September 27: Rosetta Stone
September 27: Rosetta Stone. On this day in the year 1822, Jean-François Champollion announced that he had deciphered the Rosetta stone, a crucial step in the interpretation of the ancient Egyptian writing system which was based on hieroglyphs. So, if you keep seeing ads for "Rosetta Stone" language-learning software, you might be interested in reading about the history of the real Rosetta Stone itself! You can find out more in this Wikipedia article, and below you can see a picture of the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum:
Friday, September 26 - Sunday, September 28
HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 5! The Week 5 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and so is the Week 5 Internet assignment (Storybook commenting). Please make sure you get started on those assignments soon; they are due this weekend. For those of you working ahead, Week 6 and Week 7 are available now, too.
Storybook Stack. If you turned something in before Friday noon, you should have comments back from me and points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned something in after noon on Friday or over the weekend, I will be adding it to the stack on Monday. So, you can check on Monday morning to make sure I have your assignment; I'll be updating contents of the stack first thing on Monday, and at that time I'll start replying to assignments in the order received. If you want comments back from me sooner rather than later, turn in your assignment on Saturday instead of waiting until Sunday.
Week 5 Internet assignment. (Repeat announcement.) If you did not read the previous announcement about the Week 5 Internet assignment and the Ning Comment Walls, make sure you take a look at those announcements now - you can even get extra credit for making your Comment Wall ready for visitors, both by making some more room on your Ning page, and also by adding a YouTube video to your page if you want!
THIS SUNDAY: Hispanic Festival. (Repeat announcement.) Thanks to Amanda Theather in the World Literature class for this event announcement (if any of you have local event announcements you want to share, just let me know!): The Norman Public Library will celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month with the 6th annual Hispanic Festival. Come out to the Library on September 28 from 2-7 pm. to help celebrate. There will be something for the entire family with dancing, food, games, art, presentations, and fun. There is detailed event information at the Norman Public Library website.
Friday, September 26: Eve of Lailat Al-Kadr. At sundown on Friday, September 26, the Islamic holiday of Lailat Al-Kadr, often called the "Night of Power" in English, begins in North America, and continues through the day of Saturday, September 27. This is one of the most important observances during the month-long celebration of Ramadan in the Islamic calendar. The holiday marks the anniversary of the night on which God recited the first verses of the Quran in a revelation to the Prophet Muhammad. You can read more about the holiday of Lailat Al-Kadr and also about Ramadan at Wikipedia. The image below shows a manuscript of the Koran from the Yale University Library collection:
Storybook Stack. If you turned something in before Friday noon, you should have comments back from me and points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned something in after noon on Friday or over the weekend, I will be adding it to the stack on Monday. So, you can check on Monday morning to make sure I have your assignment; I'll be updating contents of the stack first thing on Monday, and at that time I'll start replying to assignments in the order received. If you want comments back from me sooner rather than later, turn in your assignment on Saturday instead of waiting until Sunday.
Week 5 Internet assignment. (Repeat announcement.) If you did not read the previous announcement about the Week 5 Internet assignment and the Ning Comment Walls, make sure you take a look at those announcements now - you can even get extra credit for making your Comment Wall ready for visitors, both by making some more room on your Ning page, and also by adding a YouTube video to your page if you want!
THIS SUNDAY: Hispanic Festival. (Repeat announcement.) Thanks to Amanda Theather in the World Literature class for this event announcement (if any of you have local event announcements you want to share, just let me know!): The Norman Public Library will celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month with the 6th annual Hispanic Festival. Come out to the Library on September 28 from 2-7 pm. to help celebrate. There will be something for the entire family with dancing, food, games, art, presentations, and fun. There is detailed event information at the Norman Public Library website.
