Friday, October 22 - Sunday, October 24

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 9! The Week 9 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 9 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon.

Week 9 Internet assignment. (repeat announcement) For this week's assignment, instead of three free choices, you will have three RANDOM Storybooks, letting the little randomizer script point you to different Storybooks in your class. Just like last week, there needs to be a new story for you to read - most people already have two stories now at their Storybook, so if you are randomly assigned a Storybook you have seen already, check to see if there is a new story there you have not read yet. To be able to leave comments, you need to have one new story at the Storybook that you can read (it may be the first story you have read at that Storybook, or the second) - along with the Introduction, if you have not read that already.

Storybook Week 9 and Week 10. For the Week 9 Storybook assignment this week, most of you are turning in a revision assignment. Then, for Week 10, you will be turning in a new story. Remember that you do not need my comments on your Week 9 revisions before you start writing your new story - so don't let me hold you up! After you finish the Week 9 assignment, please feel free to move straight on to the Week 10 assignment and get to work on your new story.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in this week. If you turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment on time or during the Monday morning grace period, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned in a late Week 8 assignment, or an early Week 9 or Week 10 assignment, it might still be in the stack. In order to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. I will do my best to get comments back to any assignment that is turned in before noon on Friday. If you turn in something after noon on Friday, it will go into the stack for Monday.

Grading. For those of you who did not see the Tuesday announcements, check there for information about the number of points remaining the semester and strategizing about how you want to manage the rest of the semester for this class.

October 22: Doris Lessing. Friday , October 22, is the birthday of the great British author, Doris Lessing, who was born in 1919 (so that means she is turning 91 this year), and who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. You can read more about Doris Lessing's life and career in this Wikipedia article. I would rate Lessing's novel Shikasta as one of the greatest science fiction novels I have ever read. If you are a science fiction fan, or interested in political literature (like Orwell's 1984, for example), it's a book I recommend most highly - it's an extremely unusual novel and quite amazing! Here's a recent photo of Lessing when she learned she had won the Nobel Prize. Happy birthday, Doris Lessing!

Thursday, October 21

Today is Thursday of WEEK 9 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in BEFORE NOON today 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 Stack. I've still got quite a few items left in the Storybook stack. If you turned in an assignment over the weekend, 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.

Extra Credit. As you strategize about getting the points you need to finish up the class, remember that extra credit points go straight into your total and can help you either to make up for missed work or to finish the class early. There are some extra credit assignments available each week (like the "Famous Last Words" post), and there are some extra credit assignments you can do in advance (like the "Technology Tips," which you can do now for Weeks 9-15), plus there are the Grammar Quiz extra credit points which are available now and which will continue to be available for the rest of the semester. Plus, you can get "Early Bird" extra credit points just for working ahead - no extra work, just managing your time so that you are working ahead. For more information about grading and points, see Tuesday's announcements.

October 21: Jack Kerouac. Today, October 21, marks the death in 1969 of Jack Kerouac, the great American novelist of the "Beat" generation of writers. You can read more about Kerouac's life and career in this Wikipedia article. He is most famous for his novel On the Road, which he wrote in a burst of inspiration during the month of April in 1951. In order to keep pace with his writing style, he taped pieces of paper together in a continuous roll of paper that was 120 feet long which he could then feed into the typewriter without having to stop to put new pages into the typewriter. Just imagine what he could have done with a word processor, eh? The actual roll of paper has been preserved; here is the start of the novel at the top of the roll - and you can also see a display of the scroll rolled out:

Wednesday, October 20

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 9 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 8 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 quite 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 before 8PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday or 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.

Spring 2011 enrollment. (repeat announcement) For those of you who will enrolling for next semester, I wanted to give you a chance to reserve a place in one of the online classes that I teach, if you are interested. Please see Monday's announcements for more information: TODAY IS THE DAY when I need to know if you want me to reserve you a space in the class, so even if you just think it is a possibility that you might enroll, let me know. Spring is the busiest semester for these classes because of the people who suddenly discover they need upper-division Gen. Ed., and an online class is the only thing that will fit into their schedule! I'm glad to reserve a place for you, but I need to do that now.

Grading. For those of you who did not see the Tuesday announcements, check there for information about the number of points remaining the semester and strategizing about how you want to manage the rest of the semester for this class.

