Friday, November 18 - Sunday, November 27

Friday, November 18 - Sunday, November 27. You have a full week off for Thanksgiving in this class. The Week 13, Week 14 and Week 15 assignments are available for any of you who want to work ahead and finish up the class. The Week 13 grace period will be on Monday morning, November 28, after Thanksgiving. I'll be answering email on and off during this week, but I will not be grading any Storybook assignments until class starts up again on Monday, November 28, when I will start reading and responding to the Storybook assignments in the order they were turned in during the break.

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 13. If somehow I've accidentally left anybody off the list, please let me know! As more and more people finish the class, the blog responding will become a little more chaotic, but I'll try to keep an eye on things so that everybody gets comments on their new blog posts.

Storybook stack. As of the end of the day Thursday, the only assignments left in the stack were late Week 12 assignments. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If you want comments back BEFORE the Thanksgiving Break, MAKE SURE you turn in your Storybook assignment by Friday November 18 at 8AM. I won't be doing any Storybook grading over Thanksgiving Break, so any Storybooks that come in after 8AM on Friday November 18 will go into the stack for Monday morning, November28 .

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Now that there are less than three weeks of the semester left (rest of Week 13, plus Weeks 14-15), 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 (you need 410 points for an A, 360 points for a B and 320 points for a C). 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. When you read the points you need for your final grade, send me a note to let me know and I will record the final grade in the Gradebook for you.

Friday Events on Campus. At 10AM in Bizzell Memorial Library, Room 149D there will be a one-hour workshop on Using Zotero to Manage Citations - and Zotero really is an amazing online tool that I use every day for my own research and writing; I highly recommend it (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.

ENJOY THE HOLIDAY!!!

(A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving)

Thursday, November 17

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, 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 a Storybook assignment before 8AM on Monday, you should have comments back from me now and points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned something in later on Monday or on Tuesday or Wednesday, it 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 BEFORE the Thanksgiving Break, make sure you turn in your Storybook assignment by Friday at 8AM. I won't be doing any Storybook grading over Thanksgiving Break, so any Storybooks that come in after 8AM on Friday November 18 will go into the stack for Monday morning, November 28.

November: Thanksgiving Break. (repeat announcement) You will be getting a full week off for Thanksgiving in this class. Thanksgiving falls on November 24 this year, which is a week from today. You have your usual Week 13 Thursday assignments due today; I would also urge you to finish up the remaining Week 13 assignments tomorrow, Friday, November 18. That way you can have the entire next week off from November 19 till November 27, with the Week 13 grace period on Monday morning, November 28.

Thursday Events on Campus. The Sound Lounge in the Union's Beaird Lounge features Surf Minus Surf and Omega Snow at 8PM tonight (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 17: Birth of "The Mouse." On November 17 in the year 1970, computer pioneer Douglas Engelbart was granted a patent for what would become the "mouse" interface for supplying data, manually, to a computer. In the patent application, he described the wooden box with its two metal wheels as an "X-Y position indicator for a display system," although he nicknamed it the "mouse" because it had a tail coming out one end that connected it to the computer system. Dr. Engelbart has not profited from his invention because the patent ran out in 1987, before the widespread use of personal computers made the mouse ubiquitous (although I remember first seeing someone using a mouse in the summer of 1984). You can read more about the history of the mouse in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image, which shows Dr. Engelbart's mouse, circa 1970:

Wednesday, November 16

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. The regular Week 13 schedule applies today and also on Thursday; see the Tuesday announcements for how Thanksgiving Break works all of next week.

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. If the points for your Storybook assignment are all you need to finish up the class, let me know and I will move your assignment to the top of the stack.

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Now that there are less than three weeks of the semester left (rest of Week 13, plus Weeks 14-15), 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 (you need 410 points for an A, 360 points for a B and 320 points for a C). 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. When you read the points you need for your final grade, send me a note to let me know and I will record the final grade in the Gradebook for you.

