Big Sibling Program and The Buddy System

[fh-anonymous.livejournal.com]

Big Sibling Program!
Yay new student time! And new students need old volunteers!

We need IC student volunteers to pair up with incoming students and help them adjust to Fandom's little quirks. Or make it worse. *shrugs* Whichever works best for both of you. ;)

If the player is new, volunteers will also be expected to help their charges get adjusted to the game by answering questions, providing helpful information and maybe do a little hand holding. This game can be very intimidating for new people and we want to make sure that none of our newbies become overwhelmed. Any current student can volunteer for this.

The Buddy System!
This seems to be working well, so were going to keep going with it. If you have any feedback for me on it, please email it to me at fh.anonymous [at] gmail [dot] com.

We don't have any new players as teachers again, but we do have a couple players who are new to teaching. So, any help you could give them would be greatly appreciated.

What we need from you!
Please volunteer if you fit the following:

- Your character won't be antagonistic about helping out someone (ICly, your character can be signed up against their will, or something, if you would really like to do this. But, please don't sign up if they're not going to be helpful to a new student or teacher.)

- You have the time to field questions from a newbie, and will be around consistently for the first few weeks of the fall term.

If you have any questions, please contact an admin or mod on IM or via email.

Please sign up in the appropriate thread of this post by 11:59 pm PDT on Wednesday, August 29th if you are interested in volunteering for either program.

Alumni: Where Do We Go From Here? (also departing characters)

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

Hello alumni! This is directed at those alumni still in Fandom, but has some information for alumni off-island as well (and there's a note down the bottom for characters leaving for good).

Leaving Date: All alumni must be on their merry way and out of Fandom by August 31. Please keep in mind though that we'll be getting a stack of new characters around that time, so if you want your farewell to get some attention, make sure you consult the others still on weekenisland to stagger your departures.

Homecoming: All alumni are, as usual, welcome back in Fandom for Homecoming. You guys will be able to stay at the Arms Hotel or anywhere else in town. You'll be able to wander about on campus for that weekend, but not stay on campus. We'll have dates for that ASAP once we figure out the other key events for the semester.

Other Events: In addition to Homecoming, we'll be having a few more scheduled days where alumni can come back to Fandom for the day. Unless otherwise specified, the day will just be a single day, so the alumni coming to visit will have to be off the island by the following morning. Again, you'll be staying in town but will have access to the campus. You're welcome to try to be involved in plots on those days (dates pending), but please keep in mind that you may not be the only one wanting to run a plot then, some may clash with others and we might have to ask you to hold off until next time. The best way to avoid this is to get in early.

Leaving Characters: For all non-alumni characters leaving Fandom, you'll also need to be off-island by August 31 as the new semester starts the following Monday.

Thanks guys!

Academic Calendar 2007-2008

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

This is the calendar for the 2007-2008 academic year. It will be linked to via the fandomhigh community and community user info page and the fhplotterywheel community user info page. It will also be updated to include key events as needed, but the plot calendar (linked via fandomhigh and fhplotterywheel's user info page) will still be the primary source for figuring out what's on when. This is mostly just for seeing when breaks are on and for teachers to work out their class semester schedules.

FALL SEMESTER
Week 1: September 3-9 - Labor Day (3), Classes start (3)
Week 2: September 10-16 - Rosh Hashanah (12-14)
Week 3: September 17-23 - International Talk Like a Pirate Day (19), Yom Kippur (21-22)
Week 4: September 24-30
Week 5: October 1-7
Week 6: October 8-14 - Columbus Day (8)
Fall Break: October 15-21
Week 7: October 22-28
Week 8: October 29-November 4 - Halloween (31)
Week 9: November 5-11
Week 10: November 12-18 - Veterans Day (12)
Week 11: November 19-25 - Thanksgiving (22 - half week, no classes on Thursday or Friday))
Week 12: November 26-December 2
Week 13: December 3-9 - Hanukkah (4-12)
Week 14: December 10-16 - Hanukkah (4-12)
Exam Week: December 17-23 - Classes End (21)

