Friday drop deadline. Friday, February 26, 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.
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 obvious, or repetitious, or if you think something is important is missing. 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 also try to provide detailed feedback both about the writing and about the webpage design. Sharing your specific, detailed impressions is an important part of the process of helping everyone to create a great Storybook this semester!
Saturday, February 27 (Sunset): Purim. At sunset on February 27, the Jewish festival of Purim will begin. This festival celebrates events described in the Book of Esther in the Bible, which tells how Esther saved her people from the evil Haman, who was plotting to destroy them. You can read more about Purim in this Wikipedia article - and for more about Queen Esther, take a look at Elizabeth's Storybook about Esther! The image below shows some yummy Hamantaschen - "Haman's pockets" - a special pastry baked in honor of Purim:
