Friday, April 30 - Sunday, May 2

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 14! The Week 14 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 14 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon.

Storybook stack. As of Thursday evening, I had read and replied to all the Week 13 Storybooks that had been turned in on time. If you turned in a late Week 13 Storybook or an early Week 14 or Week 15 assignment, it is probably still in the stack, which you can see here: contents of the stack. If you want to turn in a Storybook to get comments and points before the weekend, make sure you turn that in by noon on Friday. If you turn something in after noon on Friday, check on Monday - that's when I will be updating the stack again for anything turned in on Friday afternoon or over the weekend.

Final Grades. As you reach the points you need for your final grade in this class - 410 points for an A, 360 points for a B, 320 points for a C - let me know, and I'll record the letter grade for you there in the Desire2Learn Gradebook. You can mix and match whatever assignments you prefer to get the final points you need - but be careful as you make your choices, so that you don't accidentally come up short of the points you will need.

Storybook ballot results! Thanks to all of you who took the time to cast your ballot, and congratulations to the winners, to all the nominees, and to EVERYBODY who learned how to make your own website this semester: I hope that is a skill that will turn out to be useful to you in the future! :-)

MYTH-FOLKLORE

Best Overall Storybook
Lynette - End-of-the-World Tours

Best Storybook Topic
Andrea - The Real Veggie Tales

Best Written Storybook
Caitlan - Bible Beauties: Inner Thoughts

Most Creative Storytelling
Sarah Wiley - MailSecret: Lessons Learned

Best Design Overall
Shayna - The Cosmic Egg

INDIAN EPICS

Best Overall Storybook
Peter - Ravana: Tales of the Ten Heads

Best Written Storybook
Tori - Women & Love in the Epics

Most Creative Storytelling
Kelley - Wild Women of India

Best Design Overall
Crystal - Monkey Tales

WORLD LITERATURE

Best Overall Storybook
Jess - Peace, Love & Stories: Canterbury Tales

Best Written Storybook
Chloe - Hope's Journey

Most Creative Storytelling
Valerie - Through the Looking-Glass

*** CONGRATULATIONS ***

Friday, April 30: Walpurgis Night. The night of April 30 is celebrated as Walpurgis Night in many countries of northern and central Europe, often with bonfires late into the night. Also known as "May Day's Eve," the holiday has many carnival-like aspects, and it is also associated with magic and witchcraft (it even shows up in the Harry Potter books, where the Death-Eaters are referred to as the "Knights of Walpurgis," which is a play on words with "Walpurgis Night"). You can read about the ways in which Walpurgis Night is celebrated in Germany, Finland, and other countries in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image of a Walpurgis Night bonfire in Sweden:

Thursday, April 29

Today is Thursday of WEEK 14 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 13 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in BY NOON for partial credit. 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 Ballots: FINAL DAY. Today, Thursday, is your last chance to vote for your favorite Storybooks. Just like every semester, because all the Storybooks are so good, the votes are VERY close - so, if you haven't voted yet, please take a minute to do that: your vote could make the difference. You can see the nominees here for all three classes. The voting will go until 5PM today, Thursday, and I'll announce the results in Friday's announcements.

Storybook stack. I've still got a few Storybooks in the stack but I will definitely be able to get through those on Thursday - I've been concentrating on the Storybooks for folks who need these points to finish up the class and be done, so if you are in that situation, send me an email to let me know. Meanwhile, if you are waiting on my comments, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

Week 14 - Week 15 Storybooks. For the Week 14 and Week 15 Storybook assignments, you will be doing your final revisions; there are no new stories for Week 14 or Week 15. If you want, you can turn in both the Week 14 and Week 15 assignments at once. If you are turning in both assignments at the same time, please send in SEPARATE emails, so that I will be sure to realize that you are turning in two assignments at once. If you want your Storybook points in the Gradebook before the weekend, make sure you get those assignments turned in by Friday noon at the latest, so that I can read them on Friday afternoon and get the points recorded for you before the weekend.

Ancient Roman Floralia. We are in the midst of the ancient Roman festival called Floralia, which last from April 27 through May 3 - that is, from ante diem quartum Kalendas Maias in the old Roman Calendar, until ante diem quintum Nonas Maias (those Roman dates are for those of you who have studied Latin!). Flora was a goddess in ancient Rome, and she presided over flowers and all blossoming plants. You can read more about the Floralia here, and you can see the goddess in Botticelli's Primavera (Spring); the goddess Venus (Aphrodite) is in the center, while to the right the wind Zephyr is chasing the nymph Chloris, who is then transformed into the smiling goddess Flora, is all covered with flowers (detail view):

Wednesday, April 28

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 14 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 13 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.

Storybook Stack. There are still a few Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in on Sunday before 10PM, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Sunday, or on Monday or on Tuesday, 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.

My Wednesday schedule. As sometimes happens on Wednesdays, I'll be away for part of the day, but I should be back in the late afternoon and available to answer any email questions by the end of the day.

Storybook Ballots. (repeat announcement) I've tallied up the nominations that people turned in (thanks to everybody who participated in that part of the process!), and you can see the top nominations for each class here: Storybook Ballot Spring 2010. For each class, you will find the actual ballot for voting in Desire2Learn at the top of the quiz list for Week 14. This is just for fun - not for points or a grade or anything. If you have a few minutes to spare, please vote for your own personal favorites! The ballot will be available till 5PM on Thursday and I'll announce the results Friday. Also, you might enjoy taking a look at some of the nominated Storybooks in the other classes, too - there are so many wonderful creative projects that people have come up with!

