Saturday, January 28

Today is Saturday of Week 2. I hope you are enjoying the weekend!

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. The one assignment each week that you turn in by email is your Project assignment, and I'll then send you back detailed comments by email. Since it takes me until the end of the week to work my way through all the Project assignments, I keep an online list of assignments in "The Stack," so you can check the Stack to make sure I received your email. I don't do any school work over the weekends, but I will update the Stack periodically as people send in their Project assignments.

Extra Credit. There are extra credit options for Week 2, just like in Week 1, and there are also Growth Mindset Challenges and Learning by H.E.A.R.T. Challenges if you want to follow up on those options from Week 1. I hope that you might want to try either or both of those, especially now at the beginning of the semester when you have more time and freedom to experiment with new things than you will have later on as the semester gets more hectic.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Words. Find your words! This is advice from Lawrence Clarke Powell: Write to be understood. Speak to be heard. Read to grow.

Storytelling. This "Story Coaster" cartoon by the great Grant Snider has some very elegant metaphors for storytelling: watch out for those plot holes and unresolved subplots!

Spelling. For those of you reading about Noah in Myth-Folklore, you'll want to watch out for this one: ARC versus ARK.

Featured Storybook. This project is from last semester's Myth-Folklore class, and Tisha is in Indian Epics this semester, so there may be Indian cats this semester too! The Cat Gods and The Tales of Heraclaws. Yes, these are the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus... as cats: Zeus the tabby, Aphrodite the calico, etc. and also Heraclaws, the mighty son of Zeus. Will he be able to revive the worship of the old gods?

Free Book Online: Today's free book is The Story of Buddha and Buddhism by Brian Brown. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. Whether you are in Myth-Folklore or in Indian Epics, this semester can be a chance to you to learn about the Buddha and his stories:

Words of Wisdom: Today's saying is Beware the tiger who offers you a golden bracelet (an Indian proverb). Find out more at the Proverb Lab. This is a proverb from a folktale in the ancient Hitopadesha: the tiger is tempting you with a golden bracelet only so that he can catch you and gobble you up.

Video: The video for today is Prem Joshua's Secret Place. You can find out more about Prem Joshua's fusion music in this interview: Music Is My Practice.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is ready to go deep: Learning requires deep exploration. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event near Campus: The Firehouse Art Center will be hosting its annual Chocolate Festival today from 10:30AM until 2PM (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

Chinese New Year. Today is the lunar New Year, the Year of the Rooster in the Chinese zodiac. You can read more about the Chinese New Year tradition in this Wikipedia article. In the Chinese zodiac, the different animal years are also associated with different elements, creating a sixty-year cycle, and this is the year of the fire rooster.

Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for past announcements.