Saturday, November 2

Today is Saturday of Week 11. I hope you are having a nice weekend! If you did not finish up the end-of-week assignments on Friday, you need to do that today or tomorrow, Sunday (and beware the Sunday D2L outage; see below).

Class Procedures and Reminders:

Storybook Stack. I managed to get through most of the Storybooks turned in last week, but not quite all; there are a few late Week 10 assignments in the stack that I will read and return on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, if you turned in something on Friday, it is at the top of the stack for Monday, and I will update the stack once or twice again over the weekend. You can check the contents of the stack here.

D2L Sunday Morning Outage. (repeat announcement) Remember the D2L outage that was postponed a couple of weeks ago? It's scheduled now for Sunday, but it should only last from 6AM-noon. With this new schedule, I don't think it should affect anyone in class adversely since very few people are doing schoolwork on Sunday morning. But if you are on a tight schedule, be warned: D2L will not be available on Sunday morning. Hopefully you can complete the work on Saturday or on Sunday afternoon or evening (and there will be the Monday morning grace period as usual also).

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Suggestion Box. You might have noticed the link in the right-hand sidebar of these announcements to the anonymous Suggestion Box. This is a way for you to share feedback with me about the class - what's going well, what I could improve, etc. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can offer!

Featured Storybook: The Thin Line Between Tragedy and Comedy. This is a choose-your-story type of Storybook that Taylor has created for Myth-Folklore this semester: can you find a happy ending for Romeo and Juliet?

FREE Kindle eBook: Philippine Folk-Tales by Clara Kern Bayliss. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book, which contains what I am guessing would be stories that are new to almost everyone in the class!

Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Never tickle a sleeping dragon (a neo-Latin proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. This is a proverb invented by J.K. Rowling to use as the motto of Hogwarts: Draco dormiens numquam titillandus.

Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is Arjuna at Draupadi's Swayamvara. Many men have come to compete for Draupadi's hand in marriage, but Arjuna is the winner!

KGOU OneSix8. Visit the OneSix8 blog for detailed information about all kinds of events this weekend in Norman and nearby.

Saturday Event on Campus: You can see the classic American musical "Carousel" in the Weitzenhoffer Theater at 8PM on Saturday (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

November 2: All Souls Day. As mentioned in yesterday's announcement, after the holiday of All Saints on November 1, comes the holiday of All Souls on November 2. In many Catholic countries, the two days - November 1 and November 2 - are celebrated together as the Day (or Days) of the Dead, Día de los Muertos in Spanish. This is a traditional time for offering prayers on behalf of the dead, and also for visiting cemeteries and decorating the graves. In Mexico, there is also a tradition of Catrina dolls, as you can see here, an art form associated with the satirical sketches of José Guadalupe Posada:

Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.

Week 11 UnTextbook Report

Here is a report on the UnTextbook reading selections people made in Week 11 of the class, the first of the two weeks for the British Isles units.

First, here are the number of ratings and the average of those ratings — with so few ratings, though, I wouldn't make too much of the averages, but over time this is going to be incredibly helpful to me as I learn more about which units are proving more successful, which units need improvement, etc. So, 5 is "excellent," 4 is "very good," 3 is "good," 2 is "okay," 1 is "did not enjoy."

British units: 47 total. Here are the results from the first week, with another week of British reading in Week 12 to come!

5.0 (2 ratings)	Looking-Glass
5.0 (2 ratings)	Robin Hood Ballads
5.0 (1 rating)	Welsh (Emerson)
4.8 (4 ratings)	Canterbury Tales
4.8 (4 ratings)	Nursery Rhymes
4.5 (4 ratings)	English Fairy Tales
4.5 (2 ratings)	Welsh (Thomas)
4.2 (9 ratings)	Alice in Wonderland
4.2 (5 ratings)	Celtic Fairy Tales
4.1 (7 ratings)	King Arthur
4.0 (3 ratings)	Britomart
4.0 (1 rating)	Beowulf
3.0 (1 rating)	More Celtic Fairy Tales
3.0 (1 rating)	More English Fairy Tales

Below are some responses to the comments people made, and I am SO GRATEFUL for all this feedback. Because the comments you make in the Google Form are anonymous, I cannot reply to people individually, and I'm thinking these replies might be of general interest anyway — and you might want to check out my replies to previous comments too. There were not a lot of new types of comments different from previous weeks, but here is what I found specifically for these units:

Celtic Fairy Tales. I need to write up some more notes on these stories, especially any unusual words.

King Arthur. It would be good to create another unit focused 100% on King Arthur himself.

Welsh (Thomas). There's a pronunciation guide at the beginning, but I should add some pronunciation notes story by story for the key names and places.

Alice in Wonderland. I should write up short synopses of the omitted chapters! 

(illustration by Sir John Tenniel)

Friday, November 1

HAPPY FRIDAY! You have reached the end of Week 11! The Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now. Friday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Thursday.

Class Procedures and Reminders:

IMPORTANT: D2L SUNDAY MORNING OUTAGE. Remember the D2L outage that was postponed a couple of weeks ago? It's scheduled now for Sunday, November 3, but it should only last from 6AM-noon. With this new schedule, I don't think it should affect anyone in class adversely since very few people are doing schoolwork on Sunday morning. But if you are on a tight schedule, be warned: D2L will not be available on Sunday morning. Hopefully you can complete the work today or on Saturday, or on Sunday afternoon or evening (and there will be the Monday morning grace period as usual also).

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in this week. If you turned something in before 11AM on Monday, you should have comments back now. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. I hope to get through the stack on Friday, but if you turned in a late Week 10 assignment, I might not have comments back to you until Saturday morning.

Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Now that there are fewer than five weeks remaining (rest of Week 11, plus Weeks 12-13-14-15), you might want to plan to do some "mix and match" in terms of just which assignments you want to complete this semester to get the points you need for the grade you want to get. So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end. My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Featured Tech Tip: Wikipedia in Many Languages. You have probably used Wikipedia in English, but there are versions of Wikipedia in many languages - even Latin!

Featured Storybook: I Was a Teenage Mythological Creature. In this hilarious Storybook from last year, you can see mythological creatures competing on a reality TV show.

FREE Kindle eBook: Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. There are so many marvelous stories in here; one of my favorites is "The Story of Catherine and Her Fate."

Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Heroism consists in hanging on one minute longer (a Norwegian proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. I'm sure we have all had that feeling, heroes or not!

Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is Balarama and Krishna. Krishna's name means "black" or "dark." Balarama is Krishna's brother.

Friday Event on Campus: The International Advisory Committee's International Bazaar will take place from 9AM - 3PM on the South Oval (details at Facebook and in the OUDaily). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

All Saints Day - All Souls Eve. The reason Halloween was celebrated yesterday, on October 31, is that it was the "Eve of All Hallows" (Hallow-Evening), i.e. the Eve of All Saints, which is celebrated today, November 1. Today is also the eve of All Souls Day which is celebrated on November 2. The holiday of All Saints celebrates all those who have died and attained blessedness in heaven, while All Souls celebrates all those who have died but who have not yet achieved heaven. In many countries, November 1 is a holiday during which people visit graveyards, bringing flowers to the graves of the dead. For example, November 1 is an important national holiday in Poland, where it is called Wszystkich Świętych, which means "All Saints" (image source):



Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.

HALLOWEEN, October 31

Today is Thursday of WEEK 11. If you have not turned in your Week 10 Storybook assignment yet, you have until noon today to turn that in for partial credit. Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Class Procedures and Reminders:

Storybook Stack. There are still quite a few Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, it may still be in the stack. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Finishing the class early.  Another person has already finished up the class early: exciting! When you finish up with the class, I record a "FINAL GRADE" in the D2L Gradebook so you can be sure you are done. So, just let me know when you have completed the number of points you need: 410 for an A, 360 for a B, 320 for a C. It's entirely up to you what grade you want to finish with in the  class. There is no need to apologize for stopping out with a grade of B or C (many people are taking this class just for Gen. Ed. credit, and I know it is often not a top priority). Whatever grade you decide to stop with is fine with me. The whole idea behind this points grading system is to let you know exactly where you stand and to allow you to choose to be finished with the class when you have the points you need!

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Featured Resource: The 12 Must-Have Skills Of Modern Learners. This graphic seems to me an excellent way to think about all the things that can make us into great learners! My favorites: curiosity and imagination, effective communication, and hope and optimism. But they are all good. You can see which ones you think are most important to you. For the full-size image, click here.

Featured Storybook: Tales of the Black Cat. And here, just in time for Halloween, is a black-cat Storybook, thanks to Brooke in Myth-Folklore!

FREE Kindle eBook: Vikram and the Vampire by Richard Burton. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. This is an English version (a very free adaptation) of the Sanskrit story collection, a frametale set of stories-within-stories, with a "vetala" demon as the storyteller.

Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is The snake goes crookedly, yet it arrives straight within its hole (a proverb from India). Details at the Proverb Lab. I think that is a great metaphor for how things can maybe go not according to plan but still turn out alright in the end!

Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is the Pandavas Escaping the Fire. You can see the valiant Bhima going last, as Arjuna (with his bow) follows after Draupadi, Yudhishthira, and the twins.

Thursday Event on Campus: There will be a conversational event with Neustadt-award-winning author (poet and writer of children's books) Naomi Shihab Nye at the 2401 Auditorium in the Museum of Natural History (details). Find out more about other Neustadt-related events at the Campus Calendar online.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!(image source)

Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.

Wednesday, October 30

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 11. If you have not turned in your Week 10 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Class Procedures and Reminders:

Grades. If you did not read the information about finishing up the class and final grades in the Monday announcements, please take a minute to do that now. Two people have finished already, reaching 410 points for an A. Very exciting! Even if you have not been working ahead up until now, you can still manage to finish early by getting ahead and doing the extra credit assignments. As soon as you reach the points you need for your final grade, just let me know and I'll mark the grade for you in the D2L Gradebook.

Storybook Stack. There are still a lot of Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in on Sunday before 6PM, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in on Sunday evening or on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Saving Your Ning Blog. The class Ning will not be available after the end of the semester. That is because I have to pay for the Ning out of pocket and it has a maximum of appx. 100 students, which means I have to clear it out at the end of every semester.  If, however, you create your own writing portfolio, you can copy your best Ning blog posts in your portfolio. You can use Google's Blogger to create your own writing portfolio online or you can create a new GoogleSite and/or you can use GoogleDocs to publish research papers and other long writing samples online. Having your own writing portfolio is a great way to document your best work in college! A portfolio can provide something both more personal and more tangible to go along with your resume, GPA, and transcript, showcasing your work in a more memorable way. 

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Congratulations to Evin. Some of you may have seen the article in the OU Daily about national accolades for OU Student Media, including awards for Evin Morrison, who is in Myth-Folklore this semester and is the editor-in-chief of the OU Daily's ESCAPE section. Congratulations, Evin!

Featured Resource: Pahari Paintings from India. This resource provides an overview of the beautiful Parihari painting style of northwestern India, such as this lovely painting of Sita, Rama, and Lakshmana in the forest:

Featured Storybook: Tracking the Werewolf. The Halloween countdown continues with Morgan's werewolf project this semester!

FREE Kindle eBook: Czechoslovak Fairy Tales by Parker Fillmore. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book which is full of delightful fairy tales that you have probably never read before.

Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Those who can read and write have four eyes (an Albanian proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. Reading and writing: the magical ability to see through someone else's eyes!

Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is Vyasa and Ganesha. Together they are composing the Mahabharata: Vyasa is dictating, while Ganesha writes.

Wednesday Event on Campus: From 10AM-11:30AM in Meacham Auditorium you can hear short readings by Deji Olukotun, author of Nigerians in Space, and K. Anis Ahmed, author of Goodnight, Mr. Kissinger - just one of many Neustadt events taking place this week (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

October 30: Joseph Campbell. October 30 marks the death in 1987 of Joseph Campbell, one of the greatest scholars of mythological traditions in the 20th century (he was born in 1904). You can read about his life and career in this Wikipedia article. One of my favorite books by Campbell is The Power of Myth,   based on a series of interviews he did with Bill Moyers for PBS. If you have never read any of Campbell's books, this is a great book to start with. Campbell is probably most famous for his marvelous motto: Follow your bliss!



Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.

Tuesday, October 29

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 11, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so the new week is on top. Also, the Internet assignment for this week is now available. This week's topic in the Myth-Folklore class is more European fairy tales, and in Indian Epics you will be starting Buck's version of the Mahabharata. I hope you will enjoy the readings! If you have not turned in your Week 10 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Class Procedures and Reminders:

Final Grades. If you did not read the information about final grades in the Monday announcements, please take a minute to do that now.

Storybook stack. As often on Tuesday, there is still a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack. If you turned in a Storybook assignment before noon on Sunday, you should have comments back from me and points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Featured Tech Tip: Crocodocs. For those of you who use PDF documents either for school or work, you might find the Crocodocs service to be very useful as a way to access PDFs via your browser. It works great even with VERY long documents!

Featured Storybook: Tales of Gothic Creatures. Continuing the Halloween countdown, here is a Storybook from last year... one with a truly surprising - and scary - ending!

FREE Kindle eBook: Russian Fairy Tales by W.R.S. Ralston. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book, including tales of Baba Yaga.

Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Don’t stand by the water and long for fish; go home and weave a net (a Chinese proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. This is a proverb very much in the DIY spirit, something I admire!

Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is Ganesha, the elephant-headed god who wrote down the Mahabharata as Vyasa dictated it to him. Note that Ganesha is not an elephant, but he does have an elephant's head!

