Saturday, December 1

Today is Saturday of Week 14. Here is a link to the Week 14 assignments plus the Week 15 assignments, which should give you all you need to finish up the class. If you can finish this weekend, that will give you a complete Dead Week in this class for all of next week!

Class Procedures and Reminders

Canvas Gradebook weirdness. As I explained in yesterday's email, some Arts and Sciences courses (including my courses) had a Canvas hiccup on Thursday and Friday, and some strange stuff was appearing in the Gradebook. They got that all fixed on Friday afternoon, but if you did notice something weird on Thursday or Friday morning in Canvas, that's why!

Finishing the class. When you reach your goal (410 for an A, 360 for a B, 320 for a C), just fill out the "Finished!" form you will see in the Canvas menu, and that way I will know you are done. If you kept up with the assignments so far, Week 14 should be all you need, but if you missed some assignments earlier in the semester, there is a complete set of Week 15 assignments that you can use to finish up too, and those are all available now.

Project Stack. On Friday I managed to send comments to everybody who needed those comments for their Week 14 assignment. If you have questions about just what your options are for the Week 14 and/or Week 15 project assignments, let me know, and as always you can check the stack to make sure I received your project email.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. Arti's Wikipedia Trail goes from Oases to the West Bank, with a beautiful photo of a Libyan oasis:

Featured Storybook. This Storybook is all about the avatars: Badri and the Dashavatara. From the time he was a small child, Badri has had mysterious encounters with the avatars of Vishnu... but why?

As the semester winds down, I am repeating favorite items from earlier announcements; these items come from Week 9:

India Video. Here's a lovely video from Manish Vyas about The Santoor.

India Item. This is a proverb from the ancient Sanskrit Hitopadesha: For one whose foot is enclosed in a shoe, the whole surface of the earth is covered with leather.

Myth Item. Here's a wise proverb from Mali: Goats cannot live in a herd of leopards.

Myth Video. You can listen to a performance of the Sumerian Gilgamesh in a musical re-creation of the ancient story.

Writing. If you are looking for epic characters, Tom Gauld has some suggestions here: Characters for an Epic Tale.

And here's a chart to help you ponder the end of the semester: What You Should Focus On.

Growth Mindset Cats. Speaking of focus: Feedback can help you focus.

Here's a fabulous example of storytelling in the form of a short film: The Present.

Event on Campus. There will be performances of A Christmas Carol at 3PM and at 8PM today and also on Sunday (details).

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

December: A Month of Latin Carols. For many years I've collected holiday songs in Latin, and each December I prepare a holiday calendar of those songs. I always start off with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in Latin, including a Gregorian chant version. Gaudete! Which means in Latin: Enjoy!

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