Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Week 15 Growth Mindset: OU and Me

Caption: The library at The University of Oklahoma. Link.

I think that there are definitely some areas in which OU could improve their approach to growth mindset. However, I think that there are some things about colleges that inherently can't be changed and will always go against growth mindset. GPAs are necessary and cannot be abolished altogether, but they encourage students to try and achieve a certain grade instead of to try and learn. I think one way of maybe helping this would be to encourage students to learn from their mistakes. If students do poorly on a test, maybe they can retake the test and write a paper over what they learned to show that they are learning form their mistakes instead of just being punished by them. This way, GPA is still held up but there are more ways to encourage learning from mistakes. It's hard to think of ways that the university as a whole can encourage learning and growth, but I think that professors can encourage this by putting less pressure on students to perform well on tests and put more emphasis on assignments that encourage them to better understand the base topics that they are in the classes for. College seems to inherently not encourage growth mindset because of the emphasis on getting good grades instead of learning the topics. If less emphasis was put on testing, I think that this could be combatted.

Week 15 Learning Challenge: Reading Yoga

Caption: Yoga poses for book lovers. Link.

I particularly love reading and I particularly love yoga, so I really liked this graphic. It grabbed my attention because I think reading and yoga are two introspective activities that really relax me and make me forget about the worries of the world. I think that everyone should read, because reading is important and you can learn so many valuable lessons from books. I also think that everyone should do yoga though, and I don't think nearly as many people do. It's such a great activity that causes you to focus on being one with your breathing and your body and challenges you to forget about other things going on in your life that might be causing you anxiety or stress. Do yoga and read, my friends!

Week 15 Backup and Review: Weapons of Mass Creation

Link to source.
Caption: An old-fashioned pen. Link.

My favorite note from the announcements this week was the graphic about pens being weapons of mass creation. It's interesting to think of pens being capable of so much, but they can't do it themselves. It's like saying guns kill people. It's not true. They're weapons of mass destruction that need someone to incite that destruction. Similarly, pens do not write. Pens are a means to mass creation, but they need a creative person holding them in order to affect their creation. 

I'm not super involved on campus, but I am graduating a week from Saturday, so that's exciting! Everyone can feel free to come to that if they'd like. 

Week 15 Famous Last Words: Keeping up Training

Caption: A runner. Link.
My famous last words for this week: I ran a half marathon on Sunday. It was hard because I hadn't been training as much as I should have. However, I was still able to run the whole thing and I had a great time. My boyfriend ran it, too, but we ran it separately. I couldn't keep up with him, to be honest! Instead, I ran with my sister-in-law. It was easier for me that way because she hadn't been training even as much as I had been for it, so I could easily keep her pace and I didn't ever get too winded or feel like I couldn't keep going. I'm running another half marathon this saturday and I kind of can't believe I'm actually doing that. I feel like a crazy person agreeing to do two half marathons within six days of each other. I love running and this week has taught me something important: training is essential! I think that if I can occasionally go out and run 10 miles, I'm fine to sign up for half marathons whenever I please. However, this isn't how I should approach them anymore. I need to keep up training in order to keep reaching better, faster times. I can't keep approaching them like "I can do this"; Instead, I need to approach them with "I can do this better." Otherwise, what's the point of doing them still? I did one and if all I care about is completing them, then why do I keep going? Why don't I just stop now? Instead, I need to let my drive to be better keep me going and inspire me to keep training. I've learned this week just how vital training is and that I need to keep training hard if I want to do better. I can't keep approaching each new feat with the same goal. Otherwise, it's silly to even be setting goals. I need to approach each new race with the goal of doing better than I had before and to keep training harder. 

Week 15 Tech Tip: Canvas Notifications

I had already set up my Canvas notifications. I don't like the idea of missing any assignments, especially since I'm enrolled in this online class. I get fairly paranoid about it. So I have my canvas notifications set up to send me a daily update about what's been going on in my canvas account, as well as to notify me anytime anything gets posted anywhere in my classes. I get emails anytime grades are posted, files are uploaded, announcements are shared, etc. It gets annoying at times because I do get a lot of emails. However, I'd much rather receive too many annoying emails than to accidentally miss something big!

Week 15 Reading Notes: Adam and Eve Part A

Bibliography: Genesis, Link .
Caption: Adam and Eve. Link.
Reading Notes: I remember learning the story about Adam and Eve in Sunday School when I was young. My church always used the King James version of the bible, so this was familiar enough to me as is. I think that the creation story is really interesting and I like that Eve is made from part of Adam. I think it creates a cool bond between the two characters. I very clearly remember learning about the Fall in sunday school and I thought it was interesting to revisit it for my reading this week. I  like the character of the snake and think that it would be interesting to write a story from his point of view. Perhaps including the backstory of the snake or the part where he is told his mission would be an interesting addition to the story. I don't particularly like the Punishment stories as much, because I think that there was too much punishment for Eve's action and I think that Adam shouldn't necessarily have been held accountable.

