Friday, May 1 - Sunday, May 3

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 14! The Week 14 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 14 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. The Week 15 assignments are also available!

Storybook ballot results! You can see the results here on the ballot pages: Myth-Folklore, Indian Epics, and World Literature. Thanks to all of you who took the time to cast your ballot, and congratulations to the winners, to all the nominees, and to EVERYBODY who learned how to make your own website this semester: I hope that is a skill that will turn out to be useful to you in the future! :-)

Storybook stack. There are still a few items left in the Storybook stack, which I will definitely get to on Friday. You can check the contents of the stack here. If you want comments on a Week 14 or Week 15 Storybook assignment before the weekend, please get that turned in by noon on Friday so I can reply to you on Friday afternoon!

May 3: Pete Seeger. Sunday, May 3, is the birthday of the great American musician and folk singer, Pete Seeger, who was born in 1919, so it is his 90th birthday. Happy birthday, Pete Seeger! You may have seen Pete Seeger performing at Obama's inauguration this past January, when together with Bruce Springsteen and his grandson Tao Rodríguez-Seeger, he sang the Woody Guthrie song "This Land Is Your Land." You can read more about Pete Seeger's career in this Wikipedia article, which also contains details about the many celebrations of Pete Seeger's birthday in cities around the United States and in other countries, too. Here's a picture of Pete Seeger performing recently - and you can see Arlo Guthrie there as well, two of America's great folk musicians! :-)

Thursday, April 30

Today is Thursday of WEEK 14 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 13 Storybook assignment yet, you have UNTIL NOON today to 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 Ballot closes at 10PM tonight. If you want to cast your vote in the Storybook Ballot, make sure you do that by 10PM tonight. Just like every semester, because all the Storybooks are so good, the votes are VERY close - so, if you haven't voted yet, please take a minute to do that: your vote could make the difference. You can see the nominated Storybooks for all three classes here: Myth-Folklore, Indian Epics, and World Literature.

Final Grades. As you reach the points you need for your final grade in this class - 410 points for an A, 360 points for a B, 320 points for a C - let me know, and I'll record the letter grade for you there in the Desire2Learn Gradebook. You can mix and match whatever assignments you prefer to get the final points you need - but be careful as you make your choices, so that you don't accidentally come up short of the points you will need.

Storybook stack. The Storybook stack is not too big now, and I plan to get through all the rest of the items in the stack on Thursday. Meanwhile, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If the points for your Storybook will allow you to finish up the class, let me know, and I'll move your assignment to the top of the stack (just send an email with something like "Storybook final points" or something like that in the subject line).

Week 14 - Week 15 Storybooks. For the Week 14 and Week 15 Storybook assignments, you will be doing your final revisions - Week 14 is the Introduction revision assignment, and Week 15 is the final check-up on your story pages, especially the image information and bibliography information. If you want, you can turn in both assignments at once! If you are turning both assignments at the same time, please send in SEPARATE emails, so that I will be sure to realize that you are turning in two assignments at once. If you want your Storybook points in the Gradebook before the weekend, make sure you get those assignments turned in by Friday noon at the latest, so that I can read them on Friday afternoon and get the points recorded for you then.

April 30: Walpurgis Night. The night of April 30 is celebrated as Walpurgis Night in many countries of northern and central Europe, often with bonfires late into the night. Also known as "May Day's Eve," the holiday has many carnival-like aspects, and it is also associated with magic and witchcraft (it even shows up in the Harry Potter books, where the Death-Eaters are referred to as the "Knights of Walpurgis," which is a play on words with "Walpurgis Night"). You can read about the ways in which Walpurgis Night is celebrated in Germany, Finland, and other countries in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image of a Walpurgis Night bonfire in Sweden:

Wednesday, April 29

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 14 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 13 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 Ballots. For more information about the Storybook Ballots for Myth-Folklore, Indian Epics, and World Literature, see yesterday's announcements. The Ballot is available today, Wednesday, and on Thursday until 10PM. I'll have the results on Friday in the Announcements.

Course evaluation at eval.ou.edu. You all should have received an email from the College of Arts & Sciences about the course evaluations for all your courses available at the eval.ou.edu website. For more information about this, see yesterday's announcements.

