Wednesday, March 7

Today is Wednesday of Week 8. It's the Review Week, and I hope you will find the posts useful as you get ready for the second half of the semester: Week 8 assignments.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Success Tip: Use the Writing Center. If you are working on research and writing projects this semester, the Writing Center is your friend. They will work with you at any stage of your project... and sometimes they even have free waffles! Find out more: Writing Center locations and services.

Congratulations to Rosa! Rosa in Indian Epics is the first person to finish up this semester... so, congratulations to you, Rosa! And remember, just a few points of extra credit each week starting now will allow you to finish a week early, and you can also work ahead if you want.

Project Stack. Yesterday I replied to the Friday and Saturday assignments, and today I'll be working on the Sunday assignments. While you are waiting on comments back from me, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email. And if you are doing the free pass for Week 8, that's great! You can send me that email anytime; you don't need to wait on my Week 7 comments back before you do that.

And yes.......... it is HAPPY HUMPDAY of the semester: as of Wednesday at noon, the semester is half-way over! :-)

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. I think Christina's growth mindset acronym is wonderful: L.I.F.E. Live It Fearlessly Every single day. It inspired me to make a cheezburger cat! Maybe you will be inspired to make an acronym of your own and/or to create a graphic using Christina's wonderful motto.

Word from India. Here's another word from India that might surprise you: PUNCH. It's from the Sanskrit word for "five" (panch) because punch was traditionally made with five ingredients.

Myth-India Video: Many of the gods and goddesses of India are known throughout Asia! Here is a video about Hindu Gods in Japan.

India Comic Book: Today's comic book is Subhadra: Beloved Sister of Krishna and Balarama. See the Amar Chitra Katha blog for the Bizzell Reserve call number and more information.

Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is from Vietnam: There will be no lotus if there is no mud. Find out more at the Proverb Laboratory.

Writing: Language correctness: it's an eternal struggle! Ancient Grammar Police.

Reading: There's no new reading this week, which might be a good thing because... Reading is dangerous.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat believes in peer learning: Find inspiration in the success of others. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Video: Here's a fun video from the linguist Ben Zimmer: Are Emoticons the Future of Language?.

Event on Campus: Brent Newsom will read selections from his poetry at 7PM in Cate Center 2, room 223. (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

March 7: Stith Thompson. Today marks the birthday in 1885 of Stith Thompson who became one of the greatest folklorists of the 20th century. He pioneered the classification of stories by their basic elements, which he called "motifs," and his Motif Index is still a widely used standard. I used his classic Tales of the North American Indians to create two of the reading units in the Myth-Folklore class:

And he also was a keen student of the stories of India too:

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