Online Course Lady: Class Announcements

Thursday, February 2

2012-02-02T01:01:00.001-05:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 3 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 2 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit until noon today. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in a Storybook assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me. If you turned in something on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, it is probably still in the stack (contents of the stack). Please check to make sure!

Week 3 Read and Respond assignment. The Week 3 blog commenting assignment is not available yet; it will be available starting on Friday. The blog commenting assignment is the only assignment you cannot complete early, because people will still be adding posts to their blog today, Thursday. So please wait until midnight tonight when people should have finished their Week 3 blog posts, and then on Friday (starting tonight at midnight if you want), you can do the Read and Respond assignment.

Thursday Events on Campus. Animal Volunteers Alliance Meeting from 7PM-9PM in the Union's Alma Wilson Room - bring a pair of old jeans! (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

February 2: Imbolc. In the Wheel of the Year holidays, February 2 is celebrated as Imbolc (sometimes spelled Imbolg), the cross-quarter day which is in-between the Winter Solstice (shortest day of the year) and the Spring Equinox (when the day and night are of equal length, with the days growing longer). Because the seasons of the year are opposite in the northern and southern hemispheres, when it is Imbolc in the northern hemisphere, it is the holiday of Lughnasadh in the southern hemisphere! Here is the Wheel of the Year showing the four main holidays at the solstices and equinoxes, along with the four cross-quarter days:

Wednesday, February 1

2012-02-01T01:01:00.004-05:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 3 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 2 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the enormous stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment before 3PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. It usually takes me most of the week to return all the Storybook assignments. The sooner you turn the assignment turned in, the sooner you will get comments back - and you do need my comments before you go on to the next Storybook assignment, although you can continue to work on the other class assignments, of course!

Tech Tips emails. Quite a few people sent in Tech Tip emails over the weekend, which is great! Please feel free to work ahead on those extra credit tips now, since some of them can be really useful for the rest of the semester. I'll reply to all those emails, but not until I get through the Storybook stack (in fact, the Tech Tip emails sometimes turn into a two- or three-week backlog). You don't need to wait on my reply before you do the Tech Tip Declaration; as long as you have sent me the email as instructed, that's great - you can go ahead and do the Declaration without waiting on a reply from me.

Wednesday Events on Campus. In honor of Black History Month, there will be a showing of "Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North" in the Cate Main Social Lounge, 347 Cate Center Dr. at 7PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

February 1: Langston Hughes. Today, February 1, marks the birthday of the African-American poet, Langston Hughes, who was born in 1902. He was one of the luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, and you can read about his remarkable life and career in this Wikipedia article.

(cover of Weary Blues, 1926)

Here's a video interpretation of "Weary Blues" that I found at YouTube.com.

Tuesday, January 31

2012-01-31T01:01:00.002-05:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 3 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 3 is on top. In Indian Epics, this week you will be finishing up Narayan's Ramayana. In Myth-Folklore, it's the Hebrew Bible, with a choice between the stories of Noah and Babel, or the stories of Samson and Daniel. If you have not turned in your Week 2 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. (See note about that below.)

Tuesday schedule. I will be out of the office on Tuesday afternoon, which means I will not reply as quickly as usual to any emails you might send me during the afternoon. I'll get back to anything urgent on Tuesday evening, and then I will get caught up on any remaining Tuesday emails on Wednesday morning. So, don't hesitate to send me an email with any questions you have - but don't be surprised if you don't get an answer right away on Tuesday afternoon. :-)

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the HUGE stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment on Saturday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. I read the assignments in the order that they are turned in, so the later you turn in the assignment, the longer you'll need to wait to get the comments back. It usually takes me all week to get comments back on all the Storybook assignments people have turned in! So, please wait for my comments before going on to the next Storybook assignment - and to get comments sooner, turn in your assignment on Saturday rather than Sunday or Monday.

Late Storybooks. (repeat announcement) Each week, the Storybook assignment is the only assignment that can be turned in late for partial credit. Since I cannot get all the Storybooks graded and returned immediately, you can turn in the Storybook late for partial credit. If you want full credit (10 points) you must turn the Storybook in on time, that is, over the weekend or before noon on Monday. If you turn it in late, you can receive partial credit, as follows: turn it in on Monday after noon and you can receive up to 8 points; on Tuesday, you can receive up to 7 points; on Wednesday you can receive up to 6 points. If you turn the Storybook assignment in on Thursday before noon, you can receive up to 5 points. No late Storybook assignments will be accepted after noon on Thursday.

Tuesday Events on Campus. There will be a Forum with Student Study Abroad Alumni from 7PM-8:30PM in the Cate Main Social Lounge, 347 Cate Center Dr. Free pizza, too! (time/location/details) Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

January 31: Alan Lomax. Today marks the birthday of Alan Lomax, one of the most important figures in the history of American folk music. He was born on January 31 in 1915 and died in 2002. You can read about his life and career at Wikipedia. After he graduated from college, Lomax began working in 1937 at the Archive of Folk Song of the Library of Congress. He traveled all over the country recording folk singers and recording interviews with musicians like Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly and Jelly Roll Morton. In the 1950s, he began collecting folk music from all over the world and produced the influential multi-volume record series, Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music. Check out the Alan Lomax Collection at the Library of Congress online, and you can read in in this NYTimes article about the efforts to digitize Lomax's work AND make it available for free streaming! Exciting! The image below is an album cover from his collection of Prison Songs:

Monday, January 30

2012-01-30T01:01:00.001-05:00

Today is Monday, and Week 2 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you have not completed the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 3 will begin officially tomorrow - and those Week 3 assignments are already available now if you want to get started!

Monday, January 30: Final day to drop with refund. (repeat announcement) Today, Monday, January 30, is the final day to drop a class and get a full refund. So, if you are finding out that this class does not fit into your schedule after all, or that the workload is too demanding, you can still drop the class and get a refund. Monday is the last day to drop with a refund!

Monday: Your chance to get ahead. Although being able to set your own schedule is one of the biggest benefits of an online class, the majority of the people in these classes are doing the assignments on the same day that they are due. Yet we all know that life is full of surprises, both good and bad. So please try to work ahead and that way you are ready for any surprises that might come up! If you can take advantage of Monday to get ahead on the Week 3 assignments, that will give you a lot more freedom and flexibility, making this class a lot easier to manage.

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 8AM or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will then start reading the assignments in the order they were turned in. Please do not go on to the Week 3 Storybook assignment until you get Week 2 comments back from me (and the same is true for those of you who have turned in Week 3 or Week 4 assignments - please do not go on to the next Storybook assignment until you get my comments). I'll be updating the stack as I make my way through the assignments!

Late Storybooks. Each week, the Storybook assignment is the only assignment that can be turned in late for partial credit. Since I cannot get all the Storybooks graded and returned immediately, you can turn in the Storybook late for partial credit. If you want full credit (10 points) you must turn the Storybook in on time, that is, over the weekend or before noon on Monday. If you turn it in late, you can receive partial credit, as follows: turn it in on Monday after noon and you can receive up to 8 points; on Tuesday, you can receive up to 7 points; on Wednesday you can receive up to 6 points. If you turn the Storybook assignment in on Thursday before noon, you can receive up to 5 points. No late Storybook assignments will be accepted after noon on Thursday.

Monday Events on Campus. Quy Nguyen, from OU Student Life, will be leading a "Connecting on Campus" workshop from 4PM-5PM in Wagner Hall 245 (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

Friday, January 30: Assassination of Gandhi. On January 30 in 1948, Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated. The image below shows the memorial in New Delhi where Gandhi's body was cremated. Written on the stone you can see what were reportedly Gandhi's last words: "Hey Ram" (Oh Rama!) - his invocation of the god Rama will definitely mean something to the students in the Indian Epics class. Although it is a matter of some controversy as to whether those were Gandhi's last words, here is something he wrote in December 1947, just weeks before his assassination: "In the end it will be as Rama commands me. Thus I dance as He pulls the strings. I am in His hands and so I am experiencing ineffable peace." If you look closely at the photograph, you will see the words written in Devanagari script, gold letters on the black stone, just behind the burning stick of incense:

Friday, Jan. 27 - Sunday, Jan. 29

2012-01-27T00:58:00.000-05:00

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 2. The Week 2 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 2 assignments are due now also, on Friday - or over the weekend if you prefer, on Saturday or Sunday (with the usual Monday morning grace period).

Week 2 Read and Respond (blog comment) assignment. The Week 2 blog commenting assignment is available now! Make sure you check your groups; most of you are in the same group as last time, but I have made a few changes based on add/drops. You can complete that assignment today, Friday, or on Saturday or Sunday if you prefer; the usual Monday morning grace period applies.

Storybook assignments. I will read and reply to as many Storybook assignments as I can on Friday, and the ones I do not get to will be at the top of the stack on Monday morning. The sooner you can turn in your assignment, the sooner you will get comments back from me, and you will need those comments before you go on to the next assignment. So, if you want to get comments back sooner rather than later, turn in your work on Friday or Saturday instead of waiting until Sunday.

Monday, January 30: Final day to drop with refund. (repeat announcement) Monday will be the final day to drop a class and get a full refund. So, if you are finding out that this class does not fit into your schedule after all or that the workload is too demanding, you can still drop the class and get a full refund. The Week 2 assignments should be giving you a sense of what the regular weekly assignments will be like for the rest of the semester, which means you now have a good basis on which to make your decision. If you have any questions about the class you'd like to ask before you make your decision, let me know!

Friday Events on Campus. OU's ballet and modern dance majors perform in the Young Choreographers' Showcase at 8PM in the Rupel Jones Theater on Elm; there are performances on Friday and Saturday evenings and also on Sunday afternoon. (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

January 28: Vasant Panchami. Saturday, January 28, is the date in 2012 for the celebration of the Hindu holiday Vasant Panchami, held in honor of the goddess Saraswati, who presides over music, art and wisdom. You can read more about Saraswati in this detailed Wikipedia article. Below is an image of Saraswati, showing her with a vina (a traditional stringed musical instrument) in one hand as she strums it with another hand; in her two other hands, she holds a book (a symbol of learning and wisdom) and a string of beads to be used in meditation (symbolizing spiritual practice and dedication). Her traditional animal vehicle is the swan, so you can see swans swimming around her feet, as well as a peacock in the background. Let's hope the goddess of wisdom will help to make this a good semester for everyone!

Thursday, January 26

2012-01-26T01:01:00.002-05:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 2 of the class. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Week 2 Read and Respond assignment. The Week 2 blog commenting assignment is NOT available yet; it will be available starting on Friday. The blog commenting assignment is the only assignment you cannot complete early, and that is because people will still be adding posts to their blog today, Thursday. So, after midnight tonight, that is, at 12:01AM on FRIDAY, you can do that Read and Respond assignment; you have Friday, Saturday and Sunday to finish the blog responding since it is one of those Friday/weekend assignments.

Storybook Stack. If you turned in a Storybook assignment before 5PM on Wednesday, you should have comments back from me; if you turned something in later on Wednesday, it is probably still be in the stack (you can check the contents of the stack here). Meanwhile, if you want Storybook comments from me this week, make sure you get your assignment turned in today. I do my very best every week to read and reply to every assignment that is turned in before noon on Friday but to be 100% sure you get comments before the weekend, turn in your assignment on Thursday.

Tech Tip emails. I have also read and replied to all the Tech Tip emails; sometimes it takes me a week or to to reply to those. Each week I do the Storybook assignments first, which sometimes takes all week long! Remember: you don't need to wait on my reply to your latest Tech Tip email - just go ahead and keep sending me the emails for each Tech Tip that you complete; I'll get back to you, but it might not be for a week or even longer.

Google Site websites. Thanks to those of you who are working ahead and have done your Google Site website. I will start looking at those and replying to your emails on Thursday!

Monday, January 30: Final day to drop with refund. Monday will be the final day to drop a class and get a full refund. So, if you are finding out that this class does not fit into your schedule after all, or that the workload is too demanding, you can still drop the class and get a full refund. The Week 2 assignments should be giving you a sense of what the regular weekly assignments will be like for the rest of the semester, which means you now have a good basis on which to make your decision. If you have any questions about the class you'd like to ask before you make your decision, let me know!

Thursday Events on Campus. The World Literature Today Book Club meets at noon in 105 Monnet Hall; lunch will be provided. The book under discussion will be the graphic novel, Daytripper, by Brazilian twins Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

January 26: Republic Day honors Sundarlal Bahuguna. On this day in 1950, the Indian Constitution came into force, making India officially a "Republic," and so January 26 is celebrated as "Republic Day" in India. You can read more about the holiday at Wikipedia. Each year on Indian Republic Day, heroes of the nation are celebrated. One of the heroes who has been honored as a hero of the nation on this day is the environmental activist, Sundarlal Bahuguna, a member of the Chipko movement which is fighting to preserve the forests in the Himalayas. The image shows Sundarlal Bahuguna standing in front of a painting that depicts his meeting with the Dalai Lama (source):

Wednesday, January 25

2012-01-25T01:01:00.002-05:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 2 of the class. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Storybook Stack. As of 5PM on Tuesday, I had read and replied to all the Storybook assignments in the stack at that time; I'll update the stack again on Wednesday morning. Working through that Storybook stack is my top priority each week. Then, after finishing the Storybooks, I can respond to other emails like the Tech Tip emails, etc. Be warned: there will be quite a few weeks during the semester when it takes me all week long just to get through the Storybook stack. Remember, though, you can always check the stack to make sure I have your assignment, so you don't have to worry about whether or not I got your email. :-)

Storybook Emails. Please remember to save the emails I send you back about your Storybook assignments. My comments are marked with ==> in the body of the email, and you will need those comments when you go on to the next Storybook assignment. That also means you need to wait on my comments before you go on to the next Storybook assignment, but don't worry: you can keep working ahead on other assignments in the course while you are waiting to get your Storybook assignment back.

Wednesday Events on Campus. Campus Activities Council Open House will take place from 7PM to 8:30PM in Wagner Hall 235 (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

For an image today, here is a painting by Jennifer Ma (Myth-Folklore) that is on display and for sale in the Student Art Gallery at the Union - Jennifer included this in her Introduction post, which is how I found out about it. If any of you who are painters or photographers or musicians, etc., have any kind of showing or performance I can include in the announcements, let me know!

Tuesday, January 24

2012-01-24T00:58:00.001-05:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 2 of the class. I've moved the Week 2 Quizzes and Declarations to the TOP of the Desire2Learn area now. This week in Indian Epics you are starting Narayan's Ramayana, while it's Ancient Near East week in Myth-Folklore - you will be choosing EITHER Gilagmesh OR Egypt. I really hope you will enjoy the readings!

Proofreading Assignments. I finished returning all the proofreading assignments on Monday and also sent out a general email about the results. If you have any questions about that or did not receive the email for some reason, let me know!

Storybook Stack. A very large number of Storybook assignments came in over the weekend and on Monday, and I've been reading through those in the order that they came in. If you turned in an assignment before 11PM on Saturday, you should have comments back from me, with points recorded for you in the Gradebook (check and make sure!). If you turned something in later on Saturday or Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Storybook Comments via email. When I send back Storybook comments to you via email, you will see that my comments are inserted into your email and marked with ==> so you can find them easily. PLEASE READ THESE COMMENTS. The comments for each week should help you when you do your assignment for the next week, and possibly in future weeks, too, so make sure you save the emails that I send back to you about your Storybook assignment. That way, you can consult them later as needed. If you have any questions about the comments or if something is not clear, let me know!

Tuesday Events on Campus. Jeff Beekman will lead a walking tour of artworks by OU students in the Nancy Johnston Records Gallery from 1:30PM - 2:30PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

WLT Book Club. The World Literature Today Book Club will have its first Spring meeting this Thursday, January 26, at noon in the WLT conference room, 105 Monnet Hall. Lunch will be provided. The book under discussion will be the graphic novel Daytripper by Brazilian twins Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá. There are still a couple of books left in the WLT office in Monnet Hall, so go pick up a copy of the book while they are available. For more information contact Katlin Seagraves (Indian Epics) or Marla Johnson in the WLT office. World Literature Today is one of the most amazing projects you will find at OU - definitely check them out if you are not already familiar with all that they do.

Monday, January 23

2012-01-23T01:01:00.002-05:00

Today is Monday, and Week 1 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the Week 1 assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

Monday: Time to work ahead. You do not have any assignments due on Monday, which makes it the PERFECT chance to work ahead on the Week 2 assignments. Believe me: if you put off the assignments in this class until the day that they are due, you are going to be under a lot of stress. If you can work at your own pace, even just a day or two ahead of the deadlines, you will find the class much easier to manage!

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning - the Week 1 Storybook assignments from Myth-Folklore, plus early Week 2 and Week 3 Storybook assignments from both classes, along with some Proofreading assignments also. The first thing I will do on Monday morning is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 8 a.m. or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will then start reading the assignments in the order they were turned in. For those of you who are working ahead on your Storybook: you will need my comments on the assignment before you can move on to the next Storybook assignment - but you can keep working ahead on other assignments, and I will get the Storybook assignments returned as quickly as I can.

Myth-Folklore: Gilgamesh OR Egypt. Those of you who are in the Myth-Folklore class will have a choice of readings each week. In Week 2, the choice is between Gilgamesh OR Egypt. You will do only one set of readings, and take the background quiz and reading quiz based on your choice of Gilgamesh OR Egypt. You will end up with some blank items in the Gradebook; that is just because Desire2Learn, expensive software though it may be, cannot even conceive of a world in which students have a choice of what to do (sad, isn't it?). Your goal is to get 30 points per week, and if you do the quizzes for just one of the reading selections, you will end up with the points you need. Please do not do both sets of quizzes; just do the quizzes for the reading option you have chosen.

Monday Events on Campus. UC Action Tutoring launches its Spring 2012 Walk-In starting today - find out more at the Action Tutoring website. Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

January 23: Chinese New Year. Today, January 23, is the Chinese New Year - and this year it is the Year of the Dragon - exciting for me, since I was born in a Dragon year also. You can read more about the Chinese New Year tradition in this Wikipedia article. In the Chinese zodiac, the different animal years are also associated with different elements; the 2012 Dragon is the water dragon (as for me I am a wood dragon). Happy New Year!

(image source)

Friday, Jan. 20 - Sunday, Jan. 22

2012-01-20T01:01:00.007-05:00

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 1! The Week 1 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and all remaining Week 1 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday (based on what is most convenient for you) - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. Also, Friday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Thursday.

Daily Announcements. If you did not keep up with the Announcements this week, check the Announcements blog to review the information covered in all the announcements this week.

Read and Respond Blog Comments. Now that everybody has had a chance to finish their blog posts for the week, the Read and Respond assignment for Week 1 is available! I've put everybody into "blog groups" so that you can start getting to know some other people in the class. To find out just what you need to do for this assignment and to see who is in your group, visit the Read and Respond assignment page.

Proofreading/Storybook Assignments. I will read and reply to as many of the Proofreading and early Storybook assignments as I can on Friday. To make sure that I received your assignment in the email, you can check the stack which lists all the email assignments I have received but not yet replied to. What I do not finish on Friday, I will finish on Monday, based on the order in which the assignments were turned in.

Get ahead this weekend! This weekend is the absolute best time to get ahead in this class, before things really get busy in your other classes. If you can do all the Week 2 assignments this weekend, that will give you a cushion of extra time that will make the whole semester much easier for you in this class. The Early Bird extra credit is the easiest extra credit you can get. To take these extra credit points, you don't have to do any extra work - you just have to be on your own schedule, one week (or more) ahead of the class deadlines. Believe me: you will enjoy this class so much more if you set your own schedule, based on what is truly convenient for you, rather than waiting for the deadlines.

My weekend schedule. I check email occasionally over the weekend, and I will do my best to respond promptly to any urgent problems or questions that come up. In general, though, any email that you send to me over the weekend will wait until Monday morning, when I get back to work. So, please be patient: if you do not get an answer from me during the weekend, I will get back to you promptly on Monday.

Friday Events on Campus. The Opening Reception for the 98th Annual Student Art Exhibition will be happening in the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Sandy Bell Gallery, 7PM-10PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday and over the weekend at the Campus Calendar online.

