Thursday, May 5

Today is Thursday of WEEK 15. Thursday morning until noon is the grace period if you did not finish the assignments that were due on Wednesday, and today is the last full day of class. So, please make sure you finish up any last assignments you need to do, and let me know if you have any questions about that. Here is a link to this week's assignments.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. On Wednesday, I replied to all the people who needed my comments back so they could turn in a Week 15 project, and I should be able to finish the rest of the assignments in the stack today. You can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment.

Friday Noon. (repeat announcement) The class will be over tomorrow, Friday, at noon, so you need to finish up the class now. As soon as you have the points you need for the grade you want (410 for an A, 360 for a B, 320 for a C), just let me know, and I will mark the final grade for you in D2L.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Monsters in America. Find out more at Laughing Squid.


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


Featured Storybook: Heroes Revealed: The Truth. Charon the boatman has ferried many heroes to the shores of the afterlife. So that you can learn just what it means to be a hero, Charton will take you to meet Heracles, Beowulf, King Arthur and Cleopatra, who will tell you the stories of their own heroic deeds.


Free Book Online: In the Days of Giants: A Book of Norse Tales by Abbie Farwell. This blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. There's also a free LibriVox audiobook version!


India Featured Book: Sudama: The Power of True Friendship. This blog post provides additional information about this option for Indian Epics; it's a lovely story about Krishna and the meaning of friendship.


Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Where is there a tree that is not shaken by the wind? (an Armenian proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. Sooner or later, the wind will blow, literally or metaphorically.


Today's Video: The Empathic Civilisation. I thought you might enjoy Jeremy Rifkin's take on empathy.


Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat embraces curiosity: Constant, endless curiosity is what feeds your abilities.. Details at the blog.


Event on Campus: There will be a lecture by Dr. Sonja Brentjes, "Maps, Travels and Other Adventures," at 7:30PM in the Physical Sciences Center, Room 601 (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.


May 5: Cinco de Mayo. In Mexico, the Cinco de Mayo holiday is not a national holiday (it is celebrated mainly in the state of Puebla, in east-central Mexico), but in other countries, especially the United States, Cinco de Mayo has become an important holiday to celebrate Hispanic cultural heritage and traditions. You can read more about the holiday in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this great image of a children's Cinco de Mayo parade in Minnesota:


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.