Saturday, December 2

Today is Saturday of Week 14. It is the last Saturday of the semester in this class, and I hope it will be a productive day for those of you who are finishing up this weekend. All the Week 14 and all the Week 15 assignments are ready to go.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Finishing the class. As of Friday afternoon, about half of the class was finished, so congratulations to all of you who are done already! For those of you who have not finished the class yet, you have the regular Week 14 assignments this weekend, and also assignments for Week 15 if you need those points to make up for missing assignments earlier in the semester. Please be aware of the Dead Week schedule: because of finals, this class is over at noon on Friday, December 8. Find out more at the Class Calendar.

Project Stack. I cleared out the project stack on Friday, so if you turned in something before 4PM you should have comments back from me. For assignments that came in later on Friday or sometime today, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email. Especially if you are planning to turn in project assignments for both Week 14 and Week 15, the sooner you can get that Week 14 project turned in this weekend, the better.

Extra Credit. Have you tried any of the growth mindset challenges this semester? This is a great time to do one of those challenges so that you can focus your mindset before finals! Find out more in the extra credit section of this week's assignments and see also the video below from Eduardo Briceno.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Class Twitter. From yesterday's Twitter @OnlineMythIndia, here is an announcement from the OU History Dept.: there is still room to enroll in Shmuel Shepkaru's course on Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages. Dr. Shepkaru is one of my OU heroes; I cannot say enough good things about him! If you are looking for a Spring class, I can highly recommend this one.

Motivation. This is one of my favorite graphics by Sylvia Duckworth: Life is like a camera.

Storybook Archive. This project is from the Myth-Folklore class: Choosing Paradise. The first humans were Adam and Eve, and first artificial life forms... are also Adam and Eve.

Free Book Online: Today's free book is Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan by Toru Dutt. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. Toru Dutt was a remarkable woman from Bengal who composed this book of poetry before she died at the tragically young age of 21; you can read more about her at Wikipedia. Here is her colorized portrait:

Story of the Day. Today's story is from Aesop's fables: The Lion in Love. This fable is sort of like a fairy tale... but with a not-happy ending.

Video: If you are interested in doing a growth mindset challenge today (see above), you could watch this video by Eduaro Briceno: The Power of Belief: Mindset and Success. Here's more information about the watch-and-learn growth mindset challenge.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is ready for a challenge: Take risks and overcome obstacles. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: University Theater is performing Hansel and Gretel at 8PM in the Reynolds Performing Arts Center (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

December 3: Dattreya Jayanti. Today is the holiday for Dattreya, a combined form of the gods Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu. Here is a depiction of Dattreya by the Indian artist Raja Ravi Varma, and you can find out more at Wikipedia.

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