Thursday, Sept. 30 - Sunday, October 3

OU-TEXAS Weekend. This Friday is treated as an unofficial school holiday, and I know many of you will be out of town for the OU-Texas football game. Because there are no assignments due on Friday, I have not made any adjustments to the schedule because of the football weekend. If possible, you should work ahead and finish all your Week 5 assignments before leaving town, or else you need to be sure to finish the assignments during the usual Monday morning grace period. I will not be posting any new announcements here on Friday - the next new class announcement will be on Monday morning. For those of you traveling this weekend: have fun and be safe! Go Sooners!

Friday drop deadline. Repeat announcement. This Friday, October 1, is the last day to drop the class with an automatic grade of W on your transcript. For more information, see Monday's announcements.

Friday noon: Storybook Titles. For anybody who wants to make a change to your Storybook title listing at the class list, please let me know about that by Friday noon at the latest. I can update the class list at any time, but I update the "randomizer" script just once a week, on Friday afternoon. So, if you want me to make a change to your title, please let me know about that by Friday at noon!

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. On Wednesday, I finished responding to every Week 5 Storybook that was turned in on time. On Thursday, I will start replying to the late Week 5 Storybooks and to the early Week 6 and Week 7 Storybooks people have turned in this week. 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.

Tech Tip emails. As I've announced before, in the long list of things that I work on each week for these classes, the Tech Tip emails come last - sometimes I don't manage to get to those for a week or two, depending on how busy things are. Please don't let that hold you back, though - you can go ahead and complete other tips. You definitely don't need to hear back from me about your Tech Tip emails before you go ahead and do more tips if you want! I'll be taking advantage of the slow day this Friday to get caught up on the current stack of Tech Tips.

October 3: Gore Vidal. Sunday, October 3, marks the birthday in the year 1925 of the great American author, Gore Vidal. You can read more about Gore Vidal in this Wikipedia article. My favorite of his novels is without doubt his amazing historical novel Julian, about the 4th-century emperor Julian, nicknamed "Julian the Apostate," the last of the pagan emperors of Rome (although I am also a big fan of another of his historical novels, Creation, too). Here is the cover of a recent edition of Julian - and Happy Birthday, Gore Vidal!

Wednesday, September 29

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.

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.

Week 6 Internet assignment. If you did not read yesterday's announcement about the Week 6 Internet assignment (reading and commenting on Storybook Introductions), please make sure to take a look at that.

Automatic W for class drops. (repeat announcement) This week, if you drop a class, it shows up automatically as a W on your transcript. After this week, you cannot drop a class with an automatic W. Instead, you can only receive a W if you are passing the class at the time of the drop (and if you are passing a class, you probably would not need to drop the class, right?). So, if you are finding the semester to be overwhelming, this is the week when you can make adjustments to your schedule that will not have an adverse effect on your transcript.

September 29: Michaelmas. Today is the holiday of Saint Michael the Archangel. The holiday is known as "Michaelmas" in England. This will be familiar to those of you who may have studied abroad at a British university, where they call their fall school session by the name of this fall holiday: Michaelmas Term. Below you can see Saint Michael battling the demon, a famous story in the Christian tradition. The city of Arkhangelsk (Archangel) in Russia is named after Michael the Archangel, and you can see the angel and the demon represented in the coat of arms of that city:

Tuesday, September 28

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.

OU-Texas. Some people have asked about the OU-Texas football "holiday" (it's not on the official list of school holidays, but it definitely feels like a holiday). Because there is nothing specifically due in class on Friday, there is no change to the usual schedule. Of course, if you are going to be out of town, it would be a good idea to finish up as many of the Week 6 assignments before you go down to Dallas! That way you won't be scrambling during the grace period on Monday morning to get caught up on anything you might have missed while being out of town.

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 commenting on four different Introductions this week.

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!

September 28: Confucius. September 28 is a day traditionally assigned to the birthday of the Chinese philosopher Confucius in the year 551 BCE. You can read about Confucius in this Wikipedia article, and also in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy online. Confucius's philosophy was already famous in Europe in the 17th century, as you can see from this Latin edition of his works published in 1687 (click here for a larger view; if you are a student of Latin, you might see how much of the text you can understand). Happy birthday, Confucius!

Monday, September 27

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.

Automatic W for class drops. This week, if you drop a class, it shows up automatically as a W on your transcript. After this week, you cannot drop a class with an automatic W. Instead, you can only receive a W if you are passing the class at the time of the drop (and if you are passing a class, you probably would not need to drop the class, right?). So, if you are finding the semester to be overwhelming, this is the week when you can make adjustments to your schedule that will not have an adverse effect on your transcript.

September 27: T.C. Cannon. Today marks the birthday of T.C. Cannon, a Kiowa-Caddo artist from Oklahoma who was born in 1946 and who was killed in an automobile accident in 1978, when he was just 31 years old. In that brief life he left behind an impressive collection of artwork. You can read about Cannon's legacy in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this self-portrait, which Cannon painted in 1975: