or favoritism shown on the basis of family relationship, as in business and politics: She was accused of nepotism when she made her nephew an officer of the firm.

Midterm Covers Chapters 1-5 in the Text

1st Paper Draft- Post it in BB

Paper Guidelines/ Topics DUE MARCH 20

(Pick ONE... although your chosen topic may veer into others).

Cohabitation

Marrying Later

Happiness in Marriage

Interracial Marriage

***others topics are subject to approval- just drop me an email.

When grading your written work, I will be looking for the following:
1. The ability to express yourself clearly and in a well organized fashion.
2. A thoughtful and relevant response to all parts of the issue at hand.
3. Correct spelling and/or grammar.
4. An integration of reading and other material that goes beyond simple recitation.
5. INTEGRATION OF RESEARCHED ARTICLES- PEER REVIEWED. Read the content, not just the abstract. APA or MLA, but be consistent. Make sure you know what a research article is, what peer-reviewed means. If you have a bunch of magazine articles as references (i.e. they are easy to read) your grade will be lowered significantly. Research articles are challenging (often boring). It is up to you to make it interesting- that is what all the magazines do that talk about Smith and Smith (2008) found…

(See syllabus for more on this).

I have absolutely NO tolerance for plagiarism. Ask anyone who has had me before. You will get an “F” (in the class, not just the paper) if you copy and paste ANYTHING or copy word-for-word (or attempt to change a few words around). I am easygoing in many regards, but this is not one of them.

THAT SAID: For the 20th, you need to have found 5 articles that relate to your chose topic. Write a good paragraph or so on each of the articles how the article supports your topic or idea. What you are turning in on the 20th should be about 2 pages in length. Write it in such a way that you will be able to integrate this into your final paper (final paper page length 5-7 pages).

Write it in Word, and then paste it in the Discussion Topic for the Assigned date. You will give feedback to at least 2 other classmates. Be critical, it will only help their final grade. If you see two people have already given feedback to a classmate, move on to the next.

Chapter 3 Quiz Statistics

Count: 22
Average: 8.6
Median: 9.0
Maximum: 10.0
Minimum: 6.0
Standard Deviation: 1.14

ONLINE CLASSES & Videographer

Monday March 9

Wednesday March 11

Friday March 13- We may have a videographer from Union Taping, just fair warning- you may want to shower. Midterm questions answered on this day. Go to the discussion area of BB for Midterm Study help. Mostly multiple choice.

- Class Presentations

Monday March 16- Class Presentations

Wednesday March 18- MIDTERM

Friday March 20- Drafts Due, possibly online (depends how M/W online classes go)

Presentation Guidlines

Who, What, When, Where, Why?

Who is this culture?

Where are they located? Is it more than one place (this would be a good place to use visuals!)

Languages

Food

Customs

Common Family Structures

Applicable Historical Context (what happened in their history to affect who they are today?)

Assimilation into US Culture

Healthcare

Religious Beliefs

Common Practices (How would you embarrass yourself if you were in their country?)

How are roles viewed (working, mothers, fathers, children)

Top 5 things to know before working with a family from this culture…

Use Powerpoint, 15-20 Minutes. If you use clips they should not be more than 5 minutes of the presentation. Both of you need to show a balance of work. Handouts are great.

What Happens to Illegal Immigrants?

Immigration Views

Great Powerpoint Project!

Best Work:
Mary Perkins
Leandra Morgan: Images

Daycare Costs

Partner Projects

March 13
Dusty and Maria
Emily and Becca


March 16
Michelle and Amanda
Katie and Jennifer

Themes of "How I learn Best"

*Those who like to write, use BB, quizes Despise group work
*Those who like groupwork don't like reading, or writing on BB
*Lecture- all over the place!

Blackboard overall has a pretty good learning rating. A good number of you (more than half) learn well on your own. So the structure of the class (with many online classes) should support this type of learning.

Part of the reason I am making partner only groups is that groups of 3 or more tend to have slackers. In partner groups, if one partner slacks, it is pretty obvious, and the grade reflects this (you get individual grades even though you present together).

If you have a partner that is not pulling their weight, you need to let me know.

I didn't come up with anything fantastic. You all learn in different ways, so I will continue mixing methods!

Attendance affects your grade. Don't let this surprise you at grading time. You have many online classes, which gives you flexibility- which is all the more reason to make sure you make it to in- person classes.

See you next Wednesday!

Dr. Holmes

Chapter 3 Groupwork

 

 

 

 

Quiz Chapter 2 Results

Statistics for: Chapter 2 Quiz
Count: 21
Average: 8.7
Median: 9.0
Maximum: 10.0
Minimum: 6.0

REMINDERS!

1: CLASS SCHEDULE FOR NEXT WEEK
We meet IN PERSON on Monday

CLASS IS ONLINE both Wednesday and Friday.

Follow Syllabus as is after that :)

2: EDITS
Edit your discussions for typos, grammar and sentence structure. It WILL count towards your grade.

3. Chapter 3 Quiz:
Since we are meeting in person on Monday, Quiz will be due by MIDNIGHT on Wednesday.

A Brief History of the USA (Bowling for Columbine Clip)

Updates

Chapter 1 Quiz is UP in Blackboard, you have until Monday at noon to complete it (click on "Assessments").

Please complete discussion post for 2/9/09 under "Discussions".

Online Schedule for the rest of the month:
Monday Feb 9 ONLINE
MONDAY FEB 16 ONLINE
MONDAY FEB 23 NOT ONLINE, we are going to meet in person becuase
WEDS FEB 25 and FRIDAY FEB 27 I will be out of town and class will be online for those dates (wed/fri).

Racial Assumptions and Stereotypes Exercise

 

 

 

 

Group Work on Racial Bias

 

 

 

 

 

Racial Reconciliation News

CLICK HERE (ABC.COM STORY)

Welcome to Diversity in Families!

Most of you will be thrilled about this announcement. Generally, Monday's classes will be online. There will be other days as well, but in general, that will be our schedule. Make sure to keep up with announcements on the blog and in BB. :)