Monday, October 16

Today is Monday. Week 8 is now over... and Week 9 has begun, which means there are six weeks to go (plus Dead Week). The topic this week in the Myth-Folklore class is Asian and African stories, and in Indian Epics it is the final Mahabharata week. You can find the week's assignments at the Class Calendar.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. While you are waiting on comments back from me about your Project assignment, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email. Today I'll be working on assignments that were in the stack as of Friday last week.

Extra Credit. If you have fun with the blog comments, remember that you can do blog comments for extra credit at any time during the week! Find out more in the extra credit section of this week's assignments.

Mixing and Matching. Those of you who have been working ahead and/or doing a lot of extra credit may find that you are nearing the end of the class. As you think about your last weeks, you can mix-and-match, focusing on the assignments you like most, deciding on how you want to finish up your project, etc. Any combination of points to get you to your goal is fine with me!

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Class Twitter. From yesterday's Twitter @OnlineMythIndia, here is a wonderful gif for the GIFITUP2017 contest. Follow the hashtag for more fun stuff like this, or check out the contest entries at GIPHY.

Punctuation. This is my favorite variation on Lets eat Grandma. And just for fun, find out How Minions Destroyed the Internet.

Storybook Archive. This project is from the Myth-Folklore class: Into the Skye. The traditional fairy tales and supernatural creatures come to life when Maisie MacLeod moves from America to her grandmother's house on the island of Skye.

Free Book Online: Today's free book is Winds and Lights: African Fairy Tales by H. H. Akiki K. Nyabongo. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. Prince Akiki K. Nyabongo (1907-1975) was the son of Kyembambe, King of Toro, a state in Uganda.

Story of the Day. Today's story is an Indian folktale that will probably remind you of the Aesop's fable about the donkey in the lion's skin: The Donkey in the Tiger-Skin. Just like in Aesop, the donkey's disguise does not work for long.

Video: I'm sure some of you have used Khan Academy to study math or other subejcts, so I thought you would enjoy Sal Khan's interview with Carol Dweck. Find out more at this blog post.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is ready for the second half of the semester: Don't stop! Just keep going!. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: As part of Germany Week, come to the opening of the “Germany-Integrating Immigrants” photo exhibit at 5PM in Farzaneh Hall (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 in this detailed Wikipedia article. My favorite works by Oscar Wilde are his fairy tales, which you can read online at SurLaLune. The image below is an illustration by Jessie King for Wilde's fairy tale entitled The Fisherman and His Soul:

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