Friday, October 2 - Sunday, October 4

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 6! The Week 6 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and so is the Week 6 Internet assignment (Storybook commenting), along with the remaining Week 6 assignments that 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.

Friday drop deadline. Today, Friday, October 2, is the last day to drop the class with an automatic grade of W on your transcript. For more information, see Wednesday's announcements.

Storybook Stack. If you turned in a Week 5 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 5 Storybook, or an early Storybook for Week 6 or 7, 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. If you turn something in after noon on Friday, it will go to the top of the stack on Monday morning. For those of you who would like to get comments back sooner rather than later on your Storybook assignment, turn it in on Friday or on Saturday - don't wait until Sunday. About 50-60 students turn in their assignment every Sunday; that's why it can take a while to get comments back to you if you wait until Sunday to do the assignment.

Technology Tips. Technology Tips - along with the Grammar Quizzes - are a great way to earn some extra credit points. Here are some tips I would recommend for your attention if you have not done them already: organizing your Ning page, adding a YouTube video to your Ning page, resizing images with Picnik.com, or using the WordCountPlus plugin for Firefox. For those of you who want to understand more about how web publishing works, the FireFTP tip allows you to use your Firefox browser to inspect all the files you have published in your OU webspace - sometimes seeing all the files you have published helps make it easier to understand what it means to "publish" your files online.

Commenting on Storybooks. (Repeat announcement.) Every week from now through Week 12 of the semester, you will be commenting on people's writing at their Storybooks. During these weeks as you comment on people's Storybooks, please provide as much detailed, specific feedback as possible! People will be writing and re-writing their Storybook pages all semester long, so specific feedback is really valuable. It's nice to get compliments, but it is also really good to get feedback about what things could be improved. So, do not hesitate to say when something is confusing, or when something seems repetitious, or if you think something is important is missing. Let people know when they use words that you do not understand, or if there is background information you need - about geography, history, culture, anything at all. Every semester, students tell me that they wish they had received more detailed feedback on their Storybooks, rather than just generic compliments. So definitely give compliments about things you like, but please try to provide detailed feedback about the writing and about the webpage design. Everybody has the rest of the semester to turn their Storybooks into something really great, and your feedback is an important part of that process! Plus, being able to give good feedback is a great skill to have, and it's a skill you can develop through practice. So, try to be a really careful and attentive reader of each Storybook you visit so that you can give detailed, useful feedback in your comments.

October 2: Birthday of Gandhi. The great Indian spiritual and political leader, Mohandas Gandhi, was born on October 2, 1869, 140 years ago. On January 30 in 1948, after having led the fight for India's independence, Gandhi was assassinated. The image below shows the memorial in New Delhi where Gandhi's body was cremated. Written on the stone you can see what were reportedly Gandhi's last words: "Hey Ram" (Oh Rama!) - his invocation of the god Rama will definitely mean something to the students in the Indian Epics class. Although it is a matter of some controversy as to whether those were Gandhi's last words, here is something he wrote in December 1947, just weeks before his assassination: "In the end it will be as Rama commands me. Thus I dance as He pulls the strings. I am in His hands and so I am experiencing ineffable peace." If you look closely at the photograph, you will see the words "Hey Ram" written in Devanagari script, gold letters on the black stone, just behind the burning stick of incense:

Thursday, October 1

Today is Thursday of WEEK 6 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 5 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in on Thursday morning for partial credit. Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Friday drop deadline. Repeat announcement. This Friday, October 2, is the last day to drop the class with an automatic grade of W on your transcript. For more information, see yesterday's announcements.

Commenting on Storybooks. Every week from now through Week 12 of the semester, you will be commenting on people's writing at their Storybooks (thanks to those of you who have done this week's assignment already - great!). During these weeks as you comment on people's Storybooks, please provide as much detailed, specific feedback as possible! People will be writing and re-writing their Storybook pages all semester long, so specific feedback is really valuable. It's nice to get compliments, but it is also really good to get feedback about what things could be improved. So, do not hesitate to say when something is confusing, or when something seems repetitious, or if you think something is important is missing. Let people know when they use words that you do not understand, or if there is background information you need - about geography, history, culture, anything at all. Every semester, students tell me that they wish they had received more detailed feedback on their Storybooks, rather than just generic compliments. So definitely give compliments about things you like, but please try to provide detailed feedback about the writing and webpage design. Everybody has the rest of the semester to turn their Storybooks into something really great, and your feedback is an important part of that process! Plus, being able to give good feedback is a great skill to have, and it's a skill you can develop through practice. So, try to be a really careful and attentive reader of each Storybook you visit so that you can give detailed, useful feedback in your comments.

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 Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, your assignment 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. Thursday at noon is the deadline for late Week 5 assignments. Friday at noon is the deadline if you want to get comments back from me about your Storybook assignment before the weekend.

