Thursday, February 9

Today is Thursday of WEEK 4. There is nothing due today, which makes it the perfect day to get ahead and/or do some extra credit, especially if you are going to have a crunch time next week with midterms in other classes. Here is a link to this week's assignments.

Update: The Week 4 blog comment groups are ready to go now! :-)

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. If you turned something in before 5PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me; I'll keep working on through the stack in the order the assignments were turned in. Meanwhile, you can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment, and I should be able to reply to everyone by the end of the week.

You really can call me Laura! (repeat announcement) No need to be formal and call me Dr. Gibbs, and since I'm not a professor, that title is actually not correct (I'm an adjunct instructor, no tenure, no tenure-track). So, given that I'm on a first-name basis with all of you, please do the same and just call me Laura!

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Storytelling. I mentioned the #ColorOurCollections event going on this week at Twitter, and this free coloring book from OU's own History of Science Collections shows stories in the stars: Constellation Coloring Book.

Writing. I can definitely see some of my habits in this writing flowchart: Why I'm Not Getting Any Writing Done ... "browse around the web a while to warm up" — yep, that's me.

Spelling. Another tricky word pair that the spellchecker cannot help you with: ROLE versus ROLL.

Featured Storybook. This project is from the Myth-Folklore class: Adventure of Flight. King Zeus has set a challenge: who can find the secret of human flight? The attempt by Daedalus ends in tragedy, and things also do not turn out as planned for Perseus, so Zeus is ready to give up, when one more competitor arrives: Pegasus.

Free Book Online: Today's free book is The Kathakosha, or, Treasury of Stories translated from the Sanskrit by C. H. Tawney. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. This is a collection of stories from the Jain religious community of India, which you can read about at Wikipedia.

Words of Wisdom: Today's saying is It is not economical to go to bed early to save the candles if the result is twins (a Chinese proverb). Find out more at the Proverb Lab. This is a funny proverb about unintended consequences!

Video: The video for today is Google Translate Sings: The Beatles. There are more Google Translate videos at Malinda Reese's YouTube channel.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is making progress, step by step: Standing still is not growth. Take a step forward. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: The OU Humanities Forum is hosting a free performance this evening in Catlett: Hamilton: From Caribbean Obscurity to Broadway Sensation, including selections from the musical; the reception begins ta 6PM with the performance at 7PM (details at the OU Daily).

February 9: Paul Laurence Dunbar. Today marks the death in the year 1906 of the great African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dunbar was born a free man in Ohio in the year 1872; both of his parents had been slaves. You can read more about his life at Wikipedia, and you can find his poetry at the Lit2Go. I've also included a short video from the Paul Laurence Dunbar House, which is now a historic site in Dayton, Ohio.

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