Friday, March 25 - Sunday, March 27

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) The Week 9 Internet assignment is available now! For this week's assignments, 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, there needs to be one new story at the Storybook for you to read (it may be the first story you have read at that Storybook, or the second, etc.).

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 turn in your next story early if you want to do that.

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, 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 so that you can plan out your strategy for the rest of the semester for this class.

March 26: Khordad Sal. Saturday, March 26, marks the birthday of the prophet Zoroaster, which is a holiday, Khordad Sal, in the Zoroastrian religion. Zoroaster is the ancient Greek form of his name; in Persian, he is called Zarathusti, and you might also know him by the name Zarathustra. You can read more about Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism at Wikipedia; although there are not many adherents of this ancient religion in the world today, there are followers of Zoroaster and his teachings who live in India, Iran and Afganistan, and also in the United States. The image below shows the Faravahar symbol, which is one of the central symbols of Zoroastrian iconography, as shown here in a carving from the ancient city of Persepolis:

Thursday, March 24

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 on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Monday, 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 make your plan for finishing 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 also 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.

Summer Course: Italian Online. The online Italian instructor, Elizabeth Ilawan (she actually took Mythology-Folklore about 10 years ago, and did a great project on Italian fairy tales) sent me this poster about the Italian Online course that she will be teaching this summer. Italian is a language I speak pretty well - it is easy to learn; plus, it is so much fun! If you are looking for a summer language course online, maybe Italian is a language you would enjoy!

Wednesday, March 23

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 MANY 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 noon on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in after noon 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.

Grading. For those of you who did not see the Tuesday announcements, check there for information about the number of points remaining the semester so that you can plan out your strategy for the rest of the semester for this class.

Fall 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.

March 23: Akira Kurosawa. March 23 marks the birthday in the year 1910 of the great Japanese film director, Akira Kurosawa! You can read about his long career and many cinematic achievements in this Wikipedia article. His most famous film is probably The Seven Samurai. Of all of Kurosawa's films, my personal favorite is Dersu Uzala, a story set in Siberia around the year 1900, when Russian mapmakers rely on the skills of a native Nanai tribal member, Dersu Uzala, to survive the harsh Siberian climate. It's a fantastic movie, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1975. Highly recommended!

Here is the YouTube trailer:

Tuesday, March 22

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, there needs to be 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, etc.).

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 by Sunday NOON, March 13 (that is, the Sunday at the beginning of Spring Break), you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in during the week of Spring break or this weekend, it is probably still in the stack. Please make sure you check the contents of the stack to to make sure I received your email, especially since they were doing maintenance to the OU email system during Spring Break.

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 - some people have already finished the class already! 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

Fall 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.

March 22: World Water Day. The United Nations recognizes March 22 as the World Day for Water. Each year has a special theme, and you can read about the themes from past years in this Wikipedia article. The theme for 2011 is Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge. You can read more at the official World Water Day website. They have World Water Day logos in many different languages - I included English below, along with Polish, because that is the foreign language I speak best! :-)

Monday, March 21

WELCOME BACK, everybody - and I hope you had a wonderful Spring Break! 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 those end-of-week assignments. 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 waiting for me to look at. 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. Especially because of the long Spring Break and the email maintenance OU IT did over the weekend, you really should check the stack to make sure I have received your assignment!

Fall 2011 enrollment. Most of the students in these classes are graduating seniors (congratulations!!!) - but for those of you who will enrolling for Fall 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 THURSDAY of this week that you would like to take one of these classes in the Fall, 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. I will gladly reserve a place for anyone who wants one, but you need to let me know BEFORE enrollment starts!

March 21: Peter Brook. Today is the birthday of the visionary playwright and film director, Peter Brook; you can read about his career and accomplishments in this Wikipedia article. Some of his more famous films are Lord of the Flies and Marat/Sade, and my favorite is the monumental production he did of the Mahabharata - definitely worth watching in the 6-hour version (although there is a 3-hour version as well). Below you can see Vyasa and the elephant-headed god Ganesha (image source):