Agenda this week — semester grades, writing projects
Dear Scholars,
We have reached end of the semester. Each of you has received project totals every time you have handed in a project, so you should know where you stand. Please let me know if you need your total to be sent again. The semester as defined in class are:
| # of acceptable projects. | Grade |
| 12 | A |
| 9 | B |
| 6 | C |
| 3 | D |
Any projects beyond the 12 required for an A will count toward your Spring semester grade. If you do not have the grade you would like, just hand in more projects in spring.
You were all asked to bring to class any appropriate material that has inspired you and which demonstrates language or ideas that you feel would be of value to the rest of the class: videos, articles, books, films — whatever you find interesting. Be sure to post your thoughts. Please everyone have something to suggest.
Film discussion
We discussed film as an artistic medium and several presented their favorite films. A new section of the online classroom has been created for film and a film discussion forum has been set up. Scenes from Singing in the Rain,(classic song and dance film with Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor) and The Turning point (Ballet film staring Michael Berishnikov) have been posted. Also, the entire culture clash film, Merry Andrew, was available and has been posted. Please post other favorite films in the film discussion forum and please post short reviews explaining why you like them and what we should look for in them.
Assignments for this week
The listening assignments were: the lecture by Eagleton on The Metaphysics of Terror(part of his speech on evil), and a series of short videos by David Berlinski on the flaws in and shortcomings of Darwinism.
Assignments for next week
Great composers: Johann Sebastian Bach. This is a superb documentary featuring some great speakers including Johnathan Miller and Karen Armstrong.
Discussions: A panel discussion has been added on changes in society and culture. Panelists from MIT, Cornell, Oxford and Cambridge debate issues. As always, the content is unimportant, the language is.
A new classroom section on Skits has been created and several example Monty Python skits have been posted. These are short but brilliant. At least watch the flying sheep sketch.