WINTER BREAK: December 24, 2007 - January 6, 2008

SPRING SEMESTER
Week 1: January 7-13
Week 2: January 14-20
Week 3: January 21-27 - Martin Luther King Day (21)
Week 4: January 28-February 3 - Groundhog Day (2)
Week 5: February 4-10
Week 6: February 11-17 - Valentine's Day (14)
Week 7: February 18-24 - Washington's Birthday (18 )
SPRING BREAK: February 25-March 2
Week 8: March 3-9
Week 9: March 10-16
Week 10: March 17-23 - St Patrick's Day (17), Good Friday (21), Easter Sunday (23)
Week 11: March 24-30
Week 12: March 31-April 6 - April Fools' Day (1)
Week 13: April 7-13
Week 14: April 14-20
Exam Week: April 21-27
Interim Week (no classes): April 28-May 4
Senior Graduation: May 3-4
Break-Up Week: May 5-11 - Cinco de Mayo (5)

SUMMER TERM 1
Week 1: May 12-18
Week 2: May 19-25
Week 3: May 26-June 1 - Memorial Day (26)
Week 4: June 2-8
Week 5: June 9-15 - Flag Day (14)
Week 6: June 16-22
Week 7: June 23-29

MID-SUMMER BREAK: June 30-July 6

SUMMER TERM 2
Week 1: July 7-13
Week 2: July 14-20
Week 3: July 21-27
Week 4: July 28-August 3
Week 5: August 4-10
Week 6: August 11-17
Week 7: August 18-24

Break-Up/New Students Week: August 25-31

FALL SEMESTER STARTS: September 1, 2008

Class Expectations for 2007-2008

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

Classes are a part of any high school experience, real or fictional. At Fandom High, classes are not intended to take up all of a player's game time, but are there to add a further dimension to the high school setting, to allow both students and teachers to have a little fun and to provide a setting for interaction outside of normal social interaction.

Expectations for Teachers

Teachers are expected to post their classes once a week. The classes must be posted by 3pm EST (12pm PST). You are welcome to, and encouraged to, post your classes the night before they are due.

Your role as a teacher is to provide your students with one class every week that allows the student's player to sign in and, if they choose, participate in an activity. All activity can be handwaved by the student if necessary, but the option should be there for those who want to play out the activity.

Teachers are permitted to give out homework and assignments, but should acknowledge that this is not a real school and therefore assignments should be interaction-based and hopefully fun. Homework and assignments can be handwaved by the student without penalty.

Teachers are required to continue their class for the entire semester and should plan to have 14 classes and one exam or end of semester project/presentation.

Teachers are allowed to have 1-2 teacher aides, but it's not compulsory. A teacher aide is a student enrolled in that class who assists with IC paperwork, can be approached by other students and can cover classes on occasion if the teacher is unable to be present.

Teachers are allowed to give detention to students. Please arrange this OOCly with the student's player first if possible and be willing to make alternative arrangements for punishment if it suits the players better.

Teachers are expected to provide student-teacher interaction in their classes when possible, but we understand that RL comes first.

Teachers should post an office hours post once a week to allow students to see the teachers out of class.

NOTES:
Classes should not take a lot of time to prepare. We don't want classes to suck up everyone's time. You don't need to spend time writing up a huge lecture. Linking to Wikipedia or somewhere else if you need to provide info is much better. The key to classes is setting up a scenario where the teacher and the students can interact and have fun. You are not expected to do a lot of work, so please don't expect your students to do a lot of work. It's a game and we're all here to have fun.


Expectations for Students

Students are expected to enroll in and attend 2 classes per semester.

Students are expected to at least sign in to each class. Participation beyond that is optional, but encouraged.

Students are expected to at least handwave any homework/assignments given to them, but are encouraged to play it out if they wish.

Students should inform their teachers if they are going to be absent. This applies to both OOC and IC (ie: if you know OOC that you're going away from class but the character doesn't know yet, let the teacher's player know).

Students can get detention for doing something wrong, not attending class regularly or not completing (stating that you've handwaved) homework . If you - the player - are unable to participate in detention on Saturdays (US time), please let your teacher know OOCly so a different punishment can be arranged.