Tuesday Event on Campus: The Neustadt Festival honoring the Palestinian-American writer Naomi Shihab Nye opens with a public reception including a Poetry Out Loud competition for Norman high school students, beginning at 6:30 PM in the Sandy Bell Gallery of the Art Museum (details at the OU Daily). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

October 29: Bill Mauldin. Today marks the birthday in the year 1921 of the American cartoonist William Henry "Bill" Mauldin who is best known for his World War II cartoons featuring "Willie and Joe" (Mauldin died in 2003). General George Patton once tried to get Mauldin thrown in jail for his satirical cartoons. Mauldin himself had his own thoughts about Patton: "I always admired Patton. Oh, sure, the stupid bastard was crazy. He was insane. He thought he was living in the Dark Ages. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn't like that attitude, but I certainly respected his theories and the techniques he used to get his men out of their foxholes." For more on Mauldin, see this Wikipedia article; below is a stamp issued by the U.S. Post Office honoring Mauldin:

Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.

Monday, October 28

Today is Monday. Week 10 is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday or over the weekend. The next week of class will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started!

Class Procedures and Reminders:

Grading and points. Some people have been asking me about the points and grading, so let me refer you again to this Grading Information chart which can help you estimate what kind of grade you are headed for at this time. In short, you need 410 points to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! It is fine with me if you decide to stop doing work for the class whenever you have the grade you want to receive (many of you are taking this class for Gen. Ed. requirements, which means you just need a C to get graduation credit). My only request is that you please let me know when you are done so I can record the final grade for you in the Gradebook. 

Mix and match points. Now that there are just five weeks of the semester left (Weeks 11-12-13-14-15), you might want to plan to do some "mix and match" in terms of just which assignments you want to complete this semester to get the points you need for the grade you want to get. So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end. My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade. 

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. As usual, I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in, so if you did not turn in your assignment until Sunday evening or later, it will be a few days before I get comments back to you.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Featured Resource: Google Like a Boss. I'm sure you are busy doing research now for end-of-semester projects in your other classes, so you might find these tips useful!

Featured Storybook: Samhain Sagas: Happy Halloween!. Continuing the Halloween countdown, we have Chelsea's Storybook, which includes the amazing story of why we make jack-o-lanterns!

FREE Kindle eBook: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. Of the many Celtic story collections available online, this is one of my favorites!

Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is If my heart be narrow, what avail to me that the world is large? (an Armenian proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. The solution: we can open our hearts to the world!

Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is Dhritarashtra attacking Bhima's statue. Dhritarashtra, the blind king, thinks that he is attacking Bhima himself, who had killed the king's son Duryodhana in battle.

Monday Event on Campus: There will be a saxophone performance by Jonathan Nichol at 8PM in Pitman Recital Hall (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online, and you can hear Nichol performing in this YouTube video:

Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.

Sunday, October 27

Today is Sunday of Week 10. The Read and Respond assignment, along with the Internet assignment and Storybook assignment, are due today. So, if you have not finished those up already, now is the time.

Class Procedures and Reminders:

Storybook Stack. I don't update the Storybook stack as often on the weekends, but you can check there to make sure I received your assignment; I'll update it at least once or twice over the weekend. If you want comments back on your assignment sooner rather than later, don't wait until Sunday evening. If you wait until Sunday evening or the Monday grace period (or even later), you will be farther down in the stack and will have to wait longer for my comments back to you.

Storybook Schedule. As you decide just how you want to finish up the semester, here is a general guideline to keep in mind: if you want to have four stories total in your Storybook by the time you are done, you need to turn in your third story either in Week 10 or in Week 11. If, however, you are going to finish up with just three stories total in your Storybook, you can turn in that third story in Week 10, Week 11, Week 12 or Week 13, based on what works best for you.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Featured Resource: Star Wars Retold. And for a completely different approach to the retelling of Star Wars, check out the information below about the Navajo-language version of Star Wars showing on campus today!

Featured Storybook: Lost in the Woods: A Search Party in Peril. Kelly's Storybook for this semester is a perfect addition to your Halloween reading list!

FREE Kindle eBook: Shakuntala and Other Works by Kalidasa translated by Arthur Ryder. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book which includes, among others, a play about Urvashi.

Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is A thousand probabilities do not make one truth (an English proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. Something to keep in mind when you ponder a statistical argument.

Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is Bhima and Duryodhana. The illustration is from the 17th-century version of the Mahabharata translated into Persian.

Sunday Event on Campus: There will be a screening of the Navajo dubbed version of Star Wars: A New Hope at 7PM in the Sam Noble Museum (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.