Week 15 Wikipedia Trail: from Nanoparticles to

Link 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanoparticle
For my capstone class, we have to write a lot of papers about nanoparticles. I know a lot of detail about them, but I thought that it would be interesting to break it down to the rudimentary wikipedia page and see what it has to say about the topic.

Link 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity
I thought it would be interesting to read more about gravity because I have never been very good at physics. I thought it was particularly interesting to learn more about the history of the theory behind it.

Link 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet
I decided to follow the wikipedia trail to the planet page because I thought it would be an interesting read. I don't know much about astronomy and I thought that it was interesting to learn more about what criteria an object must meet in order to be considered a planet.

Link 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe
I had heard the name Tycho Brahe before and I vaguely remembered that it was astronomy related. I thought it was interesting, however, to learn more about the life he led besides his contributions to astronomy.

Caption: Tycho Brahe. Link.

Week 15 Improvements

I really like the idea of creating writing tutorial videos. I come from a STEM background and had absolutely no creative writing experience before this class. I think it would have been insanely helpful to have writing help at the beginning of the course so I was more comfortable with creative writing. I also really wish there would have been more emphasis on learning about the materials we were reading about instead of creating our own. I think occasional reading quizzes or something would be beneficial so that we were encouraged to learn more about the stories, as this is something I was hoping to take from the class.

Monday, April 24, 2017

Week 14 Tech Tip: Editing Pins

Caption: Meteora Monastaries. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meteora_2_evlahos.jpg.
Tech tip: For this week's tech tip, I learned how to edit a pin on pinterest. This was particularly helpful because I'm an avid user of pinterest but I never edit any of the captions, I just repin them as is. I don't use pinterest for school, I use it to keep all of my interests in one place. I edited a particular pin on my travel board. I love traveling and it's useful to update the pins with more about the places that I'm interested in traveling to so I can look at the pictures and see exactly where they are.

Week 14 Learning Challenge: My Time Management


Caption: Time Management. Link.

My time management tips: I really used to suck at time management, so this is something I've really had to work on. My best tip is to write everything down and to make lists. For me, nothing is more fulfilling than crossing things off of a list. So, when I make lists, I am far more likely to get things done. I also am an avid user of my planner; I don't know what I'd do without it. I write EVERYTHING down and cross it off as soon as it's done. That way, it's easy for me to look at my planner and see when I'm going to be busiest so I can manage my time better and can plan for being busy then.

Week 14 Wikipedia Trail: From the German Language to Greenhouse Gases

Article 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language
I decided to choose the German language as the starting point for my wikipedia trail because I think it's really interesting and I've been studying it for 3 years so I thought it'd be interesting to read more about it. I did think it was really an interesting article because I didn't realize how many places it was actually spoken and the different dialects everywhere.

Articles 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxony
I chose Saxony to be my second article because I'll be doing a study abroad this summer in Leipzig which is the capital of Saxony, so I thought it'd be interesting to learn more about it. I thought it was interesting to learn more about the industries of Saxony and I didn't know that it was nicknamed Silicon Saxony.

Article 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union
I decided to follow the link to the European Union next because I thought it would be interesting to read more about. I thought it was interesting to see how little of the population was encompassed in the EU but how much of the world's GDP is produced by the EU.

Article 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas
I decided to follow a link to learn more about Greenhouse Gases. You hear so much about carbon emissions and I really don't know how much I actually knew about greenhouses gases besides what causes them and the effect they have on the environment, so I thought that it was interesting to learn more about greenhouse gases.

Caption: A map of Saxony. Link.



Week 14 Reading Notes: Grimm LibriVox Part A

Bibliography: LibriVox, Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm, Link.
Caption: Rapunzel's Tower.Link.
Reading Notes: I liked the Frog Prince story quite a bit. I knew of The Princess and the Frog, but didn't know that it was one of the Grimm Brothers' stories. I think it's a little interesting that it turns out so well for the Princess though, because she was rude and didn't want to keep her word. She only did so because her father commanded her to. Usually, the Grimm Brothers punish the people who should be punished and only reward those who have done kind things. I think it's interesting that the princess gets to marry the prince and he is beautiful and whisks her away. I like the story of Rapunzel a lot, though I didn't realize that Rapunzel was just the daughter of two common people. I thought she was the daughter of a king and a queen and had noble birthright. I think that the evil enchantress is an interesting character and is particularly conniving which I think is an interesting character trait that really fits her well, especially when she tricks the prince into thinking that she is Rapunzel. I didn't particularly like the stories following Rapunzel at all, I didn't think they were as interesting by any means and didn't feel like the rest of the Grimm Brothers' stories. 

Week 14 Storytelling: The Big Bad Wolf

Caption: Wolf. Link.
Bibliography: Ashliman, Grimm Brothers' Household and Children Tales, Link.

