Monday, March 20

Today is Monday. Week 8 and Spring Break are now over... and Week 9 has begun. The new week's topic in the Myth-Folklore class is Native American traditions, and in Indian Epics you have all kinds of readings (or videos) to choose from. You can find the week's assignments at the Class Calendar.

Update: The Week 9 Project Feedback groups are available now. :-)

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. I've been updating the project stack over the Break, and on Monday I'll start in on the assignments that were turned in last weekend, working through the assignments in the order they were turned in. There are a lot of new stories for me to read this week; I'm looking forward to seeing what you all have added to your projects as the second half of the semester gets underway! You can check the contents of the stack here.

Week 8 Surveys. I wanted to thank everybody again for all the information and ideas you shared with me in those surveys during the Week 8 Review. I've compiled and shared the Canvas Survey feedback with the people who are running the Canvas project at OU, and I will be writing up a new Tech Tip about configuring the Dashboard, since that was something several people had mentioned. I'll have more to say about all that next week; this week I've got all those new stories to read! :-)

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Reading. A thought to keep in mind as you embark on this week's reading: All this "reality" is really cutting into my reading time.

Writing. Here's a Game of Thrones Character Arc Generator. Every fantasy world has its own rules which all your to create new stories by means of mix-and-match... including the fantasy world of Games of Thrones.

Words from India. You might be surprised to learn that this is an Indian word in English: CHEETAH.

Featured Storybook. This project is from the Indian Epics class: Badri and the Dashavatara. From the time he was a small child, Badri has had mysterious encounters with the avatars of Vishnu, one after another after another.

Free Book Online: Today's free book is Totkv Mocvse / New Fire: Creek Folktales by Earnest Gouge. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. This book was edited by Margaret Mauldin, who founded the Creek language program at OU, and you can listen to her reading the stories in Creek!

Words of Wisdom: Today's saying is An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening (an English proverb). Find out more at the Proverb Lab. You can think about the grace period as having that special morning-hour power!

Video: The video for today is Joseph Campbell speaking on the Mythology of the Trickster, with a focus on Native American tricksters. Find out more about tricksters and about Joseph Campbell at Wikipedia.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is looking ahead to the second half of the semester: Feedback helps you see the road ahead. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: It's Earth Month at OU, with lots of events coming up (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

March 20: Equinox. Today, March 20, is the vernal equinox, so it is the first day of Spring; you can learn more about the astronomical details at Wikipedia. In the Wiccan "Wheel of the Year" (see image below), the arrival of Spring is celebrated as the holiday of Ostara, and the name of the Christian holiday of Easter comes from Ostara; you can find out more at Wikipedia.

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