Class Procedures and Reminders
Introductions. (repeat announcement) I think I managed to leave comments on every Introduction now, but it's a little complicated to keep track of that, so if somehow I missed your blog by accident, let me know! Meanwhile, you'll be getting more comments on Introductions all semester long from other students, and you can edit and tinker with your Introduction, editing and adding new things, whenever you want.
Project Stack. (repeat announcement) The one assignment each week that you turn in by email is your Project assignment, and I'll then send you back detailed comments by email. Since it takes me until the end of the week to work my way through all the Project assignments, I keep an online list of assignments in "The Stack," so you can check the Stack to make sure I received your email. I don't do any school work over the weekends, but I will update the Stack periodically as people send in their Project assignments (for Week 2 that's Storybook topic brainstorming).
Extra Credit. (repeat announcement) There are extra credit options for Week 2, just like in Week 1. In addition there are Growth Mindset Challenges and Learning by H.E.A.R.T. Challenges if you want to follow up on those options from Week 1. I hope that you might want to try either or both of those, especially now at the beginning of the semester when you have more time and freedom to experiment with new things than you will have later on as the semester gets more hectic.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Death in the Iliad. This brilliant infographic comes from GreekMythComix, and it might be of interest to those of you in Myth-Folklore reading the Iliad. Find out more at the full-sized view. Here is just one section of the graphic:
Mythology Words in English: Today's mythology word in English is HYACINTH, which comes from the name of Hyacinth, one of the god Apollo's human lovers who was turned into a flower after his death. For details, see this blog post.
Featured Storybook: HGTV: Homer and Garden Television. Join Persephone as she redecorates both in heaven and in the underworld, while Zeus and Hera squabble on camera, and Odysseus goes house-hunting together with his loving wife Penelope — all part of the HGTV line-up for this season.
Free Book Online: Historic Tales - Greek by Charles Morris. This blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book which begins with Greek mythological history: the Trojan War, the Voyage of the Argonauts, and other famous myths.
India Featured Book: Ravana Humbled: An Arrogant King Finds New Friends. This blog post provides additional information about this reading option for Indian Epics. This is a great comic book for learning more about Ravana and his adventures beyond the Ramayana that you are reading for class.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade (a Chinese proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. There is a lot of ecological wisdom in the old proverbs!
Today's Video: Vandanaa Trayee. This is another one of the Vedic chants produced by Ravi Shankar.
Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is getting ready to create something: Creativity requires thoughtful observation. Details at the blog.
Event on Campus: At 3PM in the Elsie C. Brackett Theatre you can see the Young Choreographers' Showcase presenting dance works from classic to contemporary (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
January 31: Alan Lomax. Today marks the birthday of Alan Lomax, one of the most important figures in the history of American folk music. He was born on January 31 in 1915 and died in 2002. You can read about his life and career at Wikipedia. After he graduated from college, Lomax traveled all over the country recording folksongs and recording interviews with musicians like Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly and Jelly Roll Morton. The image below is an album cover from his collection of Prison Songs, and you can find thousands of his recordings free to listen to online at the Cultural Equity website.
Here is one of those songs in a YouTube video: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.