Wednesday Events on Campus. OU is participating in the St. Jude Christmas Card challenge; so, at 7PM tonight in the Kappa Hall at 700 College Avenue, you can help make Christmas cards for the patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 16: Oklahoma Admission Day. Today, November 16, marks the admission of Oklahoma to the United States of America in the year 1907, the 46th state (followed later by New Mexico and Arizona in 1912, and then Alaska and Hawaii in 1959). When the state of Oklahoma was created, it combined the lands of the Oklahoma Territory as well as Indian Territory, putting an end to plans to create a State of Sequoyah in eastern Oklahoma, which had been Indian Territory. You can read about the proposed State of Sequoyah in this Wikipedia article; the image below shows the Oklahoma and Indian Territories circa the 1890s:

Tuesday, November 15

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 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 nominating your favorite Storybook projects in various categories, and you will also leave some thank-yous for the people whose comments were most helpful to you this semester. Then, on Monday afternoon, November 28, when everybody has submitted their nominations (that's right after Thanksgiving Break), I will put up a ballot based on the most nominated Storybooks. For information about the Week 14 Internet assignment, see Monday's announcements.

November: Thanksgiving Break. (repeat announcement) You will be getting a full week off for Thanksgiving in this class. Thanksgiving falls on November 24 this year, which is next Thursday. Week 13 begins as usual this week, so you will have your usual Week 13 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday assignments; make sure you complete those as usual! I would also urge you to finish up the remaining Week 13 assignments this Friday, November 18. Then you can have the entire next week off from November 19 - November 27, with the Week 13 grace period on Monday morning, November 28. I will also be taking that week off, so any Storybook assignments you turn in during that time will go into the stack for the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday, November 28.

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. If you need just the points for the Storybook assignment you have turned in in order to finish up the class, send me a SEPARATE email with "Storybook Final Points" (or something like that) in the subject line so that I'll put your Storybook assignment at the top of the stack.

Tuesday Events on Campus. In the Sandy Bell Gallery of the Art Museum there will be a free lunchtime concert by the OU Tuba/Euphonium Studio (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 15: Birthday of Johannes Secundus. As some of you know, I used to be a Latin professor, and one of my favorite Latin authors, Johannes (or Janus) Secundus, was born on November 15 in the year 1511. Yes, that's right: 1511 - not in ancient Roman times, but in Renaissance Europe. Johannes Secundus is what is called a "neo-Latin" poet, rather than a classical Roman writer. He is most famous for a series of poems he called Liber Basiorum in Latin, or The Book of Kisses. If any of you have studied Latin, you might enjoy taking a look at these delightful poems, which you can find online at The Latin Library. To learn more about Johannes Secundus and his all-too-short life (he died when he was just 24 years old), you can take a look at this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image:

Monday, November 14

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!

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 want comments back from me this week, please get your assignment turned in soon; see the following announcement about Thanksgiving Break - you will have next week off, and so will I!

November: Thanksgiving Break. You will be getting a full week off for Thanksgiving in this class. Thanksgiving falls on November 24 this year, which is next Thursday. Week 13 begins as usual this week, so you will have your usual Week 13 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday assignments; make sure you complete those as usual! I would also urge you to finish up the remaining Week 13 assignments this Friday, November 18. Then you can have the entire next week off from November 19 - November 27, with the Week 13 grace period on Monday morning, November 28. I will also be taking that week off, so any Storybook assignments you turn in during that time will go into the stack for the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday, November 28.

Week 13 Internet assignment: Storybook nominations. The Week 13 Internet assignment will be available starting tomorrow, Tuesday, November 15. I hope you will find this a fun assignment: you will be nominating your favorite Storybooks from the semester. After everyone has turned in their nominations (the assignment is due by the end of Week 13, which is after Thanksgiving break), I'll prepare a ballot with the Storybooks that get the most nominations, and you'll be able to vote on the best ones - 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.

Monday Events on Campus. At 7:30PM there will be a free concert of the OU Chamber Singer & Norman Children's Chorus in the Sharp Concert Hall of the Catlett Music Center (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 14: Karen Armstrong. Today is the birthday of the writer Karen Armstrong, born this day in 1944; she is one of my favorite authors on religious history. You can read more about her life and career in this Wikipedia article. She is extremely prolific and I have read at least a dozen of her books; my personal favorite is The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Even though the book came out before the 9-11, I think you can learn more about 9-11 from that book than from any other single book. Happy birthday, Karen Armstrong!