Friday, September 25 - Sunday, September 27

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.

Introduction inspiration. Every Introduction is different, because every Storybook is different... but if you are looking for some inspiration and ideas, you might want to browse around some of these Introductions to Storybooks from this semester which people have already published - I've picked out three Introductions from each class this semester to try to show you the variety of ways people start their Storybooks. Maybe you can find some ideas that will inspire you as you create the introduction to your Storybook!

• Fairy Tales in the City
  
• Oklahoma Ghost Stories
• Mysterious Rock Star Deaths Explained
• Ravana's Secrets
• Age of Innocence: A Mother's Stories
• Birth Stories: The Party of the Century
• Celtic Chronicles: Inside Ireland
• Native American Legends: Tejas Tales
• English Fairy Tales: What Jack Has To Say About It!
  

If you want to browse some more, you can find hundreds of previous Storybooks online - with a huge variety of Introductions to look at, if you are curious!

Storybook Stack. If you turned in a Week 4 Storybook assignment on time, you should have gotten comments back from me now, with points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned in a late Week 4 Storybook, or an early Storybook for Week 5 or Week 6, it is probably still in the stack. My goal is always to get every Storybook returned before the weekend that is turned in before noon on Friday. Because the Introduction is often the hardest part of the Storybook for people to write, this is the week where it takes me the longest to read and reply to everybody's assignments... but, fingers crossed, I hope I can get through the stack and have comments back to everybody before the weekend for any assignment turned in by noon on Friday. :-)

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!

The following is an announcement from Sarah Harris in the Myth-Folklore class. (If anybody else has announcements about community events you want to share with the class, let me know.)

Race for the Cure! The OU Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is forming a team to "Race for the Cure" in the annual Central Oklahoma Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, and WE NEED YOUR HELP in fighting breast cancer. The event is being held on Saturday, October 10, 2009, at the Oklahoma City Bricktown Ballpark. If you would like to participate please register and come join us. If you can not participate but would like to donate a gift, it will be used to help save millions of lives. "One in eight women will be stricken with breast cancer in her lifetime..." Help us find a cure now, before it is too late!

(Race for the Cure image source)

Thursday, September 24

Today is Thursday of WEEK 5 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 4 Storybook assignment yet, you have until noon on Thursday to turn that in 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.

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 assignmenton Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, 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!

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.

Wednesday, September 23

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 which is available now!

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 9PM, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after 9PM 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. This Wednesday, I'll be away for part of the morning, but should be back in the afternoon and available to answer any email questions promptly!

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:

Tuesday, September 22

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 5 of the class. The Week 5 Internet assignment is available starting today! 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 new week in the class (that is, on Tuesday), 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!

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. There is a 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 before NOON on SUNDAY, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in later 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 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 (if you are somewhere in the southern hemisphere, it is the spring holiday of Ostara). You can see here where the equinox takes its place on the wheel with its eight holidays:

Monday, September 21

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!

You really can call me Laura! Although I sign my emails to you all as Laura, some of you still seem to 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 do the same and 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. You can continue to experiment with your Coverpage design all semester long, and you will be updating your Coverpage each time you add a new story. Here is the only requirement: DO NOT CHANGE THE ADDRESS of your Coverpage! You can make all the changes you want to the design and contents of the page, but it is vital that the name of the file, and thus the webpage address, remain the same as the address you are giving me now. Everybody in class will be using this link to access your Storybook - and starting on Tuesday, with the Week 5 Internet assignment, you will be looking at and commenting on each other's Storybooks via the class list.

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. If you turned in your assignment on Sunday evening or later, you may have to wait a few days before you will get comments back from me.

Sunday, September 21: Milk miracle. In 1995, on September 21, there was what many people regard as a modern miracle: statues of the Hindu god Ganesha, as well as the statues of other gods and goddesses, appeared to be imbibing milk which was offered to them. You can read about the event in this Wikipedia article, and you can see a milk offering in this BBC video. The image below is from a British newspaper, the Sun, and you can find other newspaper headlines archived at the MilkMiracle.com website which documents the event: