Friday, February 4 - Sunday, February 6

OU CAMPUSES CLOSED FRIDAY.
See OU.EDU for more details.

BIZZELL LIBRARY is OPEN
10-5 on Friday & normal weekend hours.

For those of you who have not had Internet access while campus has been closed, I will contact you first thing on Monday about make-up work; let me know when you get back online.

HAPPY WEEKEND! This is the end of Week 3. The Week 3 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 3 assignments are due on Friday or, if you prefer, on Saturday or Sunday. If you have been having Internet connectivity problems because of the snow, please contact me as soon as you get back online. Campus will be open on Monday, so you can use a computer on campus then; there is no work for this class that requires you to be working on any computer in particular. As long as you have an Internet connection on any computer, you are good to go.

Week 3 blog posts. For the Responding assignment, you should be looking for the Week 3 essay and story in order to leave comments on those posts; the goal should be to comment on the STORY and ESSAY posts of your two people each week. Some people may not have those Week 3 posts, in which case you should look for two other posts in their blog you have not commented on; if you have commented on all the posts in their blog already, then choose someone else at random in the class to read and comment on. Also, some people are working ahead, which means you may need to scroll down to find the posts you are looking for. So, if you do not find somebody's Week 3 blog posts at the top of their blog, just scroll on down till you find their Week 3 posts.

Storybook Stack. On Friday, I hope to be able to finish reading and responding to every Storybook assignment in the stack turned in before Friday at noon (contents of the stack). If you turned in a Week 2 assignment, you should have comments back from me by now; the only items in the stack are early Week 3 and Week 4 assignments. I don't do any grading over the weekend, which means that if you turn something in after noon on Friday, it will go into the stack. I'll start working through the stack first thing on Monday morning, in the order received. If you want comments back next week sooner rather than later, don't wait until Sunday to turn in your assignment! The earlier you turn in the assignment, the sooner you will get comments back.

Famous Last Words. Some of you have discovered the Famous Last Words extra credit option. Given how crazy the semester gets for everybody, I highly recommend this as a nice way to just pause and reflect on how the semester is going for you. If your semester is like mine, every week flies by and you cannot even quite figure out where it went! By doing the Famous Last Words extra credit assignment, you can take a few minutes to just think about how the past week went for you and what you are expecting around the corner next week... while getting extra credit for it, too!

February 4: Sri Lanka National Day. Today, February 4, is the holiday that celebrates the day - February 4, 1948 - when the island nation of Sri Lanka gained independence from British rule (India had gained its independence about six months earlier, in August of 1947). For those of you who are in the Indian Epics class, Sri Lanka is a place of special interest, because it is the legendary home of Ravana the rakshasa king. You can read more about Sri Lanka in this Wikipedia article. The image below shows a mountain in Sri Lanka, Sri Pada, which supposedly is marked by the footprint of the Buddha (according to Buddhist tradition), the footprint of Shiva (in Hindu tradition) or the footprint of Adam (in Islamic tradition):

Thursday, February 3

*** CAMPUS CLOSED ON THURSDAY:
See OU.EDU for the latest info. ***

For those of you without reliable Internet access while campus is closed, contact me when you get back online to make arrangements for making up missed work.

Today is Thursday of WEEK 3 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 2 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit until noon today. 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 a Storybook assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me. If you turned something in on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, it is probably still in the stack waiting for me to comment (contents of the stack). Please do not go on to the next Storybook assignment until you get my comments! If you want comments back faster, turn in your Storybook assignment before Sunday - since 60 or so people turn in their assignment when it is due (on Sunday), that means it takes me a while to read them all and reply.

Week 3 Internet: Website Check-Up. For your Week 3 Internet assignment, you will be checking up on your practice website and making sure you are 100% familiar with how GoogleSites works. If you are curious to see the practice websites that other people in class have already created, including some Storybook Coverpages, you can see the list here: World Literature, Myth-Folklore, Indian Epics.

Week 3 Read and Respond assignment. The Week 3 blog commenting assignment is not available yet; it will be available starting on Friday. The blog commenting assignment is the only assignment you cannot complete early, because people will still be adding posts to their blog today, Thursday. So please wait until midnight tonight when people should have finished their Week 3 blog posts, and then on Friday you can do the Read and Respond assignment.

Tech Tip emails. (repeat announcement) Until I get through the Storybook stack, I won't be responding to all the Tech Tip emails, but I'll get to that later in the week I hope (sometimes it even takes me until the next week to reply to those Tech Tip emails). Meanwhile, please feel free to go ahead and do more Tech Tips if you want. You certainly don't need to wait on my reply to your latest Tech Tip email for you to go ahead and do more of the Tech Tips.

February 3: Chinese New Year. Today, February 3, is the Chinese New Year - and this year it is the Year of the Rabbit (in Vietnam, it is the Year of the Cat, rather than the Rabbit). You can read more about the Chinese New Year tradition in this Wikipedia article. In the Chinese zodiac, the different animal years are also associated with different elements; the 2011 Rabbit is the metal rabbit (as for me I am a Dragon - a wood dragon, to be specific). Happy New Year!

(image source)

Wednesday, February 2

*** CAMPUS CLOSED: See OU.EDU for the latest info. ***

I hope you are all staying safe and warm at home
during this serious winter weather!

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 5PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after 5PM on Sunday or on Monday or 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. It usually takes me most of the week to return all the Storybook assignments; the sooner you turn it in, the sooner you will get comments back.

Storybook comments. When I send you back comments about your Storybook assignment, my comments will be inserted into your assignment and marked with ==> to make them easy to find. Please make sure you read the comments, let me know if you have any questions, and SAVE THE EMAILS. For each Storybook assignment I return to you, the comments will be something you need in order to complete the next assignment. So, make sure you read the comments and that you refer back to that email again later when you move on to the next week's Storybook task.

