Thursday, September 3

Today is Thursday of Week 2, and here is a link to the Week 2 tasks. For many of you, this will be a day of storytelling! I hope you will have fun as you choose one of the stories from the Anthology to retell in your own way: Your First Story.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Story stream. A lot of people will be writing stories today, and there are also people who have written their stories already (plus there are some stories from future weeks, thanks to the people who are working ahead). It might give you a creative boost to browse and explore the stories so far, so take a look if you are curious: Stories (you'll see each class in its own column).

Blog comments. The Week 2 blog comment assignment is ready to go where you will be commenting on other people's Introductions, and the Week 3 blog comment assignment is also ready now where you will be commenting on people's stories. Commenting is a way to connect with other people in class, plus it's a great way to get ideas for your own stories and also to see different ways you might want to customize your blog design. (There are Tech Tips for that!)

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog stream. Here's a beautiful picture that Katie T. shared in her blog: Sunflower field in Minnesota.


And in addition to each person's blog posts, there's also our Check-in and Connect Padlet where people have been making some nice posts. You can find out about that here: Check-In and Connect.


Twitter stream. A friend of mine had all his students make memes about procrastination for the start of the semester, and here's the meme that he made:


And here's a cartoon about writing from Tom Gauld (larger view)... and for more from Tom Gauld, see below.


Plus a helpful homework dog: 


100-Word Stories. And from Aesop, here's a dog story: it's about why dogs sniff each other's butts! And... it involves the Greek gods too: Zeus and the Dogs.


Of coursse there's a dog in the family of writers! And a cat...


Storybook. I know some of you in Indian Epics are interested in the 
goddess Kali, so I wanted to make sure to share this great Storybook from last year: Creation of Kali. Here is Kali battling the demon Raktabija:


And here's a Crash Course video about yet more Goddesses:


Plus another writing cartoon from Tom Gauld (see above): there are goddesses... and then there are archetypal heroines! 


September 3: Frederick Douglass. On this day in 1838, the American abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery. Douglass died in 1895; because he was born in slavery, he did not know with certainty the year of his birth, but he guessed he was born around 1818. Douglass's autobiography is a beautiful work of American literature: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. 


And here's a wonderful video from NPR: What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July? Descendants Read Frederick Douglass' Speech.



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