Thursday, February 4

Today is Thursday of WEEK 3. Thursday morning until noon is the grace period if you did not finish the Reading Diary that was due on Wednesday.

Class Procedures and Reminders

My Schedule This Week. I'm going to be out of town tomorrow (Friday) and also next Monday, and I will only have very limited Internet access during that time. So if you have questions about the current week's assignments, be sure to get in touch with me today, and if you want comments back on a Project assignment, make sure you get that to me this morning.

Project Stack. As of the end of the day on Wednesday, I had replied to any assignment turned in before 10PM on Sunday; if you turned something in after 10PM on Sunday or later during the week, it is probably still in the stack, but I will get to it before I leave on Friday. You can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment.

Storytelling Style. It's Thursday, so I'm sharing another possible storytelling style if you're looking for a new idea: One-Syllable Words — and you can find more Storytelling ideas if you want to explore more possibilities. One-syllable words are common in English, so you really can tell a story that way; here's a sample of what it sounds like:
The following items are for fun and exploration:

Let's Eat Boys. Once again, punctuation saves lives!


Words to Watch: Today's words to watch out for are RIGHT and RITE. For details, see this blog post.


Featured Storybook: Queen of the Underworld. You have probably heard the story of Persephone and Hades... but here you will learn about that most unusual marriage from Persephone herself.


Free Book Online: Forbidden Gospels and Epistles by William Wake. This blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. This book contains all kinds of wonderful stories, such as the adventures of Paul and his disciple, Thecla.


India Featured Book: Sita: Daughter of the Earth by Saraswati Nagpal. This blog post provides additional information about this reading option for Indian Epics. If you want to learn more about Sita, this graphic novel would make a great choice for your Week 4 reading!


Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman? (an English proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. This proverb was famously invoked by the radical English priest John Ball, a leader of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381: there were no noblemen in the Garden of Eden.


Today's Video: IZ I ART?. Of course you know I think the answer to that question is: YES! LOLCatz iz art.


Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat knows that learning is a process: Assess yourself; then learn. Details at the blog.


Event on Campus: There will be FREE POPCORN in the Union from noon until 1PM (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

February 4: Fat Thursday. You've probably all heard about the pre-Lenten festival of Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday"). In many countries, there is a similar festival celebrated on the last Thursday before Lent, and it is called "Fat Thursday" — Tłusty czwartek in Poland, Fetter Donnerstag in Germany. As I learned in Poland, this is a day for the eating of the marvelous Polish pączki, delicious jelly-filled donuts. Yummm! You can read more about the holiday in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this delectable image of Polish pączki:




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.