Thursday, January 26

Today is Thursday of WEEK 2. There is nothing due today, which makes it the perfect day to get ahead and/or do some extra credit! Here is a link to this week's assignments.

Update: The Week 2 blog comment groups are ready!

Class Procedures and Reminders

Blog groups. When people finish publishing their story posts this morning (grace period), I'll be able to make the blog groups, and I should have those ready by the end of the day today. I'll update these announcements when I make the groups available!

Extra Credit. Remember, you can do extra credit any time during the week; you don't have to wait until the weekend. I'd recommend the Tech Tips about Canvas as a good option, especially if this is your first semester using Canvas in a class!

Project Stack. As people turn in project assignments, I put them in the stack and you can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment while you're waiting for comments back from me.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Words. You've probably heard of palindromes that are the same backwards-and-forwards letter-by-letter ("nurses run"), and there are also word-unit palindromes, like this one: Mind your own business: Own your mind.

More Words. Here's a fun way to explore the languages of the world: The Great Language Game.

Words from Mythology. The name of the day today comes from the Norse god, Thor: it's Thor's Day, a.k.a. THURSDAY.

Featured Storybook. This project is from the Myth-Folklore class: Queen of the Underworld. From rebellious teenager to Queen of the Underworld, Persephone has stories to tell that are full of drama and intrigue.

Free Book Online: Today's free book is Bengal Fairy Tales by F. B. Bradley-Birt. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. The illustrations are by Abanindranath Tagore!

Words of Wisdom: Today's saying is Man is more fragile than a flower, and yet harder than a stone (a proverb from Kashmir). Find out more at the Proverb Lab. I had fun finding an image to fit this proverb.

Video: The video for today is a TEDxOU talk: Understanding mental illness through empathic storytelling by Jake Morgan and Neal Walia. Jake was a student in Myth-Folklore, so I wanted to share this today because Rijutha will be giving a TED talk tomorrow, on Friday. So, I hope you enjoy Jake's video, and I hope Rijutha will have a great time giving her talk tomorrow!

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cats are ready to go: Life is a journey of learning. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: There is a new exhibition opening at the FJJ Museum of Art, Photo|Synthesis, and artist Will Wilson will be giving a lecture this evening at 7PM followed by a reception (details). Here's a preview video:

January 26: Republic Day. On this day in 1950, the Indian Constitution came into force, making India officially a republic, and so January 26 is "Republic Day" in India. You can read more about the holiday at Wikipedia. I was very excited to see that my favorite musical group in India, Maati Baani, released this beautiful video for Republic Day this year: Salute Our Farmers.

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