NOTES:
Classes shouldn't take up all of your time. If you have to, just sign in and handwave any work, but please do try to keep up with your classes. Your teachers go to the trouble of preparing them for you, so if you can participate, jump on in and have a bit of fun. You are not expected to do a lot of work. It's a game and we're all here to have fun.

***

SAMPLE CLASS


"Greetings, all-American and not so American students!" Professor Sam the Eagle said from where he was perched at the front of the class. "Today we are learning about the US government. Government is good! The government takes care of you. Trust in the government and its well-dressed lackeys! You won't regret it."

He ruffled his Muppety feathers.

"Today's task is simple. You are a US Senator. From the information on the hand-out I will give you, defend your state's interests. Bargain, make deals, defend the interests of your constituents!"

Comments:

Sign In
Sign in here.

Select a State
Pick your state here. One person per state. First come, first served.

Bargain
Seek out who you want to bargain with and get what you need from another state.

After Class
Talk to Professor Sam.

OOC
You rang?

***

New Teachers!

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

Hi all, please welcome our new teachers for Fall Semester!

Jean-Paul Beaubier (X-Men/Alpha Flight) teaching Combined Mathematics
Sarah Kerrigan (Starcraft) teaching Advanced Tactics
Lulu (Final Fantasy X) teaching No-Nonsense Sexual Education: Because No One Else is Teaching You
Tim Taylor (Home Improvement) teaching Shop

Welcome all!

Also, Silent Bob (View Askewverse) will be making the change to join the faculty teaching Communication.

The new students will be announced this weekend after the admin team has had a chance to sort through the applications and duke it out. The new teachers will be joining us on Saturday, September 1 with the new students.

FALL SEMESTER CLASS SIGN-UPS

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

Guys, this time around we're opening up class sign-ups for a much longer period of time than we usually do. This will give the new players and those of you with new characters time to figure out your schedules and sign up once you find out whether or not your applications were accepted. Please don't sign up with new characters until you've received notice that your character has been accepted.

Also please note that we've changed the minimum and maximum number of classes you can have.

Class Expectations for Students and Teachers (please read first)

1) Students are required to sign up for at least 2 classes, but no more than 4 per student. If you have more than one student, think about sticking to 2 or 3 as it's easy to get swamped and unfair to take up multiple places if you're not going to participate beyond the sign in.
2) This is not first come, first served as that is unfair due to time zones.
3) If there are too many people signing up for the one class then AFTER sign-ups close names will be drawn out of a hat to decide who gets in (so even if a class has hit 20, keep signing up as you have an equal chance of getting in as the first person!). Or we'll use a number generator if we're feeling lazy. It'll be random to be fair either way.
4) Those who do not get in will be allowed to pick a back-up if they want, but please be prepared to respond and choose your backup quickly as time is limited.
5) If you have more than one character sign up for a class please state which character you would prefer to get in. If the class reaches its maximum number of students, you will have to pick one of your characters to put forward. Same applies if you have a student character in a class that your teacher character is teaching.
6) If it's OOC for your character to take a class but you really want to take it anyway, just sign them up and we'll pretend it was a paperwork mishap.
7) TAs - you must sign up for the class you're TAing for and yes, it counts towards your class total (4 maximum).
8) TAs do not count towards the total number of people in the class (ie: a full class will have 20+TAs).
9) By signing up, you agree to participate for the entire semester (15 weeks). Attendance will be recorded as showing up to classes is how we judge your activity in the game. If you repeatedly fail to attend classes, you will be contacted. If it continues, you face possible removal from the class and eventual removal from the game.
10) Class descriptions are subject to change at the teacher's discretion.


INSTRUCTIONS:

Pick your class. Respond to that class' thread below with your character's name. Lather, rinse, repeat. Please use your character's respective journal for their sign ups.

Class Weekly Schedule

Class sign-ups close at midnight PST on Thursday, August 30. No late sign-ups are allowed without extenuating circumstances. (ie: sign up sooner than the last day or you're going to forget and look like a dorkface) Students who do not sign up in time will be removed from the game and have to reapply in December.

Please direct any questions or problems to administration@fandomhigh.net.

[Please wait for OCD of doom. If you ping in before the OCD is done, I will mock you mercilessly and steal your shoes.] OCD done, go for it!