Friday, March 5 - Sunday, March 7

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 7! The Week 7 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and so is the Week 7 Internet assignment (Storybook commenting), along with the remaining Week 7 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.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. I've read and replied to all the Week 6 assignments turned in on time, but if you turned in a late Week 6 assignment, or an early assignment for Week 7 or 8, it may still be in the stack. My goal is to get comments back to everyone by the end of the day Friday for assignments turned in before Friday at noon. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

New Responding groups. (repeat announcement) The blog responding groups have been shuffled around this week, so you should find some new people to read and respond to when you do the blog responding assignment for Week 7. If somehow I've accidentally left anybody off the list, please let me know. This is done completely at random, so you may be in someone you have been in a group with before, or you may have all new people - that is the magic of randomness!

Week 7 Internet assignment. (repeat announcement) If you did not read Tuesday's announcements, please make sure you take a look at that; the instructions for the Internet assignment this week are somewhat different from last week since you will be reading the Introduction AND a story at the Storybooks you comment on this week.

Special Technology Tip: History of Technology Major. (repeat announcement) There's a special Technology Tip which you can do this week, helping out the folks in History of Science as they design a new undergraduate major in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Here is more information about the survey - in addition to the point of extra credit, you might even win a gift certificate!

March 5: Howard Pyle. Friday, March 5, marks the birthday in the year 1853 of the American illustrator and author, Howard Pyle. You can read about Howard Pyle's life and career in this Wikipedia article, and you can find a listing of all his books that are online at his Online Books page. Some of you in the Myth-Folklore or the World Literature class may be familiar with Howard Pyle's work, since he is the author of a collection of stories about famous pirates, as well as books about legendary heroes such as Robin Hood and King Arthur. The image below shows one of Howard Pyle's paintings, The Mermaid:

Thursday, March 4

Today is Thursday of WEEK 7 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 6 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit; please make sure you get it turned in by noon today at the latest. 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. If you turned in an assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday, your assignment is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Storybook Week 7 and Week 8. For Week 7, most of you will be doing revisions to your first story, so that means you you need to wait until you get my comments back on your Week 6 assignment before you can do the Week 7 assignment - but if you want to work again, go ahead and add the next story to your Storybook and turn in the Week 8 assignment early, adding your second story to your Storybook! Although you cannot do the revision assignments until you get comments back from me, that does not need to stop you from adding another story to your Storybook if you want to get ahead.

New Responding groups. The blog responding groups have been shuffled around again this week, so you should find some new people to read and respond to when you do the blog responding assignment that opens up tomorrow, Friday. If somehow I've accidentally left anybody off the list, please let me know. This is done completely at random, so you may be in someone you have been in a group with before, or you may have all new people - that is the magic of randomness!

March 4: Khaled Hosseini. Today, March 4, marks the birthday in 1965 of the writer Khaled Hosseini who was born in Afghanistan and then emigrated to the United States in 1980, seeking political asylum. Although he is a medical doctor, Hosseini is best known for this first novel, The Kite Runner, and also for a second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. You can read more about his life and career in this Wikipedia article and at his official website. For those of you who are aspiring writers, you can watch a video at the website where Hosseini discusses about what it takes to become a writer. Happy birthday, Mr. Hosseini!

Wednesday, March 3

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 7 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 6 Storybook assignment yet (adding your first story), 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.

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 by 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in later on Sunday night, or on Monday or Tuesday, your assignment is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Mid-Term Grade Reports. If you did not read Monday's announcements, please see the note there about the university's mid-term grade reports (I'm not sure if/when/how the new Ozone system will be available for viewing grade reports this week; we were asked to fill out the forms last week, but there was no specific information provided about how students would access the information.)

Week 7 Internet assignment. If you did not read Tuesday's announcements, please make sure you take a look at that; the instructions for the Internet assignment this week are somewhat different from last week since you will be reading the Introduction AND a story at the Storybooks you comment on this week.

Storybook: Working ahead. (repeat announcement) In order to do the Week 7 Storybook assignment, you will need to wait for comments back on your Week 6 assignment. Depending on just when you turned in your Week 6 assignment, you may have to wait until later in the week, even as late as Friday, in order to get comments back from me. If you want to work ahead on your Storybook, though, you can do that - just move right ahead to the Week 8 assignment, adding the second story to your Storybook! You can turn in the Week 8 assignment before you turn in the Week 7 assignment, if you are wanting to work ahead.

March 3: Hinamatsuri. Today, March 3, is the Hinamatsuri holiday in Japan, the "Doll Festival," which is a festival of good luck for young girls. You can read more about the holiday in this Wikipedia article, or in this article at About.com - and in the Myth-Folklore class, Ashley is doing her project on Festivals of Japan and Japanese Fairy Tales this semester, so you can find out more there, too. This image shows a Hinamatsuri doll displayed at the festival in 2005 in the city of Kounos, near Tokyo:

Tuesday, March 2

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 7 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 7 is on top. This week's topic is India or Japan in Myth-Folklore, while in World Literature you are taking a trip to the underworld. In Indian Epics, you are finishing up Buck's Ramayana. If you have not turned in your Week 6 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Special Technology Tip: History of Technology Major. There's a special Technology Tip which you can do this week, helping out the folks in History of Science as they design a new undergraduate major in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Here is more information about the survey - in addition to the point of extra credit, you might even win a gift certificate!

Week 7 Internet assignment. For the Week 7 Internet assignment, which is available now, you will be reading Storybook Introductions AND a story from each Storybook. Since you have more reading to do this time, you will have just THREE Storybooks that you comment on - and you need to make sure there is a story to read at each of those Storybooks. If the Storybook does not have a first story published yet, please skip it and go to another one instead. You can definitely do the assignment now; you do not have to wait on someone who is running late with their first story. If the Storybook doesn't have a story yet, just pick a different Storybook to look at where there is a story you can read.

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 on Saturday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in on Sunday 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.

March 2: Dr. Seuss. Today, March 2, marks the birthday in 1904 of the genius author Dr. Seuss, whose real name was Theodore Geisel. 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.

Monday, March 1

Today is Monday, and Week 6 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 7 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started (all except for the Week 7 Internet assignment, which will be available Tuesday, and the Week 7 Responding assignment, which will be available Friday, as usual).

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 reply to the assignments in the order they were turned in.

Storybook: Working ahead. In order to do the Week 7 Storybook assignment, you will need to wait for comments back on your Week 6 assignment. Depending on just when you turned in your Week 6 assignment, you may have to wait until later in the week, even as late as Friday, in order to get comments back from me. If you want to work ahead on your Storybook, though, you can do that - just move right ahead to the Week 8 assignment, adding the second story to your Storybook! You can turn in the Week 8 assignment before you turn in the Week 7 assignment, if you are wanting to work ahead.

Mid-Term Grade Reports. At some point this week you will be able to view "mid-term grade reports" at the Ozone website. Because I was required to enter the grades last week, before the end of the Week 6, the mid-term grade reports for this class reflect the work you completed during Weeks 1-5 plus any extra-credit Grammar quizzes you completed. For more information about the points you should be accumulating week by week, see this Grading Chart for the semester, along with additional information about points and grading.

March 1: Saint David's Day. Today is the feast day of Saint David (Dewi Sant in Welsh), the patron saint of Wales. You can learn more about Saint David and the Saint's David celebrations in this BBC article. Here is a depiction of Saint David in the stained glass windows of the Jesus College Chapel in Oxford, England.