Class Procedures and Reminders
OU Network Outage. As you may or may not know, there was a massive OU network outage that lasted pretty much all day on Sunday, so no OU email and no D2L. Late on Sunday evening I was able to access D2L and OU email again. I am hoping everything will be back to normal by Monday, but if the outage is causing you any ongoing problems, just let me know and we'll get things sorted out. You can contact me via Twitter (OnlineCrsLady or OnlineMythIndia) or you can use my Gmail address if OU email goes back down again: laurakgibbs@gmail.com.
Week 15 Schedule. The schedule for Week 15 is compressed because of finals. Instead of lasting over the next weekend, Week 15 will end at NOON on FRIDAY, December 5. So, please make sure you get your assignments all turned in by that time. Week 15 is a review week with no new reading; here are the Week 15 assignments — and let me know if you have any questions about the special schedule for this week.
Storybook/Portfolio Stack. You can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment — and please do make sure you check! Because of the terrible problems with OU email and the entire OU network on Sunday, it's quite possible that emails were lost. So, if you sent me an assignment via email, please check at the stack to make sure I received it!
Finishing the class. (repeat announcement) You should now have a specific plan in place for the assignments that you will complete in order to get the points you need, and I would urge you not to put any of those assignments off until the last minute. As you reach the points you need for your final grade in this class — 410 points for an A, 360 points for a B, 320 points for a C — let me know, and I'll record the letter grade for you there in the Desire2Learn Gradebook.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Writing Humor: Punctuation Personalities. The graphic asks which punctuation mark matches your personality. I guess I am mostly a semi-colon, with a dash of dash! :-)
Featured Storybook: The Brahmazing Race. Brahma is your host for the "Brahmazing Race" in which Team Dharma (Rama and Sita) and Team Asura (Ravana and Surpanakha) compete for the big prize, racing all over India.
FREE Kindle eBook: Czechoslovak Fairy Tales by Parker Fillmore. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. These fairy tales contain elements that will be familiar to you, but the tales themselves are probably all new!
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Don't sell the bearskin before the bear is caught (an English proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. This is a bit like counting your chickens before they're hatched... but more adventurous!
Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is Ganesha and Saraswati. You can see the goddess of wisdom riding on a peacock, her preferred vahana (vehicle).
Monday Event on Campus: The Union Programming Board will be giving away free blue books in the first floor of the Union, 10:30AM - 11:30AM (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
December: Latin Christmas Carols. As one of my Latin hobbies, I collect Christmas carols and holiday songs in Latin, and I've got a special blog — Gaudium Mundo — where you can find a different Latin Christmas carol or holiday song for each day of the month of December... beginning with Rudolphus on December 1. I've collected SIX, count 'em, SIX different versions of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in Latin! So, if you have taken Latin or are taking Latin now, you might want to check out the Gaudium-Mundo blog for a Classical Christmas! If you are interested in Rudolph in particular, here's the page about Rudolphus rubrinasus.
Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed, and you can check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day.