October 1: E.B. White. Today, October 1, marks the death in the year 1985 of the American author, E.B. White, the author of such marvelous children's books as Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web. You might also recognize his name as being the "White" in the famous guide to English composition, The Elements of Style, a book originally written by William Strunk in 1918, and substantially updated and edited by E.B. White in 1959, so that the book is often referred to as "Strunk & White." You can read more about E.B. White's biography in this Wikipedia article; meanwhile, here is a book cover for the translation of Charlotte's Web into Latin: Tela Charlottae!

Wednesday, September 30

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 6 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 5 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.

Friday drop deadline. This Friday, October 2, is the last day to drop the class with an automatic grade of W on your transcript. If you drop after Friday, you will end up with an F on your transcript (the only way to drop with a W after Friday is if you are passing the class when you drop, but if you were passing the class, you probably would not be dropping it, right?). So, for any of you in the class who are really having trouble keeping up, please take note of this deadline. With midterms coming up and more and more work being due in your other classes, you need to decide if you will be able to keep up with the workload in this class for the rest of the semester. If you have any questions about this, please make sure you contact me either on Wednesday or Thursday so I'll have time to answer your questions before the Friday deadline. If you are thinking you need to drop the class, now is the time to do that, so there will be no harm done to your transcript.

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 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after 10PM on Sunday evening or on Monday or Tuesday, your assignment is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. You can check to 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 30: Rumi. The date of September 30 in the year 1207 is traditionally celebrated as the birthday of the great Sufi mystic and poet, Jalal al-Din Rumi, a figure familiar to those of you in the Myth-Folklore class who may be reading Rumi's poetry this week! You can find out more about Rumi at the class website, and the image below shows a picture of the famous whirling dervishes whose ecstatic dancing was inspired by Rumi over eight hundred years ago. Happy birthday, Rumi!

Tuesday, September 29

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 6 of the class. In the World Literature class, that means you will be reading some Greek mythology, while in Myth-Folklore, you are moving to the Middle East, and in Indian Epics, Hanuman is on his way to Lanka! If you have not turned in your Week 5 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 6 Internet assignment available NOW. Now that Week 6 has begun, the Week 6 Internet assignment is also available (the Internet assignments from now until Week 12 cannot be completed early; they are available starting on the first day of each week, Tuesday). This week, you'll be commenting not just on some Storybook coverpages, but also reading the Introductions. You'll find detailed instructions at the Internet assignment page. The assignment is available now, and everybody should have published their Introduction already. If someone does not have their Introduction yet, you do NOT have to wait for them. Go on to another Storybook that is ready for you to read! (So, for those of you who are behind on publishing your Introduction, please get caught up as soon as you can - that way you have a better chance of getting more feedback.)

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. If you turned something in before noon on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on or Monday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. It is really important that you check to make sure your assignment is in the stack. Every week, at least one or two emails are mysteriously gobbled up by the OU email system, leaving no trace - and the sooner you can let me know about that, the better!

Writing Center. For those of you who are finding it difficult to plan and proofread your writing assisgnments for this class or for any other class, the Writing Center is the place to go for help. Whether you are struggling with the overall organization of your writing (finding a focus, working with paragraphs), or whether you have questions about writing mechanics (especially punctuation), the tutors at the Writing Center can help. They not do your proofreading for you, but they can help you with some techniques so that you can learn to do a better job of proofreading on your own. For hours and services, visit the Writing Center website.

September 29: Michaelmas. Today is the holiday of Saint Michael the Archangel. The holiday is known as "Michaelmas" in England. This will be familiar to those of you who may have studied abroad at a British university, where they call their fall school session by the name of this fall holiday: Michaelmas Term. Below you can see Saint Michael battling the demon, a famous story in the Christian tradition. The city of Arkhangelsk (Archangel) in Russia is named after Michael the Archangel, and you can see the angel and the demon represented in the coat of arms of that city:

Monday, September 28

Today is Monday, and Week 5 of the class is now over - and that means you have completed one-third of the semester. Wow! Week 6 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

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. 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 replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in, beginning with the assignments turned in on Friday afternoon or on Saturday.

Images and webpages. For those of you who are interested in different ways to work with images and text on your webpages, you can find some basic tips here on Aligning Images and Text in Composer. Keep in mind that not everybody will have the same size monitor that you do, and they may choose to have their browser window larger or small than you do, so don't worry too much about trying to find the perfect alignment. Instead, you need to think in general layout terms that are flexible enough to look good at different screen widths. One thing you can do is to make sure that the images you are using have been cropped and sized so that they fit your page nicely. You might want to try this Technology Tip for Picnik.com, a free online service you can use for editing images.

September 28: Confucius. September 28 is a day traditionally assigned to the birthday of the Chinese philosopher Confucius in the year 551 BCE. You can read about Confucius in this Wikipedia article, and also in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy online. Confucius's philosophy was already famous in Europe in the 17th century, as you can see from this Latin edition of his works published in 1687 (click here for a larger view; if you are a student of Latin, you might see how much of the text you can understand). Happy birthday, Confucius!