Thursday, January 24

Today is Thursday of Week 2, and here is a link to the Week 2 assignments. For many of you, this will be a day of storytelling: I hope you will have fun as you choose one of the stories from the Anthology to retell in your own way! It might give you a creative boost to browse and explore the stories so far, so take a look if you are curious: Myth-Folklore stories and Indian Epics stories.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Blog Comments. The Week 2 blog comment assignment is ready to go where you will be commenting on other people's Introductions, and the Week 3 blog comment assignment is also ready now too, where you will be commenting on people's stories. Plus, if you like doing blog comments, there is an extra credit blog commenting option each week! Visiting other people's blogs is a great way to get ideas for your own stories and also to see different ways you might want to customize your blog design too.

Padlet of Pets. I wanted to let everybody know about a fun Tech Tip extra credit option: you can add pictures of your pets to the Padlet of Pets. Here's how that works: Padlet Tech Tips. After you see how easy it is to use a Padlet, you might want to create one of your own. It's a very handy tool!

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. This is actually not from the blog stream; instead, it is the first Portfolio website of the semester! Spencer has been working ahead, and this is his Week 4 project assignment. Congratulations, Spencer, for your Mythology Portfolio.

Comic Book On Reserve. Now that everybody in Indian Epics is familiar with the ACK comic books, I will be featuring some of those in the announcements. Today's comic book is Mahiravana: A Magician Outwitted. This is one of my favorites: it's about Ravana's magician son Mahiravana, ruler of an underground kingdom. (The whole ACK collection is on reserve in Bizzell, and they are available for extra credit reading in either class!)

Free Audiobook. Today's free audiobook is Nutcracker and Mouse-King by E. T. A. Hoffmann. For more about Hoffmann, see below; today is his birthday.

Featured Storybook. This project from Indian Epics shows how you can bring different storytelling traditions in a single project: Tales from the Love Gods: Cupid and Kamadeva. The two love gods — Cupid from ancient Greece and Rome, and Kamadeva from ancient India — get together and share stories.

India Video. And don't get these two Sanskrit words mixed up: Kama means "desire" (and so Kamadeva is the God of Love), but Karma means (re)action. You can learn more about Karma in this video: Karma - Action and Reaction.

Myth Video. Here's another Crash Course video, this time on Mythology in Language.

Myth Item. And I know there are a lot of science majors in this class, so here's a fun one from Tom Gauld, a genius cartoonist who explores the interface of myth and science: Mythical Scientific Creatures.

Writing. As you think about retelling a story, you can always write in a distinctive voice to make a new version of a story. For example, Yoda Style, with Yoda as your storyteller.

And here's another science-fiction thought, this time from Doctor Who: Every book is a TARDIS.

Growth Mindset Cats. Today's cat is ready to learn something new: Stretch yourself.

This video has some fun writing advice: watch out for the man-eating chicken! Grammar Lessons with Food:

Event on Campus. Come celebrate the opening of the show by Distinguished Visiting Artist: Mildred Howard tonight with a lecture at 7PM and a reception afterwards at 8PM in the FJJ Museum of Art (details).

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

January 24: E.T.A. Hoffmann. Today marks the birthday in the year 1776 of the genius fantasy author E.T.A. Hoffmann; you can read all about his life and career at Wikipedia. Among his many famous stories is The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, which inspired Tchaikovsky's ballet. Here is a dance from the ballet as shown in the Disney film Fantasia:

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