Class Procedures and Reminders
From Week 1 to Week 2. If you have not finished the Week 1 Orientation assignments, you need to do that this weekend. Based on your personal schedule, Week 2 might start on Saturday or Sunday, or it might not start until Monday or Tuesday. Check the D2L Gradebook, and you'll see the day when Week 2 starts for you — and of course you don't have to wait for that date. Working ahead is always the best strategy!
My weekend schedule. Over the weekends, I check email periodically, and if you have an urgent question or problem, I will get back to you as soon as I get back online — so, yes, please let me know if you have any questions as you proceed through the assignments.
Extra Credit. (repeat announcement) There are extra credit options for Week 1, and I would urge you to do some Week 1 extra credit if you have time for that this weekend. In particular, the "Review" extra credit is a good way to review all the announcements from the past week (there are new announcements each day).
Blog comment groups. (repeat announcement) The groups for Week 1 are available now! Each week there are random groups so that you can start getting to know each other by reading and commenting on each other's blog posts. There's also an extra credit blog comment option too so that you can interact with even more people in class. I hope you will have fun getting to know each other and enjoying all the stories.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Keyboard Shortcuts for Novelists. I thought this Tom Gauld cartoon was so cute! Some of these shortcuts would work just fine for storytelling in this class too. (Yes, if any of you did the "Holiday Map" storytelling in Week 1, Tom Gauld is the same cartoonist who did that map.)
Indian Words in English: Today's word from India in English is SWAMI, which comes from Hindi swāmī, meaning "lord, prince, master," a term of respect. For details, see this blog post. This is a photograph of Swami Vivekananda, one of the most influential figures in bringing both Vedanta and Yoga to Western audiences in the 19th century:
Featured Storybook: Ancient Generals: Bragging at Elysian Fields. Alexander the Great awakens to find himself in the Elysian Fields, enjoying the company of the great generals of classical Greece: Themistocles, Leonidas, and Miltiades. The question naturally arises: who is the greatest of them all?
Free Book Online: My Book of Favorite Fairy Tales by Edric Vredenburg. This blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. There are some familiar stories in here like Snow-White and Cinderella, along with some stories you might not know such as Bluebeard (scary!) or The White Cat.
India Featured Book: Mahiravana: A Magician Outwitted. This blog post provides additional information about this reading option for Indian Epics. This is one of my very favorites among the Ramayana comic books: it is the story of Ravana's son, Mahiravana, a magician who rules an underground kingdom. At his father's command, he kidnaps Rama and Lakshmana. The goddess Durga also plays a role in this story!
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is A clever bird builds its nest with other birds’ feathers (a proverb from Zimbabwe). Details at the Proverb Lab. I think of this proverb as a great metaphor for the way people write stories for this class!
Today's Video: Google Search: Reunion. This is actually an ad for Google Search... but it is also a beautiful piece of storytelling about boyhood friends who have not seen each other since the India-Pakistan partition of 1947.
Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is exploring the power of YET: What is this? I don't know . . . yet. Details at the blog.
Event on Campus: This announcement comes from Eryn in Myth-Folklore: there will be InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Pancakes and Poker in Zarrow Hall today, Saturday, starting at 5:30PM — free food and games! Eryn shared this announcement with me, and I'm glad to include announcements for any campus events you are involved in. The events are more fun when they come from people in class! Let me know if you have an upcoming event I can include.
Note: You can page back through the 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.
