Friday, April 22 - Sunday, April 24

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 13! The Week 13 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 13 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. Friday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Thursday.

New Responding Groups. The blog responding groups have been shuffled around this week one last time before the end of the semester! So be sure to check on who is in your group: Blog Responding.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in this week. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Everyone who turned in a Week 12 assignment on time should have gotten that back from me; if you turned in a late Week 12 assignment or an early assignment for Week 13, 14 or 15, I will get comments back to you on Friday. If you want comments before the weekend, make sure you turn in your assignment by Friday at noon.

Grading and points. (repeat announcement) For detailed information about finishing up the class, see the Grading Information page. In short, you need 410 to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! It is fine with me if you decide to stop doing work for the class whenever you have the grade you want to receive (many of you are taking this class for Gen. Ed. requirements, which means you just need a C to get graduation credit). My only request is that you please let me know when you are done so I can record the final grade for you in the Gradebook.

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Now that there are just a few weeks of the semester left, you might want to plan to do some "mix and match" in terms of just which assignments you want to complete this semester to get the points you need for the grade you want to get. So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end. My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade.

Weekend Events on Campus. On Friday and Saturday evenings, you can see the OU Lab Theatre's staging of Eugene O'Neill's romantic comedy "Ah, Wilderness!" Find out more about this event and other events happening this weekend at the Campus Calendar online.

April 22 2011: Good Friday. The Easter calendar of the western Christian Church varies from year to year. This year, Easter Sunday will be celebrated on Sunday, April 24, and Friday, April 22, is known as Good Friday. In many countries, there are "Hot Cross Buns" which are eaten on Good Friday, decorated with the sign of the cross. Not surprisingly, there are various superstitious about this special holiday bread, and you can read more about that at Wikipedia. One of the beliefs about Hot Cross Buns is that if you share a Hot Cross Bun with someone on Good Friday, you will enjoy friendship with them all year long, provided that you say this charm: "Half for you and half for me / Between us two shall goodwill be."

Thursday, April 21

Today is Thursday of WEEK 13 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 12 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in BEFORE 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 complete any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Storybook stack. If you turned in an assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me by now. If you turned something in on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday, your assignment is probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If you want comments back on an early Week 13-14-15 Storybook assignment this week, make sure you get that turned in by Friday at noon.

Week 13 Internet assignment NOW AVAILABLE. (repeat announcement) Now that Week 13 has begun, the Week 13 Internet assignment is available: you will be asked to nominate your favorite Storybook projects in various categories, and also to leave some thank-yous to the people whose comments were most helpful to you this semester. Then, on Monday afternoon, April 25, when everybody has submitted their nominations, I will put up a ballot based on the most nominated Storybooks. For information about the Week 14 Internet assignment, see Monday's announcements.

THURSDAY Events on Campus. There's a New Century Ensemble concert at 9PM in Sharp Concert Hall (Catlett), and admission is free! Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

April 21: John Muir. Today marks the birthday of John Muir, a great American environmentalist and writer. Muir was born in Scotland in 1838 and immigrated to America with his family in 1849. Muir was instrumental in the protection of Yosemite Valley and other natural treasures of northern California. You can read more about Muir's amazing life and inspiring achievements in this Wikipedia article. There are many places named in honor of John Muir, and one of my favorites is Muir Woods, located just north of San Francisco. Here is a picture of the beautiful redwoods there:

Wednesday, April 20

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 13 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 12 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 assignments in the Storybook stack. If you turned in your assignment by 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. Assignments turned in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday are probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

Grading and points. (repeat announcement) For detailed information about finishing up the class, see the Grading Information page. In short, you need 410 to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! It is fine with me if you decide to stop doing work for the class whenever you have the grade you want to receive (many of you are taking this class for Gen. Ed. requirements, which means you just need a C to get graduation credit). My only request is that you please let me know when you are done so I can record the final grade for you in the Gradebook.

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Now that there are just a few weeks of the semester left, you might want to plan to do some "mix and match" in terms of just which assignments you want to complete this semester to get the points you need for the grade you want to get. So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end. My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade.

