Friday, April 1 - Sunday, April 3

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 10! The Week 10 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 10 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon.

NEW RESPONDING GROUPS. The blog responding groups have been shuffled around this week, so you should find some new people to read and respond to when you do the blog responding assignment for Week 10. If somehow I've accidentally left anybody off the list, please let me know. This is done completely at random, so you may be with someone you have been in a group with before, or you may have all new people - that is the magic of randomness!

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. I've read and replied to all the Week 9 assignments turned in on time, but if you turned in a late Week 9 assignment, or an early assignment for Week 10, 11 or 12, it may still be in the stack. My goal is to get comments back to everyone by the end of the day Friday for assignments turned in before Friday at noon. 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 want comments back before the weekend, make sure you turn in your assignment by noon on Friday.

Storybooks: Three-story option. (repeat announcement) If you are on schedule right now with the Storybook, turning in your third story for Week 10, you may decide to finish the Storybook with just three stories. So, think about that when you go to add the new story to your Storybook for Week 10. If you want to stop with three stories, make sure you give your Storybook a sense of "ending" with that third story. For a great example of a complete Storybook with a dramatic conclusion in the third story, see Robbie's Adventures of Sailor Crusade. If you decide to finish with just three stories, here is what you would do: Week 10 Third Story; Week 11 Revise Third Story; (skip Week 12 and Week 13); Week 14 Revise Introduction; Week 15 Final Revisions. It's up to you, based on your personal preferences and the number of points you will be needing to get the grade you want (410 total for an A, 360 total for a B, 320 total for a C).

Week 10 Internet assignment: Extra credit option. (repeat announcement) The Week 10 Internet assignment is available now and in addition to the usual task of reading three Storybooks and commenting on them, there is an additional "extra credit" option where you can read three more Storybooks and comment on them for an additional 6 points. Last year a student suggested that I add this option for the next few weeks so that you have more of a chance to read all the Storybooks in your class, and that seemed like a good idea to me! So, in Week 10, and also in Week 11 and Week 12, you have the extra credit option of doubling up and reading more Storybooks for extra credit if you want.

April 1: April Fool's Day Hoaxes. Friday is April Fool's Day! There is a wonderful article in Wikipedia about the many famous April Fool's Day Hoaxes over the years. One of my favorites is this one from National Public Radio in 2007, when they ran a sponsor announcement for Soylent Green (yes, one of my favorite movies of all time): "Support for NPR comes from the Soylent Corporation, manufacturing protein-rich food products in a variety of colors. Soylent Green is People." You can listen to the NPR audio of the Soylent Green announcement in their archives (it comes near the end of the segment there, after they discuss the other April Fool's hoaxes they ran that year).

Thursday, March 31

Today is Thursday of WEEK 10 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 9 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that UNTIL 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 a few items left in the Storybook stack. If you turned your Week 9 Storybook in on time, you should have comments back from me; if you turned in a late Week 9 assignment, or an early Week 10 or Week 11 assignment, it is probably still in the stack. You can check to make sure you assignment is in the stack here. If you want comments back from me by the weekend, please get your Storybook assignment turned in by Friday at noon so that I can get comments back to you on Friday afternoon.

Storybooks: Three-story option. If you are on schedule right now with the Storybook, turning in your third story for Week 10, you may decide to finish the Storybook with just three stories. So, think about that when you go to add the new story to your Storybook for Week 10. If you want to stop with three stories, make sure you give your Storybook a sense of "ending" with that third story. For a great example of a complete Storybook with a dramatic conclusion in the third story, see Robbie's Adventures of Sailor Crusade. If you decide to finish with just three stories, here is what you would do: Week 10 Third Story; Week 11 Revise Third Story; (skip Week 12 and Week 13); Week 14 Revise Introduction; Week 15 Final Revisions. It's up to you, based on your personal preferences and the number of points you will be needing to get the grade you want (410 total for an A, 360 total for a B, 320 total for a C).

UC Action Tutoring. In addition to the tutoring services at the Writing Center, there are also some great tutoring services through University College as part of the UC Action program. So if you are stressing out about a class and would like some help, check to see if there is something at UC Action that will work for you; they offer tutoring services for many lower-division intro classes, along with some upper-division classes too.

My Thursday 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 Thursday. 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.