Sunday, January 22: The "1984" Macintosh commercial. Today, January 22, is a fun technology anniversary! On this day in 1984 -- almost 30 years ago! -- the Macintosh personal computer made its debut in a television advertisement during Superbowl XVIII. There is an entire Wikipedia article dedicated to this advertisement which marked a real changing point in the history of personal computing, as well as being a landmark in advertising, too. You can watch the advertisement at YouTube - and if you haven't ever seen it, it's definitely worth taking a look. It's a great example of storytelling, told with images, all in just 60 seconds.

I also really liked this quite new and extremely funny Apple-inspired video by Instructure, a software company that markets a program called "Canvas" which is a competitor to "Desire2Learn," the learning management system we use here at OU. Very funny - and it shows that the memory of the old Apple ad lives on even now:

Thursday, January 19

2012-01-19T00:53:00.001-05:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 1 of class. Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday. You must complete the Week 1 Wednesday assignments if you want to remain in this class, so please make sure you finish up all your Wednesday assignments by noon today at the latest!

Ning FAQs and Tips. I want to call your attention to the list of Ning FAQs and Tips at the class wiki. You will find information there about managing your Ning blog and also about your profile page. If there is something you want to find out which is not answered there already, please let me know and I'll add to the list of tips!

Grace period. Some of you are getting in the habit of treating the Grace period as if it were the "real" due date for your assignments. Here's the problem: if you treat the Grace period as the deadline, then you won't have any Grace period left for an emergency. The Grace period is there for real emergencies, totally random things that happen which unexpectedly prevent you from finishing your work on the day that it is due. If something is due on Thursday, it really is due ON THURSDAY - which means you should finish that assignment on Thursday. Or, even better, finish the assignments several days before they are due, so you are not having to stress about the deadline at all!

2 classes = 1 Ning. As you have noticed, both of the online courses I teach are combined into one Ning. There are a couple reasons why I did that. One reason is very practical: I am paying out of my pocket to have the Ning be ad-free, so I prefer to pay just once, instead of having to pay for multiple Nings. The other reason is that later on in the semester you will be looking at the Storybooks for the students in the other class, so you need a shared space where you can interact. Starting tomorrow, Friday, you'll be able to do the Read & Respond assignment, reading and responding to the blog posts of people in your class (more about that in tomorrow's announcements) - in the meantime, feel free to leave comments on anything at the Ning that happens to get your attention!

Thursday Events on Campus. There will be an "iRock" concert as part of Winter Welcome Week in the Union, 8PM-10:30PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

January 19: Edgar Allan Poe. Today, January 19, marks the anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe in the year 1809, just over 200 years ago. You can read more about Poe's remarkable and tragic life in this detailed Wikipedia article. Below is an image of the cover designed by the famous illustrator Gustave Dore for Poe's famous poem, The Raven:

Wednesday, January 18

2012-01-18T00:55:00.004-05:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 1 of class. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday. Please make sure you finish all the Tuesday assignments during the grace period. The Orientation Week assignments are REQUIRED if you want to remain in the class.

Class announcements. You should be reading the class announcements every day. If you did not read the Tuesday announcements, please make sure you do that now: Tuesday announcements. There was important information in the Tuesday announcements that will be helpful as you complete your various assignments for this week.

Wednesday assignments. You have assignments due today, Wednesday, that will get you ready for the creative kinds of story re-telling you will be doing in this class. Please make sure you complete today's assignments; these first week assignments are mandatory and must be completed if you want to remain in the class.

Wednesday Events on Campus. As part of Campus Activities Council "Winter Welcome," there will be Puppies on the South Oval (weather permitting) from 1PM to 3PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

Your announcements for the class. If any of you are involved in campus activities that you want me to publicize, please let me know. I'll be glad to include them here in the class announcements. Send me specific information about day-time-location, and also a link to a webpage or any additional online information you have about the group or activity.

Wikipedia SOPA/PIPA Blackout. On Wednesday, Wikipedia is participating in an Internet blackout to protest the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation. I would rate Wikipedia as the single most valuable website on the Internet, and I support their efforts to fight both SOPA and PIPA by means of this protest. You can learn more about why Wikipedia is fighting SOPA and PIPA here. For those of you working ahead on your Storybook project, you may want to find a different class assignment to work on during the Wikipedia blackout, and I will not be able to reply to any Storybook assignments you have turned in while the blackout is in effect. Yes, it is disruptive - which is actually the point, helping us to be aware of the serious threat posed by SOPA and PIPA. As someone who publishes all my teaching materials online on the open Internet, I am very concerned that this legislation will put my own efforts as an educator at risk. So, I hope that the blackout by Wikipedia will help everyone realize just how important it is that we have an open Internet to protect and promote the public good. Meanwhile, Wikipedia should be back online on Thursday, ready to provide valuable reference materials for those of you already working ahead on your Storybooks!

Tuesday, January 17: Spring 2012 begins!

2012-01-17T01:01:00.002-05:00

Hello, everybody, and welcome to SPRING SEMESTER 2012. I hope you had a great winter break and that you will have an exciting semester ahead! In this online course, you have a week of orientation activities to help you get acquainted with the tools and resources you will be using this semester. Please get started on the activities TODAY, since you have some assignments that are already DUE ON TUESDAY. Here is how to get started:

Course websites. You will find all the information you need about the course assignments at the website for the class you are enrolled in. Just click on the website for your course and then click on the Week 1 Orientation link to see this week's assignments:

MLLL-3043: Mythology-Folklore
MLLL-4993: Indian Epics

You will see all fifteen weeks of the semester listed on the homepage of each course website, and you are welcome to work as far ahead as you want. So, if you have some free time now, before your other classes really get busy, you could get a good head start on the class. A few students are already working ahead on Week 3! GO SOONERS!

Assignment Stack. Each week there will be something you turn in to me via email that I will then read and comment on. In the first week, for example, you will turn in a Proofreading Practice assignment. As you turn those assignments in, I list them in the Stack. You can always check the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. I work through the stack in the order that the items were turned in. If you have turned something in and do not see it listed in the stack, please contact me so that we can track down the missing email!

Questions...? The first week's Orientation activities are designed to introduce you to all the class activities and procedures, so don't worry: everything will become a lot more clear as you work your way through the Orientation assignments. Meanwhile, feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the class that are not answered at the course website.

Friday, Jan. 13 - Monday, Jan. 16

2012-01-13T17:48:00.002-05:00

School does not start officially until Tuesday, January 17, but if you would like to start this online class early, it is ready to go! All the information you need about the Week 1 Orientation assignments can be found at the course website - MLLL-3043 Myth-Folklore OR MLLL-4993 Indian Epics. Just click on the Week 1 Orientation link at your course website, and you'll find what you need to get started. Even though there are no class meetings for this online course, you do have assignments that are DUE already on the first day of classes, January 17 - so if you can complete those assignments before the deadline, that will give you one less thing to worry about when your regular classroom-based classes get started.

Friday Update: There is nothing new to report, except that things seem to be going well, with some people even working ahead into Week 2 of the class, which is just great! For those of you who checked in earlier in the week, here are some changes I made over the past few days that you might want to be aware of:

Word Counter. I've added a "word counter" to the right-hand sidebar of the Ning; I was thinking that might be helpful for checking the word count if you are not doing that in GoogleDocs beforehand. Let me know how that goes; I tested it on my computer (which is a Mac), and I hope it will work also work for those of you using Windows computers also.
Tech Tips. I've added a few new Tech Tip options; you'll see they have a "new" icon next to them. I may or may not have time to add a few more new Tech Tips by the end of the week. I have a few more I really wanted to add this semester, so hopefully I will have time to do that.
Blog Posts. I'm reading and replying to people's Introductions at the Ning; I may or may not have time to read and reply to your stories also - but if I don't leave a comment on your story, don't worry: you'll be getting comments back from other students at the end of next week, after everybody has had a chance to do those blog assignments.
The Proofreading Stack. For those of you who have turned in the proofreading assignment for Week, I've put those in the stack - you can see that here - and I'll be reading and replying to those in batches, so you may have to wait a day or so before you get a reply from me. I post the stack list online so you can know I do have your assignment. (For those of you already working on Storybook assignments, they will go in the stack also.)

Meanwhile, I'll be checking email over the weekend and also on Monday, so feel free to contact me with any questions that you have!

HAPPY NEW SEMESTER!

Cartoon by Glenn McCoy

Wednesday, January 11

2012-01-11T09:38:00.003-05:00

School does not start officially until Tuesday, January 17, but if you would like to start this online class early, it is ready to go! All the information you need about the Week 1 Orientation assignments can be found at the course website - MLLL-3043 Myth-Folklore OR MLLL-4993 Indian Epics. Just click on the Week 1 Orientation link at your course website, and you'll find what you need to get started!

Even though there are no class meetings for this online course, you do have assignments that are DUE already on the first day of classes, January 17 - so if you can complete those assignments before the deadline, that will give you one less thing to worry about when your regular classroom-based classes get started.

Wednesday Update: I'm still adding some material and getting ready for the official start of the new semester. For those of you who have been working ahead, here are some changes you might have noticed this week:

Word Counter. I've added a "word counter" to the right-hand sidebar of the Ning; I was thinking that might be helpful for checking the word count if you are not doing that in GoogleDocs beforehand. Let me know how that goes; I tested it on my computer (which is a Mac), and I hope it will work also work for those of you using Windows computers also.
Tech Tips. I've added a few new Tech Tip options; you'll see they have a "new" icon next to them. I may or may not have time to add a few more new Tech Tips by the end of the week. I have a few more I really wanted to add this semester, so hopefully I will have time to do that.
Blog Posts. I'm reading and replying to people's Introductions at the Ning; I may or may not have time to read and reply to your stories also - but if I don't leave a comment on your story, don't worry: you'll be getting comments back from other students at the end of next week, after everybody has had a chance to do those blog assignments.
The Proofreading Stack. For those of you who have turned in the proofreading assignment for Week, I've put those in the stack - you can see that here - and I'll be reading and replying to those in batches, so you may have to wait a day or so before you get a reply from me. I post the stack list online so you can know I do have your assignment. (For those of you already working on Storybook assignments, they will go in the stack also.)

I'll update this announcement again on Friday with any important new information. Thanks to those of you getting started early, and I hope you are enjoying the class! If you have any questions, just let me know.

HAPPY NEW SEMESTER!

Cartoon by Glenn McCoy

Monday, January 9: courses ready to go!

2012-01-09T17:25:00.007-05:00

School does not start officially until Tuesday, January 17, but if you would like to start this online class early, it is ready to go! All the first week assignments are available now if you want to get a head start. Even though there are no class meetings for this online course, you do have assignments that are DUE already on the first day of classes, January 17 - so if you can complete those assignments before the deadline, that will give you one less thing to worry about when your regular classroom-based classes get started.

All the information you need about the Week 1 Orientation assignments can be found at the course website - here is where you will find your course website:

Just click on the Week 1 Orientation link at your course website, and you'll find what you need to get started!

As always, there are lots of little things I have to adjust at the beginning of each new semester. So, if you find something that is not working or is not clear, just let me know. I am very grateful for the folks who start early and help make sure everything really is ready to go.

In the meantime.... here's to a great semester ahead, and I hope you all enjoy the class!

January 2012

2012-01-02T15:28:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year! I am in the process of setting up the courses for Spring and, if all goes well, they should be ready to start on Tuesday, January 10, one week before the regular classes begin. I'll update this blog and send around an email announcement when they are ready to go! I'm officially back at work now, so if you have questions about the courses, just send me an email and I'll get back to you soon.

Meanwhile, for those of you in the Indian Epics class, don't forget that there are some books you need for the class, and if you do that now you can take advantage of cheap prices at online booksellers; more information here.

Enjoy the last days of your winter break!

(image source)

Friday, December 9: Class Is Done!

2011-12-09T01:01:00.002-05:00

Here are some final announcements:

First and foremost, THANK YOU for all the good work that you did in the class, especially on the Storybooks. Every semester I am amazed by the variety and excellence of the Storybooks that people create, and that was very true this semester! I had such a good time watching them evolve and reading all the stories. I even learned many new stories that I had never heard before, which is why I will never get bored teaching these classes: I get to learn new things all the time! So, thank you all for all the good work you did!

Grades: I have recorded the final grades in the Desire2Learn Gradebook, and those will be the final grades that I submit via Ozone. You will be contacted by the Admissions & Records office when the Ozone grades can be viewed; meanwhile, the grade you see in Desire2Learn is what I will be submitting.

Ning: Please take a last look at your comment wall at the Ning and at your blog to see if you got some comments in the last days of class. There might have been some people who left comments on your Storybook as late as this Friday morning for the Week 15 Internet assignment! If you want to save any of the stories your wrote at the Ning, please make sure you do that; on January 7, I will need to clear out the Ning to make room for the new students (the Ning has a maximum number of users I can include).

Announcements: I have cleared out the Announcements email so you will not get announcements when classes start up again in the spring. So, if you are going to be in one of these classes in the spring, you'll need to sign up for that email list again.

I think that's it, but if you have any questions I have not answered here, let me know. Have a great winter break and if you are traveling, travel safely!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Thursday, December 8

2011-12-08T01:01:00.001-05:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 15 of the class. Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Storybook stack. If you turned in a Storybook assignment on Wednesday before noon, you should have comments back from me and points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned something in on Wednesday afternoon, it may still in the stack. As always, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment!

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT WEEK 15. (repeat announcement) Week 15 is different from other weeks, because it ENDS ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, AT NOON. So, if you will be doing some Week 15 assignments to finish up the class, please be aware of this special schedule: all the final Week 15 assignments are due by NOON ON FRIDAY at the latest. All Week 15 assignments - including the Storybook assignment, Internet assignment, Blog Responding assignment, along with any extra credit you want to complete - must be completed by Friday, December 9, at noon. No late Week 15 Storybook assignment can be turned in for partial credit; there is no weekend or Monday morning grace period because of finals week next week.

Grading and points. (repeat announcement) As you now know from previous announcements, you need 410 points to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! If you can let me know when you are done with the class, I will record the letter grade for you in the Gradebook so that you can be sure you are finished with everything for the class.

Thursday Events on Campus. In the Gothic Hall of Catlett Music Center there will be a Harp Studio holiday concert at 3:30 PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

Evaluate.. and win an iPad. Today, Thursday, is the last day to complete the course evaluations available at eval.ou.edu. The evaluation will be available until 11:59PM on Thursday night. Plus, they are giving away iPads to some lucky students drawn at random from the people who completed the course evaluations! So, if you have not completed the evaluations for your classes, please take a few minutes to do that today. Your feedback is really valuable to me... and it might turn out to be valuable to you, too! :-)

Wednesday, December 7

2011-12-07T01:01:00.001-05:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 15 of the class. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Storybook stack. If you turned in a Storybook assignment on Monday or on Tuesday morning, you should have comments back from me and points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned something in on Tuesday afternoon, it may still in the stack. As always, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment!

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT WEEK 15. (repeat announcement) Week 15 is different from other weeks, because it ENDS ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, AT NOON. So, if you will be doing some Week 15 assignments to finish up the class, please be aware of this special schedule: all the final Week 15 assignments are due by NOON ON FRIDAY at the latest. All Week 15 assignments - including the Storybook assignment, Internet assignment, Blog Responding assignment, along with any extra credit you want to complete - must be completed by Friday, December 9, at noon. No late Week 15 Storybook assignment can be turned in for partial credit; there is no weekend or Monday morning grace period because of finals week next week.

Grading and points. (repeat announcement) As you now know from previous announcements, you need 410 points to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! If you can let me know when you are done with the class, I will record the letter grade for you in the Gradebook so that you can be sure you are finished with everything for the class.

Wednesday Events on Campus. You can see a new student photo exhibition, "Society Debut: A Media Arts Collection," in the Fred Jones Jr. Art Center's Lightwell Gallery this week, through December 9 (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

Pearl Harbor Day. Today, December 7, marks an important day in U.S. history: the attack on Pearl Harbor. I'm sure some of you have probably seen some movies about Pearl Harbor, perhaps even the great 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! which provides a presentation of the events leading up to the attack from both the American and Japanese perspectives. A less well-known film that I watch every year is In Harm's Way, a 1965 film directed by Otto Preminger and starring John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, along with the great Patricia Neal, plus a wonderful performance by Burgess Meredith. The action of the film begins on the night of December 6... Highly recommended.

Tuesday, December 6

2011-12-06T01:01:00.003-05:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 15 of the class.... YES: it is the last week of the class! For those of you doing the assignments for class this week, it is Alice in Wonderland or the Wizard of Oz in Myth-Folklore, while it's the Mahabharata review week in Indian Epics.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT WEEK 15. (repeat announcement) Week 15 is different from other weeks, because it ENDS ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, AT NOON. So, if you will be doing some Week 15 assignments to finish up the class, please be aware of this special schedule: all the final Week 15 assignments are due by NOON ON FRIDAY at the latest. All Week 15 assignments - including the Storybook assignment, Internet assignment, Blog Responding assignment, along with any extra credit you want to complete - must be completed by Friday, December 9, at noon. No late Week 15 Storybook assignment can be turned in for partial credit; there is no weekend or Monday morning grace period.

Grading and points. (repeat announcement) As you now know from previous announcements, you need 410 points to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! If you can let me know when you are done with the class, I will record the letter grade for you in the Gradebook so that you can be sure you are finished with everything for the class.

Storybook stack. If you turned in a Storybook assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me and points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned something in on Monday, it is probably still in the stack. As always, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If the points for your Storybook will give you the points you need to finish up the class, send me a separate email, and I will put your Storybook at the top of the stack.

Tuesday Events on Campus. There will be a seminar on Financial Aid for 2012-2013 at 5PM in Wagner Hall 245 (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

December 6: Saint Nicholas Day. Although "Saint Nick" is sometimes associated in popular tradition with the Christmas Holiday, the actual day of Saint Nicholas in the church calendar is today, December 6. In some countries, the Eve of Saint Nicholas (December 5) and Saint Nicholas Day (December 6) is an occasion for gift-giving. You can read more about Saint Nicholas and the festivities associated with Saint Nicholas in this Wikipedia article. The image below shows "Sinter Claes" on a wall in Amsterdam; the Netherlands is one of the countries where gift-giving is associated with Saint Nicholas:

Monday, December 5

2011-12-05T01:01:00.000-05:00

Today is Monday. Week 14 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday, including the Week 14 Storybook assignment (see note below).

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT WEEK 14 STORYBOOK: If you are turning in a Week 14 Storybook assignment, you need to do that on time - that is, by noon on Monday. You cannot turn in a late Storybook assignment for Week 14. If you do not get your Storybook turned in by noon on Monday, you can turn it in instead as your Week 15 assignment - but if you want to turn in BOTH a Week 14 AND a Week 15 assignment, make sure you get the Week 14 assignment in on time.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT WEEK 15: Week 15 is different from other weeks, because it ENDS ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, AT NOON. So, if you will be doing some Week 15 assignments to finish up the class, please be aware of this special schedule: all the final Week 15 assignments are due by NOON ON FRIDAY at the latest. No late Week 15 Storybook assignment can be turned in for partial credit. All Week 15 assignments - including the Storybook assignment, Internet assignment, Blog Responding assignment, along with any extra credit you want to complete - must be completed by Friday, December 9, at noon.

Grading and points. As you now know from previous announcements, you need 410 points to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! If you can let me know when you are done with the class, I will record the letter grade for you in the Gradebook so that you can be sure you are finished with everything for the class.

Storybook stack. On Monday morning, I will update the contents of the stack, and I will start working my way through the stack based on the order in which things were turned in. Meanwhile, you can always check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If the points for your Storybook will give you the points you need to finish up the class, send me a separate email, and I will put your Storybook at the top of the stack.

Dead Week Events on Campus. There are special extended hours in Wagner Hall for Dead Week: the the Student Learning Center computer lab is open Mon-Thurs 8am-1am and you can reserve study rooms and classrooms for study groups (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening during Dead Week at the Campus Calendar online.

