Friday, October 8 - Sunday, October 10

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 a group with people you already know, or you may have all new people - that is the magic of randomness!

Mid-Term Grade Reports. If you did not read Tuesday's announcements, please see the note there about the university's mid-term grade reports.

Week 7 Internet assignment. Likewise, 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.

Congratulations, Dhara! One of the students in Indian Epics completed the course this week with 410 points for a grade of A. Wow! Dhara's Storybook has just two stories in it, but they are a perfect pair: two lovely karma stories, one about a squirrel and one about a mongoose. As this example shows, there is no specific requirement about what you have to do to finish the class. If your Storybook ends up with just two stories or three stories, instead of four, that is fine! It's up to you how to mix and match the points you need for the grade you want to receive in the class. As soon as you get the points you need (410 for an A, 360 for a B, 320 for a C), you are done. Congratulations, Dhara!

Sita Sings the Blues. The folks in Indian Epics have now finished up the Ramayana (Week 8 will be a Ramayana review week), and then we will be moving on to the Mahabharata. There are many different versions of the Ramayana, of course, in many languages and styles, in addition to the two books we read in class - including a recent new film by Nina Paley, called Sita Sings the Blues You can see a trailer for the film (click on the image below), or you can visit the Sita Sings the Blues website - you can even view the entire movie online. Now that you are experts in the plot of the Ramayana, you might really enjoy this very modern take on the ancient story! :-)

Thursday, October 7

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.

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!

My Thursday schedule. I do most of my work during regular business hours on Monday-Tuesday and Friday, while scheduling my out-of-office commitments each week, usually on Wednesday or Thursday. This week, I am going to be out of the office for part of the day on Thursday. That means I may be a bit more slow to respond to your emails today than on the other days of the week - but if you send me an email during the day today, I'll definitely get back to you by the end of the day.

Mid-Term Grade Reports. If you did not read Tuesday's announcements, please see the note there about the university's mid-term grade reports.

Week 7 Internet assignment. Likewise, 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.

October 7: Edgar Allan Poe. Today, October 7, marks the anniversary of the death of the poet and short-story writer Edgar Allan Poe in the year 1849. You can read more about Poe's remarkable and tragic life in this detailed Wikipedia article. Because his books are in the public domain, you can find them in many different online editions. Among Poe's many claims to fame is the invention of the detective story, with The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Below is an image of the cover designed by the famous illustrator Gustave Dore for Poe's famous poem, The Raven:

Wednesday, October 6

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 Tuesday's announcements, please see the note there about the university's mid-term grade reports.

Week 7 Internet assignment. Likewise, 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.

Flexible Storybook schedule. (repeat announcement) If you were out of town over the weekend and are not ready to turn in your Week 6 Storybook assignment, you might choose to skip the assignment and go on the "one-week-off" schedule. You will still end up with four stories total in your Storybook, turning in your first story in Week 7, and your remaining stories in Week 9, 11, and 13. You can find out more about how the flexible Storybook schedule works on this Storybook Schedule page.

October 6: William Tyndale. On this day in the year 1536, the religious scholar William Tyndale was executed. His crime was translating the Bible into English. He was strangled in a public execution, and this body was then burnt at the stake. His last words were reportedly, "Lord! Open the King of England's eyes!" (the King of England at the time was the notorious Henry VIII). You can read about Willian Tyndale's remarkable life and scholarly career in this Wikipedia article. For a sample of Tyndale's beautiful but very archaic English prose, you can read his rendering of the story of Noah and the Ark. The image below shows Tyndale at the stake:

Tuesday, October 5

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.

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.

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

Mid-Term Grade Reports. On Monday, I was asked to enter midterm grade reports into Ozone, but I have no idea when those reports will be visible to you in Ozone. So, I also entered the midterm grade report information in Desire2Learn where you can see it starting today, Tuesday, if you scroll down to the bottom of the Gradebook. I entered these grades after the Monday noon grace period was over, which means they reflect your work during Weeks 1-6 of the semester. If you did not get your Week 6 Storybook turned in on time or during the grace period, getting that assignment turned in late for partial credit might affect your midterm grade if you were right at the borderline. You can keep an eye on your progress in the class from week to week by using this Grading Chart for the semester. It shows for each week how many points you should have to be headed for an A, B or C in the class. If you have any questions about your progress in the class, let me know.

Wrapping up the Ramayana: Ayodhya. In the Indian Epics class this week, people are finishing up the second version of the Ramayana, so in the Announcements this week, I'll be providing a couple of Ramayana-related links! The first item is actually something that is currently in the news in India, thus showing how the ancient story of Rama is part of the current religious and political world. The city of Ayodhya has witnessed horrifying religious violence between Hindus and Muslims, including riots in 2002 when over one thousand people were killed. You can read about the background of this conflict in this BBC webpage. Only last week, a court in India issued a verdict dividing the holy site of Ayodhya between Hindus and Muslims; you can read about the verdict here. Here is a photo of Ayodhya as it looks today:

Monday, October 4

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.

Flexible Storybook schedule. If you were out of town over the weekend and are not ready to turn in your Week 6 Storybook assignment, you might choose to skip the assignment and go on the "one-week-off" schedule. You will still end up with four stories total in your Storybook, turning in your first story in Week 7, and your remaining stories in Week 9, 11, and 13. You can find out more about how the flexible Storybook schedule works on this Storybook Schedule page.

Storybook: Working ahead. In order to do the Week 7 Revision assignment, you will need to wait for comments back on your Week 6 Story 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.

October 4: World Animal Day. Today, October 4, is the international holiday designated as World Animal Day. The purpose of the holiday is "to celebrate animal life in all its forms, to celebrate humankind’s relationship with the animal kingdom, to acknowledge the diverse roles that animals play in our lives, and to acknowledge and be thankful for the way in which animals enrich our lives." You can find out more at the World Animal Day website. CELEBRATE ANIMAL LIFE!