Friday, September 26: Eve of Lailat Al-Kadr. At sundown on Friday, September 26, the Islamic holiday of Lailat Al-Kadr, often called the "Night of Power" in English, begins in North America, and continues through the day of Saturday, September 27. This is one of the most important observances during the month-long celebration of Ramadan in the Islamic calendar. The holiday marks the anniversary of the night on which God recited the first verses of the Quran in a revelation to the Prophet Muhammad. You can read more about the holiday of Lailat Al-Kadr and also about Ramadan at Wikipedia. The image below shows a manuscript of the Koran from the Yale University Library collection:
Thursday, September 25
Today is Thursday of WEEK 5 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 4 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore or World Lit, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday. (Indian Epics has no Wednesday assignments, so there is no Thursday morning grace period.)
Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in - of all the weeks in the semester, this is the slowest week for me because the Introduction is usually the hardest part of the Storybook for people to write, and it takes me a lot more time to send back comments. But don't worry: I'll get through the stack before the weekend, I promise. If you turned in an assignment before 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after 10PM on Sunday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it - you can check and make sure I have your assignment by looking at the contents of the stack here.
Week 5 Internet assignment. If you did not read the previous announcement about the Week 5 Internet assignment and the Ning Comment Walls, make sure you take a look at those announcements now - you can even get extra credit for making your Comment Wall ready for visitors, both by making some more room on your Ning page, and also by adding a YouTube video to your page if you want!
John Best's OU Daily editorial. One of the students in the Indian Epics class, John Best, had an editorial published in the OU Daily - for those of you who did not see the print edition of the paper yesterday, here is a link to his letter online: Death penalty case shows failure in justice system. If any of you have something published in the Daily you want to share with the class, just let me know and I'll be glad to share it here in the class announcements. I think it's wonderful when people use the power of writing to share their ideas in a public forum like the Daily. Well done!
THIS SUNDAY: Hispanic Festival. Thanks to Amanda Theather in the World Literature class for this event announcement (if any of you have local event announcements you want to share, just let me know!): The Norman Public Library will celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month with the 6th annual Hispanic Festival. Come out to the Library on September 28 from 2-7 pm. to help celebrate. There will be something for the entire family with dancing, food, games, art, presentations, and fun. There is detailed event information at the Norman Public Library website. So, if you have some time on Sunday, there will be a lot of fun going on there at the Library. You can get some salsa dancing lessons and there will even be piñatas! Since many of you read the story of the Trojan Horse this week in the Myth-Folklore class, I offer this cartoon piñata as the image for today (you can click on the image for a larger view):
Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in - of all the weeks in the semester, this is the slowest week for me because the Introduction is usually the hardest part of the Storybook for people to write, and it takes me a lot more time to send back comments. But don't worry: I'll get through the stack before the weekend, I promise. If you turned in an assignment before 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after 10PM on Sunday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it - you can check and make sure I have your assignment by looking at the contents of the stack here.
Week 5 Internet assignment. If you did not read the previous announcement about the Week 5 Internet assignment and the Ning Comment Walls, make sure you take a look at those announcements now - you can even get extra credit for making your Comment Wall ready for visitors, both by making some more room on your Ning page, and also by adding a YouTube video to your page if you want!
John Best's OU Daily editorial. One of the students in the Indian Epics class, John Best, had an editorial published in the OU Daily - for those of you who did not see the print edition of the paper yesterday, here is a link to his letter online: Death penalty case shows failure in justice system. If any of you have something published in the Daily you want to share with the class, just let me know and I'll be glad to share it here in the class announcements. I think it's wonderful when people use the power of writing to share their ideas in a public forum like the Daily. Well done!
THIS SUNDAY: Hispanic Festival. Thanks to Amanda Theather in the World Literature class for this event announcement (if any of you have local event announcements you want to share, just let me know!): The Norman Public Library will celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month with the 6th annual Hispanic Festival. Come out to the Library on September 28 from 2-7 pm. to help celebrate. There will be something for the entire family with dancing, food, games, art, presentations, and fun. There is detailed event information at the Norman Public Library website. So, if you have some time on Sunday, there will be a lot of fun going on there at the Library. You can get some salsa dancing lessons and there will even be piñatas! Since many of you read the story of the Trojan Horse this week in the Myth-Folklore class, I offer this cartoon piñata as the image for today (you can click on the image for a larger view):
Wednesday, September 24
Today is Wednesday of WEEK 5 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 4 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.