December 5: Krampus. In our "Santa Claus" tradition, there is the vague sense that naughty children might get punished, but in other countries, that part of the Christmas tradition is much more specific: Santa Claus may have a sinister companion whose job is to punish bad children. In Austria and other Alpine regions, that dark companion of Saint Nicholas is called Krampus, and he spends the first two weeks of December going around at night, rattling chains and ringing a bell to warn the naughty children of his presence. On December 5, it is traditional for people to dress up as the Krampus! You can see pictures of people dressed as the Krampus in this Wikipedia article, and below is a Krampus holiday postcard:

Friday, December 2 - Sunday, December 4

2011-12-02T01:01:00.004-05:00

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 14! The Week 14 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 14 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. I would also strongly - STRONGLY - encourage you to finish your Week 15 assignments this weekend, since it is the LAST WEEKEND you will have to do work for this class.

IMPORTANT SCHEDULE NOTE. For those of you who will still be doing classwork during Week 15 (dead week), please be aware that it is on a different schedule: All final Week 15 assignments are due by Friday, December 9, at NOON. In addition, unlike previous weeks, you do not have the option to turn in your Week 14 Storybook assignment late. Instead, your Week 14 Storybook assignment MUST be turned in on time - that is, during the Week 14 grace period Monday morning, December 5, at the very latest. You have to get the Week 14 assignment turned in on time so that I can get comments back to you in time to complete your Week 15 assignment by Friday at noon!

Course evaluation at eval.ou.edu. (repeat announcement) The course evaluations for this course and your other courses are available now at the eval.ou.edu website. I hope you will take a few minutes to complete the evaluation - your feedback is incredibly helpful to me in making improvements to these courses, and it is also a big help to the College in general as they continue to develop the online course program. The online course program exists because students find it valuable to be able to take courses online, and any ideas you have for how the program can be improved will be very useful to the College as they continue (hopefully!) to offer these online courses. Plus, you might win a free iPad just for participating! (So far, no student in one of these courses has won an iPad... but maybe it will finally happen this semester: I think they should have a special iPad give-away just for online course students, IMHO.)

Final Grades. (repeat announcement) As you reach the points you need for your final grade in this class - 410 points for an A, 360 points for a B, 320 points for a C - let me know, and I'll record the letter grade for you there in the Desire2Learn Gradebook. You can mix and match whatever assignments you prefer to get the final points you need - but be careful as you make your choices, so that you don't accidentally come up short of the points you will need.

Storybook stack. As of Friday morning, there were a few Storybooks still in the stack; you can see here the contents of the stack. If you want to turn in a Storybook to get comments and points before the weekend, make sure you turn that in by noon on Friday. I'll try to reply to everything turned in on Friday - but, to be sure, please turn your Storybook in by noon.

Friday Events on Campus. See Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker at the Rupel Jones Theater! Performances are 8 PM Dec. 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 and 3 PM Dec. 3, 4, 10, 11 (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.

Storybook ballot results! Thanks to all of you who took the time to cast your ballot, and congratulations to the winners, to all the nominees, and to EVERYBODY who learned how to make your own website this semester: I hope that is a skill that will turn out to be useful to you in the future! :-)

MYTH-FOLKLORE

Best Written Storybook: Corry - Finals Week: Death Notes
Most Creative Storytelling Style: Whitnee - What Really Happened on the Titanic!
Most Informative Storybook: Kelsey - Diaries of Four Courageous Women
Most Original Storybook Topic: Courtney - Greek Therapy: The Myth in the Psychology
Best Storybook Design: Adam - Strange Ways to Die

INDIAN EPICS

Best Written Storybook: Whitney - Criminal Investigation: The Goddess Files
Most Creative Storytelling Style: Grace - Dharma News Weekly
Best Storybook Design: Lauren - Letters From My Indian Travels

(image source)

Thursday, December 1

2011-12-01T01:01:00.002-05:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 14 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 13 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in BY NOON for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

STORYBOOK VOTING: Polls close at 5PM today. Today, Thursday, is your last chance to vote for your favorite Storybooks. Just like every semester, because all the Storybooks are so good, the votes are VERY close - so, yes, a single vote does make a difference in this very local micro-election. You can see the nominees here for both classes. The voting will go until 5PM today, Thursday, and I'll announce the results in Friday's announcements.

Storybook stack. There are still a few Storybooks in the stack which I hope to get to today. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If you want to get comments back before the weekend, make sure to get your Storybooks turned in by Friday at 8AM.

Course evaluation at eval.ou.edu. For information about the course evaluation now available online, see yesterday's announcements.

Week 15 Schedule. For those of you who will still be doing classwork during Week 15 (dead week), see yesterday's announcements.

Grading and points. (repeat announcement) When you finish up with the class I record a "FINAL GRADE" in the D2L Gradebook so you can be sure you are done. So, just let me know when you have completed the number of points you need: 410 for an A, 360 for a B, 320 for a C. It's entirely up to you what grade you want to finish with in the class. There is no need to apologize for stopping out with a grade of B or C (many people are taking this class just for Gen. Ed. credit, and I know that means it is often not a top priority). Whatever grade you decide to stop with is fine with me; just let me know when you are done, and I'll record the grade!

Thursday Events on Campus. Art Museum Poetry Reading - Glenn Mott will present poems in conjunction with Robert Rauschenberg's Lotus Series in the Fred Jones Museum at 7PM in the Nancy Johnston Records Gallery (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

December: Latin Christmas Carols. As one of my Latin hobbies, I collect Christmas carols and holiday songs in Latin, and I've got a special blog - Gaudium Mundo - where you can find a different Latin Christmas carol or holiday song for each day of the month of December... beginning with Rudolphus on December 1 - with no less than SIX, count 'em, SIX different versions of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in Latin! So, if you have taken Latin or are taking Latin now, you might want to check out the Gaudium-Mundo blog for a Classical Christmas! If you are interested in Rudolph in particular, here's the page about Rudolphus rubrinasus.

(image source)

Wednesday, November 30

2011-11-30T01:01:00.002-05:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 14 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 13 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Course evaluation at eval.ou.edu. After an initial mix-up, the course evaluations are now available at eval.ou.edu. THANKS in advance for your input. Every semester I make changes to these classes, trying out new things, improving things, etc., and your input is extremely valuable in deciding what changes to make. It is also very important in determining the future of the online course program; there is still a lot of resistance to online courses at OU, and student input is crucial in determining what direction the online course program will take at OU.

Storybook Stack. There are still quite a few Storybook assignments in the stack, but I have managed to read and respond to everything turned in last week or over the weekend. Storybooks turned in on Monday or later are probably still in the stack. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Also, if the points from the Storybook will give you what you need to finish the class, send me an email to let me know, and I'll put your Storybook at the top of the stack. :-)

Storybook Ballots. (repeat announcement) I've tallied up the nominations that people turned in (thanks to everybody who participated in that part of the process!), and you can see the top nominations for each class here: Storybook Ballot Fall 2011. The ballot contains LINKS to all the Storybooks which you can use to refresh your memory - and also to visit the Storybooks in the other class, if you are curious. For each class, you will find the actual ballot for voting in Desire2Learn in Week 14. This is just for fun - not for points or a grade or anything. If you have a few minutes to spare, please vote for your own personal favorites! The ballot will be available until 5PM on Thursday of this week and I'll announce the results Friday.

Week 15 Schedule Note. (repeat announcement) For those of you who will still be doing class work during Week 15 (dead week), please be aware that it is on a different schedule: the final deadline for Week 15 assignments is Friday, December 9, at noon. There is no weekend time and there is no Monday morning grace period, since that would run into final exam times. As a result, your Week 14 Storybook assignment must be turned in by Monday noon, December 5, at the latest - I cannot accept late Storybooks for Week 14 because that would not give me time to get comments back to you for your Week 15 assignment. So, please take note: no late Week 14 Storybook assignments.

Wednesday Events on Campus. There will be a seminar on Final Exams & Test Management at 4PM in Wagner Hall 245 (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 30: Mark Twain. Today, November 30, marks the birthday of Mark Twain in the year 1835. As the author of Huckleberry Finn, Twain is one of the most important authors in the American literary tradition - and also one of the funniest. My favorite of Twain's books is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which you can read online here - with illustrations, too! The image below shows Twain accepting an honorary degree at Oxford University in 1907:

Tuesday: November 29

2011-11-29T00:57:00.003-05:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 14 of the class. That means you are finishing up Buck's Mahabharata in Indian Epics (Week 15 will be a Mahabharata review week), while it's American folklore in the Myth-Folklore class. For those of you who are working ahead, Week 15 is also available, and I would really encourage you to finish those assignments now so that you can take full advantage of dead week. If you have not turned in your Week 13 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Storybook Ballots. I've tallied up the nominations that people turned in (thanks to everybody who participated in that part of the process!), and you can see the top nominations for each class here: Storybook Ballot Fall 2011. The ballot contains LINKS to all the Storybooks which you can use to refresh your memory - and also to visit the Storybooks in the other class, if you are curious. For each class, you will find the actual ballot for voting in Desire2Learn in Week 14. This is just for fun - not for points or a grade or anything. If you have a few minutes to spare, please vote for your own personal favorites! The ballot will be available until 5PM on Thursday of this week and I'll announce the results Friday.

Storybook stack. There are still a lot of Storybooks in the stack; I've been focusing on the people whose Storybook assignment would give them the points they need to finish up the class. If you turned in an assignment, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your email. Meanwhile, if the points for that assignment will give you the points you need to finish the class, send me a separate email to let me know, and I'll put your Storybook at the top of the stack.

UPDATE Week 14 Internet assignment. There was an IT error of some kind that has now been fixed - so, yes, the online course evaluations for these classes are NOW AVAILABLE, as of 10 AM on Tuesday morning, together with the evaluations for your other classes. If you logged on earlier and were told the evaluation was not available, give it another try. You should now be able to log on to eval.ou.edu and complete the online course evaluation for this course along with your other courses. (Thanks again to those of you who let me know where was a problem; the instructors do not have any access until January, so I had no way of knowing just what the situation was - if you run into other problems here, definitely let me know; thanks!)

IMPORTANT Week 15 Schedule Note. For those of you who will still be doing classwork during Week 15 (dead week), please be aware that it is on a different schedule: the final deadline for Week 15 assignments is Friday, December 9, at noon. There is no weekend time and there is no Monday morning grace period since that would run into final exam times. As a result, your Week 14 Storybook assignment must be turned in by Monday noon, December 5, at the latest - I cannot accept late Storybooks for Week 14 because that would not give me time to get comments back to you for your Week 15 assignment. So, please take note: no late Week 14 Storybook assignments.

Tuesday Events on Campus. On Tuesday at 2PM in the Photography Gallery of the Fred Jones Museum there will be a walking tour of the exhibit "No Heaven Awaits Us: Contemporary Chinese Photography & Video." (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 29: C. S. Lewis. Today marks the birthday in the year 1898 of the famous author and scholar, C. S. Lewis. Lewis is probably best known today for his series of Narnia books. You can read more about Lewis's life and career in this Wikipedia article, and there is also a biographical film about his later life which is very much worth watching: Shadowlands. The image below shows the first-edition covers of the Narnia books. I like these books very much; my personal favorite is The Magician's Nephew - and if you took a look at Kathleen's Storybook, A Town Called Diggory, you might have noticed that she made good use of names borrowed from that book for her project!

Monday, November 28

2011-11-28T00:56:00.002-05:00

Today is Monday, and Week 13 of the class is now over. (Yes, Week 13 - that is the week which started before Thanksgiving; you had all of Thanksgiving week off.) Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due at the end of Week 13. Week 14 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. The Week 15 assignments are also available now, too!

Storybook stack. As usual on Monday, the Storybook stack is very large! First thing on Monday morning, I will update the contents of the stack, and I will begin working my way through the stack based on the order in which things were turned in. If the points for your Storybook assignment(s) will give you the points you need to finish up the class, send me a SEPARATE email and I'll move your assignment(s) to the top of the stack; you can put something like "Final Storybook points" in the subject line of the email so I'll be sure to see it.

Week 13 Internet assignment. UPDATE: *BALLOT NOW AVAILABLE* After people finish turning in their Storybook nominations for the Week 13 Internet assignment today at noon, I'll prepare a ballot with the most-nominated Storybooks for you to vote on. I will do my best to get that ready on Tuesday, with voting to take place this week, and winners to be announced on Friday. Thanks to everybody who turned in their nominations!

Week 14 Internet assignment. For the Week 14 Internet assignment, you'll be doing an online course evaluation of this class. The online evaluation will take place at the eval.ou.edu website, and the evaluation will probably be available starting on Tuesday, November 29 (at least, that is when it has been available in past years). You will be receiving an email directly from the College of Arts & Sciences with specific information about how to log on and complete the evaluation form for this class and for your other classes. THANKS in advance for your input. Every semester I make changes to these classes, trying out new things, improving things, etc., and your input is extremely valuable in deciding what changes to make.

Monday Events on Campus. In the Food Court of the Union there will be a free noon concert by Stephen Pittman (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 28: William Blake. Today marks the birthday in 1757 of the visionary English poet and artist William Blake. You can read more about his remarkable life and career in this Wikipedia article. Much of Blake's artwork was religious in nature; the painting below is an illustration of the famous scene from the Biblical book of Samuel, where the witch of Endor (right) conjures up the ghost of Samuel (center) at the command of King Saul in disguise (left):

Friday, November 18 - Sunday, November 27

2011-11-18T01:01:00.002-05:00

Friday, November 18 - Sunday, November 27. You have a full week off for Thanksgiving in this class. The Week 13, Week 14 and Week 15 assignments are available for any of you who want to work ahead and finish up the class. The Week 13 grace period will be on Monday morning, November 28, after Thanksgiving. I'll be answering email on and off during this week, but I will not be grading any Storybook assignments until class starts up again on Monday, November 28, when I will start reading and responding to the Storybook assignments in the order they were turned in during the break.

NEW RESPONDING GROUPS. The blog responding groups have been shuffled around this week, so you should find some new people to read and respond to when you do the blog responding assignment for Week 13. If somehow I've accidentally left anybody off the list, please let me know! As more and more people finish the class, the blog responding will become a little more chaotic, but I'll try to keep an eye on things so that everybody gets comments on their new blog posts.

Storybook stack. As of the end of the day Thursday, the only assignments left in the stack were late Week 12 assignments. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If you want comments back BEFORE the Thanksgiving Break, MAKE SURE you turn in your Storybook assignment by Friday November 18 at 8AM. I won't be doing any Storybook grading over Thanksgiving Break, so any Storybooks that come in after 8AM on Friday November 18 will go into the stack for Monday morning, November28 .

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Now that there are less than three weeks of the semester left (rest of Week 13, plus Weeks 14-15), you might want to plan to do some "mix and match" in terms of just which assignments you want to complete this semester to get the points you need for the grade you want to get (you need 410 points for an A, 360 points for a B and 320 points for a C). So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end. My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade. When you read the points you need for your final grade, send me a note to let me know and I will record the final grade in the Gradebook for you.

Friday Events on Campus. At 10AM in Bizzell Memorial Library, Room 149D there will be a one-hour workshop on Using Zotero to Manage Citations - and Zotero really is an amazing online tool that I use every day for my own research and writing; I highly recommend it (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.

ENJOY THE HOLIDAY!!!

(A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving)

Thursday, November 17

2011-11-17T01:01:00.004-05:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 13 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 12 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in BEFORE NOON for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to complete any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Storybook stack. If you turned in a Storybook assignment before 8AM on Monday, you should have comments back from me now and points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned something in later on Monday or on Tuesday or Wednesday, it is probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If you want comments back BEFORE the Thanksgiving Break, make sure you turn in your Storybook assignment by Friday at 8AM. I won't be doing any Storybook grading over Thanksgiving Break, so any Storybooks that come in after 8AM on Friday November 18 will go into the stack for Monday morning, November 28.

November: Thanksgiving Break. (repeat announcement) You will be getting a full week off for Thanksgiving in this class. Thanksgiving falls on November 24 this year, which is a week from today. You have your usual Week 13 Thursday assignments due today; I would also urge you to finish up the remaining Week 13 assignments tomorrow, Friday, November 18. That way you can have the entire next week off from November 19 till November 27, with the Week 13 grace period on Monday morning, November 28.

Thursday Events on Campus. The Sound Lounge in the Union's Beaird Lounge features Surf Minus Surf and Omega Snow at 8PM tonight (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 17: Birth of "The Mouse." On November 17 in the year 1970, computer pioneer Douglas Engelbart was granted a patent for what would become the "mouse" interface for supplying data, manually, to a computer. In the patent application, he described the wooden box with its two metal wheels as an "X-Y position indicator for a display system," although he nicknamed it the "mouse" because it had a tail coming out one end that connected it to the computer system. Dr. Engelbart has not profited from his invention because the patent ran out in 1987, before the widespread use of personal computers made the mouse ubiquitous (although I remember first seeing someone using a mouse in the summer of 1984). You can read more about the history of the mouse in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image, which shows Dr. Engelbart's mouse, circa 1970:

Wednesday, November 16

2011-11-16T01:01:00.001-05:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 13 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 12 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday. The regular Week 13 schedule applies today and also on Thursday; see the Tuesday announcements for how Thanksgiving Break works all of next week.

Storybook stack. There are still quite a few assignments in the Storybook stack. If you turned in your assignment by 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. Assignments turned in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday are probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If the points for your Storybook assignment are all you need to finish up the class, let me know and I will move your assignment to the top of the stack.

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Now that there are less than three weeks of the semester left (rest of Week 13, plus Weeks 14-15), you might want to plan to do some "mix and match" in terms of just which assignments you want to complete this semester to get the points you need for the grade you want to get (you need 410 points for an A, 360 points for a B and 320 points for a C). So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end. My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade. When you read the points you need for your final grade, send me a note to let me know and I will record the final grade in the Gradebook for you.

Wednesday Events on Campus. OU is participating in the St. Jude Christmas Card challenge; so, at 7PM tonight in the Kappa Hall at 700 College Avenue, you can help make Christmas cards for the patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 16: Oklahoma Admission Day. Today, November 16, marks the admission of Oklahoma to the United States of America in the year 1907, the 46th state (followed later by New Mexico and Arizona in 1912, and then Alaska and Hawaii in 1959). When the state of Oklahoma was created, it combined the lands of the Oklahoma Territory as well as Indian Territory, putting an end to plans to create a State of Sequoyah in eastern Oklahoma, which had been Indian Territory. You can read about the proposed State of Sequoyah in this Wikipedia article; the image below shows the Oklahoma and Indian Territories circa the 1890s:

Tuesday, November 15

2011-11-15T01:01:00.000-05:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 13 of the class. That means it is time for the Pandavas to hide at the court of King Virata in Indian Epics, while in Myth-Folklore, the topic is Native American legends. I've moved the Week 13 quizzes up to the top of the quizzing area in Desire2Learn. If you have not turned in your Week 12 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 13 Internet assignment NOW AVAILABLE. Now that Week 13 has begun, the Week 13 Internet assignment is available: you will be nominating your favorite Storybook projects in various categories, and you will also leave some thank-yous for the people whose comments were most helpful to you this semester. Then, on Monday afternoon, November 28, when everybody has submitted their nominations (that's right after Thanksgiving Break), I will put up a ballot based on the most nominated Storybooks. For information about the Week 14 Internet assignment, see Monday's announcements.

November: Thanksgiving Break. (repeat announcement) You will be getting a full week off for Thanksgiving in this class. Thanksgiving falls on November 24 this year, which is next Thursday. Week 13 begins as usual this week, so you will have your usual Week 13 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday assignments; make sure you complete those as usual! I would also urge you to finish up the remaining Week 13 assignments this Friday, November 18. Then you can have the entire next week off from November 19 - November 27, with the Week 13 grace period on Monday morning, November 28. I will also be taking that week off, so any Storybook assignments you turn in during that time will go into the stack for the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday, November 28.

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week, there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. If you turned in an assignment on Sunday before noon, you should have comments back from me by now. If you turned something in later on Sunday or Monday, it is probably still in the stack. You can check on the contents of the stack here. If you need just the points for the Storybook assignment you have turned in in order to finish up the class, send me a SEPARATE email with "Storybook Final Points" (or something like that) in the subject line so that I'll put your Storybook assignment at the top of the stack.

Tuesday Events on Campus. In the Sandy Bell Gallery of the Art Museum there will be a free lunchtime concert by the OU Tuba/Euphonium Studio (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 15: Birthday of Johannes Secundus. As some of you know, I used to be a Latin professor, and one of my favorite Latin authors, Johannes (or Janus) Secundus, was born on November 15 in the year 1511. Yes, that's right: 1511 - not in ancient Roman times, but in Renaissance Europe. Johannes Secundus is what is called a "neo-Latin" poet, rather than a classical Roman writer. He is most famous for a series of poems he called Liber Basiorum in Latin, or The Book of Kisses. If any of you have studied Latin, you might enjoy taking a look at these delightful poems, which you can find online at The Latin Library. To learn more about Johannes Secundus and his all-too-short life (he died when he was just 24 years old), you can take a look at this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image:

Monday, November 14

2011-11-14T00:58:00.000-05:00

Today is Monday. Week 12 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 13 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. The Week 14 and Week 15 assignments are also available now, too!

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in. If you want comments back from me this week, please get your assignment turned in soon; see the following announcement about Thanksgiving Break - you will have next week off, and so will I!

November: Thanksgiving Break. You will be getting a full week off for Thanksgiving in this class. Thanksgiving falls on November 24 this year, which is next Thursday. Week 13 begins as usual this week, so you will have your usual Week 13 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday assignments; make sure you complete those as usual! I would also urge you to finish up the remaining Week 13 assignments this Friday, November 18. Then you can have the entire next week off from November 19 - November 27, with the Week 13 grace period on Monday morning, November 28. I will also be taking that week off, so any Storybook assignments you turn in during that time will go into the stack for the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday, November 28.

Week 13 Internet assignment: Storybook nominations. The Week 13 Internet assignment will be available starting tomorrow, Tuesday, November 15. I hope you will find this a fun assignment: you will be nominating your favorite Storybooks from the semester. After everyone has turned in their nominations (the assignment is due by the end of Week 13, which is after Thanksgiving break), I'll prepare a ballot with the Storybooks that get the most nominations, and you'll be able to vote on the best ones - the voting is not for a grade, but just for fun, as a way to give the people who worked really hard on their Storybooks some well-deserved recognition.

Week 14 Internet assignment: Course evaluation. For the Week 14 Internet assignment, you will be completing a course evaluation online. As soon as the online course evaluation form is made available by the College of Arts & Sciences, you should be receiving an email from the College about that - and they may even be giving away iPads in a lottery for people who complete the evaluation; that's what they have done for the past few semesters. The Week 14 Internet assignment will not be something you can do until that online course evaluation becomes available; as soon as I hear anything more about that, I will let you know.

Monday Events on Campus. At 7:30PM there will be a free concert of the OU Chamber Singer & Norman Children's Chorus in the Sharp Concert Hall of the Catlett Music Center (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 14: Karen Armstrong. Today is the birthday of the writer Karen Armstrong, born this day in 1944; she is one of my favorite authors on religious history. You can read more about her life and career in this Wikipedia article. She is extremely prolific and I have read at least a dozen of her books; my personal favorite is The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Even though the book came out before the 9-11, I think you can learn more about 9-11 from that book than from any other single book. Happy birthday, Karen Armstrong!

Friday, November 11

2011-11-11T01:01:00.002-05:00

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 12! The Week 12 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 12 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. Friday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Thursday.

Week 12 Responding: Check your groups. The groups for Blog Responding are basically the same as last week, but there have been some small adjustments, based on the folks who are finished with the class. So, before you do the blog responding assignment, double-check on your group to make sure you are responding to the right folks.

Storybook Stack. There are still some Storybook assignments in the stack (late Week 11 Storybooks plus early Week 12-13-14-15 Storybooks), and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Because of the unusually large number of people who turned in late Storybook assignments this week, I may not be able to get them all returned to you on Friday; if I do not get through the stack on Friday, I will do that on Saturday morning.

Gradebook Declarations. (repeat announcement) Some of you are under a lot of pressure at the end of the semester with projects and tests in your other classes. So please, if you do not have time to fully complete one of the assignments for this class, just skip it, and make up the points later. Read each Declaration carefully and do NOT make the Declaration if you have not completed the work. You need to check your word count and other requirements BEFORE you do the Declaration. The penalties for making false Gradebook Declarations are serious; if you are not clear about this, please check the Honor Code for this class. Your Gradebook Declarations need to be accurate and honest; the whole grading system in this class depends on it.

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Now that there are less than four weeks of the semester left (rest of Week 12, plus Weeks 13-14-15), you might want to plan to do some "mix and match" in terms of just which assignments you want to complete this semester to get the points you need for the grade you want to get (you need 410 points for an A, 360 points for a B and 320 points for a C). So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end. My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade.

Friday Events on Campus. You have a chance to sit on Marilyn Horne's masterclass for OU students in Pitman Recital Hall, Catlett Music Center at 7PM - seating is limited (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday and over the weekend at the Campus Calendar online.

November 11: Kurt Vonnegut. Today, November 11, is the birthday of one of the greatest American writers of the 20th-century, Kurt Vonnegut. You can read about Vonnegut's life and career in this Wikipedia article. Vonnegut was the author of many novels and short stories, including Cat's Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), and Breakfast of Champions (1973) - it is the last one, Breakfast of Champions, which is my own personal favorite. Here is a quote from that book where Vonnegut talks about the fact that he was born on Armistice Day in 1922, shortly after the end of World War I: "When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind." Sadly, Kurt Vonnegut died in 2007... but left behind many wonderful stories for us to remember him by!

Thursday, November 10

2011-11-10T01:01:00.001-05:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 12 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 11 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that BEFORE NOON TODAY for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Storybook stack. There are still quite a few assignments in the Storybook stack. If you turned in your assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. Assignments turned in on Monday, or on Tuesday or Wednesday are probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

Writing Center. (repeat announcement) In addition to the writing you have been doing for this class, some of you probably have writing assignments, such as final papers and projects, which you will be turning in for your other classes. So, I wanted to remind you that for any kind of writing project you are doing in any of your classes, the Writing Center is the place to go for help. Whether you are struggling with the overall organization of your writing (finding a focus, working with paragraphs), figuring our research strategies for a research paper, or whether you have some basic questions about writing mechanics (especially punctuation), the tutors at the Writing Center can help. For hours and services, visit the Writing Center website.

Thursday Events on Campus. There will be a concert by the OU Jazz Bands at 8PM in Sharp Concert Hall, Catlett Music Center (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 10: Neil Gaiman. Today marks the birthday in 1960 of the genius writer, Neil Gaiman. You can find out about Neil Gaiman's life and very prolific career in this Wikipedia article. My very favorite of all his books is American Gods - it is one of the most ingenious adaptations of traditional legends and myths that you will ever read! Happy birthday, Neil Gaiman!

Wednesday, November 9

2011-11-09T01:01:00.002-05:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 12 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 11 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Storybook stack. There are still quite a few assignments in the Storybook stack. If you turned in your assignment before 6PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. Assignments turned in later on Sunday or on Monday or on Tuesday are probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

Finishing the class early. (repeat announcement) When you finish up with the class I record a "FINAL GRADE" in the D2L Gradebook so you can be sure you are done. So, just let me know when you have completed the number of points you need: 410 for an A, 360 for a B, 320 for a C. It's entirely up to you what grade you want to finish with in the class. There is no need to apologize for stopping out with a grade of B or C (many people are taking this class just for Gen. Ed. credit, and I know it is often not a top priority). Whatever grade you decide to stop with is fine with me. The whole idea behind this points grading system is to let you know exactly where you stand and to allow you to choose to be finished with the class when you have the points you need.

Wednesday Events on Campus. At 8PM on Wednesday you can catch the opening of OU Theater Lab's production of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona, showing in Beatrice Carr Wallace Old Science Hall - the play is staged as if it were the 1960s, on a beach complete with surfers, hippies and bikers (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 9: Howard Pyle. Today, November 9, marks the death in the year 1911 of the American illustrator and author, Howard Pyle. You can read about Howard Pyle's life and career in this Wikipedia article, and you can find a listing of all his books that are online at his Online Books page. Some of you in the Myth-Folklore class may be familiar with Howard Pyle's work, since he is the author of a collection of stories about famous pirates, as well as books about legendary heroes such as Robin Hood and King Arthur. The image below shows one of Howard Pyle's paintings, The Mermaid:

Tuesday, November 8

2011-11-08T01:01:00.003-05:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 12 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 12 is on top. For those of you in Indian Epics, that means continuing with Buck's version of the Mahabharata (including the great legend of Nala and Damayanti), while it's a choice between fairy tales and ballads in Myth-Folklore. If you have not turned in your Week 11 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Counting this week, there are FOUR WEEKS of class remaining (Weeks 12-13-14-15), which means 120 points of regular assignments, plus extra credit. That assumes you have not been working ahead; if you have been working ahead, you can look at the Gradebook to see just how many available points you can still earn in these last weeks of class. When you finish up with the class I record a "FINAL GRADE" in the D2L Gradebook so you can be sure you are done. So, just let me know when you have completed the number of points you need: 410 for an A, 360 for a B, 320 for a C. It's entirely up to you what grade you want to finish with in the class.

Storybook Stack. As usual on Tuesday, I am making my way through the big stack of Storybooks turned in over the weekend. If you turned something in on Saturday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Overview of Week 12 and Week 13 Internet assignments. (repeat announcement) Week 12 will begin tomorrow, on Tuesday, and you will be commenting on other people's Storybooks. Then, for the Week 13 Internet assignment (available a week from Tuesday, on November 15), you will be nominating your personal favorite Storybooks for the semester. After you turn in your nominations, I'll set up a ballot so everybody can vote for the best Storybooks - it's not for a grade or anything; it's just for fun, and it gives the folks who have done really excellent work on their Storybooks a chance to get some well earned recognition.

Tuesday Events on Campus. As part of the Civil War Lecture Series, there will be a talk by Puliter-prize-winning author Tony Horwitz at 7PM in Meacham Auditorium: Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

Saturday, November 8: Bram Stoker. November 8 marks the birthday in 1847 of the Irish novelist Bram Stoker who is, of course, most famous for his invention of the modern literary figure of Count Dracula, published in 1897. Stoker's Count Dracula along with other vampire traditions has in turn given rise to a whole genre of modern vampire fiction including the recent Twilight series of novels by Stephanie Meyer. You can read more about Stoker's life and career in this Wikipedia article. Stoker's Dracula has inspired many later novels, films and even comic books, but I will confess that my favorite Dracula is Count von Count of the Muppets!

Here is a YouTube of Patrick Stewart and the Count:

Monday, November 7

2011-11-07T01:01:00.001-05:00

Today is Monday. Week 11 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 12 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. Weeks 13, 14 and 15 are also available for those of you who can see the goal in sight and want to start working ahead now to finish up the class.

Gradebook Declarations. Some of you are under a lot of pressure at the end of the semester with projects and tests in your other classes. So please, if you do not have time to fully complete one of the assignments for this class, just skip it, and make up the points later. Read each Declaration carefully and do NOT make the Declaration if you have not completed the work. You need to check your word count and other requirements BEFORE you do the Declaration. The penalties for making false Gradebook Declarations are serious; if you are not clear about this, please check the Honor Code for this class. Your Gradebook Declarations need to be accurate and honest; the whole grading system in this class depends on it.

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. I'll update the stack on Monday morning, and you can then check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in.

Overview of Week 12 and Week 13 Internet assignments. Week 12 will begin tomorrow, on Tuesday, and you will be commenting on other people's Storybooks. Then, for the Week 13 Internet assignment (available a week from Tuesday, on November 15), you will be voting on your favorite Storybooks for the semester. After you turn in your nominations, I'll set up a ballot so everybody can vote for the best Storybooks - it's not for a grade or anything; it's just for fun, and it gives the folks who have done really excellent work on their Storybooks a chance to get some well earned recognition.

Monday Events on Campus. At 8PM violinist Er-Gene Kahng (here is her website, with some audio online) will perform with Stephanie Leon Shames, pianist, in Pitman Recital Hall, Catlett Music Center (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

Eid-ul-Adha 2011. The four-day Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Adha is taking place right now; during the year 2011, the festival extends from November 6 through November 9. The Eid takes place after the annual Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, and it commemorates the willingness of Ibrahim to offer up his son Isma'il as a sacrifice to God, although God intervened and a sheep was sacrificed instead (a similar story is told about Isaac in the Biblical Book of Genesis). For more about the Eid-ul-Adha, see this Wikipedia article. The image below is from a Mughal painting that depicts the celebration of the Eid by Emperor Bahadur Shah, the last of the Mughal emperors, in 1843:

Friday, November 4 - Sunday, November 6

2011-11-04T01:01:00.004-04:00

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 11! The Week 11 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 11 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. Also, Friday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Thursday.

Week 11 Responding: Check your groups. The groups for Blog Responding are basically the same as last week, but there have been some small adjustments, based on some more folks having finished up with the classes. So, before you do the blog responding assignment, double-check on your group to make sure you are responding to the right folks.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in this week. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Everyone who turned in a Week 10 assignment on time should have gotten that back from me - if you turned in a late Week 10 assignment, or if you turned in some other Storybook assignment by Friday at 8AM, I will do my best to get comments back to you by the end of the day Friday.

Finishing the class early. (repeat announcement) Some more people have finished up the class early: congratulations! When you finish up with the class I record a "FINAL GRADE" in the D2L Gradebook so you can be sure you are done. So, just let me know when you have completed the number of points you need: 410 for an A, 360 for a B, 320 for a C. It's entirely up to you what grade you want to finish with in the class. There is no need to apologize for stopping out with a grade of B or C (many people are taking this class just for Gen. Ed. credit, and I know it is often not a top priority). Whatever grade you decide to stop with is fine with me. The whole idea behind this points grading system is to let you know exactly where you stand and to allow you to choose to be finished with the class when you have the points you need.

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Now that there are less than five weeks of the semester left (rest of Week 11, plus Weeks 12-13-14-15), you might want to plan to do some "mix and match" in terms of just which assignments you want to complete this semester to get the points you need for the grade you want to get. So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end. My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade.

Friday Events on Campus. There are events for Dad's Day this Friday and throughout the weekend - with free admission to campus museums, special presentations and more; you can download the full Dad's Day Schedule of Events here (PDF). Find out more about this event and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

Sea of Galilee Dig. OU has just received approval to participate in a an archaeological dig near the Sea of Galilee, excavating an ancient Jewish synagogue. The dig is led by Dr. Jodi Magness, a world-famous archaeologist, and Dr. Nina Livesey of the Religious Studies program will be the OU faculty leader (Nina is one of my favorite people at OU; she is doing fascinating work in the history of Christianity and Judaism). The dig will take place from June 1-30 as a 6-credit course in Religious Studies, RELS 4640. The image below shows Dr. Magness standing on the remains of the eastern wall of a Roman-Byzantine era synagogue that was unexpectedly discovered during the 2011 dig season; the 2012 dig will uncover the rest of the synagogue. You can read more about the excavation at Jodi Magness's website; for information about OU's participation in the dig, see this webpage about the OU Study Abroad Program: Huqoq Excavation, which also has information about financial aid and scholarships for study abroad.

Thursday, November 3

2011-11-03T01:01:00.002-04:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 11 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 10 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in BY NOON TODAY for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Storybook Stack. There are still quite a few Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, it may still be in the stack. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Finishing the class early. Some more people have finished up the class early: congratulations! When you finish up with the class I record a "FINAL GRADE" in the D2L Gradebook so you can be sure you are done. So, just let me know when you have completed the number of points you need: 410 for an A, 360 for a B, 320 for a C. It's entirely up to you what grade you want to finish with in the class. There is no need to apologize for stopping out with a grade of B or C (many people are taking this class just for Gen. Ed. credit, and I know it is often not a top priority). Whatever grade you decide to stop with is fine with me. The whole idea behind this points grading system is to let you know exactly where you stand and to allow you to choose to be finished with the class when you have the points you need.

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Now that there are less than five weeks of the semester left (rest of Week 11, plus Weeks 12-13-14-15), you might want to plan to do some "mix and match" in terms of just which assignments you want to complete this semester to get the points you need for the grade you want to get. So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end. My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade.

Thursday Events on Campus. The OU Federal Credit Union is offering a seminar on Money Management from 5PM-6PM in Wagner Hall 245 (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 3: Dog in space. The dog Laika ("Barker") became the first animal in outer space on this day in 1957. Laika traveled aboard the Soviet spaceship Sputnik 2. You can read more about this cosmonaut dog in the Wikipedia article. While the Soviets launched dogs into space, the United States space program launched chimps instead (Ham the chimp, the first hominid in space, flew a Project Mercury flight in 1961). Laika proved that it was possible for an animal to sustain a weightless state in outer space, although she did not return to earth (she died during the mission from heat stroke when a thermal unit in the space capsule malfunctioned). A monument was unveiled this year in honor of Laika; click on the image to view a Russian news video about the dedication of the monument:

Wednesday, November 2

2011-11-02T01:01:00.001-04:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 11 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 10 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Week 11 Internet: Visiting the other classes. (repeat announcement) This week, you will be visiting the Storybooks in the other class, along with an extra credit option similar to last week's extra credit option. We are getting near the end of the semester, and I hope the extra credit can be a way for you to enjoy more of the Storybooks before we run out of time!

Final Grades. If you did not read the information about final grades in the Monday announcements, please take a minute to do that now.

Storybook Stack. There are still a lot of Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Wednesday Events on Campus. The OU Graduate & Professional School Fair 2011 will be taking place in the Union Ballroom from 1:30PM-3:30PM, with representatives from graduate and professional school programs from OU and from other schools also (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

November 2: All Souls Day. As mentioned in yesterday's announcement, after the holiday of All Saints on November 1, comes the holiday of All Souls on November 2. In many Catholic countries, the two days - November 1 and November 2 - are celebrated together as the Day (or Days) of the Dead, Día de los Muertos in Spanish. This is a traditional time for offering prayers on behalf of the dead, and also for visiting cemeteries and decorating the graves. In Mexico, there is also a tradition of Catrina dolls, as you can see here, an art form associated with the satirical sketches of José Guadalupe Posada:

Tuesday, November 1

2011-11-01T01:01:00.003-04:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 11 of the class, and I've re-arranged the quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 11 is on top. For those of you in Indian Epics, that means starting Buck's version of the Mahabharata, while it's more fairy tales in Myth-Folklore, this time from Denmark and Estonia. If you have not turned in your Week 10 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 11 Internet: Visiting the other classes. This week, you will be visiting the Storybooks in the other class, along with an extra credit option similar to last week's extra credit option. We are getting near the end of the semester, and I hope the extra credit can be a way for you to enjoy more of the Storybooks before we run out of time!

Final Grades. If you did not read the information about final grades in the Monday announcements, please take a minute to do that now.

Storybook stack. As often on Tuesday, there is still a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack. If you turned in a Storybook assignment on or before Saturday, you should have comments back from me and points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned something in on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in; remember, if you want comments sooner rather than later, turn in your assignment on Saturday or Sunday morning, instead of waiting until Sunday evening or Monday morning.

Tuesday Events on Campus. There will be a noon concert on Tuesday by Jeongwon Ham of OU's Piano Studio in the Art Museum, Sandy Bell Gallery - admission to the museum is free on Tuesdays (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

All Saints Day - All Souls Eve. The reason Halloween was celebrated yesterday, on October 31, is that it was the "Eve of All Hallows," i.e. the Eve of All Saints, which is celebrated today, November 1. Today is also the eve of All Souls Day which is celebrated on November 2. The holiday of All Saints celebrates all those who have died and attained blessedness in heaven, while All Souls celebrates all those who have died but who have not yet achieved heaven. In many countries, November 1 is a holiday during which people visit graveyards, bringing flowers to the graves of the dead. For example, November 1 is an important national holiday in Poland, where it is called Wszystkich Świętych, which means "All Saints" (image source):

Monday, October 31

2011-10-31T01:01:00.000-04:00

Today is Monday. Week 10 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 11 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started.

Grading and points. Some people have been asking me about the points and grading, so let me refer you again to this Grading Information chart which can help you gauge what kind of grade you are headed for at this time. In short, you need 410 points to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! It is fine with me if you decide to stop doing work for the class whenever you have the grade you want to receive (many of you are taking this class for Gen. Ed. requirements, which means you just need a C to get graduation credit). My only request is that you please let me know when you are done so I can record the final grade for you in the Gradebook.

Mix and match points. Now that there are just five weeks of the semester left (Weeks 11-12-13-14-15), you might want to plan to do some "mix and match" in terms of just which assignments you want to complete this semester to get the points you need for the grade you want to get. So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end. My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade.

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. As usual, I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in, starting with the ones that were turned in on Friday afternoon, then the Storybooks from Saturday, and then finally assignments turned in on Sunday and on Monday.

Monday Events on Campus. The OU Symphony Orchestra Halloween Concert will feature Mendelssohn's supernatural cantata "Die erste Walpurgisnacht" at 8PM in Catlett's Sharp Concert Hall (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

(image source)

Friday, October 28 - Sunday, October 30

2011-10-28T01:01:00.001-04:00

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 10! The Week 10 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 10 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon.

HALLOWEEN. Although it is not Halloween until Monday, there are some extra credit options for the Internet assignment this weekend - and one of those options includes a list of Halloween-themed Storybooks, which is to say, Storybooks about ghosts, demons and devils, witches, magic, etc. Enjoy!

NEW RESPONDING GROUPS. The blog responding groups have been shuffled around this week, so you should find some new people to read and respond to when you do the blog responding assignment for Week 10. If somehow I've accidentally left anybody off the list, please let me know. This is done completely at random, so you may be with someone you have been in a group with before, or you may have all new people - that is the magic of randomness!

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. I've read and replied to all the Week 9 assignments turned in on time, but if you turned in a late Week 9 assignment, or an early assignment for Week 10, 11 or 12, it may still be in the stack. My goal is to get comments back to everyone by the end of the day Friday for assignments turned in before Friday at 8AM. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Friday Events on Campus. There will be FREE screenings of the final Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" on Friday at 6PM, 9PM and MIDNIGHT in Meacham Auditorium (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.

Thursday, October 27

2011-10-27T01:01:00.004-04:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 10 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 9 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that UNTIL NOON today for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

My Thursday schedule. I try to schedule my out-of-office commitments on Wednesday or Thursday. This week, I am going to be out of the office for part of the day on Thursday. That means I may be a bit more slow to respond to your emails today than on the other days of the week - but if you send me an email during the day today, I'll definitely get back to you by the end of the day.

Storybook Stack. There are still some items in the Storybook stack. If you turned your Week 9 Storybook in on Sunday, you should have comments back from me; if you turned something in on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, it is probably still in the stack. You can check to make sure you assignment is in the stack here. If you want comments back from me by the weekend, please get your Storybook assignment turned in by Friday at 8AM so that I can get comments back to you on Friday afternoon.

Finishing up the class: Storybooks. (repeat announcement) As I've mentioned before, there is no absolute requirement about the number of stories in a finished Storybook, and based on your strategy for getting your points in the class, you can finish your Storybook when it has two stories or three stories or four stories - it is up to you! The Week 14 and Week 15 Storybook assignments are final revisions, so if you are stopping with just three stories, for example, you can skip Week 12 and Week 13 (the fourth story assignments) and go straight to the final revision assignments for your Storybook. So, you would turn in Week 10 (third story), Week 11 (third story revisions), and then the Week 14 and Week 15 final revision assignments.

Week 10 Internet assignment: Extra credit option. (repeat announcement) The Week 10 Internet assignment is available now and, in addition to the usual assignment of reading three Storybooks and commenting on them, there is an additional "extra credit" option where you can read three more Storybooks and comment on them for an additional 6 points. I hope you will have fun with that - the extra credit option is something you can use to visit Storybooks from the other class and/or visit some Storybooks for Halloween! :-)

Thursday Events on Campus. John Abney will be performing in the Union Food Court at noon as part of the "Mid-Day Music" series (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 27: Birthday of Erasmus. Today marks the birthday in the year 1466 of the Desiderius Erasmus, one of the greatest scholars of the Renaissance (some sources give October 28 instead as his date of birth). You can read about Erasmus's remarkable life and career in this Wikipedia article. Of all the great thinkers and scholars in the history of the world, Erasmus is a personal hero of mine. One of his books in particular has been very important in my own life - a huge collection of thousands and thousands of Latin proverbs, with little essays about each one, called the Adagia. Erasmus is also one of the most important figures in the history of critical editions of the Bible in Greek and in Latin. Below is a famous portrait of Erasmus by Hans Holbein the Younger; along the edge of the book facing the viewer the letters read "The Labors of Heracles" in Greek (ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΟΙ ΠΟΝΟΙ = HERAKLEIOI PONOI), alluding to the amazing feats which Erasmus accomplished in his life as a scholar.

Wednesday, October 26

2011-10-26T01:01:00.003-04:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 10 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 9 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Week 10 Internet assignment: Extra credit option. (repeat announcement) The Week 10 Internet assignment is available now and, in addition to the usual assignment of reading three Storybooks and commenting on them, there is an additional "extra credit" option where you can read three more Storybooks and comment on them for an additional 6 points. I hope you will have fun with that - the extra credit option is something you can use to visit Storybooks from the other class and/or visit some Storybooks for Halloween! :-)

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week, there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. If you turned something in before 9PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Also, see Tuesday's announcements for additional information about finishing up your Storybook with three stories if you want to do that.

Wednesday Events on Campus. The University Theater production of Sunday in the Park with George (a Stephen Sondheim musical) is showing tonight in Holmberg Hall at 8PM with additional shows through this weekend. (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

Diwali 2011. One of the most important festivals in the Hindu calendar is Diwali, also known as the "Festival of Lights." The festival takes place over a five-day period, and you can read about all the stories and legends associated with each day of the festival in this Wikipedia article. The word Diwali is a contraction of "Deepavali," which means "row of lamps," and one of the Diwali rituals is the lighting of candles and lamps to symbolize the triumph of good over evil. Those of you in the Indian Epics class might be interested to know that the lighting of these lamps is also associated with the lamps that were lit for Rama in honor of his having defeated Ravana and returning to his kingdom after his years of exile. The image below shows a Divali festival in Chandigarh, India:

Tuesday, October 25

2011-10-25T01:01:00.003-04:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 10 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 10 is on top. This week's topic is fairy tales in Myth-Folklore and in Indian Epics you're finishing up Narayan's Mahabharata. Note: If you have not turned in your Week 9 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 10 Internet assignment: Extra credit option. The Week 10 Internet assignment is available now and in addition to the usual assignment of reading three Storybooks and commenting on them, there is an additional "extra credit" option where you can read three more Storybooks and comment on them for an additional 6 points. I hope you will have fun with that - the extra credit option is something you can use to visit Storybooks from the other class and/or visit some Storybooks for Halloween! :-)

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week, there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. If you turned something in on Friday or Saturday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Finishing up the class: Storybooks. As I've mentioned before, there is no absolute requirement about the number of stories in a finished Storybook, and based on your strategy for getting your points in the class, you can finish your Storybook when it has two stories or three stories or four stories - it is up to you! The Week 14 and Week 15 Storybook assignments are final revisions, so if you are stopping with just three stories, for example, you can skip Week 12 and Week 13 (the fourth story assignments) and go straight to the final revision assignments for your Storybook. So, you would turn in Week 10 (third story), Week 11 (third story revisions), and then the Week 14 and Week 15 final revision assignments.

Tuesday Events on Campus. An announcement from Whitney in Indian Epics: A Stonewall Teach-In, hosted by LGBTQ Advisory Board, will take place on Tuesday, October 25th at 6PM in the Heritage Room OMU. Learn about the history of the Stonewall Riots with a film screening and panel discussion. Free food too! (contact Whitney via her Ning Profile for more info). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 25: Picasso. Today, October 25, marks the birthday in 1881 of the artist Pablo Picasso, who died in 1973. You can read about his life and career in this Wikipedia article. In addition to being a painter, Picasso was also a sculptor; the image below shows a sculpture called "Head of a Woman," cast by Picasso, which is on the Princeton University campus:

Monday, October 24

2011-10-24T01:01:00.001-04:00

Today is Monday. Week 9 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 10 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get a head start!

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 9AM or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in; please check to make sure that I received your assignment!

Writing Center. In addition to the writing you are doing for this class, you are probably now working on end-of-semester writing projects in your other classes, too. Whether you are struggling with the overall organization of your writing or whether you have questions about writing mechanics (especially punctuation), or even if you just need some tips on how to proofread your work, the tutors at the Writing Center can help. For hours and services, visit the Writing Center website. Everyone can benefit from an extra pair of eyes, and the writing tutors are there to help you improve your writing, at any level and for any class you are taking. They won't do your proofreading for you, but they will help you learn to do a better job with that on your own.

Monday Events on Campus. There will be a noon concert featuring Thomas Glenn in the Union Food Court (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

Friday, October 24: United Nations Day. Each year, October 24 is "United Nations Day," commemorating the signing of the United Nations Charter on October 24, 1945. In announcing the observance of United Nations Day in 2008, Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the U.N., proclaimed, "The United Nations must deliver results for a safer, healthier, more prosperous world. On this UN Day, I call on all partners and leaders to do their part and keep the promise." You can read more about the United Nations in this Wikipedia article, and at the United Nations website, un.org. The image below shows the flags of many countries flying outside U.N. headquarters in New York City:

Friday, October 21 - Sunday, October 23

2011-10-21T01:01:00.000-04:00

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 9! The Week 9 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 9 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon.

Week 9 Internet assignment. (repeat announcement) The Week 9 Internet assignment is available now! For this week's assignments, you will have three free choices - one Storybook you have not visited before, and two you have visited before, all your free choice. Just like last week, there needs to be a new story for you to read - most people already have two stories now at their Storybook, so hopefully you will find a story to read even at the Storybooks you have visited already and which you wanted to re-visit.

October 21: Jack Kerouac. Friday, October 21, marks the death in 1969 of Jack Kerouac, the great American novelist of the "Beat" generation of writers. You can read more about Kerouac's life and career in this Wikipedia article. He is most famous for his novel On the Road, which he wrote in a burst of inspiration during the month of April in 1951. In order to keep pace with his writing style, he taped pieces of paper together in a continuous roll of paper that was 120 feet long which he could then feed into the typewriter without having to stop to put new pages into the typewriter. Just imagine what he could have done with a word processor, eh? The actual roll of paper has been preserved; here is the start of the novel at the top of the roll (click here for a larger view - and you can also see a display of the scroll rolled out):

Storybook Week 9 and Week 10. For the Week 9 Storybook assignment this week, most of you are turning in a revision assignment. Then, for Week 10, you will be turning in a new story. Remember that you do not need my comments on your Week 9 revisions before you start writing your new story - so don't let that hold you up! You can add your next story this weekend, too, if you want. My only request is that you turn in only one Storybook assignment at a time (otherwise, we will both get confused). If you get your next story published, you will have it all ready to turn in as soon as I get comments back to you about your revision assignment.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in this week. If you turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment on time, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned in a late Week 8 assignment, or an early Week 9 or Week 10 assignment, it might still be in the stack. In order to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. I will do my best to get comments back to any assignment that is turned in before 8AM on Friday. If you turn in something after 8AM on Friday, it will go into the stack for Monday.

Grading. For those of you who did not see the Tuesday announcements, check there for information about the number of points remaining the semester so that you can plan out your strategy for the rest of the semester for this class.

Friday Events on Campus. The OU Libraries' Book Sale will be open from 10AM-4PM on the Bizzell Library sidewalk - get there early for the best selection! The sale is open from 10AM-1PM to members of the OU community only; from 1PM-4PM it is open to the general public (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.

Thursday, October 20

2011-10-20T01:01:00.003-04:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 9 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in BEFORE NOON today for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Storybook Stack. I've still got quite a few items left in the Storybook stack. If you turned in an assignment by 9AM on Monday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in later on Monday, or on Tuesday or Wednesday, your assignment is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Also, if you want comments back from me before the weekend, please get any Storybook assignment turned in by 8AM on Friday morning.

Extra Credit. As you make your plan for finishing up the class, remember that extra credit points go straight into your total and can help you either to make up for missed work or to finish the class early. There are some extra credit assignments available each week (like the "Famous Last Words" post), and there are also some extra credit assignments you can do in advance (like the "Technology Tips," which you can do now for Weeks 9-15). Plus, you can get "Early Bird" extra credit points just for working ahead - no extra work, just managing your time so that you are working ahead. For more information about grading and points, see Tuesday's announcements.

Thursday Events on Campus. Kent Stroman, a professional nonprofit fundraising consultant, is offering a free seminar on fundraising strategies for student groups; the seminar will take place from 6PM-8PM in Ellison Hall 132 - and you need to RSVP to afpsooners@ou.edu (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 20: Birth of the Bab. Today, October 20, is a holiday in the Bahai religious calendar, celebrating the birthday of the Bab, one of the three central figures in the Bahai tradition. He was born in Iran in 1819, and took the name "Bab" (meaning "Gate") when he announced his claims to be God's messenger in 1944. His radical religious claims were not accepted by the Muslim clergy of the time, and he was executed in 1850. You can read about his life and religious teachings in this detailed Wikipedia article, where you can also read this detailed article about the Bahai faith. The image below shows the Shrine of the Bab which is located in Haifa, Israel:

Wednesday, October 19

2011-10-19T01:01:00.001-04:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 9 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Storybook Stack. There are still MANY Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in before 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. While you are waiting on comments back from me, you can keep on adding stories to your Storybook (that is a great thing to do, in fact!) - but please only turn in one Storybook assignment at a time; if you have something in the stack now, please don't turn in another assignment until I get that one back to you.

Grading. For those of you who did not see the Tuesday announcements, check there for information about the number of points remaining the semester so that you can plan out your strategy for the rest of the semester for this class.

Wednesday Events on Campus. There will be a seminar on "Note-Taking" in the Housing Learning Center, Adams Tower on Wednesday 2PM-3PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 19: Yorktown Day. Today, October 19, is the anniversary of George Washington's victory at the Battle of Yorktown (Virginia) in 1781, the last major battle of the Revolutionary War, which ended with the surrender of the British forces commanded by General Cornwallis. If you are a U.S. history buff, you probably also recognize the "Yorktown" as being famous as the name of a U.S. aircraft carrier which fought and was sunk at the Battle of Midway in WWII. The painting below showing Cornwallis's surrender can be seen in the U.S. Capitol rotunda in Washington:

Tuesday, October 18

2011-10-18T01:01:00.003-04:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 9 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 9 is on top. This week's topic is Robin Hood or King Arthur in the Mythology-Folklore class, with the Mahabharata getting started in Indian Epics. If you have not turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 9 Internet assignment. The Week 9 Internet assignment is available now! For this week's assignments, you will have three free choices - one Storybook you have not visited before, and two you have visited before, all your free choice. Just like last week, there needs to be a new story for you to read - most people already have two stories now at their Storybook, so hopefully you will find a story to read even at the Storybooks you have visited already and which you wanted to re-visit.

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week, there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. If you turned something in by Sunday at 3PM, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack. Please check the contents of the stack to to make sure I received your email.

Grading. With the beginning of Week 9, that means there are a total of seven more weeks of the semester (Weeks 9-10-11-12-13-14-15), which means 210 points of regular assignments available, plus extra credit. You may want to start planning now how you want to finish up the class - one person already finished the class already! For a chart that shows you week by week point totals and other information about the grading system, you can consult this Grading Chart page. Many people take these classes just to get the Gen. Ed. credit and just need to pass the class, so it's fine with me if you want to finish the class with a grade of "B" when you get 360 points or "C" when you get 320 points; for an "A" you need 410 points. When you have reached the the points required for the grade you want to take, just let me know. As soon as you get the points you need, you are done - you do not need to do any more of the class assignments

Tuesday Events on Campus. Gregory Lee's Violin Studio will offer a free noon concert in the Sandy Bell Gallery at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 18: Veerappan. Friday, October 18, in 2004 marks the death of Veerappan, the famous Indian bandit and smuggler whose outlaw exploits made him a kind of modern-day "Robin Hood." You can read more about his life and outlaw career in this Wikipedia article. Veerappan was famous for his dramatic moustache, as you can see in this sand sculpture created by Sudarsan Patnaik, an internationally famous sand artist:

Monday, October 17

2011-10-17T00:49:00.002-04:00

Week 8 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of those end-of-week assignments. Week 9 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started.

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack waiting for me to look at. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 9AM or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in. During a "new story" week, it takes me quite a while to get through the stack, so I would really urge everybody to check the stack to make sure your assignment is there. If you have not turned it in yet, please do that as soon as you can!

After 10 Years of War. SDS and Friends and Friends (FaFs – the Quaker student organization on campus) organized a vigil on the occasion of our 10 years of war in Afghanistan (one of the students organizing the event was someone who took Indian Epics last semester). They have just written that up in a blog post, and you can find there a statement from Stephanie, a student who is the Myth-Folklore class this semester and who is also a member of the Oklahoma Army National Guard, preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. I would really urge everybody to read her statement; thank you, Stephanie! You can contact her if you want via her Ning Profile.

Monday Events on Campus. A Trombone Choir concert - a wide variety of music performed by the trombonists of OU! The free concert is at 8PM in the Sharp Concert Hall (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 17: Adam Michnik. Today marks the birthday of Adam Michnik, born in 1946, who was a leader of the Polish Solidarity movement and who is now the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, a newspaper which was first published on May 8, 1989, just as Poland began to win its freedom; the motto of the newspaper in Polish is: Nie ma wolności bez Solidarności ("There is no freedom without Solidarity" - in Polish, it rhymes). As some of you know, I used to live in Poland (back in the late 1980s, when Poland was still under communist rule), and Adam Michnik has been a hero of mine for all these decades. Some of his work has been translated into English; his essays on political freedom are brilliant. You can read more about his life and career at Wikipedia. Here is the book cover of his latest collection of essays in English:

Friday, October 14 - Sunday, October 16

2011-10-16T14:33:00.000-04:00

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 8! The Week 8 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 8 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. Have a great weekend!

Flexible Storybook Schedule. I'd like to call everybody's attention to the information here about the alternate Storybook schedule. Right now, about one-quarter of the class is either one, two or three weeks off the regular schedule. Being on an alternate schedule is not a problem; you only start to run into real problems if you get four weeks off schedule, and if you become more than five weeks off schedule, things get really serious (you cannot turn in any more Storybook assignments if you are more than five weeks off schedule). So, as the workload gets heavier in your other classes, remember that you can indeed miss a Storybook assignment and go on an alternate schedule; if you have any questions about that, let me know.

Writing - Revising. For those of you on the regular Storybook schedule, you will be adding your second story to your Storybook for Week 8. The pattern of the last four weeks - writing, then revising - will repeat for the next six weeks of the semester. In Week 8, Week 10, and Week 12, you will be adding new stories to your Storybook. In Week 9, Week 11, and Week 13, you will be revising, along with some final revision assignments to complete your project in Week 14 and Week 15. I know that for many of you having to do all this revising is something unfamiliar, since in many university courses there is not a lot of emphasis on revising. By including revision - lots of revision - as part of the writing process, I hope everybody will wind up with something they can be really proud of by the end of the semester!

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in this week. My goal this week is to return comments to you before the weekend for any assignment submitted before 8AM on Friday. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Friday Events. An announcement from Mary Stanfield in Myth-Folklore (you can contact her via her Ning profile page): GLBTF, a group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and LGBT-friendly students at OU, is having an Open Mic Night for Coming Out Week at 8PM on Friday at Second Wind Coffee House (564 Buchanan Avenue) - We'd love to have anyone come out and listen, or share their experiences with coming out/having a loved one come out. Find out more about other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.