October 20: Birth of the Bab. Today, October 20, is a holiday in the Bahai religious calendar, celebrating the birthday of the Bab, one of the central figures in the Bahai tradition. He was born in Iran in 1819, and took the name "Bab" (meaning "Gate") when he announced his claims to be God's messenger in 1844. His radical religious claims were not accepted by the Muslim clergy of the time, and he was executed in 1850. You can read about his life and religious teachings in this detailed Wikipedia article, where you can also read this detailed article about the Bahai faith. You can also learn more at the Bahais of Norman website. The image below shows the Shrine of the Bab which is located in Haifa, Israel:

Tuesday, October 19

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 9 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 9 is on top. This week's topic is Robin Hood or King Arthur in the Mythology-Folklore class, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in World Literature, with the Mahabharata getting started in Indian Epics. If you have not turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 9 Internet assignment. The Week 9 Internet assignment is available now! For this week's assignments, instead of three free choices, you will have three RANDOM Storybooks. Just like last week, there needs to be a new story for you to read - most people already have two stories now at their Storybook, so if you are randomly assigned a Storybook you have seen already, check to see if there is a new story there you have not read yet. To be able to leave comments, you need to have one new story at the Storybook that you can read (it may be the first story you have read at that Storybook, or the second) - along with the Introduction, if you have not read that already.

Grading. With the beginning of Week 9, that means there are a total of seven more weeks of the semester (Weeks 9-10-11-12-13-14-15), which means 210 points of regular assignments available, plus extra credit (extra credit that is available week by week, plus the Grammar Quiz extra credit options). You may want to start planning now how you want to finish up the class. For a chart that shows you week by week point totals and other information about the grading system, you can consult this Grading Information page (the chart is at the bottom of the page). Many people take these classes just to get the Gen. Ed. credit and just need to pass the class, so it's fine with me if you want to finish the class with a grade of "B" when you get 360 points or "C" when you get 320 points; for an "A" you need 410 points. When you have reached the the points required for the grade you want to take, just let me know. As soon as you get the points you need, you are done - you do not need to do any more of the class assignments.

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 later on Sunday or 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. If you still have not turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment, you can still do that late for partial credit - and the sooner you can turn that in, the better!

Spring 2011 enrollment. (repeat announcement) For those of you who will enrolling for next semester, I wanted to give you a chance to reserve a place in one of the online classes that I teach, if you are interested. Please see Monday's announcements for more information.

OU Global Medical Brigades. (repeat announcement) This is an announcement from Dhara in the Indian Epics class: Interested in providing communities in developing nations with sustainable health care solutions? Join us on our upcoming medical brigade to Honduras: TODAY - Tuesday, October 19th, 7:00pm, Honors College Room 182. We will be discussing the organization and the trip as a whole as well as specific such as fundraising, cost, and our personal experiences from this past year. For more information, visit: ougmb.weebly.com. Here's picture of the OU Global Medical Brigades group from Summer 2010 (source):


(If you have announcements you'd like me to share with the class - especially if they have a link to online information as this one does, just let me know!)

Monday, October 18

Today is Monday. Week 8 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 9 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started.

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.

Spring 2011 enrollment. (repeat announcement) For those of you who will enrolling for next semester, I wanted to give you a chance to reserve a place in one of the online classes that I teach, if you are interested. The online courses all fill up very fast, but if you let me know BY THIS WEDNESDAY that you would like to take one of these classes in the Spring, I will reserve a space for you. You can get more information about each of the three classes here: 2003 World Literature (lower-div. Gen. Ed. Western), 3043 Myth-Folklore (uper-div. Gen. Ed. Western), and 4993 Indian Epics (upper-div. Gen. Ed. Non-Western). Please make sure you contact me to reserve a space if you think you want to enroll; the Spring semester always has a tidal wave of people looking for Gen. Ed. online classes that they need to graduate. I will gladly reserve a place for anyone who wants one, but you need to let me know BEFORE enrollment starts!

OU Global Medical Brigades. This is an announcement from Dhara in the Indian Epics class: Interested in providing communities in developing nations with sustainable health care solutions? Join us on our upcoming medical brigade to Honduras: Tuesday, October 19th, 7:00pm, Honors College Room 182. We will be discussing the organization and the trip as a whole as well as specific such as fundraising, cost, and our personal experiences from this past year. For more information, visit: ougmb.weebly.com. (If you have announcements you'd like me to share with the class - especially if they have a link to online information as this one does, just let me know!)

October 18: Veerappan. Friday, October 18, in 2004 marks the death of Veerappan, the notorious Indian bandit and smuggler whose outlaw exploits made him a kind of modern-day "Robin Hood." You can read more about his life and outlaw career in this Wikipedia article. Veerappan was famous for his dramatic moustache, as you can see in this sand sculpture created by Sudarsan Patnaik, an internationally famous sand artist: