Improvements

I greatly enjoyed this class! It was a great way for me to be creative and think outside of the box. The opportunity to read stories from other cultures was something I greatly appreciated.

In terms of changes, I would say to make all deadlines "open ended" or don't force assignments to be finished by a certain time, other than maybe the story edits. As a very busy student, I know I have some weeks that I can do a lot of work for this class and other weeks that I literally am running on no sleep with coffee beating my heart. The issue with college is a lot of times you will not know which weeks will be which, or you may have several in a row and no way to completely prepare. This option would give students a way to balance their assignments for this class in a more personalized fashion.

It would also be nice for some of the instructions to be on canvas rather than on the other site, so you don't have to flip back and forth multiple times.

Thank you for a great semester!

Tech Tip: Canvas Calendar

So this week for tech tip, I decided to do Canvas Calendar.
Personally, I think the calendar on Canvas is even better than the one on D2L because it is color coded and has so many different views! You can see what you have due in just one class, all classes, for a month, for the rest of the semester, in calendar format or in list format. The options honestly are endless. It is a great feature! If you don't know how to use it yet, go look it up! It is amazing!

My Calendar

Review: Connection Found

This is a little different than a typical review post, but I feel that it is relevant because it has to do with one of the stories from this week and several from this semester!

The other day, I stumbled upon this Buzzfeed article that I found super interesting, and I started actually thinking about this class! It talks about how a lot of times Disney movies derive from stories that don’t have such happy origins. Take a look!

Original Sleeping Beauty

Reading Notes A: Fairy Tales By Brothers Grimm

Bibliography: Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm
Read the story (or listen) here

The Frog Prince
-interesting because of the description of the princess: "put on her bonnet and clogs"
-golden ball
-"I want not your pearls, and jewels, and fine clothes, but if you will love me and let em live with you and eat off of your golden plate, and sleep upon your bed, I will bring you your ball again"
-blackmailed by a frog?
-Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to thy true love here!
And mind the words that thou and I said
By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade

The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean 

The Mouse, the Bird, and The Sausage

-interesting because not happy endings

-lists as titles?

Why are some so much more common than others?

Selected because of the imagery

Story Planning: What if Alice Never Fell?

Welcome to Wonderland

What if Alice had never followed the rabbit with the red eyes into the hole where all of the chaos began?

-------------------------------------------------------------

Who would the caterpillar give his knowledge to?

Who would the queen invite to her game?

Would that whole world stop or just keep on going in its chaotic ways?

Would they freeze or continue in their actions aimlessly?

What if Alice’s sister had fallen into the hole with her? What if she had fallen instead?

All of these are different angles I could discuss in an upcoming story. Thus, why I am doing a story planning instead of writing one. I think it is so interesting to think about how much one little change or difference could change the entire outcome of the story.

Personally, I can picture the entire world frozen, almost like a dream that never happens. That being said, I can also see the queen trying to execute the caterpillar for playing the game with all of his many legs while also smoking his hookah at the same time.

If Alice’s sister was intolerant, she could have messed up the world, ended up almost dying, and Alice end up coming in and saving her from the queen. On the other hand, what if her sister and the Queen of Hearts had become best friends and decided to rule this obscure world together, creating more mind games and chaos together? She could decide she never wants to leave, and Alice in the real world, being the practical girl she is, could never be willing to jump down the hole to search for her because she believes that her sister “realistically” could never get lost in a hole or simply fall into one that appears so small.

I would love to end up writing this story next week but I need more time to outline it!

Bibliography: read here

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)

Growth Mindset: Growing as a Person

“Would you rather do an excellent job at one task or a subpar job at a million different tasks?”

Someone asked me this question the other day, and it really caught me off guard. Let me set this up for you: it was Monday, I was stressed, my car was in the shop and a man on a bicycle had just catcalled me for multiple blocks on my treck home. By the time I got this phone call, I was tired, kind of sweaty and absolutely not in the mood for any criticism, especially one that calls my abilities as a person and my lifestyle in its entirety into question.

My answer to this question? “I am not a quitter.”

Life hands you a million different opportunities at once, and sometimes you are overwhelmed with the choices that you make. Does that mean you should just give up, give in and walk away from tasks that you are committed to complete? Absolutely not.

You have one life, and some opportunities only come around so often. If you don’t take them as they come, you may miss out on something that could have changed your life. Look at Olympic athletes that go to college after winning gold medals or celebrities that decide to start up their own clothing and/or make up lines. The opportunity was given to them, so they took it.

So, back to my phone call, yes, I would say that at this point in my life I am a little over committed. With three jobs, two minors and a full college load, I am running every which way at all moments of the day. This being said, I regret none of it. Why? Because of the lessons I have learned, the stories I can tell and the people I have met. I may be a little frazzled and all over the place, but that is what life is. Yes, I have responsibilities, and people I need to impress, but that does not mean I am not still completely and entirely going through this learning process on my own and growing as an individual from it.

