Monday, February 12

Today is Monday. Week 4 is now over... and Week 5 has begun. The new week's topic in the Myth-Folklore class is stories from India and the Middle East, and in Indian Epics you will be reading another version of the Ramayana (or finishing up the version of the Ramayana you started in Week 3). You can find the week's assignments at the Class Calendar.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Success Tip: Start the week with extra credit. If you put off doing the extra credit until the end of the week, you might run out of time, but you can do Week 5 extra credit at the start of the week, or at any time during the week. For example, you could add a video hello to the class Flipgrid; I am curious to hear what you all think of connecting with videos like that.

Project Stack. First of all, THANK YOU to everybody for all the new project websites! While you are waiting on comments back from me about this week's assignment, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email. Tomorrow the Project Feedback assignment will be ready, and you can start exploring people's new projects!

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. After sharing Oliver's modernized Greek myth, I wanted to share Meredith's new story, a modernized Ramayana story: Things get EPIC at Club Panchvati. Even the title has great use of all-caps, and you will see all-caps throughout the story adding life to the dialogue: "I can destroy PLANETS!"

Myth Item. As you meet different heroes, epic and otherwise, this semester, you might think about whether or not their story follows the pattern of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey.

India Video: This video is one of the watching/reading options for Indian Epics this week; it's Nina Paley's incredibly creative re-make of the Ramayana, Sita Sings the Blues:

Myth Book Online: There are lots of "Arabian Nights" books online, and this one has illustrations by John Batten: Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights by E. Dixon. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents.

Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb comes from Kashmir: The dogs bark, but the caravan goes on. Find out more at the Proverb Laboratory.

Writing: Here's some writing advice from Stephen King: Make a photograph for the reader.

H.E.A.R.T.: And here's some advice about how to approach the week: a day at a time.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat has questions: Don't stop asking questions. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Video: Here's an empathy video from TV2 in Denmark: All That We Share.

Event on Campus: Paul Harvey will be giving a lecture in the Fred Jones Museum auditorium today at 5PM: African-American Religion: From Abolitionism to the Alt-Right (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

February 12: Charles Schulz. Today marks the anniversary of the death in the year 2000 of the American cartoonist, Charles Schulz, creator of the famous Peanuts cartoon characters (he was born in 1922). You can read more about Schulz's life and career in this Wikipedia article. My favorite of the Peanuts characters was always Linus! Here is an image showing the whole Peanuts gang:

And here's a video of Schulz drawing:

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