Tuesday, December 2

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 15, and I've re-arranged the Declarations area in Desire2Learn so the new week — the last week of this class! — is on top. If you have not finished the class yet, please don't put your last assignments off until the last minute; more information about that below, and if you missed them yesterday, here's a link to Monday's announcements.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Storybook/Portfolio Stack. As always, you can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I should be able to get assignments back on the same day this week so that you can see your total points and be able to finish up the class.

Week 15 Schedule. (repeat announcement) 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.

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 Resource: The Shapes of Stories by Kurt Vonnegut. You can compare Vonnegut's ideas about stories with what you have learned from writing your own stories this semester!

Indian Words in English: Today's Indian word in English is ASHRAM, which comes to English from Sanskrit. For details, see this blog post.

Featured Storybook: Happily Ever After? A Prince's Perspective. This Storybook takes a look at the "ever after" of some famous fairy tales and finds that the princes are having some problems, problems that make the princes wonder "what if" things had turned out differently. What if Beauty hadn't returned to Beast's castle for example? Read this Storybook to find out.

FREE Kindle eBook: The Animal Story Book by Andrew Lang. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book in which Andrew Lang has collected stories about all kinds of animals from different countries.

Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is A cat may look on a king (an English proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. This is a proverb that Lewis Carroll made famous by including it in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is Kunti and Pandu, shown in a happy moment of their lives: getting married.

Tuesday Event on Campus: The annual lighting of OU's Holiday Lights will take place at 5PM at David Burr Park (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online. The picture below is from the 2010 ceremony:

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.