Thursday, March 9

Today is Thursday of WEEK 8. There is nothing due today, but I hope everybody will use this opportunity to finish up the Week 8 assignments before Spring Break! Plus, as always, there's extra credit. Here is a link to this week's assignments.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Projects. I've read and replied to the Project assignments turned in before 6PM on Sunday; you can check the stack to make sure I received your email. I will reply to all the Sunday assignments today, and then I'll move on to the assignments turned in on Monday and later. And remember: you can keep working on your project by adding new stories; that way, you'll be ready to go when you get my comments back.

Surveys. I really appreciate your completing the surveys yesterday along with all the good blog posts from Monday and Tuesday. I always find good ideas in there (the "story planning" post option was a suggestion from last semester's surveys!), and I'll be reporting back after Spring Break on what I've learned. For now, I just wanted to say thank you: I really appreciate all the ideas and feedback!

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Spelling. Because you can never have too much spelling humor: Pterodactyl Pteenagers.

Reading. Wise words from Astrid Lindgren, author of Pippi Longstocking.

Words from India. The Sanskrit word sharkara comes to English via Arabic as the word SUGAR.

Featured Storybook. This project is from the Myth-Folklore class: Hero Academy. Inside the ancient fortress of a remote citadel are the training grounds of the Hero Academy, and under the instruction of Master Felgar the future heroes debate the virtues of mythical diplomacy and the role of mankind in a world of many living creatures.

Free Book Online: Today's free book is Folktales of Kashmir by J. Hinton Knowles. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. This is a beautiful book of stories from the land of Kashmir in the valley between between the Himalaya and the Pir Panjal mountains.

Words of Wisdom: Today's saying is Time and tide wait for no man (an English proverb). Find out more at the Proverb Lab. I really like the sound-play of "time" and "tide" in this proverb.

Video: The video for today is Conjunction Junction. The Grammar Rock videos came out when I was a child... as you can see, they had a big influence on me. This one is my favorite:

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is a curious cat, and the future belongs to the curious. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: Geshe Chophel, a scholar from the Gaden Shartse Monastery in India, will be giving a lecture at the Fred Jones Museum at 6PM; the topic is the "Painting of Great King Deities," a Buddhist prayer scroll held by the museum (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

March 9: Barbie. On this day in 1959, the "Barbie" doll was born. You can find out more at the History Channel, and of course Wikipedia has a long article about this American toy icon. Wikipedia is also the source of this photo of the first Barbie:

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