Week 5 Internet assignment. If you did not read yesterday's announcements, make sure you take a look at those announcements now, especially the information about the Week 5 Internet assignment.
Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment on or before Sunday at 3PM, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after 3PM on Sunday or on Monday or on Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.
My Wednesday schedule. I do most of my work during regular business hours on Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday, while scheduling my out-of-office commitments on Wednesdays. That means I may be a bit more slow to respond to your emails on Wednesday than on the other days of the week - but if you send me an email during the day on Wednesday, I'll definitely get back to you by the end of the day.
September 24: Dr. Seuss. Today, September 24, marks the anniversary of the death in 1991 of Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. You are probably familiar with Dr. Seuss's marvelous books - my own favorite is Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose. If you want to find out more about his life, his goals as a writer - even detailed information about the poetic meters he used! - take a look at this long and detailed Wikipedia article. Dr. Seuss's books have been translated into many languages of the world - even Latin. Below is the book cover for The Cat in the Hat in Latin, Cattus Petasatus.
Week 5 Internet assignment. If you did not read yesterday's announcements, make sure you take a look at those announcements now, especially the information about the Week 5 Internet assignment.
Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment on or before Sunday at 3PM, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after 3PM on Sunday or on Monday or on Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.
My Wednesday schedule. I do most of my work during regular business hours on Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday, while scheduling my out-of-office commitments on Wednesdays. That means I may be a bit more slow to respond to your emails on Wednesday than on the other days of the week - but if you send me an email during the day on Wednesday, I'll definitely get back to you by the end of the day.
September 24: Dr. Seuss. Today, September 24, marks the anniversary of the death in 1991 of Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. You are probably familiar with Dr. Seuss's marvelous books - my own favorite is Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose. If you want to find out more about his life, his goals as a writer - even detailed information about the poetic meters he used! - take a look at this long and detailed Wikipedia article. Dr. Seuss's books have been translated into many languages of the world - even Latin. Below is the book cover for The Cat in the Hat in Latin, Cattus Petasatus.
Tuesday, September 23
Today is Tuesday of WEEK 5 of the class. The Week 5 Internet assignment is available starting today! For those of you who are working ahead, Weeks 6 and 7 are also available. If you have not turned in your Week 4 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.
Week 5 Internet assignment available NOW. For the next eight weeks (Week 5 through Week 12), your Internet assignment will consist of reading people's Storybooks and leaving comments for them. This is an assignment that you cannot do early - but on the first day of each week, the Internet assignment becomes available, and you have the rest of the week to complete it. So, today, Tuesday, is the first day of Week 5, and the Internet assignment for Week 5 is available. I hope you will enjoy looking at other people's coverpages and giving them some feedback! Please take a look at the Week 5 Internet assignment page now to make sure your coverpage link and the link to your Comment Wall is correct; if there is a problem, you need to let me know as soon as possible so I can get that fixed.
The Ning Comment Wall. People will be leaving comments about your Storybook at the Ning Comment Wall which is part of your Profile page. In order to get your Profile page ready, I would strongly suggest that you make the latest activity and blog activity invisible, so that there will be more room on your Profile page for the Comment Wall. I have created a new Technology Tip so you can get extra credit for cleaning up your Ning Profile in order to make room for all the activity that will now start happening at your Comment Wall.
Storybook Stack. This week is probably the single biggest week for me in terms of the Storybook stack, and there is still a very large number of assignments waiting in the stack. If you turned in an assignment on Saturday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.
