Friday, March 11 - Sunday, March 20: SPRING BREAK

HAPPY SPRING BREAK! You have reached the end of Week 8 of the semester, which means the semester is more than half-way over - and it is time for Spring Break! The Week 8 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, along with the other end-of-week assignments for Week 8.

SPRING BREAK. For Spring Break, you will have the entire week off. I would encourage everybody to finish up the final Week 8 assignments on Friday, March 11, so you can have 9 days off (whoo-hoo, from March 12-March 20) - but if you want to wait and finish up Week 8 on the weekend after Spring Break, you can do that, too. The grace period for wrapping up Week 8 will be on Monday morning, March 21, after Spring Break.

Storybook Stack. If you turn in a Storybook before noon on Friday March 11, I will get comments back to you on Friday before Spring Break. During Spring Break, I won't be reading any Storybook assignments, but I will periodically update the contents of the stack.

My Spring Break. Yes, I will be taking a break for Spring Break also! If you are curious, here is the project I am working on: Anecdota Latina. I won't be doing any Storybook grading over the Spring Break, but I will be updating the stack periodically (see previous announcement) and I will be checking email, but not very often. If you do have a question or run into a problem, though, let me know and I will get back to you when I check my email.

Working ahead on your Storybook. If you want to work ahead on your Storybook, please do so! You can actually write the second and third and fourth stories over Spring Break if you want, and have them all lined up and ready to go. Your second story is due during Week 8, with the third story in Week 10, and then the fourth and final story in Week 12 - but you can write all your stories now if you want; several people have already finished their Storybooks, in fact. Especially for those of you who want to finish up the class early, getting ahead on your Storybook project is one of the best ways to do that. :-)

CELEBRATE SPRING WITH HAIKU!

Thursday, March 10

Today is Thursday of WEEK 8 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 7 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that on Thursday morning 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 some items left in the Storybook stack that were turned in on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Today, Thursday, at noon is the final deadline for turning in a late Week 7 assignment for partial credit. If you want comments back on a Storybook assignment before Spring Break, make sure you get that turned in by Friday at noon (see note below).

SPRING BREAK. (repeat announcement) For Spring Break, you will have the entire week off next week. You will have your regular Week 8 assignments due today, Thursday. Then, I would encourage everybody to finish up the final Week 8 assignments tomorrow, Friday, March 11 - but if you want to wait and do them on the weekend after Spring Break, you can do that, too. The grace period for wrapping up Week 8 will be on Monday morning, March 21, after Spring Break.

My Spring Break. (repeat announcement) Yes, I will be taking a break for Spring Break also! If you are curious, here is the project I am working on: Anecdota Latina. I won't be doing any Storybook grading over the Spring Break, so if you want to get ahead and receive comments back from me before the Spring Break begins, please get your early assignments turned in by this Friday, March 11, at noon. If you can get a Storybook assignment turned in by Friday at noon, I will get comments back to you before Spring Break; otherwise, if you turn something in after noon on Friday or during Spring Break, it will go into the stack for Monday, March 21, when classes resume.

March 10: Mikhail Bulgakov. Today, March 10, marks the anniversary of the death of one of the most extraordinarily talented writers of the 20th century, Mikhail Bulgakov. Bulgakov is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita - I won't even try to summarize the plot of this fabulous book (you can read a synopsis here at Wikipedia); I'll just mention that some of the characters include the Devil himself, a black cat named Behemoth, various and sundry witches, as well as Pontius Pilate and Jesus. Below you can see a statue of the cat Behemoth which adorns a wall in the city of Kiev, where Bulgakov was born.

Wednesday, March 9

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 8 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 7 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 on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in 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.

Week 8 Internet assignment. (repeat announcement) The Week 8 Internet assignment is now available. Once again, you will be commenting on the Storybooks that already have at least one STORY available for you to read. Most of the Storybooks do now have at least one story, since most of the folks who did not publish a story in Week 6 did publish a story for Week 7. Check the assignment instructions for more details - the process for finding the Storybooks to read this week is completely different from last week or the week before. :-)

My Wednesday schedule. I try to schedule my out-of-office commitments on Wednesday or Thursday. This week, I am going to be out of the office for part of the day on Wednesday. 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.

