Friday, December 3 - Sunday, December 5

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. I would also strongly - STRONGLY - encourage you to finish your Week 15 assignments this weekend, since it is the LAST WEEKEND you will have to do work for this class. See the important "Schedule Note" below for more information.

IMPORTANT SCHEDULE NOTE. For those of you who will still be doing classwork during Week 15 (dead week), please be aware that it is on a different schedule: All final Week 15 assignments are due by Friday, December 10, at noon. In addition, unlike previous weeks, you do not have the option to turn in your Week 14 Storybook assignment late. Instead, your Week 14 Storybook assignment must be turned in on time - that is, during the Week 14 grace period Monday morning, December 6, at the very latest. No late Week 14 Storybook assignments will be accepted. You have to get the Week 14 assignment turned in on time so that I can get comments back to you in time to complete your Week 15 assignment by Friday at noon!

Storybook stack. As of Friday morning, there were a few Storybooks still in the stack; you can see here the 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!

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.

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
Justyn - The Diary of Alex, Frankly
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Best Storybook Topic
Ben - Werewolves on Campus
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Best Written Storybook
Ben - Fairy Tales: The Other Side
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Most Creative Storytelling
Courtney - Salon 205: An Underwater Mermaid Beauty Salon
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Best Design Overall
Jeff - Memoirs of a Cursed Man


INDIAN EPICS

Best Overall Storybook
Jasmyn - Player One vs. MAYA
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Best Written Storybook
Jess - Stories about Karma from the Office of a Guidance Counselor
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Most Creative Storytelling
Rosa - Women of Epic Proportions
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Best Design Overall
Lisa - My Mystical Travels in India


WORLD LITERATURE

Best Overall Storybook
Sara - F. Child Case Files
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Best Written Storybook
Katie - How the Greek Gods Need Family Therapy Really Badly
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Most Creative Storytelling
Will - Creatures in Brazil

*** CONGRATULATIONS ***

Saturday, December 4: Omar Khayyam. This Saturday marks the anniversary of the death in the year 1122 of the great Persian poet and scholar, Omar Khayyam. He is best known today for his collection of poems called the "Rubaiyat" (quatrains), but in his day he was renowned as a mathematician and also as an astronomer. Here is one of the quatrains in the famous translation by Edward FitzGerald:

With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand labour'd it to grow:
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd -
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."

You can read more about Omar Khayyam's remarkable life and career in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image of Omar Khayam's tomb in Neishapur, Iran.

Thursday, December 2

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.

VOTING: Polls close at 5PM today. 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, yes, a single vote does make a difference in this local micro-election. 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. If you turned in a Week 13 Storybook assignment on time, you should have comments back from me. There are still some late Week 13 and early Week 14 and Week 15 Storybooks in the stack which I hope to get to today. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If you want to get comments back before the weekend, make sure to get your Storybooks turned in by Friday at noon.

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.

December 2: Ivan Illich. Today, December 2, marks the anniversary of the death in 2002 of the visionary educator, Ivan Illich. Already back in the 1970s, Illich realized that the personal networks made possible by digital computing could completely change the face of education, so that education could be centered on the learners themselves, rather than forcing learners to conform to the regime of the school. I still keep hoping that Illich's vision of "educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring" will someday come true. You can find out more about Ivan Illich's life and work in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source of the image below:

Wednesday, December 1

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 some 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, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in 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 Fall 2010. The ballot contains LINKS to all the Storybooks which you can use to refresh your memory - and also to visit the Storybooks in the other classes, if you are curious. 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 until 5PM on Thursday and I'll announce the results Friday.

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.

IMPORTANT Week 15 Schedule Note. For those of you who will still be doing classwork during Week 15 (dead week), please read the note in Tuesday's announcements.

December: Latin Christmas Carols. As one of my Latin hobbies, I collect Christmas carols and holiday songs in Latin, and I've got a special blog - Gaudium Mundo - where you can find a different Latin Christmas carol or holiday song for each day of the month of December... beginning with Rudolphus Rubrinasus on December 1. So, if you have taken Latin or are taking Latin now, you might want to check out Gaudium Mundo to start singing in Latin. If you are interested in Rudolph in particular, here's a link to the page about Rudolphus Rubrinasus.

(image source)

Tuesday, November 30

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 Fall 2010. The ballot contains LINKS to all the Storybooks which you can use to refresh your memory - and also to visit the Storybooks in the other classes, if you are curious. 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 until 5PM on Thursday and I'll announce the results Friday.

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. There are still quite a few Storybooks in the stack! 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 before 8PM on Saturday or earlier, you should have comments back from me by now; if you turned something in later on Saturday or on Sunday or Monday, it is probably still in the stack.

IMPORTANT Week 15 Schedule Note. For those of you who will still be doing classwork during Week 15 (dead week), please be aware that it is on a different schedule: your final Week 15 assignments are due on Friday, December 10, by noon. I would encourage everyone, if possible, to complete your Week 15 assignments now, so that you will not have anything due during dead week. If, however, you will be doing Week 15 work next week, make sure you note the change in schedule: All final Week 15 assignments are due by Friday, December 10, at noon. In addition, your Week 14 Storybook assignment must be turned in by Monday, December 6, at noon (that is, during the Week 14 grace period). No late Week 14 Storybook assignments will be accepted. This way, I can promise to return your Week 14 Storybook assignment to you by Wednesday at noon so that you will have time to complete your Week 15 assignment by Friday at noon.

November 30: Mark Twain. Today, November 30, marks the birthday of Mark Twain in the year 1835. As the author of Huckleberry Finn, Twain is one of the most important authors in the American literary tradition - and also one of the funniest. Twain has been in the news lately because his unexpurgated autobiography (first volume) was recently published - and has instantly become a bestseller! You can read some excerpts from the autobiography online. My favorite of Twain's books is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which you can read online here - with illustrations, too! The image below shows Twain accepting an honorary degree at Oxford University in 1907:

Persian Word in English: Jujube

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Monday, November 29

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 at the end of Week 13. 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!

CONGRATULATIONS, LAURAN! Lauran in the Indian Epics class gave birth to her baby girl over the break. You can see a picture of her beautiful baby at the class Ning.

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 today 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 will be available starting on Tuesday, November 30. 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. THANKS in advance for your input. Every semester I make changes to these classes, trying out new things, improving things, etc., and your input is extremely valuable in deciding what changes to make.

November 29: C. S. Lewis. Today marks the birthday in the year 1898 of the famous author and scholar, C. S. Lewis. Lewis is probably best known today for his series of Narnia books (and there's a new Narnia film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which will be released in theaters next month!). You can read more about Lewis's life and career in this Wikipedia article, and there is also a biographical film very much worth watching, Shadowlands. The image below shows the first-edition covers of the Narnia books:

Turkic Word in English: Horde

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Arabic Word in English: Giraffe

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Arabic Word in English: Gazelle

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Arabic Word in English: Demitasse

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Sanskrit Word in English: Chakra

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