Posted on by gdkemble

English 1A (Fall 2021) – Resources

Table of Contents

Resources

COVID Resources

Yuba has put together a resource for issues related to COVID-19. You’ll find it in your Canvas dashboard, next to your courses (“COVID-19 Fall 2020”). It’s full of resources, including modules about COVID-19 in general, taking classes during the outbreak, services that are available for you, and self care. It’s quite impressive, actually; I hope you’ll check it out. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have the most up-to-date information about COVID:

If you want to get a free COVID-19 vaccine — and if you haven’t gotten one yet, you should! — you can get information about how to do so in your area on the My Turn Public Health Website.

And finally, there is an overwhelming amount of misinformation (incorrect information) and disinformation (intentionally misleading information) about COVID-19 on the Internet and on television, especially spread through social media. Be sure you use credible and reliable sources to stay in formed. And if you’re feeling confused or unsure about the information you’ve heard, visit The World Health Organization Mythbusters. It might help you sort out some of the confusion.

College (and Life) Resources

The Writing and Language Development Center (WLDC) offers writing tutors, computers, and workshops. In addition to the Marysville center, they usually have a limited presence at the Sutter Center. They also have online tutoring available.

Disabled Students Programs and Services  (DSPS) offers support for students with learning and other disabilities. If you know (or suspect) you have a learning disability, be sure to contact them. There are resources available to support you.

The Yuba College Library has great staff. As I write this, the library is open, but they also have an online presence. I’ll talk a bit more about the library during the course, especially as we approach the research portion.

The Yuba College Counseling Department has both in-person and online counselors to help. They can help with a lot of different needs, from academic questions (what classes should I take if I want to go to Chico?) to personal questions (I’m hungry and don’t have any money. Where can I get food?)

Canvas Help

I’ve been creating short videos explaining how Canvas works in my course. (Every teacher uses Canvas a little differently.) Generally, I’ll introduce the videos in the modules, when the information would be useful. But they’ll be collected on a How To Page, which you’ll have access to once the course is open.

Yuba College’s eLearning page offers an orientation to Canvas, as well as video tutorials, general student guides, and guides specifically for mobile phones and tablets.

Canvas also has a Student Guide, which is pretty complete.

And if you need more help,  you can contact one of the Help Desks:

  • Any time, you can email College’s Help Desk at  helpdesk@yccd.edu;
  • During working hours (Mon – Fri 8:00 am – 5:00 pm), you can reach Yuba College’s Help Desk at (530) 741-6981;
  • After hours (Mon – Fri 5:00 pm – 8:00 am, and weekends), you can reach Canvas’s Help Desk at (844) 303-8279.

Closing Thoughts

I have struggled a bit over the past year and a half, hopefully for obvious reasons. And if I’ve struggled — even with a secure job and a healthy family — I can only imagine the challenges that many of you have faced, or are currently facing.

I was feeling hopeful that things would improve with time, but — for any number of reasons — I feel a bit less hopeful. The new variant (“Delta variant”) seems to be able to spread to vulnerable members of our community through vaccinated people. And the refusal of many to vaccinate makes the possibility of more variants much more likely.

In other words, the stress isn’t going away.

In addition, online classes can be challenging; they require an unusual level of discipline, organization, and “self-starting.” It’s easy to get behind — and that can lead to feeling overwhelmed, which can lead to procrastination that gets you even further behind, and so on. It’s a nasty cycle. (I speak from experience.)

So: if you find yourself struggling, I hope you will reach out — to me, at least, or to some of the resources listed above. Please don’t think that I’ll be upset, or that I won’t care, or that I won’t want to help.

I want you to succeed. Of course, I can’t do it for you — I don’t give grades; you earn them. But I’ll support you however I can.