Ning Introductions. I've read lots of the Introductions but I have not been able to keep up with everybody - if I haven't commented on your Introduction yet, I'll get to you on Friday! Meanwhile, over the weekend, you should get some comments from other people in the class too (see next announcement).
Read and Respond Blog Comments. Now that everybody has had a chance to finish their blog posts for the week, the Read and Respond assignment for Week 1 is available! I've put everybody into "blog groups" so that you can start getting to know some other people in the class. To find out just what you need to do for this assignment and to see who is in your group, visit the Read and Respond assignment page.
Proofreading/Storybook Assignments. I will read and reply to as many of the Proofreading and early Storybook assignments as I can on Friday. To make sure that I received your assignment in the email, you can check the stack which lists all the email assignments I have received but not yet replied to. What I do not finish on Friday, I will finish on Monday, based on the order in which the assignments were turned in (Monday is a holiday, but I will be at work so that I can make sure to get those assignments back to you promptly).
Get ahead this weekend! This weekend is the absolute best time to get ahead in this class, before things really get busy in your other classes. If you can do all the Week 2 assignments over this long weekend, that will give you a cushion of extra time that will make the whole semester much easier for you in this class. Plus, the Early Bird extra credit is the easiest extra credit you can get. To take these extra credit points, you don't have to do any extra work - you just have to be on your own schedule, one week (or more) ahead of the class deadlines. Believe me: you will enjoy this class so much more if you set your own schedule, based on what is truly convenient for you, rather than waiting for the deadlines.
Monday holiday. Monday is a holiday in honor of Martin Luther King. Since you do not have any assignments that are due on Monday, I have not made any adjustments to the schedule. There will be the usual grace period on Monday morning if an emergency comes up and prevents you from completing the Friday/weekend assignments. If you will be going out of town for the three-day weekend, make sure you finish all the assignments on Friday before you leave!
My weekend schedule. I will be attending a conference - something unusual for me - on Saturday and Sunday, so I will not be able to respond to your emails as I normally would. If you have a question, definitely write me, and I should be able to reply late on Sunday when I get home. The conference is about teaching history through role-playing, and the history "game" we will be playing is the story of Indian Independence! If you are curious, you can learn more here: Reacting to the Past. I hope I will learn a lot which I can then share with you, especially with those of you in the Indian Epics class. :-)
Friday Events on Campus. The 99th Annual School of Art & Art History Student Exhibition opens on Friday at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, with a reception at 7PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
January 19: Edgar Allan Poe. Saturday, January 19, marks the anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe in the year 1809, just over 200 years ago. You can read more about Poe's remarkable and tragic life in this detailed Wikipedia article. Below is an image of the cover designed by the famous illustrator Gustave Dore for Poe's famous poem, The Raven:
