Thursday, February 2

Today is Thursday of WEEK 3. There is nothing due today, which makes it the perfect day to get ahead and/or do some extra credit (you can do extra credit anytime, no need to wait until the end of the week). Here is a link to the Week 3 assignments.

Update: The Week 3 blog groups are ready now! :-)

Class Procedures and Reminders

Blog commenting. After the Story post grace period ends at noon, I'll start putting together the new random blog groups for the blog commenting. I'll get that done this afternoon and will update these announcements when the groups are ready to go — I should be able to get that ready by 5PM at the latest. I hope you enjoy this week's stories!

Project Stack. If you turned in a project assignment before 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. I'll keep working on the assignments in the stack today, and you can always check the stack to make sure I received your assignment. You'll have comments from me today or tomorrow at the latest, so that will give you what you need to move on to the Week 3 project in time for this weekend.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Technology. Here's a great quote from one of my favorite authors, Arthur C. Clarke: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Spelling. You can never have too much English spelling humor.

Words from Mythology. When you are eating your morning cereal, remember the goddess CERES.

Featured Storybook. This project is from the Indian Epics class: The Mothers of the Epics. You will hear from the epic mothers Kaikeyi and Kunti in this Storybook, along with the famous Buddhist legend of Kisagotami, the grieving mother.

Free Book Online: Today's free book is Euripides' Alcestis translated by George Theodoridis. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. This is one of my favorite Greek tragedies: very intense family drama!

Words of Wisdom: Today's saying is A lion may be beholden to a mouse (an English proverb). Find out more at the Proverb Lab. This is another one of those proverbs inspired by an Aesop's fable.

Video: The video for today is Single-tasking Is the New Multitasking. Find out more about "tabless Thursday" at the HEART blog.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is learning from mistakes: You might need to try another strategy. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: Come celebrate the New Year at 6PM in the Jim Thorpe Multicultural Center (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

February 2: Imbolc. In the Wheel of the Year holidays, February 2 is celebrated as Imbolc, the cross-quarter day which falls between the Winter Solstice (shortest day of the year) and the Spring Equinox (when the day and night are of equal length, with the days growing longer). Here is the Wheel of the Year showing the four main holidays at the solstices and equinoxes, along with the four cross-quarter days:

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