Grading and points. Some people have been asking me about the points and grading, so let me refer you again to this Grading Information page. In short, you need 410 to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! It is fine with me if you decide to stop doing work for the class whenever you have the grade you want to receive (many of you are taking this class for Gen. Ed. requirements, which means you just need a C to get graduation credit). My only request is that you please let me know when you are done so I can adjust the comment assignments accordingly!
Mix and match points. Now that there are just five weeks of the semester left, you might want to plan to do some "mix and match" in terms of just which assignments you want to complete this semester to get the points you need for the grade you want to get. 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. 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.
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. As usual, I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in, starting with the ones that were turned in on Friday afternoon and on Saturday.
Yes, I got an iPad. That is how I spent my weekend! Some of you may have done the GoogleBooks Tech Tip, so you know about how I rely on GoogleBooks for access to all kinds of Renaissance and 17th- and 18th-century books (my hobby is researching the history of Aesop's fables, especially during the Renaissance period). Well, GoogleBooks makes all these amazing Renaissance and early modern books available for free in PDF format, but I didn't have a really good way to read those books as books. Using a laptop was uncomfortable, my husband's Kindle really didn't work for these GoogleBooks... but the iPad works like a charm. Normally I'm not someone who is really all that interested in computer gadgets per se (websites, yes! gadgets, no...) - but this time, I am really hooked on a gadget. My library of 1000+ GoogleBooks is now sitting, literally, in my hands. Very exciting! Of course, in all the hype about the iPad, they have not been emphasizing how it is perfect for reading Renaissance Latin editions of Aesop's fables... but that is what I am using my iPad for and it is GREAT! :-)