That criticism may have frustrated me, but it also made me think. It may have not been beneficial in the way the speaker had wanted, but it definitely pushed me and made me want to achieve even more great things than ever before. People can critique your performance, but don’t ever let them critique your mindset.

“Would you rather do an excellent job at one task or a subpar job at a million different tasks?”

Someone asked me this question the other day, and it really caught me off guard. Let me set this up for you: it was Monday, I was stressed, my car was in the shop and a man on a bicycle had just catcalled me for multiple blocks on my treck home. By the time I got this phone call, I was tired, kind of sweaty and absolutely not in the mood for any criticism, especially one that calls my abilities as a person and my lifestyle in its entirety into question.

My answer to this question? “I am not a quitter.”

Life hands you a million different opportunities at once, and sometimes you are overwhelmed with the choices that you make. Does that mean you should just give up, give in and walk away from tasks that you are committed to complete? Absolutely not.

You have one life, and some opportunities only come around so often. If you don’t take them as they come, you may miss out on something that could have changed your life. Look at Olympic athletes that go to college after winning gold medals or celebrities that decide to start up their own clothing and/or make up lines. The opportunity was given to them, so they took it.

So, back to my phone call, yes, I would say that at this point in my life I am a little over committed. With three jobs, two minors and a full college load, I am running every which way at all moments of the day. This being said, I regret none of it. Why? Because of the lessons I have learned, the stories I can tell and the people I have met. I may be a little frazzled and all over the place, but that is what life is. Yes, I have responsibilities, and people I need to impress, but that does not mean I am not still completely and entirely going through this learning process on my own and growing as an individual from it.

That criticism may have frustrated me, but it also made me think. It may have not been beneficial in the way the speaker had wanted, but it definitely pushed me and made me want to achieve even more great things than ever before. People can critique your performance, but don’t ever let them critique your mindset.

“Would you rather do an excellent job at one task or a subpar job at a million different tasks?”

Someone asked me this question the other day, and it really caught me off guard. Let me set this up for you: it was Monday, I was stressed, my car was in the shop and a man on a bicycle had just catcalled me for multiple blocks on my treck home. By the time I got this phone call, I was tired, kind of sweaty and absolutely not in the mood for any criticism, especially one that calls my abilities as a person and my lifestyle in its entirety into question.

My answer to this question? “I am not a quitter.”

Life hands you a million different opportunities at once, and sometimes you are overwhelmed with the choices that you make. Does that mean you should just give up, give in and walk away from tasks that you are committed to complete? Absolutely not.

You have one life, and some opportunities only come around so often. If you don’t take them as they come, you may miss out on something that could have changed your life. Look at Olympic athletes that go to college after winning gold medals or celebrities that decide to start up their own clothing and/or make up lines. The opportunity was given to them, so they took it.

So, back to my phone call, yes, I would say that at this point in my life I am a little over committed. With three jobs, two minors and a full college load, I am running every which way at all moments of the day. This being said, I regret none of it. Why? Because of the lessons I have learned, the stories I can tell and the people I have met. I may be a little frazzled and all over the place, but that is what life is. Yes, I have responsibilities, and people I need to impress, but that does not mean I am not still completely and entirely going through this learning process on my own and growing as an individual from it.

That criticism may have frustrated me, but it also made me think. It may have not been beneficial in the way the speaker had wanted, but it definitely pushed me and made me want to achieve even more great things than ever before. People can critique your performance, but don’t ever let them critique your mindset.

Trial and Error are all a part

Reading Notes A: Alice's Adventures

Reading Notes A

Bibliography: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865) read here

Readings:

Down the Rabbit-Hole (3 parts)

Advice from a Caterpillar (3 parts)

Pig and Pepper (3 parts)

love this photo- reminds me of when my grandmother read me this story as a child
Link here 

Down the Rabbit Hole

-Alice- normal girl, has a sister, bored, follows White Rabbit with pink eyes (albino?)

-fell down the hole

-”Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again”

-entertaining herself

-didn’t hurt self when fell

-”There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked, and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.”

-mystical objects: small door, three-legged glass table, tiny golden key, drink, little glass box

Advice from a Caterpillar

-Caterpillar- could talk, hookah, sleepy

-”Who are YOU?”

-accused Alice of having a temper

-repetition

-seeing a lot in this story that seems like the nursery rhymes I read last week!

- good advice?

Pig and Pepper

-Fish-Footman

-”From the Queen. An invitation for the Duchess to play croquet”

-EXCITING: favorite character

-Cheshire Cat

- “‘You don’t know much,’ said the Duchess, ‘and that’s a fact’”

-the rhymes have different formats

Love this quote: So she set the little creature down and felt quite relieved to see it trot away quietly into the wood. 'If it had grown up,' she said to herself, 'it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.'