Thursday, January 25

Today is Thursday of Week 2. If you have not done your story yet for this week, that means today is Storytelling Day. Go wild! Have fun! Here is a link to all of this week's assignments.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Success Tips: Read your writing... out loud. The single biggest boost you can give to your writing is to take a few minutes to read your writing out loud, especially your stories. You will hear things when you read out loud that you would never notice in silent reading: eyes PLUS ears is a powerful combination!

Week 2 Stories. Many of you will be writing your Week 2 story today, and there are also some Week 2 stories you can already see in the blog stream. It might give you a creative boost to browse and explore the stories so far, so take a look if you are curious: Week 2 Myth-Folklore stories and Week 2 Indian Epics stories.

Project Stack. As people turn in Project assignments, I put them in the "stack," and while you are waiting on comments back from me, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email. If you turn in your Week 2 project today, I should be able to get comments back to you by the weekend.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. Look at this gorgeous image that Naomee found and included in her reading options post: it's a battle scene from the Ramayana with Rama battling the rakshasa army outside Lanka, the golden city on the hill. I really enjoy seeing which images people find and use in their blog posts.

Myth Item. The name of the week today, Thursday, comes from the name of the god Thor: it's Thor's-day. Find out more here: THURSDAY. Here is Thor with his hammer as he catches the Midgard Serpent:

Myth Video: And if you want to learn some more about Thor, check out this Crash Course: Myth video: The Norse Pantheon.

India Comic Book: In addition to featuring online books (as I did earlier this week), I'll also be featuring comic books we have on Reserve in Bizzell for the Indian Epics class, or for anyone who wants to read them! Today's comic book contains jataka tales; find out more here: Monkey Stories: Jataka Tales of Wile and Wisdom.

Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is a "quality not quantity" proverb... but with tea: It does not matter whether the tea is less or more, but it must be hot. Find out more at the Proverb Laboratory.

Writing: And here is some great writing advice from Margaret Atwood (creator of The Handmaid's Tale): If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.

H.E.A.R.T.: This is a cartoon by one of my favorite illustrators, Molly Hahn of Buddha Doodles: Choose to be optimistic; it feels better.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat believes in active learning: Curiosity is not sedentary and passive. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Video: And here's a video that I hope can inspire your creativity: Why is stop animation so powerful? Joe Vena's ideas about stop animation can apply to any kind of creative art:

Event on Campus: From 7PM-9PM tonight you can enjoy the opening reception at the FJJMA for a new exhibit: Generations in Modern Pueblo Painting. There will be live music by Edgar Cruz (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

January 25: Burns Night. Every year, on January 25, people all over the world celebrate the great Scottish poet Robert Burns. The tradition is known as "Burns Night" (or "Burns Supper"), and you can find the poetry of Robert Burns online at the RobertBurns.org website. For more about Robert Burns, see Wikipedia, which is also the source for his portrait shown here:

And here is a short animation about Burns:

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