Friday, February 26 - Sunday, February 28

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. 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:

Thursday, February 25

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. 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!

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.

February 25: Neil Jordan. Today is the birthday of the amazing Irish film director, Neil Jordan. You can read an article here in Wikipedia about his very prolific career in movie-making. There are so many of his films that I enjoy, but three of them really stand out - The Crying Game (for which Jordan won the Academy Award), Michael Collins (one of Liam Neeson's best films ever) and Breakfast on Pluto (see the poster below). Happy birthday, Neil Jordan! I am hope we will get to see many more films from him yet to come!

Wednesday, February 24

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, February 26, 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 before 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in later on Sunday 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.

February 24: Wilhelm Grimm. Today, February 24, marks the birthday of the German scholar Wilhelm Grimm in the year 1786. Wilhelm Grimm was the younger of the famous "Brothers" Grimm; his older brother Jacob was born just one year yearlier, 1785. (Of course, if you believe Sean, there was a notorious younger brother, Gregor, whose existence is the subject of his Storybook this semester!) You can read learn more about the Brothers Grimm and their fairy tale collection in the Week 10 unit of the Myth-Folklore class; the image below is a portrait of the two brothers:

Tuesday, February 23

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 6 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 6 is on top. This week's topic is Greek mythology in World Literature, 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! You will be reading and comments on four different Introductions this week.

Writing Tips - WOW, what a great list! There is a fantastic article in the London Guardian with writing tip lists from some famous writers, including Elmore Leonard and Margaret Atwood. One of my favorites is this one: Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn't work, throw it away. It's a nice feeling, and you don't want to be cluttered with the corpses of poems and stories which have everything in them except the life they need. Plus, I really like this one about how the rules for writing and the rules for life probably have a lot in common: The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it's definitely true for writing.

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!

Hanuman: Monkey Legends Radio Show. Thanks to Kelley in Indian Epics for letting me know about this! At the WGBH website for the "Sound and Spirit" show you can listen to their latest broadcast: it's all about monkeys and includes Hanuman, a character familiar to everybody in the Indian Epics class now. So, visit the Sound and Spirit website, and click on the Listen to this program link: "From Hanuman the Hindu monkey god and other divinely associated simians in Egyptian, Greek and Chinese Buddhist lore, to Taoist and Jewish fables and negative depictions of monkeys in Christian and Islamic tradition - Sound & Spirit explores the fascinating myth, legend and folklore about monkeys." Here is a statue of the mighty Hanuman from Bangalore, India - and meanwhile, check out the Sound and Spirit broadcast if you are curious about Hanuman and other great monkey legends!

Monday, February 22

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.

Writing Center. As you continue working on your Storybook Introduction and begin adding stories to your project, you are expected to turn in a formal piece of writing, with correct English usage, spelling, and punctuation. If you would like some extra help with that, make a visit to the Writing Center where you can get free assistance. Whether you need a refresher course on English punctuation or some help in learning how to proofread your own work, the Writing Center is the place to go! For hours and services, visit the Writing Center website.

February 22: Rashi. Today marks the birthday in the year 1040 of the great French rabbi Rashi, who wrote one of the most important commentaries on the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. His name, Rashi, is an acronom: his actual name was Shlomo Yitzhaki, so from his name and title, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, we get the nickname R-SH-I (it's kind of like the way we use JFK or LBJ to refer to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson). You can read about his career in this detailed Wikipedia article. The image below comes from The Rothschild Miscellany, an illuminated manuscript from the Middle Ages that contains Rashi's commentary on the Biblical Book of Proverbs; the image show King Solomon, the putative author of Proverbs, expounding their meaning: