Class Procedures and Reminders
Project Stack. The first thing I'll do when I get to work on Monday morning is to update the stack, and you'll be able to check the stack to make sure I received your assignment.
Finishing the semester. Now that there are just three weeks of the semester left (Weeks 13-14-15), it is really important that you have a plan for finishing up with the points you need for the grade you want (410 for an A, 360 for a B, 320 for a C). You can use the D2L Gradebook to see what points you could use to reach your goal, and if you have any questions about that, please ask me now!
Week 15. Week 15 is a review week (like Week 8), and there are some review blog posts in that week where I would really like to get your thoughts and feedback about the course. So, if you are close to finishing and want to jump ahead to the Week 15 review week, those assignments are available now. I would be really glad if those of you who are close to finishing want to use those review assignments to get the points you need to finish up.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Medieval Beasts. I guess this is my favorite BuzzFeed of all time: 44 Medieval Beasts That Cannot Even Handle It Right Now by Tom Phillips. Here is just one of them: #8. This dragon has LITERALLY NOT ONE CLUE why everybody has frogs coming out of their mouths.
Words to Watch: Today's words to watch out for are THRONE and THROWN. For details, see this blog post.
Free Book Online: Stories of Siegfried by Mary MacGregor. This blog post provides additional information about the stories of Siegfried and Brunhild that you will find in this book.
India Featured Book: The Mahabharatha: A Child's View by Samhita Arni. This blog post provides additional information about this reading option for Indian Epics, which is a retelling of the Mahabharata with illustrations by the author, Samhita Arni, who started writing and illustrating the book when she was just eight years old.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging (a proverb from the USA). Details at the Proverb Lab. This might be especially useful advice now as we near the end of the semester!
Today's Video: Black Death ("Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani). This mash-up by Amy Burvall is especially relevant for anyone who decides to read the Decameron in Myth-Folklore this week, since that storytelling collection is set at the time when the Black Death was ravaging Europe, and Italy in particular.
Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is not afraid to be herself: Think independently! Details at the blog.
Event on Campus: It's Animal Cracker Day in the Union Lobby from 11:30AM - 12:30PM with free animal crackers, cupcakes, and Nutella (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
April 18: Albert Einstein. Today is the anniversary of the death of Albert Einstein, who was born in 1879 and who died on this day in 1955. You can read about his extraordinary life and career at Wikipedia. There are a lot of quotes attributed to Albert Einstein on the Internet, some of which he said, some of which he did not. If you want to investigate a quote, a good place to go is Wikiquote: Einstein, which provides references for quotes as well as remarks about incorrectly attributed quotes. This is an authentic quote: "The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think" (image source).
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.
