Class Procedures and Reminders:
Subscribe to announcements by email. You will see these announcements pop up automatically in Desire2Learn and also at the class Ning, as well as here at the Blogger blog page. If you would like to subscribe to the announcements by email, you can do that too; just check in the information in the right-hand sidebar of the blog to find out how to subscribe.
Early Proofreading and Storybook assignments. A big thanks to those of you who are working ahead on your Proofreading and Storybook assignments already! I will get those back to you as soon as I can, hopefully the next day, depending on how many assignments have come in. You can check at this webpage to make sure I have received your assignment: Assignment Stack. I publish the list of assignments in the stack like that so you can check to make sure I have in fact received your assignment - if you do not see yourself listed in the stack, let me know so I can track down the missing email.
Ning blogs and comments. One of your assignments this week will be to post an Introduction about yourself in your blog at the class Ning, along with some other posts. Then, at the end of the week, you'll have a "Read and Respond" assignment where you'll be assigned the blogs of other people in class to read and comment on. Although you can do the other assignments for this class early, the "Read and Respond" assignment is something you cannot do early because you need to wait until everybody has had a chance to finish their blog posts. I'll have more information about the "Read and Respond" assignment later this week!
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Writing Resource: Punctuation: Commas. Each week I'll focus on a new punctuation mark, and I thought I should start with that most dreaded of all English punctuation marks... the comma! This page provides an overview of the basic function of the comma in English (although it does so many things, which is part of the problem, ha ha), along with some links to specific help pages about comma usage.
Featured Storybook: Epic Festivals of India. This Indian Epics Storybook is a "calendar of enchantment" which brings to life the stories of the festivals of Rama Navami, Hanuman Jayanti, Krishna Jayanti, and Diwali, the "Festival of Lights."
FREE Kindle eBook: Folklore of the Indians of the Kansas River Valley by Carrie de Voe. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. You will find stories from many tribes in this book, including the Pawnee, Shawnee, and Sioux.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is For one whose foot is enclosed in a shoe, the whole surface of the earth is covered with leather (a proverb from India). Details at the Proverb Lab. So, you don't actually have to cover the world with leather: just make some shoes! It's a profound metaphor for many human endeavors. :-)
Ramayana Image: Today's Ramayana image is Sita, Rama's beloved wife. This Sita is a shadow puppet from Andhra Pradesh in southeastern India.
BeBrave4Education: Here's a lovely video for the start of the school year, created by the students of some Montessori Schools. You can see the video directly at YouTube if it does not appear below:
Tuesday Event on Campus: It's Hot Chocolate in the Union from 11:30 AM until 12:30 PM in the first floor lobby, thanks to the Union Programming Board (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
January 14: Makar Sankranti. Today is the Hindu holiday of Makar Sankranti, which you can read about in this Wikipedia article or here in this BBC article. It is celebrated under various names and with various rituals throughout India. In many places, kite-flying is part of the holiday, as you can see in this lovely image from the Makar Sankranti celebration in Mumbai:
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