WEDNESDAY Events on Campus. There will be a joint cooperative reading of Dante's Hell at 8PM tonight at the OCCE Forum building (1704 Asp Ave.), led by Prof. Jason Houston. Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

April 20: Bram Stoker. April 20 marks the death in the year 1912 of the Irish novelist Bram Stoker who is, of course, most famous for his invention of the modern literary figure of Count Dracula, published in 1897. Stoker's Count Dracula has in turn given rise to a whole genre of vampire fiction including the recent Twilight series of novels by Stephanie Meyer. You can read more about Stoker's life and career in this Wikipedia article. Stoker's Dracula has inspired many later novels, films and even comic books, but I will confess that my favorite Dracula is Count von Count of the Muppets! :-)

Tuesday, April 19

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 13 of the class. That means it is time for the Pandavas to hide at the court of King Virata in Indian Epics, while in World Literature you will be sailing the seas with Sindbad, and in Myth-Folklore, the topic is Native American legends. I've moved the Week 13 quizzes up to the top of the quizzing area in Desire2Learn. If you have not turned in your Week 12 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 13 Internet assignment NOW AVAILABLE. Now that Week 13 has begun, the Week 13 Internet assignment is available: you will be asked to nominate your favorite Storybook projects in various categories, and also to leave some thank-yous to the people whose comments were most helpful to you this semester. Then, on Monday afternoon, April 25, when everybody has submitted their nominations, I will put up a ballot based on the most nominated Storybooks. For information about the Week 14 Internet assignment, see Monday's announcements.

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week, there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. If you turned in an assignment on Sunday before noon, you should have comments back from me by now. If you turned something in later on Sunday or Monday, it is probably still in the stack. You can check on the contents of the stack here. Remember, if you are turning in multiple Storybook assignments, please do each one in a SEPARATE email so that I will remember to record points for both.

Passover 2011. Today, Tuesday, is the first day of the Passover holiday celebration this year (the celebration began at sundown, yesterday, Monday evening). You can read more about this holiday, called "Pescah" in Hebrew, which commemorates the exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Moses, in this Wikipedia article. The festival lasts for one week, ending on sundown of April 25 this year. The image below shows illustrations from the Golden Haggadah with people getting ready for Passover; click here for a full-sized image. The Haggadah, or "narration," is the special book of prayers and stories used for Passover and the "Golden Haggadah" is a beautifully illustrated example of a Haggadah from medieval Spain, dating to the 14th century.

Monday, April 18

Today is Monday. Week 12 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 13 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. The Week 14 and Week 15 assignments are also available now, too!

Week 13 Internet assignment: Storybook nominations. The Week 13 Internet assignment will be available starting tomorrow, Tuesday, when Week 13 begins. I hope you will find this a fun assignment: you will be nominating your favorite Storybooks from the semester in various categories. After everyone has turned in their nominations, on Monday April 25 I'll prepare a ballot with the Storybooks that get the most nominations, and you'll be able to vote on the ones you like best - the voting is not for a grade, but just for fun, as a way to give the people who worked really hard on their Storybooks some well-deserved recognition.

Week 14 Internet assignment: Course evaluation. For the Week 14 Internet assignment, you will be completing a course evaluation online. As soon as the online course evaluation form is made available by the College of Arts & Sciences, you should be receiving an email from the College about that - and they may even be giving away iPads in a lottery for people who complete the evaluation; that's what they have done for the past few semesters. The Week 14 Internet assignment will not be something you can do until that online course evaluation becomes available; as soon as I hear anything more about that, I will let you know.

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. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in. If you are turning in multiple assignments (Week 12 plus Week 14, for example), make sure you turn in each one with a separate email.

April 18 2011: Hanuman Jayanti. Today is the Hindu festival of Hanuman Jayanti, which commemorates the birth of the monkey god Hanuman. You can find out more about Hanuman at Wikipedia, or by looking at some of the Indian Epic Storybooks which have Hanuman as their topic: Hanuman's Tale, A Picture of Hanuman, and The Adventures of Hanuman. The image below is a greeting card for Hanuman Jayanti, showing Hanuman as he carries the Medicine Hill: Happy Hanuman's Birthday!