Monday, August 29

Today is Monday. Week 1 is now over... and Week 2 has begun. This week's topic in the Myth-Folklore class is Classical and Biblical stories, and in Indian Epics you will be starting the Ramayana. You can find the week's assignments at the Class Calendar.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Orientation. Make sure you finish up any missing Orientation Week assignments during the grace period this morning. If you did an assignment but are missing the Canvas Declaration, let me know. You need to complete all the Orientation Week assignments so that you will be ready for Week 2!

Introductions. I hope you all enjoyed getting to comment on people's Introductions and stories this weekend, and you'll be getting visitors to your Introduction all semester long with the new blog groups each week. I hope to leave my own comments on everyone's Introductions by the end of this week.

Project Stack. As you finish up Week 2, you will be turning in a Project assignment by email. That Project assignment is the only item you turn in each week by email, and you can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Tomorrow. I thought this would be a good motivator for the start of the new week Find out more at the H.E.A.R.T. blog: You can't rewrite yesterday's pages, but tomorrow's are blank, and you have the pen . . . so, write something good.

Thesaurus. You've heard of brontosaurus, stegosaurus, and tyrannosaurus... and now meet: Thesaurus Saurus.

Coffee Cat. Would you like some grammar with your coffee? Find out more at the GrammarCatz blog.

Featured Storybook. This project is from the Myth-Folklore class: Mount Olympus Gossip. This anonymous storyteller has all the inside gossip on the gods and goddesses. There's lots of juicy gossip about Hera, of course, along with the notorious Aphrodite. You'll find out that the great god Apollo had a lousy love life, while Zeus had so many lovers that it's impossible to keep track of them all!

Free Book Online: Buddhist Birth Stories: or, Jataka Tales translated by T. W. Rhys Davids. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. The ancient Buddhist jataka tales are one of the oldest folktale collections in the world.

Words of Wisdom: Today's saying is Jove lifts the golden balances that show / the fates of mortal men and things below. (Homer, the ancient Greek epic poet). Find out more at the Proverb Lab. Some of you in Myth-Folklore will be reading Homer this week, either the Iliad or the Odyssey.

Today's Video: The Trojan War ("Tainted Love" by Soft Cell). This is a mash-up video by Amy Burvall. I am a huge fan of all her "HistoryTeacher" videos; you'll be seeing more of her this semester. Turn on the captions to catch all the names in the lyrics:

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is not afraid of making mistakes: Errors are portals of discovery. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: OU's Women of Power Welcome-Back is happening from 7PM-9PM at the Henderson-Tolson Cultural Center (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

August 29: Joseph Jacobs: Today marks the birthday in 1854 of one of England's greatest folklorists: Joseph Jacobs. You can read about his life and career in this Wikipedia article, and you can see many of his books feature at the Freebookapalooza and in the Myth-Folklore UnTextbook. He is one of my folklore heroes! Some of you may have even used his book of Aesop's fables to create your story last week:

Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day.