Thursday, August 23

Today is Thursday of Week 1, and here is a link to this week's assignments. I hope you will enjoy learning about "growth mindset" today, and also writing your Introduction blog post!

Class Procedures and Reminders

Ask questions. Please feel free to contact me with questions at any time, and if I happen to be online, I will write you back right away. Asking questions is how you learn... and it helps me know what things I need to explain more clearly about the class. So, no need to apologize at all: if you have a question, just ask!

Blog links and images. I wanted to remind everybody to make sure you are creating clickable links with link text, and also that you are uploading images instead of remote linking (a.k.a. "hotlinking"). For specific help with links and images, see these pages for more info: Links in Blogger (don't just paste in the http address) and Blogger Images: Always Upload (don't just copy-and-paste the image).

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. Here's another beautiful "favorite places" picture: Madison S. took this picture in Scotland last summer. (And see the note about William Wallace below too!)

Featured Storybook. This Storybook is a wonderful combination of history and legend: Queen Eleanor is imprisoned, and the visits of storytellers from around the world provide her only solace.

Myth Video. Not surprisingly there is a lot of folklore and mythology about the winds and weather; here's a short video from the BBC: The Four Winds.

India Video. And here's a video from Epified about Sacred Trees, with an emphasis on the sacred trees of Indian tradition.

India Item. This is an ancient Indian proverb about trees: The tree does not withdraw its shade even from the woodcutter.

And here is some Advice from a Tree:

Writing. Anyone with bad handwriting can relate to this: Perils of Cursive... a lemon is NOT a demon. :-)

Growth Mindset Cats. You'll be learning about growth mindset today, and I'll be sharing a new growth mindset cat each day in the announcements: I am excited by new ideas.

Creativity is part of a growth mindset too, so here's A Bigger Definition of Creativity.

Event on Campus. You can get a discounted FIT Pass online today; just go to ou.edu/far, a.k.a. OU Fit and Rec (details).

Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

August 23: William Wallace. Today marks the death of William Wallace, the hero of Scottish history and legend, in the year 1305; it is on this day that he was executed for high treason in London. You might know Wallace's story from the Mel Gibson movie Braveheart. You can read more about Wallace's actual life and career at Wikipedia, which is also the source for this photo of a stained glass monument in his honor:

And here's another BBC video: Hunting for William Wallace.

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