Thursday, December 6

Today is Thursday of Week 15. It is the last full day of class, and the last Story post of the semester. You can let your storytelling powers run wild one more time, or you can try a new Story Lab exploration. Here is a link to all of this week's assignments.

Class Procedures and Reminders

My schedule. I might be away from my desk on Friday morning, so if you have any questions at all about finishing up the class, make sure to contact me today, Thursday, so that I can answer your question(s) before Friday arrives.

Friday noon. The class will be over on Friday at noon. When you have the points you need (410/A, 360/B, 320/C), you can fill out this form to let me know you are done.

Project stack. Yesterday I replied to all the assignments in the stack of people still working on the class, and today I'll be replying to those assignments from people who are already done, plus any more Week 15 assignments that come in. As always, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email.

The rest of the announcements are holiday-related. If you are looking for the regular announcements, here's a link to the past week.

Writing Humor. Here is a Christmas cartoon with a punctuation theme: The Island of Unwanted Punctuation. (And here's some backstory about the misfit toys if you are curious.)

Storybook Archive. This project is from the Myth-Folklore class: Elf Tales: A Trip Down Memory Lane. Have you ever wondered what Santa's elves do during the rest of the year? Or what they did before they went to work at the North Pole? This Storybook is about Chaz and three of his elf friends, with stories from their past lives, pre-Santa.

Names of Santa. This marvelous map shows the names of Santa in the different countries! See the full-sized map at Buzzfeed.

Christmas Book Flood. In Iceland, books are exchanged on Christmas Eve, and you spend the rest of the night reading. It is called Jolabokaflod: Yule Book Flood. Iceland publishes MORE BOOKS per capita than any other country!

Free Books Online. Here are some books of Christmas stories and legends: Christmas in Ritual and Tradition by Clement A. Miles, The Book of Christmas by Hamilton Wright Mabie, and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Words of Wisdom. Details at the Proverb Lab; illustration is from an illustrated edition of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol:  At Christmas play and make good cheer / for Christmas comes but once a year 

 

Video: Here are some familiar Christmas carols... played on sitar by fusion musician Sanjeeb Sircar. Find out more at his YouTube channel.

GrammarCatz. Carrying on with the Christmas theme, instead of growth mindset cats, today I offer you some GrammarCatz:

Events on Campus: It's the Sam Noble Museum Holiday Happening with Santa photos, music and more today from 4PM-7PM (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

You can also see a performance of “A Christmas Carol” tonight and also Friday night at 8PM in the Elsie C. Brackett Theatre, and there will be a matinee on Saturday at 3PM. More information.

Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for the previous week's announcements.