Friday, September 24 - Sunday, September 26

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 5! The Week 5 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and so is the Week 5 Internet assignment (Storybook commenting). Please make sure you get started on those assignments soon; they are due this weekend.

Storybook Stack. If you turned in a Week 4 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 4 Storybook, or an early Storybook for Week 5 or Week 6, 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. Because the Introduction is often the hardest part of the Storybook for people to write, this is the week where it takes me the longest to read and reply to everybody's assignments... but, fingers crossed, I hope I can get through the stack and have comments back to everybody before the weekend for any assignment turned in by noon on Friday. If not, I will wrap things up on Saturday morning!

Internet assignment - Ning Comment Wall. (repeat announcement) If you did not read the previous announcement about the Week 5 Internet assignment and the Ning Comment Walls, make sure you take a look at those announcements now - you can even get extra credit for making your Comment Wall ready for visitors, both by making some more room on your Ning page, and also by adding a YouTube video to your page if you want, just for fun!

You really can call me Laura! (repeat announcement) Although I sign my emails to you all as Laura, some of you still seem to feel like you need to call me Professor or Dr. or something fancy. No need for that at all, really! Since I'm on a first-name basis with all of you, please do the same and just call me Laura. :-)

Writing Center and Grammar Review. (repeat announcement) As you start working on your Storybook Introduction, and for all your future Storybook assignments, 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. You can also work on specific problem areas (commas, apostrophes, and run-on sentences are the most common problems people have) by reviewing these topics and then taking some extra credit Grammar Quizzes.

September 24: Dr. Seuss. Friday, September 24, marks the anniversary of the death in 1991 of Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. 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.

Thursday, September 23

Today is Thursday of WEEK 5 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 4 Storybook assignment yet, you have until noon on Thursday to turn that in 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 titles. On Friday afternoon, I will be updating the list of Storybooks one last time before the weekend. So, if you have not checked on the way your Storybook title is listed on the class list, please make sure you do that! Here are the class lists: Myth-Folklore, World Lit, Indian Epics. Let me know if you'd like me to change the way your title is listed there. I've also put up some notes that explain the many different options for displaying your title on your GoogleSites website, along with some other GoogleSites tips.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in - of all the weeks in the semester, this is the slowest week for me because the Introduction is usually the hardest part of the Storybook for people to write, and it takes me a lot more time to send back comments. If you turned in an assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it - you can check and make sure I have your assignment by looking at the contents of the stack here. I will do my best to respond to everything in stack before the weekend, but sometimes during this week I end up doing schoolwork on Saturday - we'll see how it works out this semester! I'm doing my best to get everything returned before the weekend.

Internet assignment - Ning Comment Wall. If you did not read the previous announcement about the Week 5 Internet assignment and the Ning Comment Walls, make sure you take a look at those announcements now - you can even get extra credit for making your Comment Wall ready for visitors, both by making some more room on your Ning page, and also by adding a YouTube video to your page if you want, just for fun!

September 23: Autumnal equinox. Today, September 23, marks the autumnal equinox (it took place at 3:09 this morning in fact!), when the day and night are of equal length, as the days are getting shorter. You can read about the astronomical details of the equinox at Wikipedia, and in the Wiccan "Wheel of the Year," the fall equinox is celebrated as the holiday of Mabon (if you are somewhere in the southern hemisphere, it is the spring holiday of Ostara). You can see here where the equinox takes its place on the wheel with its eight holidays:

Wednesday, September 22

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 5 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 4 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.

Week 5 Internet assignment. If you did not read yesterday's announcements, make sure you take a look at yesterday's announcements, especially the information about the Week 5 Internet assignment which is available now. I hope you will have fun looking at other people's coverpages. Plus, you might get some ideas for things you want to try with your own coverpage!

Please check your Storybook title. As I mentioned in an email on Monday, you should take a minute to check and make sure your Storybook title is listed correctly for the other people in the class to see here: Myth-Folklore, World Lit, Indian Epics. Please let me know if you'd like me to change the way your title is listed there. I've also put up some notes that explain the many different options for displaying your title on your GoogleSites website, along with some other GoogleSites tips.