Working ahead. As always, I would urge you to try to work ahead this Wednesday - instead of waiting until Thursday to do the blog posts that will be due tomorrow, go ahead and do them today! There is no benefit to putting it off, and if you can get even just a day or two ahead of schedule, you will find this class so much easier to manage, I promise. So, if you are stuck at home in the snow, take advantage of this time to get ahead in this class. Provided that your power stays on (!), online courses can carry on in the winter weather per usual.

February 2: Imbolc. In the Wheel of the Year holidays, one of the first days of February (February 2 or February 2) is celebrated as Imbolc (sometimes spelled Imbolg), the cross-quarter day which is in-between the Winter Solstice (shortest day of the year) and the Spring Equinox (when the day and night are of equal length, with the days growing longer). Because the seasons of the year are opposite in the northern and southern hemispheres, when it is Imbolc in the northern hemisphere, it is the holiday of Lughnasadh in the southern hemisphere. Here is the Wheel of the Year showing the four main holidays at the solstices and equinoxes, along with the four cross-quarter days:

Tuesday, February 1

*** WINTER WEATHER: ALL OU CAMPUSES CLOSED ***
TUESDAY: ALL OU CAMPUSES CLOSED. SEE OU.EDU.

I hope you can all stay safe and warm at home on Tuesday!

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 3 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 3 is on top. In Indian Epics, this week you will be finishing up Narayan's Ramayana, and in World Literature you will be reading New Testament parables. In Myth-Folklore, it's the Hebrew Bible, with a choice between the stories of Noah and Babel, or the stories of Samson and Daniel. If you have not turned in your Week 2 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. (See note about that below.)

Websites! I've updated the list of websites for all three classes, plus the Storybooks for people who are working ahead. If you are curious to see what your classmates have done, take a look - you can find all the websites and coverpages here: World Literature, Myth-Folklore and Indian Epics.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the HUGE stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. 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. I read the assignments in the order that they are turned in, so the later you turn in the assignment, the longer you'll need to wait to get the comments back. It usually takes me all week to get comments back on all the Storybook assignments people have turned in!

Late Storybooks. (repeat announcement) Each week, the Storybook assignment is the only assignment that can be turned in late for partial credit. Since I cannot get all the Storybooks graded and returned immediately, it is fine with me if you turn in the Storybook late. If you want full credit (10 points) you must turn the Storybook in on time, that is, before noon on Monday. If you turn it in late, you can receive partial credit, as follows: turn it in on Monday after noon and you can receive up to 8 points; on Tuesday, you can receive up to 7 points; on Wednesday you can receive up to 6 points. If you turn the Storybook assignment in on Thursday before noon, you can receive up to 5 points. No late Storybook assignments will be accepted after noon on Thursday.

February 1: Langston Hughes. Today, February 1, marks the birthday of the African-American poet, Langston Hughes, who was born in 1902. He was one of the luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, and you can read about his remarkable life and career in this Wikipedia article.

(cover of Weary Blues, 1926)

Here's a video interpretation of "Weary Blues" that I found at YouTube.com.

Monday, January 31

*** WINTER WEATHER: ALL OU CAMPUSES CLOSED ***
TUESDAY: ALL OU CAMPUSES CLOSED. SEE OU.EDU.

Today is Monday, and Week 2 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 3 will begin officially tomorrow - and those Week 3 assignments are already 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 then start reading the assignments in the order they were turned in. Please do not go on to the Week 3 Storybook assignment until you get Week 2 comments back from me (and the same is true for those of you who have turned in Week 3 or Week 4 assignments - please do not go on to the next Storybook assignment until you get my comments). I'll be updating the stack as I make my way through the assignments!

Late Storybooks. Each week, the Storybook assignment is the only assignment that can be turned in late for partial credit. Since I cannot get all the Storybooks graded and returned immediately, it is fine with me if you turn in the Storybook late. If you want full credit (10 points) you must turn the Storybook in on time, that is, before noon on Monday. If you turn it in late, you can receive partial credit, as follows: turn it in on Monday after noon and you can receive up to 8 points; on Tuesday, you can receive up to 7 points; on Wednesday you can receive up to 6 points. If you turn the Storybook assignment in on Thursday before noon, you can receive up to 5 points. No late Storybook assignments will be accepted after noon on Thursday.

Monday: Your chance to get ahead. Although being able to set your own schedule is one of the biggest benefits of an online class, the majority of the people in these classes are doing the assignments on the same day that they are due. Yet we all know that life is FULL of surprises, both good and bad. So please try to work ahead and that way you are ready for any surprises that might come up. If you can take advantage of Monday to get ahead on the Week 3 assignments, that will give you a lot more freedom and flexibility, making this class a lot easier to manage.

Monday, January 31: Final day to drop with refund. (repeat announcement) Today, Monday, January 31, is the final day to drop a class and get a full refund. So, if you are finding out that this class does not fit into your schedule after all, or that the workload is too demanding, you can still drop the class and get a refund. Monday is the last day to drop with a refund.

January 31: Alan Lomax. Today marks the birthday of Alan Lomax, one of the most important figures in the history of American folk music. He was born on January 31 in 1915 and died in 2002. You can read about his life and career at Wikipedia. After he graduated from college, Lomax began working in 1937 at the Archive of Folk Song of the Library of Congress. He traveled all over the country recording folk singers and recording interviews with musicians like Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly and Jelly Roll Morton. In the 1950s, he began collecting folk music from all over the world and produced the influential multi-volume record series, Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music. Check out the Alan Lomax Collection at the Library of Congress online; the image below is an album cover from his collection of Prison Songs: