Final Announcements for ... forever :-)

Well, people, here we are. The end of Spring semester. For many of you, the end of your OU undergraduate career: CONGRATULATIONS to all you graduating seniors! And, for me, retirement after a 22-year career at OU. I am hoping we are all going to have a beautiful summer, seeing what new adventures life brings next.


Some information about finishing up the class:

Check your blogs for comments. People have been leaving comments on blog posts and blog comment walls up until the last day of class, including Friday morning, so you might take a look at the comments on your blog to see if you find anything new.

Comments from me. I think I managed to comment on every Portfolio and Storybook story that people turned in, but last week was really hectic, so if you were expecting comments back from me and did not receive them, just let me know! (And my apologies if I did lose something in the last week shuffle; it was hectic for everybody, including me, ha ha.)

Reid's Survey. Some people have also been adding stories and other cool stuff to their projects here at the end, so if you had a favorite project, you might want to take a look and see if there is anything new (Myth-Folklore and Indian Epics). For example, Reid added this very cool survey to his Storybook site, so you can vote on which afterlife Atticus should choose! Here's a screenshot; if you read any of Atticus's afterlife adventures, maybe you will want to go vote:


Grades. I filed grades in the Banner System on Friday afternoon. Again, congratulations to everybody on your good work! I know this semester was a really hard one, and everybody can be proud of the work you did for this class.

Tiny Tales: contributions still open! I'm working on the microfiction anthology right now. On Saturday, I'll be adding in the story people gave me on Thursday and Friday, and I hope to finish editing on Sunday so I can publish the book on Monday (I'll send around an email to everybody when it's ready). That means if you want to send me your 100-word fiction(s) on Saturday, I can still include them! You might get some ideas from looking at the draft so far: book draft. Just send me an email with your contribution(s), plus the author credit you prefer: name, initials, pseudonym, or anonymous; all options are good.


Course Evaluations. The window is open at eval.ou.edu, and your feedback is really important, especially for the online course program. The only reason these online courses exist is because students find them valuable: your support for online courses matters! This is my last semester teaching at OU, but of course I hope the online course program will continue (I am a believer in the power of online courses), and if you want to see online courses offered in the future, this is a chance for you to share your thoughts about that.


And, last but not least, I want to express my appreciation to everybody for sticking with this class during yet another pandemic semester and doing such good work on all your projects and stories. I have had a wonderful last semester here, and it is all because of your generosity and creativity in your work: THANK YOU.

~ ~ ~

I thought you might enjoy this amazing video of Eric Whitacre's virtual choir, composed of thousands of voices singing together to tell a beautiful story of hope and change: Fly to Paradise.



And in the spirit of summer-coming-soon of course I have to share this Maati Baani - Vidya Vox video: Summer Love.


As always, see the
(I'll still be tweeting there even after I finish at OU)