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 or before Sunday at 8PM, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after 8PM on Sunday or on Monday or on Tuesday, it 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.

September 22: Sukkot Eve. At sunset tonight the Jewish holiday of Sukkot begins, and extends for one week until sunset on September 29. This festival is usually known as "Feast of the Booths" or "Feast of the Tabernacles" in English. The word Sukkot in Hebrew is the plural form of the word Sukkah, which means a booth or hut. During the festival, people build special huts in which to celebrate the holiday. You can read more about the Festival of Sukkot at the BBC website and at Wikipedia, which is also the source for the image of a festival booth below:

Tuesday, September 21

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 5 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 5 is on top. This week's topic in the Myth-Folklore class is Rome, while those of you in World Literature will be reading the Hindu Hitopadesha - and in Indian Epics, Rama is about to begin his exile from Ayodhya. The Week 5 Internet assignment is available starting today! If you have not turned in your Week 4 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 5 Internet assignment available NOW. For the next eight weeks (Week 5 through Week 12), your Internet assignment will consist of reading people's Storybooks and leaving comments for them. This is an assignment that you cannot do early - but on the first day of each new week in the class, that is, on Tuesday, the Internet assignment becomes available, and you have the rest of the week to complete it. So, today, Tuesday, is the first day of Week 5, and the Internet assignment for Week 5 is available. I hope you will enjoy looking at other people's coverpages and giving them some feedback!

The Ning Comment Wall. People will be leaving comments about your Storybook at the Ning Comment Wall which is part of your Profile page. In order to get your Profile page ready, I would strongly suggest that you make the latest activity and blog activity invisible, so that there will be more room on your Profile page for the Comment Wall. There is a Technology Tip so you can get extra credit for cleaning up your Ning Profile in order to make room for all the activity that will now start happening at your Comment Wall.

Storybook Stack. This week is probably the single biggest week for me in terms of the Storybook stack. If you turned in an assignment on SATURDAY, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Sunday or on Monday, it 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. A word of warning: in previous semesters, this week is such a heavy load for me that I sometimes have to work on the weekend to get through all the Storybook assignments. It is definitely the busiest week of the semester for me. I promise that if you turned it your assignment in on time, I will get comments back to you on or before Friday! If you turned something in on Monday or later, you may not get comments back from me until the weekend.

September 21: Milk miracle. In 1995, on September 21, there was what many people regard as a modern miracle: statues of the Hindu god Ganesha, as well as the statues of other gods and goddesses, appeared to be imbibing milk which was offered to them. You can read about the event in this Wikipedia article, and you can see a milk offering in this BBC video. The image below is from a British newspaper, the Sun, and you can find other newspaper headlines archived at the MilkMiracle.com website which documents the event:

Monday, September 20

Today is Monday. Week 4 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 5 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started!

You really can call me Laura! Although I sign my emails to you all as Laura, some of you still seem to feel like you need to call me Professor or Dr. or something fancy. No need for that at all, really! Since I'm on a first-name basis with all of you, please do the same and just call me Laura. :-)

Storybook Coverpages. I'll be updating the list of Storybook Coverpages for Myth-Folklore, World Literature and Indian Epics on Monday afternoon. You can continue to experiment with your Coverpage design all semester long, of course - just make sure the address of the page stays the same. Everybody in class will be using this link to access your Storybook for the Internet assignments for the rest of the semester. Starting on Tuesday with the Week 5 Internet assignment, you will be looking at and commenting on each other's Storybooks via the class list. I'll have more to say about that in tomorrow's announcements!

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, beginning with the assignments turned in on Friday or Saturday. If you turned in your assignment on Sunday evening or later, you may have to wait a few days before you will get comments back from me.

September 20: Jay Ward. Today marks the birthday of Jay Ward, the great American cartoonist, who was born on this day in 1920 and who died in 1989. He created some of my own personal favorite cartoon characters such as as Rocky & Bullwinkle, Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman, Dudley Do-Right, and George of the Jungle. These are all cartoons that I grew up with and which I still love to watch. If you have Netflix, the Rocky & Bullwinkle show is available for free instant streaming - and it is so much fun! Here's a DVD cover showing Mr. Peabody and Sherman (image source), which was always my favorite part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show: