Class Procedures and Reminders
Project Stack. I'm still working my way through the HUGE stack of Project assignments that people have turned in over the weekend. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. If you turned in your assignment on Friday or Saturday, you should have comments back from me. If you turned in something on Sunday or Monday, it is probably still in the stack. Please wait on my comments before you go on to the next Project assignment; I'll be getting through the stack by Friday. It's exciting to see all the different topics that people are looking at!
Blog Comments. As you can guess, the blog commenting is a bit chaotic because not everybody does a new story post each week and not everybody does the blog commenting assignment, but there are also some people who do the extra comments. My goal is that everybody who wrote a story post should receive at least one comment on that story (ideally two, but at least one). So, if by chance you did a story post but did not receive any comments for Week 2, just let me know, and I will be glad to read and leave a comment myself.
My Schedule This Week. I'm going to be out of town this 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 before Friday, and if you want comments back on a Project assignment, make sure you get that turned in by Thursday noon at the latest.
Apostrophe Nighmare. There are dreams, and then there are nightmares:
Mythology Words in English: Today's mythology word in English is SIREN, which comes from the infamous song of the Sirens in Greek mythology. For details, see this blog post.
Featured Storybook: Three Goddesses and Their Birds. At this slumber party, the stories are not about princesses from fairy tales but about the goddesses of ancient Greece and their distinctive bird companions.
Free Book Online: The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg. This blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. It contains folktales and legends about characters from the Bible, and I used it as a source for several different units in the UnTextbook.
India Featured Book: Kubera: The Lord of Wealth. This blog post provides additional information about this reading option for Indian Epics. Kubera is also Ravana's stepbrother, so this comic book is full of dramatic intrigue involving Ravana too.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Teachers open the door; you enter by yourself (a Chinese proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. And once you enter, you can start blogging! :-)
Today's Video: Rama and Sita in the film "A Little Princess" — thanks to Dijoun for suggesting this video to share with the class! You can find out more at the blog post.
Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is a dancing cat: Having to take a step backward is not a disaster; it's a cha-cha. Details at the blog.
Event on Campus: There will be a Success Seminar on "Study Skills: Note Taking & Test Taking Strategies" in Wagner 250 at 4:30PM (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
February 2: Imbolc. In the Wheel of the Year holidays, February 2 is celebrated as Imbolc (sometimes spelled Imbolg), the cross-quarter day which is in-between the Winter Solstice (shortest day of the year) and the Spring Equinox (when the day and night are of equal length, with the days growing longer). Because the seasons of the year are opposite in the northern and southern hemispheres, when it is Imbolc in the northern hemisphere, it is the holiday of Lughnasadh in the southern hemisphere. Here is the Wheel of the Year showing the four main holidays at the solstices and equinoxes, along with the four cross-quarter days:
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.