Festival of Sukkot. The Jewish Festival of Sukkot, known as "Feast of the Booths" or "Feast of the Tabernacles" in English, is going on at this time; the week-long festival began this year at sundown on October 12. The word Sukkot in Hebrew is the plural form of the word Sukkah, which means a booth or hut. During the festival, people build special huts in which to celebrate the holiday. You can read more about the Festival of Sukkot at Wikipedia, which is also the source for the image of a festival booth below:

Friday, October 14 - Sunday, October 16

2011-10-14T01:01:00.006-04:00

Thursday, October 13

2011-10-13T01:01:00.002-04:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 8 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 7 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that on Thursday morning for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Storybook Stack. If you turned in a Week 7 assignment on time, you should have comments back from me now, although there are still quite a few assignments in the stack - either late Week 7 assignments or early assignments for Week 8, Week 9 and so on. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Today, Thursday, at noon is the final deadline for turning in a late Week 7 assignment for partial credit. If you want comments back on a Storybook assignment before the weekend, make sure to get that assignment turned in by Friday at 8AM. I'll try to get to anything turned in by noon on Friday but I've been finding that hard to do - so if you want to be sure to get comments back before the weekend, make sure your Storybook is turned in first thing on Friday morning.

My Thursday Schedule. I will be out of the office for a while today, so I may not be as quick to respond to email as usual. I'll definitely get caught up by the end of the day, though - so if you have a question or problem, please do send the email and I'll get back to you by the end of the day, just not as quickly as I might usually.

Spring Enrollment. (repeat announcement) Enrollment will be starting for Spring classes, and these online classes fill up really quickly. If any of you would like to enroll in MLLL-3043 Myth-Folklore or MLLL-4993 Indian Epics for Spring, please let me know BY NOON TODAY at the latest so that I can save you a space in the class.

Thursday Events on Campus. You can see OU Opera Theatre's The Coronation of Poppea tonight, with showings through the weekend also - and check out the OU Daily article for more information: "'The season’s first opera will highlight the power of love, lust and ambition in Rome during Emperor Nero’s reign,' said professor Bill Ferrara , the director of the show." (time/location/details). Here's an image from the OU Daily article: Amore (top) played by Suzanne Stanley, watches on as Nero (Jonathan Murphy) threatens Drusilla (Kelli Tucci) after the attempted murder of Poppea. (Kingsley Burns/The Daily)

Wednesday, October 12

2011-10-12T01:01:00.002-04:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 8 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 7 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Congratulations, Bethany! Some of you may have seen Bethany's Storybook in Indian Epics already - yes, it has all four stories in it, all nicely polished and revised... and Bethany has in fact finished the class, too, since she's been working ahead on the other reading and writing assignments as well. Here's her Storybook for anyone who would like to take a look at the first finished Storybook of the semester - it's excellent! Misunderstood Women of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Congratulations, Bethany!

Storybook Stack. There are still quite a few Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in by 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Week 8 Internet assignment. (repeat announcement) The Week 8 Internet assignment is now available. Once again, you will be commenting on the Storybooks that already have at least one STORY available for you to read. Most of the Storybooks do now have at least one story, since many folks who did not publish a story in Week 6 did publish a story for Week 7. Check the assignment instructions for details about how to find your Storybooks to look at for this week!

Spring Enrollment. (repeat announcement) Enrollment will be starting for Spring classes, and these online classes fill up really quickly. If any of you would like to enroll in MLLL-3043 Myth-Folklore or MLLL-4993 Indian Epics for Spring, please let me know by noon this Thursday at the latest so that I can save you a space in the class.

Wednesday Events on Campus. FREE POPCORN from the Union Programming Board in the Union first floor lobby, from 11:30AM to 12:30PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

Sita Sings the Blues. The folks in Indian Epics have now finished up the Ramayana (this week is a review week), and then they will be moving on to the Mahabharata. There are many different versions of the Ramayana, of course, in many languages and styles, in addition to the two books we read in class - including a recent animated film by Nina Paley, called Sita Sings the Blues. You can see a trailer for the film at YouTube, or you can visit the Sita Sings the Blues website - and you can even view the movie online since Nina Paley (a personal hero of mine) has released the film under a Creative Commons license. As she explains at the website: From the shared culture it came, and back into the shared culture it goes.

Tuesday, October 11

2011-10-11T01:01:00.002-04:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 8 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 8 is on top. Yes, this means the semester is now about half over! In the Indian Epics class, you have a Ramayana review week before you start the Mahabharata in Week 9. In Myth-Folklore, the choice is Africa or Jamaica. If you have not turned in your Week 7 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. If you turned something in on Friday afternoon or on Saturday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in on Sunday or Monday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Week 8 Internet assignment. The Week 8 Internet assignment is now available. Once again, you will be commenting on the Storybooks that already have at least one STORY available for you to read. Most of the Storybooks do now have at least one story, since many folks who did not publish a story in Week 6 did publish a story for Week 7. Check the assignment instructions for details about how to find your Storybooks to look at for this week!

Spring Enrollment. (repeat announcement) Enrollment will be starting for Spring classes, and these online classes fill up really quickly. If any of you would like to enroll in MLLL-3043 Myth-Folklore or MLLL-4993 Indian Epics for Spring, please let me know by noon this Thursday at the latest so that I can save you a space in the class.

Tech Tips. I got caught up on Tech Tip emails on Monday evening - those really tend to pile up during the super-busy weeks as people are getting their Storybooks started! Thanks for your patience with that, and thanks also to those of you who have been doing the tips. It's always fun to go through the pile of Tech Tip emails and see which tips people are interested in trying. So, please keep right on doing that - a point here and there may not look like much, but if you have been doing them all semester, believe me, they add up!

Tuesday Events on Campus. There will be free BINGO in the Union, Crossroads Lounge, from 11:30AM-12:30PM, with prizes provided by the Union Programming Board (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 11: Thich Nhat Hanh. Today marks the birthday in the year 1926 of the Vietnamese writer and Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. You can read about his life and career in this Wikipedia article. Over 40 of his books have been translated into English, and they are a wonderful way to learn about Buddhism. There is a collection of quotes at Wikiquote, including these words which will certainly resonate for those of you who have been looking at the notion of karma in the Indian Epics class: The present moment contains past and future. The secret of transformation, is in the way we handle this very moment. The photo below comes from Thich Nhat Hanh's website, PlumVillage.org:

Monday, October 10

2011-10-10T01:01:00.001-04:00

Today is Monday, and Week 7 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 8 will begin tomorrow, on Tuesday.

Spring Enrollment. Enrollment will be starting for Spring classes, and these online classes fill up really quickly. If any of you would like to enroll in MLLL-3043 Myth-Folklore or MLLL-4993 Indian Epics for Spring, please let me know by noon this Thursday at the latest so that I can save you a space in the class.

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 8AM or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and reply to the assignments in the order they were turned in. It is really important to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack; during these revision weeks, I have no way of knowing that you have completed the assignment except for the email that you send me.

Writing Center. For those of you who are finding it difficult to proofread your own writing, the Writing Center is the place to go for help. Whether you are struggling with the overall organization of your writing or whether you have questions about writing mechanics (especially punctuation), the tutors at the Writing Center can help. For hours and services, visit the Writing Center website. The Writing Center is there to help with the writing assignments you have in this class, as well as any writing assignments you will have in your other classes, too.

Monday Events on Campus. As part of the Masala World Music Series there will be a concert of Himalayan Folk Music of North India on Monday at 8PM in Sharp Concert Hall in the Catlett Music Center (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 10: R.K. Narayan. Today, October 10, is the birthday of the Indian novelist R.K. Narayan, who was born in 1906 and who died in 2001. This name is familiar to those of you in the Indian Epics class, since you are reading Narayan's versions of both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Narayan was one of the most famous Indian novelists who wrote in English, and he was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once, although he did not win the award. You can find out more about Narayan's life and work in this Wikipedia article. The image montage below is from an article celebrating the centenary of Narayan's birth: 100 years of RK Narayan, The Master Storyteller.

Thursday, October 6 - Sunday, October 9

2011-10-06T01:01:00.007-04:00

OU-TEXAS. Yes, this Friday is an "unofficial" school holiday, so there will not be new announcements until Monday: GO SOONERS! In this class, you have nothing due on Friday, so there is no need to adjust the schedule. For those of you headed down to Dallas, I would strongly recommend that you finish up your Week 7 assignments before you leave town so that you can have a totally fun time and not be worrying about your work for this class. The Friday morning grace period for Thursday assignments remains unchanged; there will be the Monday morning grace period for finishing up Week 7 as usual. Also, I'll be working as usual on Friday, trying to get through the Storybook stack, so you can contact me on Friday via email with any questions you have - I'll be here! :-)

New Responding groups. The blog responding groups have been shuffled around for the Week 7 Responding assignment. So, thanks to the power of random, you will probably have at least one new person in your group, and probably two. Please review the instructions for the assignment and make sure you check your group!

Storybook Stack. I read and replied to all the Storybook assignments turned in by noon on Friday, and I'll be updating the stack again on Monday morning. You can always check to make sure your assignment is in the stack: contents of the stack (but I usually don't update the stack over the weekend).

Week 7 Internet assignment. (repeat announcement) For the Week 7 Internet assignment, which is available now, you will be reading Storybook Introductions AND a story from each Storybook assigned to you. Since you have more reading to do this time (three stories and, possibly, a couple of Introductions also), you will have just THREE Storybooks that you comment on - and you need to make sure there is a story to read at each of those Storybooks. If the Storybook does not have a first story published yet, please skip it and go to another one instead. You can definitely do the assignment now; no need to wait! So, if you are trying to finish up your work this week early (see next announcement), you can indeed do the Week 7 Internet assignment now.

Thursday, October 6: Dussehra. The Hindu holiday of Dussehra (known also as Vijaya Dashami, Dasara, or Dashain) celebrates the victory of Rama over Ravana, good over evil - a story that is now very familiar to everybody in the Indian Epics class! The holiday falls on the tenth day of the Hindu autumn lunar month of Ashvin, which means it is celebrated on October 6 of this year. You can read more about the festivities at Wikipedia. The multi-headed demon Ravana is often burned in effigy, as you can see in the image below!

Wednesday, October 5

2011-10-05T01:01:00.002-04:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 7 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 6 Storybook assignment yet (adding your first story), you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment before 5PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, your assignment is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Week 7 Internet assignment. (repeat announcement) For the Week 7 Internet assignment, which is available now, you will be reading Storybook Introductions AND a story from each Storybook assigned to you. Since you have more reading to do this time (three stories and, possibly, a couple of Introductions also), you will have just THREE Storybooks that you comment on - and you need to make sure there is a story to read at each of those Storybooks. If the Storybook does not have a first story published yet, please skip it and go to another one instead. You can definitely do the assignment now; no need to wait! So, if you are trying to finish up your work this week early (see next announcement), you can indeed do the Week 7 Internet assignment now.

OU-Texas Football. (repeat announcement) Although it is not an official school holiday on the University calendar, Friday is indeed an unofficial school holiday (GO SOONERS!). In this class, you have nothing due on Friday, so there is no need to adjust the schedule. For those of you headed down to Dallas, I would strongly recommend that you finish up your Week 7 assignments before you leave town so that you can have a totally fun time and not be worrying about your work for this class. The Friday morning grace period for Thursday assignments remains unchanged.

Wednesday Events on Campus. Through October 21, the art exhibit "Satan's Camaro" by Justin Strom and Lenore Thomas is showing in the Lightwell Gallery of the Fred Jones Jr. Art Center (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 5: Isaac Bashevis Singer. On this day in 1978, the writer Isaac Bashevis Singer won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Singer was one of the greatest Jewish writers of all time (he wrote in Yiddish), who won acclaim for his amazing novels and short stories about Jewish life in Poland and in America. He was born in 1902 in Poland, emigrated to the United States in 1935, and died in 1991. You can read about his life and career at Wikipedia and at this online exhibit at the Library of Congress. You can also read Singer's Nobel Lecture online, where he had this to say about writing in Yiddish: "Yiddish has not yet said its last word. It contains treasures that have not been revealed to the eyes of the world. It was the tongue of martyrs and saints, of dreamers and Cabalists - rich in humor and in memories that mankind may never forget. In a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language of us all, the idiom of frightened and hopeful humanity." The image below shows Singer's tombstone; meanwhile, you might also be interested in this list of Yiddish words used in English.

Tuesday, October 4

2011-10-04T01:01:00.001-04:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 7 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 7 is on top. This week's topic is India or Japan in Myth-Folklore. In Indian Epics, you are finishing up Buck's Ramayana. If you have not turned in your Week 6 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week, there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. If you turned something in on Friday or Saturday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. PLEASE DO CHECK: if something did go wrong with your email, it is important for you to let me know right away.

Week 7 Internet assignment. For the Week 7 Internet assignment, which is available now, you will be reading Storybook Introductions AND a story from each Storybook assigned to you. Since you have more reading to do this time (three stories and, possibly, a couple of Introductions also), you will have just THREE Storybooks that you comment on - and you need to make sure there is a story to read at each of those Storybooks. If the Storybook does not have a first story published yet, please skip it and go to another one instead. You can definitely do the assignment now; no need to wait! So, if you are trying to finish up your work this week early (see next announcement), you can indeed do the Week 7 Internet assignment now.

OU-Texas Football. (repeat announcement) Although it is not an official school holiday on the University calendar, Friday is indeed an unofficial school holiday (GO SOONERS!). In this class, you have nothing due on Friday, so there is no need to adjust the schedule. For those of you headed down to Dallas, I would strongly recommend that you finish up your Week 7 assignments before you leave town so that you can have a totally fun time and not be worrying about your work for this class. The Friday morning grace period for Thursday assignments remains unchanged.

Tuesday Events on Campus. There will be a free NOON concert by Valerie Watts, Flute and Jeongwon Ham, Piano in the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Sandy Bell Gallery (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 4: World Animal Day. Today, October 4, is the international holiday designated as World Animal Day. The purpose of the holiday is "to celebrate animal life in all its forms, to celebrate humankind’s relationship with the animal kingdom, to acknowledge the diverse roles that animals play in our lives, and to acknowledge and be thankful for the way in which animals enrich our lives." You can find out more at the World Animal Day website. CELEBRATE ANIMAL LIFE!

Monday, October 3

2011-10-03T01:01:00.001-04:00

Today is Monday, and Week 6 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 7 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started.

Grading. Now that we have finished Week 6 of the semester, there have been 180 points of required work. You can consult this chart to get an indication of how you are doing in the class overall: if you have around 165 points (155 points if your Week 6 Storybook has not been graded yet), you are headed for an A; if you have around 145 points (135 points), you are headed for a B; if you have around 125 points (115 points), you are headed for a C; with less than 125, you are in danger of failing the class. There are still 9 weeks left in the semester, which gives you plenty of time to improve your grade. Just make sure you budget time to do more of the assigned work and, if you do miss an assignment, make sure you complete some extra credit points to make up for it.

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 9AM or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in.

Storybook: Working ahead. In order to do the Week 7 Revision assignment, you will need to wait for comments back on your Week 6 Story assignment. Depending on just when you turned in your Week 6 assignment, you may have to wait until later in the week, even as late as Friday, in order to get comments back from me. If you want to work ahead on your Storybook, though, just move right ahead, adding another story to your Storybook! You cannot actually turn that in until after you get the Week 7 assignment back from me with comments, but that is no reason to stop working on the Storybook: you can keep on writing and adding stories even while you are waiting on comments back from me about your previous assignments. So, keep on writing and publishing, even if you have to turn in the assignments in order, one at a time - working ahead is always a good strategy in this class, including the Storybook.

OU-Texas Football. Although it is not an official school holiday on the University calendar, Friday is indeed an unofficial school holiday (GO SOONERS!). In this class, you have nothing due on Friday, so there is no need to adjust the schedule. For those of you headed down to Dallas, I would strongly recommend that you finish up your Week 7 assignments before you leave town so that you can have a totally fun time and not be worrying about your work for this class. The Friday morning grace period for Thursday assignments remains unchanged.

Monday Events on Campus. There's a seminar on Monday, "What's Your Learning Style?" from 2PM-3PM in the Housing Learning Center, Adams Center, Muldrow Tower 105. (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 3: Gore Vidal. Friday, October 3, marks the birthday in the year 1925 of the great American author, Gore Vidal. Happy birthday, Gore Vidal! You can read more about Gore Vidal's life and career in this Wikipedia article. My favorite of his novels is without a doubt his historical novel Julian, about the 4th-century emperor Julian, nicknamed "Julian the Apostate," the last of the pagan emperors of Rome. I am also a big fan of another of his historical novels, Creation. Here is the cover of a recent edition of Julian:

Friday, September 30 - Sunday, October 2

2011-09-30T01:01:00.002-04:00

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 6! The Week 6 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and so is the Week 6 Internet assignment (Storybook commenting), along with the remaining Week 6 assignments that are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. Friday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Thursday.

Commenting on Storybooks. (repeat announcement) Every week from now through Week 12 of the semester, you will be commenting on people's writing at their Storybooks. During these weeks as you comment on people's Storybooks, please provide as much detailed, specific feedback as possible! It's nice to get compliments, but it is also really good to get feedback about what things could be improved, especially now, early in the semester. So, do not hesitate to say when something is confusing, or when something seems repetitious, or if you think something important is missing. Every semester, students tell me that they wish they had received more detailed feedback on their Storybooks, rather than just generic compliments. So, try to be a really careful and attentive reader of each Storybook you visit, providing detailed, useful feedback in your comments, describing your own specific, personal experience as you read the Storybook.

The Ning Comment Wall. (repeat announcement) As you saw last week, people will now be leaving comments about your Storybook at the Ning Comment Wall which is part of your Ning Profile page. It would be great if you make the latest activity and blog activity invisible, so that way there will be more room on your Profile page for the Comment Wall. There is a Technology Tip for cleaning up your Ning Profile in order to get things all spiffed up and ready for visitors.

Storybook Stack. If you turned in a Week 5 Storybook assignment on time, you should now have comments back from me. There are still some late Week 5 and early Week 6-7-8-etc. Storybook assignments in the stack as of Friday morning. My goal is always to get every Storybook returned before the weekend that is turned in before noon on Friday. If you turn something in after noon on Friday, it will go to the top of the stack on Monday morning. For those of you who would like to get comments back sooner rather than later on your Storybook assignment, turn it in on Friday or on Saturday - don't wait until Sunday!

Weekend Events on Campus. Katlin, in Myth-Folklore, asked me to share an announcement: On Saturday my sorority, Alpha Sigma Kappa, is going to be having a bake sale at Kirkpatrick Manor at the corner of Cruce and Lahoma. We are going to donate the money raised to the Joplin Disaster Relief. We will start on Saturday at 2PM and go until 6PM. (for more information, contact Katlin via her Ning page). Find out more about this event and other events happening over the weekend at the Campus Calendar online.

Sunday, October 2: Birthday of Gandhi. The great Indian spiritual and political leader, Mohandas Gandhi, was born on October 2, 1869, over 140 years ago. On January 30 in 1948, after having led the fight for India's independence from the British Empire, Gandhi was assassinated. The image below shows the memorial in New Delhi where Gandhi's body was cremated. Written on the stone you can see what were reportedly Gandhi's last words: "Hey Ram" (Oh Rama!) - his invocation of the god Rama will definitely mean something to the students in the Indian Epics class. Although it is a matter of some controversy as to whether those were Gandhi's last words, here is something he wrote in December 1947, just weeks before his assassination: "In the end it will be as Rama commands me. Thus I dance as He pulls the strings. I am in His hands and so I am experiencing ineffable peace." If you look closely at the photograph, you will see the words "Hey Ram" written in Devanagari script, gold letters on the black stone, just behind the burning stick of incense:

Thursday, September 29

2011-09-29T01:01:00.001-04:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 6 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 5 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in on Thursday morning for partial credit. Thursday morning, until noon, is also the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Commenting on Storybooks. Every week from now through Week 12 of the semester, you will be commenting on people's writing at their Storybooks. During these weeks as you comment on people's Storybooks, please provide as much detailed, specific feedback as possible! It's nice to get compliments, but it is also really good to get feedback about what things could be improved, especially now, early in the semester. So, do not hesitate to say when something is confusing, or when something seems repetitious, or if you think something is important is missing. Every semester, students tell me that they wish they had received more detailed feedback on their Storybooks, rather than just generic compliments. So, try to be a really careful and attentive reader of each Storybook you visit, providing detailed, useful feedback in your comments, describing your own specific, personal experience as you read the Storybook.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned an assignment in on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday, your assignment is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Friday at noon is the deadline if you want to get comments back from me about your Storybook before the weekend.

