Monday, August 31

Today is Monday of Week 2, and here is a link to the Week 2 assignments. This week the actual reading and telling of stories will begin, so I hope you will have fun with all of that! And if you are finishing up Week 1 during the grace period this morning, here's that link: Week 1 Orientation.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Week 2: Reading Overview. Each week, there are two reading assignments, and this week the first reading assignment is actually a Reading Overview. (The other reading assignment this week is an Anthology of stories, and then you'll be choosing one of those stories to retell in your own way.)

Extra Credit. You don't need to wait until the end of Week 2 to try out those extra credit options; if there is something you want to try, you can do some extra credit at the beginning of the week. Any time is a good time to explore and try new things! Here are the Week 2 extra credit options. 

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog stream. Here is a fabulous new addition to the class pet collection: Riley F. has two beautiful pigs,  Squeaky and Huey! Read about them at Riley's blog... plus a cat and an axolotl. Wow!

Twitter stream. One of my favorite writers at Twitter is Debbie Ridpath-Ohi, and here's a fun conversation she started about writers and their weird research, with a fun cartoon to go with it: 

And here's a fun writing cartoon from the awesome Tom Gauld:

Storybook. One of my favorite things about blogs and websites is being able to embed videos, including music videos, and here's a beautiful Storybook from Indian Epics with music videos: Musical Demon Slayers.

And for your listening enjoyment, here's a video with one of my favorite Indian musicians, Bickram Ghosh:

100-Word Stories. Today's 100-word story is from Aesop's fables; if you're in the Myth-Folklore class, you'll be encountering this story in the Week 2 Anthology: The Shepherd and the Lion.

Laura Gibbs · 173. The Shepherd and the Lion

I really like this technology cartoon (which I snagged from Haley's blog): just imagine what the computers are thinking about us! :-)

And check out this great graphic about creative technology from Soriyana's blog (original via Denise Krebs at Flickr): We don't just browse, click, chat, game, we invent, we design, we create, we build, we share.

August 31: Maria Montessori. Today marks the birthday of the great educator, Maria Montessori, who was born in 1870, so today is the 150th anniversary of her birth. You can read about Montessori remarkable career at Wikipedia. Her ideas about education have had a big impact on me, and you can learn more in this TED talk by Judi Bauerlein.

And here's a beautiful video created by Community Montessori School in New Albany, Indiana: Be Brave for Education.

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