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.
Monday Events on Campus. As Part of the Activism in Latin America Symposium, there will be a showing of "The Milk of Sorrow" (a film from Peru, and the first film from Peru to be nominated for an Academy Award) at 7PM in Meacham Auditorium (time-location-details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
April 1: April Fool's Day Hoaxes. Happy 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 at the 1:29 moment in the segment, after they discuss the other April Fool's hoaxes they ran that year).