Thursday Events on Campus. Tonight and over the weekend, there will be one more round of University Theater performances of William McNulty's dramatic adaption of Bram Stoker's Dracula; for more information, see the article in the OU Daily (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 29 2011: Rosh Hashanah. Today is the first day of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah (which means "Head-of-the-Year" or "Top-of-the-Year"). Like many religious holidays, this one is based on the lunar calendar, so it falls on a different day each year, depending on the cycle of moon. According to Jewish tradition, this is the day of the year on which God created Adam, and it is also the day of the year on which the Last Judgment will take place. One of the rituals on Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the shofar, the ram's horn, to awaken the faithful before that coming judgment. You can read more about the holiday at Wikipedia, and below you can see the blowing of the shofar as shown here in an illuminated Hebrew manuscript:

Wednesday, September 28

2011-09-28T01:01:00.002-04:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 6 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 5 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Yahoo Email Users. For those of you who have your OU email forwarded to a Yahoo address, you may not be receiving your emails. For more information, see this post by our D2L administrator. It's fine with me if you want to have your OU email forwarded and I will always reply to whatever email address you write to me from - but you should be aware that sometimes Yahoo and Hotmail do block OU emails; I've never heard of this problem with other email addresses, but it does sometimes happen with Yahoo and Hotmail.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment before 8PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, your assignment is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. You can check to make sure your assignment is in the stack; here are the contents of the stack.

Week 6 Internet assignment. If you did not read yesterday's announcement about the Week 6 Internet assignment (reading and commenting on Storybook Introductions), please make sure to take a look at that - the assignment is available now!

Wednesday Events on Campus. There will be a noon-time "Celebrity Read" with stories and poems from the NSK Neustadt prize-winning children's books as read by James Tyree, Mike Hosty, Molly Griffis, Marilyn Hudson, Clarke Stroud, and Kellie Coffey - join an audience of 200 fourth and fifth grade kids in the Union Courtyard from 11:30AM-1PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 28: Confucius. September 28 is a day traditionally assigned to the birthday of the Chinese philosopher Confucius in the year 551 BCE. You can read about Confucius in this Wikipedia article, and also in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy online. Confucius's philosophy was already famous in Europe in the 17th century, as you can see from this Latin edition of his works published in 1687 (click here for a larger view; if you are a student of Latin, you might see how much of the text you can understand). Happy birthday, Confucius!

Tuesday, September 27

2011-09-27T01:01:00.002-04:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 6 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 6 is on top. This week's topic is the Middle East in Myth-Folklore, and in Indian Epics, Hanuman is on his way to Lanka! If you have not turned in your Week 5 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 6 Internet assignment available NOW. Now that Week 6 has begun, the Week 6 Internet assignment is also available. You will be reading and commenting on four different Introductions this week. You'll find detailed instructions at the Internet assignment page - that assignment is ready to go now, and will be available all week.

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. If you turned something in on Friday or Saturday before 10AM, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Saturday or on Sunday or Monday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. It is really important that you check to make sure your assignment is in the stack. Every week, it seems that at least one email is mysteriously gobbled up by the OU email system - and the sooner you can let me know about that, the better!

D2L Quiz Problems. Around noon on Monday, D2L had the same quiz problems as before, where the quiz did not display and there was only an error message. My apologies for this: we have never had these kinds of problems with D2L before; I can just hope it does not happen again. Thanks to the folks who wrote in about this! A big part of the problem is that the folks in IT do not know there is a problem until someone reports it. The problem has been fixed now, but if it happens again, please let me know!

Tuesday Events. This year's Neustadt Festival of International Literature opens with a public poetry reading by Oklahoma poets Dorothy Alexander, Joey Brown, Nathan Brown, Ken Hada, Carol Hamilton, and Ben Myers. Festivities begin at 7:30PM at the Norman Train Depot, 200 S. Jones Street. Wine and snacks will be served - plus a champagne toast for those who arrive at 7:30PM to open the Festival! (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 27: Rosetta Stone. On this day in the year 1822, Jean-François Champollion announced that he had deciphered the Rosetta stone, a crucial step in the interpretation of the ancient Egyptian writing system which was based on hieroglyphs. So, if you keep seeing ads for "Rosetta Stone" language-learning software, you might be interested in reading about the history of the real Rosetta Stone itself! You can find out more in this Wikipedia article, and below you can see a picture of the actual Rosetta Stone itself in the British Museum:

Monday, September 26

2011-09-26T01:01:00.001-04:00

Today is Monday, and Week 5 of the class is now over - and that means you have completed one-third of the semester. Wow! Week 6 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday.\

D2L QUIZ PROBLEMS. Around noon on Monday (of course!), D2L had the same quiz problems as before, where you the quiz will not display and you get an error message. As before, it is not clear how many quizzes were affected or how many people got the error - I've been assured they are in the process of fixing it right now (Monday afternoon), but if you run into quiz problems that prevent you from completing an assignment on time, let me know and I'll record the points manually. My apologies for all this: we have never had these kinds of problems with D2L before, but we are running a new version this Fall - hence the bugs. Thanks to the folks who wrote in about this; a big part of the problem is that they do not know there is a problem until someone reports it!

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 9 a.m. or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in, beginning with the assignments turned in on Friday afternoon or on Saturday. You need to wait on my comments to any Storybook assignment you have in the stack before going on to the next assignment - so, if you want comments earlier rather than later, turn your assignment in on Friday or Saturday instead of waiting until Sunday. Usually around 60 people or so turn their assignments in on Sunday, so it takes me a while to get through them all!

Tech Tip Emails. This week I should have time to reply to the big pile of Tech Tip emails that has accumulated over the past two weeks. It often takes me a week or two to get around to replying to those emails, but please don't let that hold you back - you can keep on doing Tech Tips for Week 6 and 7 and 8 and all the way through Week 15 if you want; you don't need to wait for a reply from me before going on to do another tip.

Monday Events on Campus. A free Flute Recital by DuoSolo - Michael & Mary Kirkendoll - at 8PM in the Pitman Recital Hall, Catlett Music Center (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 26: Vladimir Voinovich. Today is the birthday of one of my favorite Soviet-era writers, Vladimir Voinovich, who was born in 1932. His satirical novel, The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, is kind of like a Soviet Catch-22, but even sharper and funnier, in my opinion. You can read about the book in this Wikipedia article - and yes, the book is available in English translation, too!

(image source)

Friday, September 23 - Sunday, September 25

2011-09-23T01:00:00.000-04:00

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 5! The Week 5 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and so is the Week 5 Internet assignment (Storybook Coverpage commenting). Please make sure you get started on those assignments soon; they are due today or over the weekend.

Storybook Stack. If you turned in a Week 4 Storybook assignment on time, you should have gotten comments back from me now, with points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned in a late Week 4 Storybook, or an early Storybook for Week 5 or Week 6, it is probably still in the stack (anything turned in after noon on Friday goes into the stack for Monday). Because the Introduction is often the hardest part of the Storybook for people to write, this is the week where it takes me the longest to read and reply to everybody's assignments... so, if I don't manage to finish everything in the stack on Friday, I will get comments back to you on Saturday at the latest.

GoogleSites Tips. For the Week 5 Storybook assignment, you will be publishing your Introduction at your Storybook website. Here are some tips you might want to look at as you continue to work on the layout and design of your site: image size and placement - design templates - site navigation - site title and page titles. Also, please review the information on adding a new page - ESPECIALLY the part in bold red about making your new page a "top level" page; if you don't do that, you'll end up with a subpage which might give you all kinds of grief in the future!

Internet assignment - Ning Comment Wall. If you did not read the previous announcement about the Week 5 Internet assignment and the Ning Comment Walls, make sure you take a look at those announcements now - and you can even get extra credit for making your Comment Wall ready for visitors, both by making some more room on your Ning page, and also by adding a YouTube video to your page if you want, just for fun!

Friday Events on Campus. On Friday night and over the weekend, there will be University Theater performances of William McNulty's dramatic adaption of Bram Stoker's Dracula - with performances next week also; for more information, see the article in the OU Daily (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 23: Autumnal equinox. Today, September 23, marks the autumnal equinox, when the day and night are of equal length, as the days are getting shorter. You can read about the astronomical details of the equinox at Wikipedia, and in the Wiccan "Wheel of the Year," the fall equinox is celebrated as the holiday of Mabon (if you are somewhere in the southern hemisphere, it is the spring holiday of Ostara). You can see here where the equinox takes its place on the wheel with its eight holidays:

Thursday, September 22

2011-09-22T01:01:00.001-04:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 5 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 4 Storybook assignment yet, you have until noon today to turn that in for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

GoogleSites Tips. For the Week 5 Storybook assignment, you will be publishing your Introduction at your Storybook website. Here are some tips you might want to look at as you continue to work on the layout and design of your site: image size and placement - design templates - site navigation - site title and page titles. Also, please review the information on adding a new page - ESPECIALLY the part in bold red about making your new page a "top level" page; if you don't do that, you'll end up with a subpage which might give you all kinds of grief in the future!

Internet assignment - Ning Comment Wall. If you did not read the previous announcement about the Week 5 Internet assignment and the Ning Comment Walls, make sure you take a look at those announcements now - and you can even get extra credit for making your Comment Wall ready for visitors, both by making some more room on your Ning page, and also by adding a YouTube video to your page if you want, just for fun!

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the very large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it - you can check to make sure I have your assignment by looking at the contents of the stack here. I will do my best to respond to everything in stack before the weekend, but this week is the busiest of the whole semester for me (the Introduction is the hardest part of the Storybook to write), which can mean I might end up doing schoolwork on Saturday - we'll see how it works out this semester! If you turned something in on time, I promise to get it back before the weekend; I might not get to the assignments turned in late until Saturday.

Thursday Events on Campus. Normally I list an event on campus but there is literally no event to list for Thursday, because not enough departments and groups are using the Calendar... which is really a shame: you know on a campus like OU there must be something happening on Thursday! So, if you are a member of a student group of any kind, make sure you use the Calendar to publicize events and tell people you know in other groups to do that, too. You can use this Calendar Event form to get an event listed - it's easy, and it's such a good way to share the news about what's going on anywhere on campus.

September 22: Billie Piper. Today marks the birthday of Billie Piper, a British actress and musician best known for her role as "Rose," traveling companion of the Doctor in the Doctor Who series. Yes, I am a Doctor Who fan (okay... fanatic) and I have been watching the Doctor since before most of you were born, I imagine - in fact, Doctor Who dates back to before I was born: the first Doctor Who episode aired on November 23, 1963. So, happy birthday to Billie Piper! Here's a picture of her with my favorite Doctor, Christopher Eccleston:

Wednesday, September 21

2011-09-21T01:01:00.002-04:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 5 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 4 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Week 5 Internet assignment. If you did not read yesterday's announcements, make sure you take a look at them now, especially the information about the Week 5 Internet assignment. I hope you will have fun looking at other people's coverpages. Plus, you might get some ideas for things to try with your own coverpage, since of course you can keep modifying your coverpage all semester long.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment by Sunday at 7PM, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after 7PM on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Writing Center. For your Storybook assignments, you are expected to turn in a formal piece of writing, with correct English usage, spelling, and punctuation. If you would like some extra help with that, make a visit to the Writing Center. Whether you need a refresher course on English punctuation or just some help in learning how to proofread your own work, the Writing Center is the place to go! For hours and services, visit the Writing Center website. You can even get... waffles! See next announcement.

Wednesday Events on Campus. The first Waffles for Writers event will take place at the Writing Center, 9AM-Noon in 280 Wagner Hall - drop by for a waffle and work with a writing consultant all at the same time (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 21: Milk miracle. In 1995, on September 21, there was what many people regard as a modern miracle: statues of the Hindu god Ganesha, as well as the statues of other gods and goddesses, appeared to be imbibing milk which was offered to them. You can read about the event in this Wikipedia article, and you can see a milk offering in this BBC video. The image below is from a British newspaper, the Sun, and you can find other newspaper headlines archived at the MilkMiracle.com website which documents the event.

Tuesday, September 20

2011-09-20T01:01:00.002-04:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 5 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 5 is on top. This week's topic in the Myth-Folklore class is Rome, and in Indian Epics Rama is about to begin his exile from Ayodhya. The Week 5 Internet assignment is available starting today! If you have not turned in your Week 4 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 5 Internet assignment available NOW. For the next eight weeks (Week 5 through Week 12), your Internet assignment will consist of reading people's Storybooks and leaving comments for them. This is an assignment that you cannot do early - but on the first day of each new week in the class, that is, on Tuesday, the Internet assignment becomes available, and you have the rest of the week to complete it. So, today, Tuesday, is the first day of Week 5, and the Internet assignment for Week 5 is available through the rest of the week and weekend. I hope you will enjoy looking at other people's coverpages and giving them some feedback!

The Ning Comment Wall. People will be leaving comments about your Storybook at the Ning Comment Wall which is part of your Profile page. In order to get your Profile page ready, I would strongly suggest that you make the latest activity and blog activity invisible, so that there will be more room on your Profile page for the Comment Wall. There is a Technology Tip for cleaning up your Ning Profile in order to make room for all the activity that will now start happening at your Comment Wall.

Storybook Stack. The Storybook stack is HUGE this week. If you turned in an assignment on Saturday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Sunday or Monday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. A word of warning: based on previous semesters, I can tell you that this is the single busiest week of the semester for me. I promise that if you turned it your assignment in on time, I will get comments back to you on or before Friday. If you turned something in on Monday or later, you may not get comments back from me until this coming Saturday, depending on how the week goes - but I will get comments back to you by the very latest on Saturday.

Tuesday Events on Campus. There will be a seminar on Time Management from 3:30-4:30PM in Wagner Hall 245 (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 20: Jay Ward. Today marks the birthday of Jay Ward, the great American cartoonist, who was born on this day in 1920 and who died in 1989. He was the producer of the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show, which also included Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman as well as Dudley Do-Right. These are all cartoons that I grew up with and which I still love to watch. Here's a DVD cover showing Mr. Peabody and Sherman (image source), which was always my favorite part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show:

Monday, September 19

2011-09-19T01:01:00.004-04:00

Today is Monday. Week 4 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 5 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started!

You really can call me Laura! Some of you still seem to feel like you need to call me Professor or Dr. or something like that. No need for that, really! (Plus, since I am just an instructor and not a professor, I don't want to get in trouble with the professor police, ha ha.) Since I'm on a first-name basis with all of you, please do the same and just call me Laura.

My weekend. In addition to celebrating the big win on Saturday (a bit more nerve-racking than I expected...!), I got a chance to write up something on a topic of great interest to me - the Internet and Aesop. So, if you're curious what I do in my not-very-copious spare time, here's what I was up to: Sir Roger L'Estrange, Aesop, and the Public Sphere. :-)

Storybook Coverpages. I'll be updating the list of Storybook websites for Myth-Folklore and Indian Epics on Monday afternoon when people have finished turning in their Week 4 coverpages. You can continue to experiment with your coverpage design all semester long, of course - just make sure the address of the page stays the same. Everybody in class will be using the link you have sent me to access your Storybook for the rest of the semester. Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, for the Week 5 Internet assignment you will be looking at and commenting on each other's Storybooks via the class list. I'll have more to say about that in tomorrow's announcements!

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. You can then check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and reply to the assignments in the order they were turned in. If you turned in your assignment on Sunday or later, you may have to wait a few days before you will get comments back from me. In fact, this is one of the busiest weeks for me in terms of replies to Storybooks, so if you are turning in a late assignment, the sooner you can do that, the better!

Monday Events on Campus. Fred Jones Jr. Art Center has a showing of art by incoming graduate students in the Lightwell Gallery through the rest of this week. (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 19: Talk Like a Pirate. Today, September 19, is International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day, a holiday you can read about at Wikipedia and at the Talk-Like-a-Pirate website. In honor of this holiday, you can even change your Google interface to be in "pirate lingo" - it's a Tech Tip! If you need help talking like a pirate, there are some good tips at the Yarr website. There is a translation tool you can use if you want some extra help. Below is an image of Mark Summers ("Cap'n Slappy") and John Baur ("Ol' Chumbucket"), founders of Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day.

Friday, September 16 - Sunday, September 18

2011-09-16T01:01:00.001-04:00

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 4! The Week 4 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 4 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon!

RESPONDING GROUPS. This week I did a big reshuffling of the blog responding groups. The groups are random, but hopefully you will have at least one new person in your group. I sometimes adjust the groups from week to week, but every few weeks I do a big reshuffle like this. If somehow I've accidentally left anybody off the list, please let me know right away!

Storybook Stack. On Friday morning, I still had a few Storybooks left in the stack. I will do my very best to finish reading and responding to every Storybook assignment in the stack that gets turned in before Friday at noon (contents of the stack). I don't do any grading over the weekend, so if you turn something in after noon on Friday, it will go into the stack. I'll start working through the stack first thing on Monday morning, in order. If you want to get comments sooner from me, turn in your assignment earlier - the huge majority of people turn in their assignments on Sunday, and it sometimes takes me several days to reply to all of those. If you want comments back sooner, turn your assignment in on Friday or Saturday, not on Sunday or Monday.

Writing Center and Grammar Review. (repeat announcement) As you start working on your Storybook Introduction this week, and for all your future Storybook assignments, you are expected to turn in a formal piece of writing, with correct English grammar, spelling, and punctuation. If you would like some extra help with that, make a visit to the Writing Center where you can get free assistance. For hours and services, see the Writing Center website. You can also work on specific problem areas by using the Proofreading Practice stories online, with answer keys. Not sure if you need practice? Look back at your Stonecutter story results from Week 1 - if you had trouble with that proofreading exercise, make sure you do some review before you turn in the Week 4 Storybook Introduction.

Week 4 Internet: Coverpages. (repeat announcement) For your Internet assignment this week, you will be publishing a Coverpage for your Storybook. If you are using Google Sites, this means you will create a NEW SITE, and the homepage for that new site will be your Coverpage. I hope you will enjoy creating a website for your Storybook! To get some ideas, you can visit these previous Storybooks that were created with GoogleSites last year in Myth-Folklore and in Indian Epics, and you can also take a look at this semester's new projects: Myth-Folklore Storybooks and Indian Epics Storybooks.

Friday Events. Lee Green, from OU's Religious Studies program, will present a public lecture - From Pacifist to Warrior-Christ: Jesus in Medieval Imagination - at the Norman Public Library (225 N. Webster), on Friday at 6:30PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.

Photographs from Kenya. A student in the Myth-Folklore class, Kendall Brown, has her photographs from Kenya on display at the Norman Firehouse Art Center (444 S. Flood Ave.). You can drop by and see the exhibit through October 29; the gallery is open to the public M-F 9:30AM-5:30PM and Saturday 10AM-4PM. If you want to get in touch with Kendall, you can contact her via her Ning profile page for the class or at the Firehouse's Recourse for Discourse Facebook page. Here is one of her photographs: Ere kama aluwo kadhi Polo kaa ka? How do I get to Heaven from here?

Thursday, September 15

2011-09-15T01:01:00.002-04:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 4 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 3 Storybook assignment yet, you have UNTIL NOON TODAY to turn that in for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment on or before Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. I should be able to get through the remaining items in the stack by the end of the week. If you want comments back from me on a Storybook assignment, make sure you turn that in by Friday at noon. If you turn something in before noon on Friday, I will do my best to get comments back to you before the weekend!

Writing Center and Grammar Review. As you start working on your Storybook Introduction this week, and for all your future Storybook assignments, you are expected to turn in a formal piece of writing, with correct English grammar, spelling, and punctuation. If you would like some extra help with that, make a visit to the Writing Center where you can get free assistance. For hours and services, see the Writing Center website. You can also work on specific problem areas by using the Proofreading Practice stories online, with answer keys. Not sure if you need practice? Look back at your Stonecutter story results from Week 1 - if you had trouble with that proofreading exercise, make sure you do some review before you turn in the Week 4 Storybook Introduction.