Course evaluation at eval.ou.edu. (repeat announcement) You all should have received an email from the College of Arts & Sciences about the course evaluations for all your courses available now at the eval.ou.edu website. I hope you will take a few minutes to complete the evaluation - your feedback is incredibly helpful to me in making improvements to these courses, and it is also a big help to the College in general as they continue to develop the online course program. The online course program exists because students find it valuable to be able to take courses online, and any ideas you have for how the program can be improved will be very useful to the College as they continue (hopefully!) to offer these online courses.

April 28: Terry Pratchett. Today is the birthday of Terry Pratchett, one of my own favorite authors. Happy Birthday, Terry Pratchett! Pratchett is best known for his Discworld fantasy series of novels, which now number 37. They are wonderful books - people debate about which is the best one to read to start with, but my feeling is that you can plunge in at random and enjoy yourself no matter where you begin; the first one that I read was Thief of Time - it's a marvelous book! Pratchett was recently diagnosed with an early-onset form of Alzheimer's disease, and he has said that he would like the right to die before he becomes completely debilitated; you can read his thoughts about that here. He has also said that he still has a few books left in him that want to come out - let's hope so! His writing is a treasure.

(image source)

Tuesday, April 27

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 14 of the class. That means you are finishing up Buck's Mahabharata in Indian Epics, while it's Charles Dickens in World Literature, and American folklore in the Myth-Folklore class. For those of you who are working ahead, Week 15 is also available! If you have not turned in your Week 13 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Storybook Ballots. I've tallied up the nominations that people turned in (thanks to everybody who participated in that part of the process!), and you can see the top nominations for each class here: Storybook Ballot Spring 2010. For each class, you will find the actual ballot for voting in Desire2Learn at the top of the quiz list for Week 14. This is just for fun - not for points or a grade or anything. If you have a few minutes to spare, please vote for your own personal favorites! The ballot will be available till 5PM on Thursday and I'll announce the results Friday. Also, you might enjoy taking a look at some of the nominated Storybooks in the other classes, too - there are so many wonderful creative projects that people have come up with!

Course evaluation at eval.ou.edu. You all should have received an email from the College of Arts & Sciences about the course evaluations for all your courses available now at the eval.ou.edu website. I hope you will take a few minutes to complete the evaluation - your feedback is incredibly helpful to me in making improvements to these courses, and it is also a big help to the College in general as they continue to develop the online course program. The online course program exists because students find it valuable to be able to take courses online, and any ideas you have for how the program can be improved will be very useful to the College as they continue (hopefully!) to offer these online courses.

Storybook stack. The Storybook stack is still FULL of assignments. This week I get kind of overwhelmed by all the assignments that are coming in as people try to finish up the class early, so please be patient and I'll be sure to get comments back to everybody by the end of the week - meanwhile, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If you turned something in on Saturday, you should have comments back from me by now; if you turned something in on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack.

April 27: Birth of "The Mouse." On April 27 in 1972, Bill English, a researcher at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, California, created the first prototype of the computer "mouse" that later became widely used in the 1980s and 1990s (I myself first saw a computer mouse in operation in the summer of 1984... and yes, I know that is before most of you were even born, ha ha). Earlier versions of the mouse had operated with a system of wheels (example), but the mouse that English built had a ball inside, as you can see in the image below. You can read more about the history of the mouse in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image below:

Monday, April 26

Today is Monday, and Week 13 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 14 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. The Week 15 assignments are also available now, too!

Storybook stack. As usual on Monday, the Storybook stack is very large! First thing on Monday morning, I will update the contents of the stack, and I will begin working my way through the stack based on the order in which things were turned in. If the points for your Storybook assignment(s) will give you the points you need to finish up the class, send me a SEPARATE email and I'll move your assignment(s) to the top of the stack; you can put something like "Final Storybook points" in the subject line of the email so I'll be sure to see it.

Week 13 Internet assignment. After people finish turning in their Storybook nominations for the Week 13 Internet assignment on Monday at noon, I'll prepare a ballot with the most-nominated Storybooks for you to vote on. I will do my best to get that ready on Tuesday, with voting to take place this week, and winners to be announced on Friday. Thanks to everybody who turned in their nominations!

Week 14 Internet assignment. For the Week 14 Internet assignment, you'll be doing an online course evaluation of this class. The online evaluation will take place at the eval.ou.edu website, and the evaluation should be available soon - perhaps even today, Monday, April 26. You will be receiving an email directly from the College of Arts & Sciences with specific information about how to log on and complete the evaluation form as soon as it is ready. If you run into any problems logging on and completing the evaluation, just let me know - and THANKS in advance for your input. Every semester I make changes to these classes, trying out new things, getting rid of things that aren't working so well, and your input is extremely valuable in deciding what changes to make.

April 26: Jet Li. Today, April 26, is the birthday of Jet Li, a Chinese martial arts master and film star, who was born in 1963. Happy Birthday, Jet Li! You can read more about Jet Li's life and career in this Wikipedia article. Jet Li has made some wonderful movies with mythological and legendary themes. For children and adults alike, there is The Forbidden Kingdom, in which he plays the Monkey King (Jackie Chan costars in that one). My favorite of his films is Hero, directed by Yimou Zhang, in which Jet Li plays a mysterious character - hero or traitor? It all depends on which version of the story you believe. Both these films are great examples of mythological legends made into adventurous and visually dazzling movies.

(image source)