Friday, April 24 - Sunday, April 26

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 13! The Week 13 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 13 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. Friday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Thursday.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in this week. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Everyone who turned in a Week 12 assignment on time should have gotten that back from me; if you turned in a late Week 12 assignment or an early assignment for Week 13, 14 or 15, I will get comments back to you on Friday.

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) There is no special requirement about which assignments you choose to do or not do as the semester comes to a close, provided that you get the total points you need. You can focus on your Storybook, you can pick and choose which reading assignments and quizzes you want to do - it's really up to you. So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end (410 points for an A, 360 points for a B, 320 points for a C). My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade!

April 24: Daniel Defoe. Friday, April 24, is the anniversary of the death in the year 1731 of the great English writer, Daniel Defoe, who is best known today for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is generally regarded as the first novel in the English language. You can read more about Robinson Crusoe in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image from the first edition of the book (click here for a larger view). The full title of the book is quite a story in and of itself: The Life and strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, where-in all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself:

Thursday, April 23

Today is Thursday of WEEK 13 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 12 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in BY NOON TODAY 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. There are still a few assignments in the Storybook stack. If you turned in your assignment on Sunday or earlier, you should have comments back from me now. Assignments turned in on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday are probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. Please let me know if the points for your Storybook assignment will give you your final points for the class, and I'll move it up to the top of the stack!

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) There is no special requirement about which assignments you choose to do or not do as the semester comes to a close, provided that you get the total points you need. You can focus on your Storybook, you can pick and choose which reading assignments and quizzes you want to do - it's really up to you. So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end (410 points for an A, 360 points for a B, 320 points for a C). My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade!

April 23: World Book Day. Today, April 23, is the traditional anniversary of the deaths of two of the world's great writers: the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, and the Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, who both died in 1616. For this reason, the day April 23 has been declared by the United Nations as World Book Day, a celebration of reading and writing. You can read more about World Book Day in Wikipedia and at the UNESCO website.

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Wednesday, April 22

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 13 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 12 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.

Storybook stack. There are still quite a few assignments in the Storybook stack. If you turned in your assignment before Sunday at 7PM, you should have comments back from me now. Assignments turned in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday are probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If the points you will be getting for the Storybook assignment(s) you have turned in will give you the points you need for your final grade in the class, let me know and I'll check on the points total for you! Send me an email with the words "Storybook Final Points" or something like that in the subject line so that I'll be sure to find it.

Mix and match points. There is no special requirement about which assignments you choose to do or not do as the semester comes to a close, provided that you get the total points you need. You can focus on your Storybook, you can pick and choose which reading assignments and quizzes you want to do - it's really up to you. So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end (410 points for an A, 360 points for a B, 320 points for a C). My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade!

April 22: Earth Day. Today, April 22, is Earth Day. You can read about this holiday in Wikipedia. In honor of Earth Day this year, I wanted to reflect for a moment on how much paper we have saved in this class! Based on the writing assignments each week for the total number of students in these three online classes, I would estimate that we have saved about 9000 pages, or 18 reams of paper, this semester by doing the writing online rather than printing it out in traditional form - so by working together in this way, we have saved a tree! Happy Earth Day!

(image source)

Tuesday, April 21

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 13 of the class. For those of you who are working ahead, Weeks 14 and 15 are also available! That means all of the assignments are now available, and you can pick and choose based on the points you need to get to the grade you want to receive in this class. If you have not turned in your Week 12 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 13 Internet assignment NOW AVAILABLE. Now that Week 13 has begun, the Week 13 Internet assignment is now available: you will be asked to nominate your favorite Storybook projects in various categories! You will also be leaving thank-yous for people who gave you the most helpful feedback as you worked on your Storybook this semester. Based on the nominations that people turn in, I'll prepare the ballot next Monday afternoon so that you can vote on your favorites next week. That voting will not for a grade or anything - it's just a way to give some recognition to the folks who worked extra-hard on their Storybooks this semester.

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week, there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. I have read and replied to the assignments turned in before noon on Sunday. If you turned something in on Sunday afternoon or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack. To check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, look at the contents of the stack here. If you need just the points for the Storybook assignment(s) you have turned in in order to finish up the class, let me know and I will put your assignments up at the top of the stack. Send me a note with "Storybook Final Points" in the subject line so that I'll be sure to notice it!

April 21 2009: Yom Ha-Shoah. Today is the 27th of Nisan in the Jewish calendar, which means it is the Yom Ha-Shoah, the "Day of the Holocaust," in which the Jewish victims of the Nazis are remembered and honored. You can read more about this memorial holiday in Wikipedia, and also learn about the term Shoah. This holiday is observed throughout the state of Israel, with special ceremonies taking place at Yad Vashem, which is the official Holocaust memorial in Israel. This image below is the Hall of Names from Yad Vashem:

Monday, April 20

Today is Monday. Week 12 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 13 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. The Week 14 assignments are also available now, too! (Week 15 will be available tomorrow.)

NOTE: For the availability of the upcoming Internet assignments in Week 13 and Week 14, please read the notes below!

Week 13 Internet assignment. The Week 13 Internet assignment is available NOW. I hope you will find this a fun assignment: you will be nominating your favorite Storybooks from the semester. After everyone has turned in their nominations (the assignment is due by the end of Week 13), I'll prepare a ballot on Monday April 27 with the Storybooks that get the most nominations, and you'll be able to vote on the best ones - the voting is not for a grade, but just for fun, as a way to give the people who worked really hard on their Storybooks some well-deserved recognition.

Week 14 Internet assignment. For the Week 14 Internet assignment, you will be logging on to the course evaluation system online. As soon as the online course evaluation form is made available by the College of Arts & Sciences, I will let you know. The Week 14 Internet assignment will not be available until that online course evaluation becomes available; I'll keep you posted based on what I learn about when that will be.

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. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in - starting with the assignment turned in on Wednesday-Thursday-Friday of last week, and then moving on to the assignments turned in over the weekend. I'll keep you posted about my progress as usual.

April 20: Bram Stoker. April 20 marks the death in the year 1912 of the Irish novelist Bram Stoker who is, of course, most famous for his invention of the modern literary figure of Count Dracula, published in 1897. Stoker's Count Dracula has in turn given rise to a whole genre of vampire fiction including the recent Twilight series of novels by Stephanie Meyer. You can read more about Stoker's life and career in this Wikipedia article. Stoker's Dracula has inspired many later novels, films and even comic books, but I will confess that my favorite Dracula is Count von Count of the Muppets! :-)