Week 4 Internet: Coverpages. (repeat announcement) For your Internet assignment this week, you will be publishing a Coverpage for your Storybook. If you are using Google Sites, this means you will create a NEW SITE, and the homepage for that new site will be your Coverpage. I hope you will enjoy creating a website for your Storybook! To get some ideas, you can visit these previous Storybooks that were created with GoogleSites last year in Myth-Folklore and in Indian Epics, and you can also take a look at this semester's new projects: Myth-Folklore Storybooks and Indian Epics Storybooks.

Thursday Events on Campus. There is a Student Success seminar that might be of real interest to everybody with a lot of reading to do this semester: Improving Reading Speed with Adequate Comprehension, Wagner Hall 245, Thursday, 5PM-6PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 15: Marco Polo. Today, September 15, marks the birthday of the great Italian explorer Marco Polo in the year 1254. Marco Polo together with his father and his uncle were among the first Europeans to travel and live in China (Marco spent almost 20 years in China). After he returned to Europe in 1295, Marco Polo wrote a marvelous account of his travels, part fact and part fiction, which is known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo (Il Milione in Italian). You can read more about Marco Polo in the detailed article at Wikipedia, which is also the source for this image, showing an illuminated manuscript of Marco Polo's famous account of his travels:

Wednesday, September 14

2011-09-14T01:01:00.003-04:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 4 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 3 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Storybook comments. Please make sure you look for my comments in the emails I send back to you; in addition to comments at the top of the email, there are comments marked with ==> in the body of the email. Please read through all the comments in the email and if you have any questions, ask! You should save these emails, too, since you will be working on the Storybook all semester and you might need to look back at a past email to get some information to help you with a later Storybook assignment.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment on or before Sunday at 10PM, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after 10PM on Sunday or on Monday or on Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. I reply to the assignments in the order that they are turned in, so if you want comments back earlier, try to turn your Storybook in before Sunday; each time you turn in a Storybook assignment, you will need to wait on comments back from me before you go on to the next Storybook assignment.

Week 4 Internet: Coverpages. (repeat announcement) For your Internet assignment this week, you will be publishing a Coverpage for your Storybook. If you are using Google Sites, this means you will create a NEW SITE, and the homepage for that new site will be your Coverpage. I hope you will enjoy creating a website for your Storybook! To get some ideas, you can visit these previous Storybooks that were created with GoogleSites last year in Myth-Folklore and in Indian Epics, and you can also take a look at this semester's new projects: Myth-Folklore Storybooks and Indian Epics Storybooks.

Wednesday Events on Campus. Dr. Zoe Sherinian will be presenting her documentary film This Is A Music: Reclaiming An Untouchable Drum, which is about a group of outcaste (untouchable) drummers from rural India. See the film at 5PM on Wednesday in Pitman Recital Hall, Catlett Music Center (time/location/details). Below is a trailer for the movie from YouTube!

Tuesday, September 13

2011-09-13T01:01:00.001-04:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 4 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 4 is on top. This week's topic is ancient Greece in Myth-Folklore and a new version of the Ramayana in Indian Epics. If you have not turned in your Week 3 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment on or before Sunday at noon, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after noon on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Week 4 Internet: Coverpages. For your Internet assignment in Week 4, you will be publishing a Coverpage for your Storybook. If you are using Google Sites, this means you will create a NEW SITE, and the homepage for that new site will be your Coverpage. I hope you will enjoy creating a website for your Storybook. To get some ideas, you can visit these previous Storybooks that were created with GoogleSites last year in Myth-Folklore and in Indian Epics, and you can also take a look at this semester's new projects (see next announcement).

Storybook Coverpages published! There are already some people who have published their Storybook Coverpages - please feel free to take a look! (those of you who have published your coverpages, you can let me know if the title I have listed here looks good to you, or if you prefer something different): Myth-Folklore Storybooks and Indian Epics Storybooks. Congratulations to the people who are ahead of schedule on their Storybooks! This list was updated at noon on Monday; I'll keep adding new Storybooks to the list as people turn in their Week 4 Internet assignments.

Tech Tip Emails. I finally got a chance to reply to the big pile of Tech Tip emails that had accumulated over the past week, so if you sent me a Tech Tip email, you should now have gotten a reply. It often takes me a week or two to get around to replying to those emails, but please don't let that hold you back - you can keep on doing Tech Tips for Week 4 and 5 and 6 and all the way through Week 15 if you want; you don't need to wait for a reply from me before going on to do another tip.

Tuesday Events on Campus. There will be a Blood Drive on Tuesday from 1:30PM to 6PM in the Gothic Hall of Catlett Music Center. Donors will receive an OU Bedlam blood donor T-shirt and a free health screening (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 13: The Ides of September. In the Roman calendar, September 13 marked the Ides of September. You can read about the fascinating Roman calendar system in this Wikipedia article; you can even get a Google Calendar with the Roman day of the month listing each day if you are into that kind of thing! On the Ides of September, Roman tradition tells us that the Roman temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill was dedicated in the year 506 B.C.E. The temple has long since been destroyed, but those of you who have been to Rome have probably been to the Capitoline Hill, the Piazza del Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo:

Monday, September 12

2011-09-12T01:01:00.001-04:00

Today is Monday, and Week 3 of the class is now over. That means the semester is 20% over already - wow! Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

Working ahead. Monday is a great day to work ahead! You do not have any assignments due on Monday, which means you can use this as a chance to get a head start on the Week 4 assignments that will be due later this week. In addition, the assignments for future weeks are available to you now, too. For some of you, midterms will be starting in your classes next week or the week after - so, if you get ahead in this class now, you can take a week off here when the midterms arrive in your other classes.

Week 5 Internet assignment. For those of you who are working ahead, you will note that the Week 5 Internet assignment is not available yet; you'll need to wait on that assignment until everybody has gotten their Storybook coverpages published online, which will be happening later this week! During Weeks 5-12, the Internet assignment will be available on the first day of each week (Tuesday) and you will have all week to complete it. I'll make more information available about all that next Monday, September 19.

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a HUGE bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 9AM or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will then start reading the assignments in the order they were turned in. Please DO NOT go on to the Week 4 Storybook assignment until you get Week 3 comments back from me (and the same is true for those of you who have turned in Week 4 assignments already - please do not go on to the Week 5 Storybook assignment until you get my Week 4 comments).

Late Storybook assignments. Each week, the Storybook assignment is the only assignment that can be turned in late for partial credit. Since I cannot get all the Storybooks graded and returned immediately, it is fine with me if you turn in the Storybook late. A Storybook assignment turned in on Monday after noon can receive up to 8 points credit; if it is turned in on Tuesday, you can get up to 7 points of credit; on Wednesday, 6 points of credit; the absolute deadline for turning in your Storybook assignment for partial credit is noon on Thursday, when you can get up to 5 points of partial credit. So, if you were not able to turn your Storybook in over the weekend, the sooner you can turn that in late, the better.

Monday Events on Campus. Dr. Nicole Campbell will present a workshop on "The Psychology of Student Success" on Monday, 4PM-5PM in Wagner Hall 245 (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 12: Lascaux caves. September 12 marks the anniversary of the discovery in 1940 of the amazing prehistoric cave paintings found at Lascaux in France. The cave walls were decorated with upwards of two thousand images, including hundreds of animals. You can read more about the Lascaux cave paintings in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for the image shown below. The paintings are estimated to date to approximately 16,000 years ago, during what used to be called the "Stone Age" (Upper Paleolithic, a period of human culture that lasted from around 40,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE). As you can see, the paintings are truly beautiful and very dramatic... although, without recorded language, we will never know just what stories the paintings commemorate.

Friday, September 9 - Sunday, Sepember 11

2011-09-09T01:01:00.006-04:00

HAPPY WEEKEND! This is the end of Week 3. The Week 3 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 3 assignments are due on Friday or, if you prefer, on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. Also, if you have not kept up with the announcements during the week, please take a minute to look at the announcements you missed; here are all the announcements for the past week.

This Semester's Storybooks Online! Some people who have been working ahead already have their Storybooks online, and a couple of people have already published their introductions - one person even has her first story up: wow! To see this semester's growing list of Storybooks, visit the Myth-Folklore Storybooks page and the Indian Epics Storybook page and take a look.

Proofreading Practice. Remember the story about the stonecutter back in Week 1? For some of you the proofreading was pretty easy, but for some of you there were definitely some topics you needed to review and practice. In order to give you some self-guided proofreading practice, I've put up five short little stories that are like the Week 1 proofreading exercise, and this time they have answer keys so that you can check your work. I hope you will find these little exercises helpful as you get ready to do the first real writing for your Storybook in Week 4; here are the Proofreading Practice Stories. Let me know what you think! Almost everybody needs at least some help with proofreading and I hope that these stories can provide some useful practice.

Week 3 Responding. The Week 3 Responding assignment is now available! For the Responding assignment, you should be looking for the Week 3 essay and story - which means you may need to scroll down, because some people are working ahead. So, if you do not find somebody's Week 3 blog posts at the top of their blog, just scroll on down until you find what you are looking for. For more information about what to do if someone does not have the posts you are looking for, see the instructions for the assignment.

Storybook Stack. On Friday, I hope to be able to finish reading and responding to every Storybook assignment in the stack turned in before Friday at noon (contents of the stack). I don't do any grading over the weekend, which means that if you turn something in after noon on Friday, it will go into the stack. I'll start working through the stack first thing on Monday morning, in the order received. If you want comments back next week sooner rather than later, don't wait until Sunday to turn in your assignment! The earlier you turn in the assignment, the sooner you will get comments back.

Friday Events on Campus. As announced in the OU Daily, philosopher John Corvino (check out his blog) will present a public lecture on "The Definition of Marriage," sponsored by the Philosophy department, at 4PM in Dale Hall 112 (time/location/details; the event was originally scheduled for 3:30, but has been rescheduled to 4PM in a bigger room). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 9: Pieter Bruegel. Today, September 9, marks the anniversary of the death of the great Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who died in 1569. Bruegel is famous for his painting of the Tower of Babel - which may be of interest to those of you in the Myth-Folklore class this week who chose to do the readings from the Book of Genesis. You can read more about Bruegel's life in this Wikipedia article, and you can also read an article there about his painting of the Tower of Babel (1563). For a larger view of the image, click here:

Thursday, September 8

2011-09-08T01:01:00.004-04:00

Today is Thursday of WEEK 3 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 2 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit until noon today. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

D2L ERRORS AGAIN... PROBLEM FIXED. Michelle Davis, the super lady who runs D2L for us, says the quiz problem has been fixed. Fingers crossed!!! So, you should not be getting error messages - and if you do get an error message, please send me an email and let me know which quiz is causing problems. MY APOLOGIES: we have never had so much trouble with D2L as this semester. Thanks to those of you who wrote in to let me know about this!

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in a Storybook assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me. If you turned in something on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, it is probably still in the stack (contents of the stack). Please check to make sure!

Week 3 Read and Respond assignment. The Week 3 blog commenting assignment is not available yet; it will be available starting on Friday. The blog commenting assignment is the only assignment you cannot complete early, because people will still be adding posts to their blog today, Thursday. So please wait until midnight tonight when people should have finished their Week 3 blog posts, and then on Friday (starting tonight at midnight if you want), you can do the Read and Respond assignment.

Thursday Events on Campus. Another Union Week activity: Breathe Electric free concernt on Thursday, 8PM, on the East Lawn of the Union (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 8: Star Trek begins. Yes, today is a great day in the history of television - it marks the broadcast of the first episode of the original Star Trek series in 1966 (yes, 45 years ago!); the original series then ran for three seasons until June 3, 1969. My devotion to Star Trek began in 1972, when the show was in reruns and I was able to watch every afternoon when I came home from school (I was in third grade). I have never lost my love of that show and I can shamelessly confess to owning the complete original series on DVD. For those of you with Netflix instant streaming, you can watch the original series there. I watched all the episodes of the original series this summer, and it was a lot of fun!

Wednesday, September 7

2011-09-07T01:01:00.003-04:00

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 3 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 2 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

D2L ERRORS AGAIN... PROBLEM FIXED. Michelle Davis, the super lady who runs D2L for us, says the quiz problem has been fixed. Fingers crossed!!! So, you should not be getting error messages - and if you do get an error message, please send me an email and let me know which quiz is causing problems. MY APOLOGIES: we have never had so much trouble with D2L as this semester. Thanks to those of you who wrote in to let me know about this!

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the enormous stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment on Friday afternoon or on Saturday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. It usually takes me most of the week to return all the Storybook assignments. The sooner you turn the assignment turned in, the sooner you will get comments back.

Tech Tips emails. Quite a few people sent in Tech Tip emails over the weekend, which is great! Please feel free to work ahead on those extra credit tips now, since some of them can be really useful for the rest of the semester. I'll reply to all those emails, but not until I get through the Storybook stack. You don't need to wait on my reply before you do the Declaration; as long as you have sent me the email as instructed, that's great - you can go ahead and do the Declaration without waiting on a reply from me.

Internet Assignment emails. (repeat announcement) I will be replying to your Week 2 Internet assignment emails, but you don't have to wait on my reply before you go on to the Week 3 Internet assignment. So, please feel free to do that at your convenience; you don't need to wait on my reply to your Week 2 practice website in order to complete the Week 3 Internet assignment.

Wednesday Events on Campus. As part of Union Week, there will be Putt-4-Parking at 11:30AM in the first floor Lobby of the Union - you can win free parking in the Union Garage! (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

September 7: The Tasmanian Tiger. Today, September 7, marks the sad day in 1936 when the last of the Tasmanian tigers died in the Hobart Zoo on the island of Tasmania. You can read more about Tasmanian tigers in this Wikipedia article. The Tasmanian tigers were the largest carnivorous marsupials of modern times. In the 19th century, private companies and the Tasmanian government paid a bounty for dead tigers and their pups. As a result, the Tasmanian tiger was virtually extinct in the wild by the 1920s - although there are still rumors and reports of sightings of Tasmanian tigers even today. The date September 7 has been designated as National Threatened Species Day in Australia, commemorating the death of the last Tasmanian tiger in captivity. The YouTube video below below shows rare footage, filmed in 1933, of the last Tasmanian tiger; the painting below is from a 19th-century catalog of Australian wildlife:

Tuesday, September 6

2011-09-06T01:01:00.001-04:00

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 3 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 3 is on top. In Indian Epics, this week you will be finishing up Narayan's Ramayana, and in Myth-Folklore, it's the Hebrew Bible, with a choice between the stories of Noah and Babel, or the stories of Samson and Daniel. If you have not turned in your Week 2 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. (See note about that below.)

Storybook Stack. First thing on Tuesday morning, I will update the stack of Storybooks that people have turned in over the long weekend, and I will be responding to them in the order that they were turned in. To check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. For the Storybook assignments, you need to wait until you get comments back from me before you go on to the next Storybook assignment - but of course you can do the other assignments in the class - so definitely keep on going! I'll get back to you as soon as I can with the Storybook comments; given this four-day week, it will probably take me until Friday or maybe even Saturday morning to get through all the Storybooks in the stack. Meanwhile, please take a minute to check and make sure I have your assignment in the stack! Thanks!

Late Storybooks. Each week, the Storybook assignment is the only assignment that can be turned in late for partial credit. Since I cannot get all the Storybooks graded and returned immediately, it is fine with me if you turn in the Storybook late. If you want full credit (10 points) you must turn the Storybook assignment in over the weekend (or during the Monday morning grace period). If you turn it in late, you can receive partial credit, as follows: turn it in on Monday after noon and you can receive up to 8 points credit; on Tuesday, you can receive up to 7 points of credit; on Wednesday you can receive up to 6 points of credit. If you turn the Storybook assignment in on Thursday before noon, you can receive up to 5 points of credit. No late Storybook assignments will be accepted after noon on Thursday.

Internet Assignment emails. I will be replying to your Week 2 Internet assignment emails, but you don't have to wait on my reply before you go on to the Week 3 Internet assignment. So, please feel free to do that at your convenience; you don't need to wait on my reply to your Week 2 practice website in order to complete the Week 3 Internet assignment.

Tech Tip emails. Until I get through the Storybook stack, I won't be responding to all the Tech Tip emails people sent in over the weekend, but I'll get to that later in the week or next week. Meanwhile, please feel free to go ahead and do more Tech Tips if you want. You certainly don't need to wait on my reply to your latest Tech Tip email for you to go ahead and do more of them!

Tuesday Events on Campus. As part of Union Week, you can see the Norman Magic Experience - "interactive and extreme magic experience from master magician Norman Ng" - on Tuesday evening at 8PM in the Union Food Court (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

Tuesday, September 6: Birthday of Robert Pirsig. September 6, marks the birthday of Robert Pirsig, who was born in 1928 and who is still with us today: Happy birthday, Robert Pirsig! Pirsig is the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I first read this book when I was 16 years old and I've read it again pretty much every year or every other year since then - let's say twenty times or so. This is the only book I don't think I will ever catch up with - every time I come back to it, it seems a little more far out, in the best sense of that phrase, and I keep running right on after it, learning new things every time. The novel itself is about a motorcycle journey that Pirsig took across the country in 1968 together with his young son, Chris - here's a picture from the trip showing the two of them on the bike; you can learn more about Pirsig in this Wikipedia article.

Friday, September 2 - Monday, September 5

2011-09-02T01:01:00.003-04:00

HAPPY HOLIDAY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 2. The Week 2 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 2 assignments are due now also, on Friday - or over the weekend if you prefer, on Saturday or Sunday (with the usual Monday morning grace period).

LABOR DAY. Because Monday is a holiday, there will be no new announcements on Monday. The next announcements will be on Tuesday, September 6. Because you do not have any assignments due on Monday, there is no change in the class schedule for this holiday. If you are planning to take off for the three-day weekend, make sure you finish all the Week 2 assignments today, Friday! If you choose not to finish those assignments on Friday, you can finish them over the weekend, on Saturday or Sunday; the grace period on Monday still applies as usual.

Week 2 Read and Respond (blog comment) assignment. The Week 2 blog commenting assignment is available now! Make sure you check your groups; most of you are in the same group as last time, but I have made a few changes based on add/drops. You can complete that assignment today, Friday, or on Saturday or Sunday if you prefer; the usual Monday morning grace period applies.

Storybook assignments. If you want to receive comments from me about a Storybook assignment before the weekend, please turn it in before noon on Friday. I always do my best to read and reply on Friday afternoon to all the assignments turned in before noon. If you turn in an assignment after noon Friday or over the holiday weekend, I'll be updating the list again on TUESDAY, after the Monday holiday. So, on Tuesday morning, you can check the list of assignments in the Stack and you'll be able to make sure I received your assignment; I'll then start reading through the assignments in the order received to send you back comments. Please do NOT go on to the next Storybook assignment until you get comments back from me about the assignment you have turned in. I reply to the Storybooks in the order they are turned in, so the earlier you turn in your assignment, the sooner you will get back comments and be able to move on to the next Storybook assignment!

Refund reminder: Friday is the last day for a refund. For those of you who are still deciding whether or not you want to stay in the class, Friday, September 2, is when you need to make that decision. You can still drop on Friday and get a full refund. After Friday, you can drop the class with an automatic W on your transcript, but the university will be keeping your money.

Friday Events on Campus. Free showing of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in the Union, Governors Room, at 6:30PM, and then at 9PM and then at midnight (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.

Friday, September 2: Death of J. R. R. Tolkien. Today, September 2, marks the death in 1973 of the great English author, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, who is best known for creating the marvelous fantasy world of Middle Earth, in which he set his novel The Hobbit and the trilogy known as Lord of the Rings. I first encountered Tolkien when my fourth-grade teacher read The Hobbit to us in class, and I spent all of junior high reading and re-reading The Lord of the Rings. You can read about Tolkien's life and career in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this drawing that shows Tolkien's own design for the covers of The Lord of the Rings trilogy: