HIST 103 News

Before I could respond to the first person and say, OK, I've got it now, three people had brought me sound files of Johnny Horton's hit song, "The Battle of New Orleans." In fact I now have it in both mp3 and wav format, and a file of "Sink the Bismarck" to boot. Many thanks, therefore, to Tim Banttari, Ashley Siebrecht, and Tommy Vilmo.

Looking at the calendar, I see that we are right on schedule, going into Lecture 8 in class today. It's always a little scary to me when we're on schedule, as it seems then surely something bad must happen. Maybe not.

I'll be gone next week Thursday, accompanying some students giving papers at a conference in Bismarck. Mr. Armstrong will take over class that day (which I haven't told him yet, so he'll he surprised to read this). Also, I see by the calendar I completely forgot something, which is the awarding of group points--points for group participation in the e-mail discussion lists. I'll say a word about this in class. I think it would be a good idea for Mr. Armstrong to award the group points on that Thursday the 28th. MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN! If your discussion group is awarded group points, then you will have to sign up that class day to receive them.

Legends are welcome in the lists! Don't make me bring my own, because they are terrifying.

A couple of people have asked about the time of the final exam. It's on the calendar: 8:00 AM Wednesday 15 December.

OK, I got the table of exam scores as corrected by Mr. Armstrong marked up, and it's posted on the grades page. Have a look.

The test scores have now been calculated with some finality, including the retakes of the essay portion and the corrections for those whose essay points were not included due to technical problems. Anyone who has not received a grade, or who questions the score that was posted, should email me asap or talk to me after class. I will have the revised essays available in class Tuesday, Oct. 12 to hand back. Those who failed to take advantage of the opportunity of the essay should note that all 19 people who did so scored from 1-5 points higher, for an average improvement of 2.7 points. In fact, 5 of 19 students improved their score a full grade. These results are something to think about when presented with an opportunity to improve one's score, particularly in a no-lose situation in which one's grade could not have declined.--Jeff Armstrong, jeff.armstrong@ndsu.nodak.edu

Scores for the first exam are reported now on the Grades page. You'll have to locate yours by your exam ID number. We'll go over the exam in class, too. Mr. Armstrong reports to me there was some sort of problem with the reporting of essay scores. This is to say, for a few exams, the essay score was not counted in. If that was the case with yours, then the score given below is wrong. Jeff is working to correct all such scores. I'll re-post when the register is corrected.