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 be getting comments at your blog 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 (I'll then change those groups around every few weeks). 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. I hope you will enjoy reading each other's Introductions and stories!
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 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:
Writing Resource: Comma Splice. The comma splice is one of the most common problems people run into when writing English, but it can also be a fun problem to solve. This page has some hints!
Featured Storybook: A Journal of Three Voyages to Utopia. In this Renaissance adventure, our bold traveler visits the land of Cockaigne, the city of Langarrow (now lost), and finally Shangri-La.
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. If you are looking for stories about Thor, for example, or about giants, you have come to the right place!
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. I was so glad to find this beautiful photo of a snail to use as an emblem of nature's patience!
Ramayana Image: Today's Ramayana image is Ravana, the ten-headed demon who was also a talented musician, as you can see in this sculpture.
Image Resource: As you search for freely licensed images to use to illustrate your writing, check out the Creative Commons Image Search portal - very convenient and easy to use!
Friday Event on Campus: There will be FREE showings of the film Ender's Game in Meacham at 7PM and at 10PM (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online. Here's a poster:
Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.
