Class Procedures and Reminders:
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. Two people have finished already, 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 on Sunday before 6PM, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in on Sunday evening 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.
Saving Your Ning Blog. The class Ning will not be available after the end of the semester. That is because I have to pay for the Ning out of pocket and it has a maximum of appx. 100 students, which means I have to clear it out at the end of every semester. If, however, you create your own writing portfolio, you can copy your best Ning blog posts in your portfolio. You can use Google's Blogger to create your own writing portfolio online or you can create a new GoogleSite and/or you can use GoogleDocs to publish research papers and other long writing samples online. Having your own writing portfolio is a great way to document your best work in college! A portfolio can provide something both more personal and more tangible to go along with your resume, GPA, and transcript, showcasing your work in a more memorable way.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Congratulations to Evin. Some of you may have seen the article in the OU Daily about national accolades for OU Student Media, including awards for Evin Morrison, who is in Myth-Folklore this semester and is the editor-in-chief of the OU Daily's ESCAPE section. Congratulations, Evin!
Featured Resource: Pahari Paintings from India. This resource provides an overview of the beautiful Parihari painting style of northwestern India, such as this lovely painting of Sita, Rama, and Lakshmana in the forest:
Featured Storybook: Tracking the Werewolf. The Halloween countdown continues with Morgan's werewolf project this semester!
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Those who can read and write have four eyes (an Albanian proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. Reading and writing: the magical ability to see through someone else's eyes!
Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is Vyasa and Ganesha. Together they are composing the Mahabharata: Vyasa is dictating, while Ganesha writes.
Wednesday Event on Campus: From 10AM-11:30AM in Meacham Auditorium you can hear short readings by Deji Olukotun, author of Nigerians in Space, and K. Anis Ahmed, author of Goodnight, Mr. Kissinger - just one of many Neustadt events taking place this week (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
October 30: Joseph Campbell. October 30 marks the death in 1987 of Joseph Campbell, one of the greatest scholars of mythological traditions in the 20th century (he was born in 1904). You can read about his life and career in this Wikipedia article. One of my favorite books by Campbell is The Power of Myth, based on a series of interviews he did with Bill Moyers for PBS. If you have never read any of Campbell's books, this is a great book to start with. Campbell is probably most famous for his marvelous motto: Follow your bliss!
Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.