Storybook stack. The Storybook stack is still pretty big, but I made a lot of progress on Tuesday! I've been working through the assignments with a focus on those people whose Storybook assignment points will allow them to finish up the class - so if you find yourself in that situation, let me know and I'll move your assignment(s) up to the top of the stack. Meanwhile, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

Ancient Roman Floralia. We are in the midst of the ancient Roman festival called Floralia, which last from April 27 through May 3 - that is, from ante diem quartum Kalendas Maias in the old Roman Calendar, until ante diem quintum Nonas Maias (those Roman dates are for those of you who have studied Latin!). Flora was a goddess in ancient Rome, and she presided over flowers and all blossoming plants. You can read more about the Floralia here, and you can see the goddess in Botticelli's Primavera (Spring); the goddess Venus (Aphrodite) is in the center, while to the right the wind Zephyr is chasing the nymph Chloris, who is then transformed into the smiling goddess Flora, is all covered with flowers (detail view):

Tuesday, April 28

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 14 of the class. For those of you who are working ahead, Week 15 is also available! If you have not turned in your Week 13 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Storybook stack. The Storybook stack is still FULL of assignments. I've been working through the assignments with a focus on those people whose Storybook assignment points will allow them to finish up the class - so if you find yourself in that situation, let me know and I'll move your assignment(s) up to the top of the stack. This week I get kind of overwhelmed by all the assignments that are coming in as everyone starts wanting to finish up, so please be patient and I'll be sure to get comments back to everybody by the end of the week - meanwhile, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

Storybook Ballot. I've prepared the ballots based on the nominations people submitted. You can see them for each class, with a link to each Storybook website, here: Myth-Folklore, Indian Epics, and World Literature. You can vote in Desire2Learn up until THURSDAY AT 10PM, which will allow me to announce the winners in Friday's announcements. This is not for a grade or anything - it's just a chance to give some extra recognition to your favorite Storybooks. Most important of all: congratulations to ALL OF YOU on creating your websites and writing your stories!!! For most people in the class this is the first time they have published any webpages, and everybody has something to be proud of - wonderful topics, excellent stories, and all of it published online! I really appreciate the effort you all have put into your projects, and also the help you have given other students with their projects. The final result is something very impressive, and I hope you will enjoy taking a last look at some of the popular favorites among this semester's Storybooks!

Course evaluation at eval.ou.edu. You all should have received an email from the College of Arts & Sciences about the course evaluations available at the eval.ou.edu website. I hope you will take a few minutes to complete the evaluation - your feedback is incredibly helpful to me in making improvements to these courses, and it is also a big help to the College in general as they continue to develop the online course program. The online course program exists because students find it valuable to be able to take courses online, and any ideas you have for how the program can be improved will be very useful to the College as they continue (hopefully!) to offer these online courses. So, please take a few minutes to log on to eval.ou.edu and share your feedback and suggestions! THANK YOU!

Monday, April 27

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

Storybook stack. As usual on Monday, the Storybook stack is very large! First thing on Monday morning, I will update the contents of the stack, and I will begin working my way through the stack based on the order in which things were turned in - but it is definitely going to take me a while to work through the stack, so please be patient! If the points for your Storybook assignment(s) will give you the points you need to finish up the class, send me a note and I'll move your assignment(s) to the top of the stack - you can put something like "Final Storybook points" in the subject line of the email so I'll be sure to see it.

Week 13 Internet assignment. After people finish turning in their Storybook nominations for the Week 13 Internet assignment on Monday, I'll prepare a ballot with the most-nominated Storybooks for you to vote on. I will do my best to get that ready on Tuesday, with voting to take place this week, and winners to be announced on Friday. Thanks to everybody who turned in their nominations!

Week 14 Internet assignment. For the Week 14 Internet assignment, you'll be doing an online course evaluation of this class, just like with the course evaluations using the "bubble forms" in your regular classroom classes. The online evaluation will take place at the eval.ou.edu website, and the Spring evaluation will be available on TUESDAY, April 28. I believe you will also be receiving an email directly from the College of Arts & Sciences with specific information about how to log on and complete the evaluation form. Starting this semester, all the evaluations will be completed online, not just the online course evaluations. Your input about the course is VERY valuable, and I hope you will take the time to fill out the form not just for this class, but for all your other classes, too!

April 27: Birth of "The Mouse." On April 27 in 1972, Bill English, a researcher at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, California, created the first prototype of the computer "mouse" that later became widely used in the 1980s and 1990s (I myself first saw a computer mouse in operation in the summer of 1984... and yes, I know that is before most of you were even born, ha ha). Earlier versions of the mouse had operated with a system of wheels (example), but the mouse that English built had a ball inside, as you can see in the image below. You can read more about the history of the mouse in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image below:



Week 14 Internet assignment. For the Week 14 Internet assignment, you'll be doing an online course evaluation of this class, just as you do course evaluations using the "bubble forms" in your regular classroom classes. The online evaluation will take place at the eval.ou.edu website, and the Spring evaluations should be available on Monday. I'll be sure to let you know as soon as the evaluation is available and you should also be receiving an email directly from the College of Arts & Sciences with specific information about how to log on and complete the evaluation form.