March 31: Charlotte Bronte. Today marks the anniversary of the death of Charlotte Bronte in the year 1855. Charlotte Bronte was one of the famous "Bronte sisters" - Charlotte is famous for having written the novel Jane Eyre, while her sister Emily is the author of Wuthering Heights. You can read more about Charlotte Bronte in this Wikipedia article, and you can read Jane Eyre online at Project Gutenberg. Meanwhile, for a modern take on the Brontes, check out the Bronte Sisters Power Dolls (fake) ad at You Tube - it's a hoot!

Wednesday, March 30

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 10 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 9 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.

Week 10 Internet assignment: Extra credit option. (repeat announcement) The Week 10 Internet assignment is available now and in addition to the usual task of reading three Storybooks and commenting on them, there is an additional "extra credit" option where you can read three more Storybooks and comment on them for an additional 6 points. Last year a student suggested that I add this option for the next few weeks so that you have more of a chance to read all the Storybooks in your class, and that seemed like a good idea to me! So, in Week 10, and also in Week 11 and Week 12, you have the extra credit option of doubling up and reading more Storybooks for extra credit if you want.

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 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 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. Remember: if you turned in a revision assignment, you don't need to wait for comments back from me to go on to your next story. Also, see Tuesday's announcements for additional information about finishing up your Storybook.

March 30: Maxfield Parrish. Today marks the anniversary of the death of the American illustrator, Maxfield Parrish, who was born in 1870 and lived a very long life indeed; he died in 1966. You have probably encountered some Parrish illustrations if you are in the Myth-Folklore class or in the World Literature class, since he did famous illustrations for so many classic works of literature, including collections of fairy tales and folktales. You can read about Parrish's life and career in this Wikipedia article, and the Art Passions website has an extensive gallery of his work; the image below is an illustration for Puss in Boots:

Tuesday, March 29

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 10 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 10 is on top. This week's topic is fairy tales in Myth-Folklore, Boccaccio's Decameron in World Literature, and in Indian Epics you're finishing up Narayan's Mahabharata. Note: If you have not turned in your Week 9 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 by noon on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later 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.

Finishing up the class: Storybooks. As I've mentioned before, there is no absolute requirement about the number of stories in a finished Storybook, and based on your strategy for getting your points in the class, you can finish your Storybook when it has two stories or three stories or four stories - it is up to you! The Week 14 and Week 15 Storybook assignments are final revisions, so if you are stopping with just three stories, for example, you can skip Week 12 and Week 13 (the fourth story assignments) and go straight to the final revision assignments for your Storybook.

Week 10 Internet assignment: Extra credit option. The Week 10 Internet assignment is available now and in addition to the usual task of reading three Storybooks and commenting on them, there is an additional "extra credit" option where you can read three more Storybooks and comment on them for an additional 6 points. Last year a student suggested that I add this option for the next few weeks so that you have more of a chance to read all the Storybooks in your class, and that seemed like a good idea to me! So, in Week 10, and also in Week 11 and Week 12, you have the option of doubling up and reading more Storybooks for extra credit if you want.

March 29: Maurice Jarre. Today marks the anniversary of the death of Maurice Jarre, an Academy-Award-winning French composer and conductor, in 2009. His three Academy Awards were for the scores to Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Passage to India; you can see a complete filmography at Wikipedia. The last film he scored was the wonderful historical film about the Warsaw Ghetto revolt, entitled Uprising - a film I would HIGHLY recommend if you have not seen it. Here is a YouTube video of "Greatest Hits" from Jarre:

Monday, March 28

Today is Monday. Week 9 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 10 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get a head start!

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. 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. In addition to the writing you are doing for this class, you are probably now working on end-of-semester writing projects in your other classes, too. Whether you are struggling with the overall organization of your writing or whether you have questions about writing mechanics (especially punctuation), or even if you just need some tips on how to proofread your work, the tutors at the Writing Center can help. For hours and services, visit the Writing Center website. Everyone can benefit from an extra pair of eyes, and the writing tutors are there to help you improve your writing, at any level and for any class you are taking.

Microsoft Updates and Anti-Virus Software. Every semester, I hear from students who have run into serious problems with viruses on their computers. Although it really does not affect your work for this class (since the work you do here is browser-based), it can be a big problem to have your personal computer out of commission. If you use Windows as your computer operating system, and especially if you use Internet Explorer as your browser, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you update your Windows operating system with the latest security updates at the WindowsUpdate.Microsoft.com website. In addition, OU IT makes anti-virus software available to you FOR FREE. Just log on to the IT Store at ITStore.ou.edu. For additional help or if you have questions, call IT at 325-HELP.

(image source)