Wednesday, February 21

Today is Wednesday of Week 6. The second part of the reading is due today, and I hope you are gathering good ideas for this week's story. Here is a link to the Week 6 assignments. Campus is closed for the very inclement weather, so you might take advantage of that for this class and work ahead. I hope everybody's power stays on, and that you keep safe and warm!

Class Procedures and Reminders

Success Tip: Click for curiosity. As you are doing the reading today, you may run into links, or images that get your attention, or names you are curious about, words you don't know etc. etc. My advice is to pursue that curiosity; the answers you seek might be just one click away. And if you keep on clicking, you could end up with a nice Wikipedia Trail for extra credit.

Project Stack. If you turned in an assignment before 3PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now, and I'll keep working on the Sunday assignments today. While you are waiting on comments, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. In Kelsea's blog, you can read about her Pinterest: Rama search. I find Pinterest to be a really useful place for research also, and I would urge any of you who use Pinterest or are curious about it to follow Kelsea's advice and see how you can use Pinterest for this class. (Yes, there are Pinterest Tech Tips!)

India Item. One of my favorite versions of the Mahabharata is Devdutt Pattanaik's Jaya, which includes his wonderful illustrations, like this one: Dharma: Dharma is not about justice; it is about empathy and wisdom. Dharma is not about defeating others, it is about conquering ourselves. Everybody wins in dharma.

Myth Video: For Myth-Folklore, here's another video from Crash Course: Mythical Caves and Gardens. (And yes, these Crash Course videos are an extra credit reading/viewing option available every week.)

India Comic Book: And now that we are into the Mahabharata weeks of the semester, I can share the Mahabharata comic books like this one: Bheeshma: Selflessness Personified. See the Amar Chitra Katha blog for the Bizzell Reserve call number and more information.

Proverb of the Day: Here's a profound one from the ancient Indian Hitopadesha: For one whose foot is enclosed in a shoe, the whole surface of the earth is covered with leather. Find out more at the Proverb Laboratory.

Writing: Here's a graphic to inspire your creativity this week: Why We Need Creative Writing.

Reading: And for your reading today here is a Reader's Kama Sutra... with cats:

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat reminds you to be curious while you read: Curiosity: the will to explore. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Video: And if you have some time today because of the snow, check out this animated short: Alike. It is a truly lovely way to spend eight minutes:

Event on Campus: Campus is closed today! Here's a winter wallpaper image from Public Affairs showing a very snowy Bizzell from 2016:

February 21: Mother Language Day. This is a United Nations holiday celebrating everyone's mother language. The date has a special connection to south Asia, as the United Nations website explains: "The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh" (image source).

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