Sunday, October 16

Today is Sunday of Week 8. Make sure you finish the end-of-week assignments today, and you might want to do some extra credit assignments also. Hopefully you can get started on next week's reading too! You can find all the assignments at the Class Calendar.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Canvas feedback. I want to thank everybody for all the great feedback about Canvas and about the course. I shared your Canvas feedback with the people in OU IT and the Center for Teaching Excellence who are coordinating the Canvas effort, and they thank you also!

Something new next week! From the ideas you had about improving the course, there was one idea that is so good I want to try it this semester; I'll actually be working on that today to get it ready in time for next week, and I'll update the announcements when it's ready.
Update: Done! When you get to the Week 9 Storytelling assignment, you will see a big change there: Story Planning OR Writing. (You might need to hit refresh in your browser to see the new version of the page.)

Project Stack. I'll update the stack periodically today, and you can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment. If you want comments back sooner rather than later, don't wait until tonight to turn that in!

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Libraries. Maybe you will be inspired to go study in Bizzell today: Libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace, and wit, reminders of order, calm, and continuity — Germaine Greer.

Life. The weekend can be a good time for housekeeping, including the interior life — yes, it's another cartoon by Grant Snider.

Words from Mythology. The Greek word LABYRINTH comes from the famous story of Theseus, the Minotaur, and Ariadne's thread.

Featured Storybook. This project is from the Indian Epics class: Vahana Therapy: Ganesh's Guide to Happiness. It's not easy being a vahana (a vehicle of the gods), and Ganesha is there to help these three vahanas — Nandi, Uchchaihshravas, and Garuda — work through some issues.

Free Book Online: Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. Some of you in Myth-Folklore may be reading some stories from this book in Week 9 or 10.

Words of Wisdom: Today's saying is A man travels as far in a day as a snail in a hundred years (a French proverb). Find out more at the Proverb Lab. Enjoy your journey of today!

Today's Video: The Present. This is one of the empathy videos from the H.E.A.R.T. site, and it is a really wonderful story. If you have 4 minutes to spare, this would be a great way to spend that time:

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is a free-thinker: Think independently. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: It's Archaeology Day at the Sam Noble Museum (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

October 16: Oscar Wilde. Today marks the birthday in the year 1854 of the great Irish writer, Oscar Wilde. You can read more about Oscar Wilde's life and career as a writer at Wikipedia. Wilde is most famous for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray published in 1890, and in 1895 he was convicted of "gross indecency" (homosexuality). He spent two years in jail and died three years after his release from prison, penniless and in self-imposed exile. My favorite works by Oscar Wilde are his fairy tales, which you can read online at SurLaLune; below is an illustration by Jessie King for The Fisherman and His Soul:

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