Friday, April 6 - Sunday, April 8

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 11! The Week 11 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 11 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. Also, Friday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Thursday.

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 10 assignment by noon on Monday should have gotten comments back from me now. If you have a Storybook that you turned in by 8AM on Friday, I will do my best to get comments back to you by the end of day on Friday!

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Now that there are less than five weeks of the semester left (rest of Week 11, plus Weeks 12-13-14-15), 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. 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.

Friday Events on Campus. At 5PM there will be a free public reception for the Foundations Exhibition in the Lightwell Gallery of the Art Center (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

April 6 2012: Hanuman Jayanti. Friday, April 6, 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 - and, of course, everyone in Indian Epics is well acquainted with Hanuman by now! The image below is a greeting card for Hanuman Jayanti, showing Hanuman as he carries the Medicine Hill: Happy Hanuman's Birthday!

Thursday, April 5

Today is Thursday of WEEK 11 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 10 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in BY NOON TODAY for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

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 by 10AM on Monday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Monday, or on Tuesday or Wednesday, it may still be in the stack. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Finishing the class early. One person has already finished up the class early: exciting! When you finish up with the class, I record a "FINAL GRADE" in the D2L Gradebook so you can be sure you are done. So, just let me know when you have completed the number of points you need: 410 for an A, 360 for a B, 320 for a C. It's entirely up to you what grade you want to finish with in the class. There is no need to apologize for stopping out with a grade of B or C (many people are taking this class just for Gen. Ed. credit, and I know it is often not a top priority). Whatever grade you decide to stop with is fine with me. The whole idea behind this points grading system is to let you know exactly where you stand and to allow you to choose to be finished with the class when you have the points you need.

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Now that there are less than five weeks of the semester left (rest of Week 11, plus Weeks 12-13-14-15), 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. 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.

Thursday Events on Campus. There will be an OU Job Expo in the Union from 12:30PM - 3PM - it's the last career fair of the semester! (time/location/details) Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

April 5: Pocahontas. Today, April 5, marks the wedding anniversary of Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan of Virginia, who married the Virginia settler John Rolfe on this day in 1614. If you are curious about the historical account of Pocahontas' very dramatic life (i.e. not the Disney version), take a look at this article in  Wikipedia. Below is an portrait of Pocahantas that was done during her lifetime (she was born circa 1595 and died in 1617; the portrait dates to the year 1616):

Wednesday, April 4

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 11 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 10 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 11 Internet: Visiting the other classes. (repeat announcement) This week, you will be visiting the Storybooks in the other class, along with an extra credit option similar to last week's extra credit option. We are getting near the end of the semester, and I hope the extra credit can be a way for you to enjoy more of the Storybooks before we run out of time!

Grades. If you did not read the information about finishing up the class and final grades in the Monday announcements, please take a minute to do that now. Also, I am pleased to announce that someone finished the class on Tuesday evening, reaching 410 points for an A. Very exciting! Even if you have not been working ahead up until now, you can still manage to finish early by getting ahead and doing the extra credit assignments. As soon as you reach the points you need for your final grade, just let me know and I'll mark the grade for you in the D2L Gradebook.

Storybook Stack. There are still a lot of 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 by 6PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later 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.

Wednesday Events on Campus. There will be a Harp Studio Recital in Pitman Recital Hall at 8PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

Summer Course: Italian Online.OU's 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 courses that she will be teaching this summer. Italian is a language I speak pretty well - so, I can assure you: 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!

Tuesday, April 3

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 11 of the class, and I've re-arranged the quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 11 is on top. For those of you in Indian Epics, that means starting Buck's version of the Mahabharata, while it's more fairy tales in Myth-Folklore, this time from Denmark and Estonia. If you have not turned in your Week 10 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 11 Internet: Visiting the other classes. This week, you will be visiting the Storybooks in the other class as your required assignment, along with an extra credit option similar to last week's extra credit option. We are getting near the end of the semester, and I hope the extra credit can be a way for you to enjoy more of the Storybooks before we run out of time!

Final Grades. If you did not read the information about final grades in the Monday announcements, please take a minute to do that now.

Storybook stack. As often on Tuesday, there is still a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack. If you turned in a Storybook assignment on Saturday, you should have comments back from me and points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned something in on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack. 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. So, if you want comments sooner rather than later, turn in your assignment on Saturday or Sunday morning, instead of waiting until Sunday evening or Monday morning.

Tuesday Events on Campus. There will be a free concert at noon by Jeongwon Ham's Piano Studio in the Sandy Bell Gallery of the Art Museum (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

April 3: Bud Fisher. Today, April 3, marks the birthday of Bud Fisher in 1885, the creator of the cartoon strip "Mutt and Jeff," which was the first daily comic strip to appear in an American newspaper (the San Francisco Chronicle). Fisher went on to publish Mutt and Jeff comic books and to create Mutt and Jeff films as well. You can read more about Bud Fisher and his career as a cartoonist in this Wikipedia article. There is also a long article about the Mutt and Jeff series itself. Below is a self-portrait by Fisher - you can see he is carrying his two famous characters, Mutt and Jeff, one in each hand!

Monday, April 2

Today is Monday. Week 10 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 11 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started.

Grading and points. Some people have been asking me about the points and grading, so let me refer you again to this Grading Information chart which can help you estimate what kind of grade you are headed for at this time. In short, you need 410 points 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. Now that there are just five weeks of the semester left (Weeks 11-12-13-14-15), 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. 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.

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. As usual, I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in, starting with the ones that were turned in on Friday afternoon, then the Storybooks from Saturday, and then finally assignments turned in on Sunday and on Monday.

Campus events. I try to include a campus event every day, but there is literally not a single event on the campus calendar for Monday - even though I am sure there are all kinds of good events taking place! So, if you are someone involved in any kind of activity on campus, make sure to use the Campus Calendar to publicize your events. It's a great way to get the word out and it costs nothing.

April 2: Hans Christian Andersen. Today, April 2, marks the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen in the year 1805. Some of you in the Myth-Folklore class may be reading Hans Christian Andersen's stories this week! You can find some background information about his life and career at the Myth-Folklore website or in this Wikipedia article. Andersen is probably most famous today for his story about "The Little Mermaid" - although his version is very different from the Disney film, which is only loosely based on Andersen's tale. Andersen is also the author of "The Princess and the Pea," "The Ugly Duckling" and many other wonderful stories. The image below is a photograph taken of Andersen in 1869; he died a few years later, in 1875, at the age of 70. You can read over one hundred of Andersen's stories in English at the Gilead.org website.