September 23: Wilkie Collins. Today, September 23, marks the death in the year 1889 of the great English writer, Wilkie Collins. Although Collins is less well known today than his famous colleague and friend, Charles Dickens, he was a very popular writer, and his novels are the first modern mystery thrillers (they were called "sensation novels" at the time). You can read more about Wilkie Collins in this Wikipedia article. My favorite of his novels is The Woman in White:
Week 5 Internet assignment available NOW. For the next eight weeks (Week 5 through Week 12), your Internet assignment will consist of reading people's Storybooks and leaving comments for them. This is an assignment that you cannot do early - but on the first day of each week, the Internet assignment becomes available, and you have the rest of the week to complete it. So, today, Tuesday, is the first day of Week 5, and the Internet assignment for Week 5 is available. I hope you will enjoy looking at other people's coverpages and giving them some feedback! Please take a look at the Week 5 Internet assignment page now to make sure your coverpage link and the link to your Comment Wall is correct; if there is a problem, you need to let me know as soon as possible so I can get that fixed.
The Ning Comment Wall. People will be leaving comments about your Storybook at the Ning Comment Wall which is part of your Profile page. In order to get your Profile page ready, I would strongly suggest that you make the latest activity and blog activity invisible, so that there will be more room on your Profile page for the Comment Wall. I have created a new Technology Tip so you can get extra credit for cleaning up your Ning Profile in order to make room for all the activity that will now start happening at your Comment Wall.
Storybook Stack. This week is probably the single biggest week for me in terms of the Storybook stack, and there is still a very large number of assignments waiting in the stack. If you turned in an assignment on Saturday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.
September 23: Wilkie Collins. Today, September 23, marks the death in the year 1889 of the great English writer, Wilkie Collins. Although Collins is less well known today than his famous colleague and friend, Charles Dickens, he was a very popular writer, and his novels are the first modern mystery thrillers (they were called "sensation novels" at the time). You can read more about Wilkie Collins in this Wikipedia article. My favorite of his novels is The Woman in White:
Monday, September 22
Today is Monday. Week 4 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 5 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. The Week 6 assignments are also available now, too! (Week 7 will be available tomorrow.)
You really can call me Laura! Although I sign my emails to you all as Laura, some of you still feel like you need to call me Professor or Dr. or something fancy. No need for that at all, really! Since I'm on a first-name basis with all of you, please feel free to just call me Laura. :-)
Storybook coverpages. I'll be updating the list of Storybook coverpages for Myth-Folklore, World Literature and Indian Epics on Monday afternoon. I'll send around a note when I am done so that you can all check to make sure I have linked to your coverpage correctly. It's very exciting seeing all the new Storybooks come online!
Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. This is especially true today, since so few people turned in the Week 4 Storybook early. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 8 a.m. or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and reply to the assignments in the order they were turned in, beginning with the assignments turned in on Friday or Saturday.
September 22: Autumnal equinox. Today, September 22, marks the autumnal equinox, when the day and night are of equal length, as the days are getting shorter. You can read about the astronomical details of the equinox at Wikipedia, and in the Wiccan "Wheel of the Year," the fall equinox is celebrated as the holiday of Mabon. You can see here where the fall equinox takes its place on the wheel with its eight holidays:
You really can call me Laura! Although I sign my emails to you all as Laura, some of you still feel like you need to call me Professor or Dr. or something fancy. No need for that at all, really! Since I'm on a first-name basis with all of you, please feel free to just call me Laura. :-)
Storybook coverpages. I'll be updating the list of Storybook coverpages for Myth-Folklore, World Literature and Indian Epics on Monday afternoon. I'll send around a note when I am done so that you can all check to make sure I have linked to your coverpage correctly. It's very exciting seeing all the new Storybooks come online!
Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. This is especially true today, since so few people turned in the Week 4 Storybook early. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 8 a.m. or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and reply to the assignments in the order they were turned in, beginning with the assignments turned in on Friday or Saturday.
September 22: Autumnal equinox. Today, September 22, marks the autumnal equinox, when the day and night are of equal length, as the days are getting shorter. You can read about the astronomical details of the equinox at Wikipedia, and in the Wiccan "Wheel of the Year," the fall equinox is celebrated as the holiday of Mabon. You can see here where the fall equinox takes its place on the wheel with its eight holidays:
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