Class Procedures and Reminders:
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, see 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.
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 having me set the deadlines.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Featured Tech Tip: FREE Kindle eBooks. I'll be featuring a free Kindle eBook each day in the announcements, and this tip explains just how Kindle eBooks work and the different options you have for reading them - on a Kindle, using an app for your mobile device, or reading the book in your computer browser with the Kindle Cloud Reader.
Featured Storybook: Mermaids: An Eternal World of Waters. This lovely Storybook features Melusina, one of the most famous mermaids of all time, and the author of this Storybook is in the Indian Epics class, so we'll get to enjoy another Storybook from Lorraina this semester!
FREE Kindle eBook: The Heroes of Asgard by A. Keary and E. Keary. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book which features stories about the gods and giants, and also the story of Ragnarok, "the Twilight of the Gods."
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience (a saying from Ralph Waldo Emerson). Details at the Proverb Lab. Yes, I know snails can be a pest in the garden... but they are also a good symbol for the patience of nature!
Weekend Events Around Town: Weekend Events Around Town: I am glad to share with you the OneSix8 - Entertaining the Hours of Your Week blog at the KGOU website, written by our own Kate Carlton (Indian Epics). The latest post has a round-up of all kinds of great weekend events, including the OKC Storytelling Festival on Friday and Saturday, along with information about the UCO Broadway Tonight series, the Midsummer Nights' Fair in Lions Park, and the Salvation Army's Red Hot Kettle Run. Check out Kate's blog for all the details!
August 23: International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. UNESCO has chosen the date of August 23 to memorialize the transatlantic slave trade and its abolition; the date was chosen because it is the date of the Haitian Revolution in 1791, the most successful slave rebellion in the Americas. To learn more, visit the Slave Route Project pages at the UNESCO.org website. The image below shows Toussaint L'Ouverture (1802 engraving), leader of the Haitian Revolution.
Remember, you can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.