Sita Sings the Blues. The folks in Indian Epics have now finished up the Ramayana (this week is a review week), and then 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 animated film by Nina Paley, called Sita Sings the Blues. You can see a trailer for the film at YouTube, or you can visit the Sita Sings the Blues website - you can even view the movie online!

Here is the YouTube trailer:

Tuesday, March 8

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 8 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 8 is on top. Yes, this means the semester is now about half over! In the Indian Epics class, you have a Ramayana review week before you start the Mahabharata in Week 9, after Spring Break. In Myth-Folklore, the choice is Africa or Jamaica, and in World Literature, it's another trip to the underworld - this time with Dante! If you have not turned in your Week 7 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

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

Week 8 Internet assignment. The Week 8 Internet assignment is now available. Once again, you will be commenting on the Storybooks that already have at least one STORY available for you to read. Most of the Storybooks do now have at least one story, since most of the folks who did not publish a story in Week 6 did publish a story for Week 7. Check the assignment instructions for more details - the process for finding the Storybooks to read this week is completely different from last week or the week before. :-)

SPRING BREAK. (repeat announcement) For Spring Break, you will have the entire week off as you can see on the Semester Calendar here. You will have your regular Week 8 assignments due this week on Tuesday-Thursday. Then, I would encourage everybody to finish up the final Week 8 assignments this Friday, March 11 - but if you want to wait and do them on the weekend after Spring Break, you can do that, too. The grace period for wrapping up Week 8 will be on Monday morning, March 21, after Spring Break.

My Spring Break. Yes, I will be taking a break for Spring Break also! If you are curious, here is the project I am working on: Anecdota Latina. I won't be doing any Storybook grading over the Spring Break, so if you want to get ahead and receive comments back from me before the Spring Break begins, please get your early assignments turned in by this Friday, March 11, at noon. If you can get a Storybook assignment turned in by Friday at noon, I will get comments back to you before Spring Break; otherwise, if you turn something in after noon on Friday or during Spring Break, it will go into the stack for Monday, March 21, when classes resume.

March 7: Mardi Gras. Today marks the famous holiday of "Fat Tuesday," or Mardi Gras in French, a traditional time of celebration before the Lenten fast begins on Ash Wednesday. You can read about the holiday of Mardi Gras in Wikipedia. For a great mixture of Mardi Gras and mythology, I highly recommend the AMAZING Brazilian film Black Orpheus, which is set in Rio during the extravagant Mardi Gras Carnival which is held there every year:

A clip from the film:

Monday, March 7

Today is Monday, and Week 7 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 8 will begin tomorrow, on Tuesday.

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.

Writing Center. For those of you who are finding it difficult to proofread your own writing, the Writing Center is the place to go for help. Whether you are struggling with the overall organization of your writing or whether you have questions about writing mechanics (especially punctuation), the tutors at the Writing Center can help. For hours and services, visit the Writing Center website. The Writing Center is there to help with the writing assignments you have in this class, as well as any writing assignments you will have in your other classes, too.

Spring Break. (repeat announcement) For Spring Break, you will have the entire week off as you can see on the Semester Calendar here. You will have your regular Week 8 assignments due this week on Tuesday-Thursday. Then, I would encourage everybody to finish up the final Week 8 assignments this Friday, March 11 - but if you want to wait and do them on the weekend after Spring Break, you can do that, too. The grace period for wrapping up Week 8 will be on Monday morning, March 21, after Spring Break.

March 7: Stanley Kubrick. Today marks the anniversary of the death of the great film director, Stanley Kubrick, who died in 1999. You can see a list of Kubrick's remarkable films here at Wikipedia. I would be hard-pressed to say which of his films is my favorite - both Spartacus and 2001: A Space Odyssey are films I consider masterpieces.

(image source)