Story:
Chester was a bright young student who loved gardening and playing the harp. He was kind and sweet, but didn’t have many friends and kept to himself for the most part. Chester was the youngest of seven wolf brothers. Chester got all of the nice genes in the family and his older brothers were all cruel and liked picking on others, especially young little Chester. Chester was the brunt of all of the bullying of the family. Even Chester’s parents didn’t step in and stop the bullying.
                  When Chester would finish his chores, he would go outside to his secret garden and plant some of his favorite flowers. He loved all flowers, but found roses to be especially beautiful. He kept his harp hidden in his garden in a secret meadow surrounded by trees. When the weight of the world was especially heavy for Chester, he would retreat to his secret garden and tend to his flowers and play his music.
                  One day after school, Chester thought he was being sneaky and he took a shortcut from the path home to go off to his garden. However, his brothers were close behind and followed him to his secret garden. Once they saw what Chester was doing, they came out in the garden and started trashing it. They stomped around in his garden, pulled his flowers, and destroyed his harp. Chester was devastated. He wondered what the point of rebuilding it all was when he knew that his secret place was compromised now and they would constantly destroy it.
                  That day, Chester changed. Chester was no longer the sweet little boy who loved to garden and play music. Instead, he started picking on people like his brothers. He quickly became known as one of the bad wolves like his brothers and everyone started to hate him, too. The teachers and students were scared of him.
                  Chester grew up mean, and never had any real jobs. He would work at various places until too many customers complained and he eventually got fired. This was a common story and Chester hopped from job to job, just like all of his brothers. Chester eventually became a criminal because there were no places willing to hire him with the reputation he built for himself.
                  Chester started by selling drugs, but there was too much responsibility involved in selling drugs, so he didn’t last long. Stealing, though, was definitely more of his forte. He started by pickpocketing people at the local market and stealing some food here and there. He quickly moved on to bigger jobs, though. He would break into people’s houses when he knew they weren’t home and steal their expensive belongings. But Chester even tired of the robbery life, and picked up the hobby of committing bigger crimes. Chester was the local hit man; people would go to him when they needed people to disappear because Chester was good at eating people up and leaving no sign of them.

                  One day, Chester saw a pretty little girl who looked yummy with a red hood walking through the woods…

Author's Note: I really liked the character of the wolf in the Red Riding Hood story. He is conniving and eats Red Riding Hood's grandmother and pretends to be her so that he can eat up Little Red, too. I thought he was a smart character who probably wasn't always bad. I decided to give him a back story that made people understand why he did the things he did now. 

Week 14 Reading Notes: Crane's Brothers Grimm Part B

Bibliography: Lucy Crane, Household Stories by Brothers Grimm, Link.
Caption: Snow White. Link.


Reading Notes:
I didn't like the six swans story either. I just didn't think it was very interesting and as intriguing as some of the other stories that the Grimm Brothers have written, so I don't think I'll write about this story. King Thrushbeard's story is pretty awesome. I like that his daughter was being rude and complaining and he punished her the way he did. I like that all (or a lot) of the Grimm Brothers stories are about children being punished for being a certain way and that they always learn a lesson from the story. I think it's funny that the King's daughter has to live with a beggar husband now that she complained too much and pushed away too many suitors. I particularly liked reading the story of Snow White, because though I have seen the Disney adaption of the story, I had not heard the original story and it's been a while since I've actually seen the movie. I thought that it was interesting how the evil queen came to kill her twice before deciding on the apple. I also expected more to the characters of the dwarves since they are such a big part of the Disney movie. I wish that they would have been expanded upon more so than they were.

Week 14 Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm Crane Part A

Reading Notes:
I didn't particularly like the story about the fisherman and his wife; I didn't think it was super interesting or compelling for the most part. I did like the Aschenputtel story, though. I think it's interesting to read the story as it originally was written instead of the typical Disney adaption of the story that everyone has come to know. I think it's interesting that there is no fairy godmother in the original story and that Aschenputtel instead actually grows a tree from her tears and it is the source of the magic in her life. I also thought it was interesting and disturbing that the step sisters actually cut their feet in order to fit into the shoes. I also didn't realize that there were 3 balls and that the prince was conniving for the last one and that's how he actually finally met Aschenputtel. I think that's interesting and wish that this would've been included in the Disney adaption of the story. I like the ending of the robber bridegroom story. I like that the bad guys get whats coming to them, I think that this is fitting.

Caption: Aschenputtel. Link.
Bibliography: Lucy Crane, Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm, Link.

Week 13 Review: Sagan

Caption: A Carl Sagan Quote. Link.
I'm a big fan of Carl Sagan, so this graphic from today's announcements (https://canvas.ou.edu/courses/31878/wiki) really stuck out to me. I love most of his quotes and have even highly been considering getting one tattooed on me so I definitely loved this animation. I also thought that the graphic about why punctuation matters was pretty funny too. I think that punctuation is under-used in society today and it can cause some pretty funny mixups so I liked reading that graphic about it. I'm not super involved on campus so I unfortunately do not have anything exciting to share about!

Famous Last Words: Surviving Senioritis

Caption: The throwing of the caps at graduation. Link.
I knew senioritis was real because I experienced it in high school. I struggled to want to go to class, I didn't put as much effort into the assignments, etc. However, the teachers in high school were understanding. We were all going off to college, and that's what actually mattered. College senioritis has been an entirely different beast. I graduate in May and it's been the hardest semester of my life to stay motivated in school. I know that graduation is looming quickly, but I start medical school in August so I know the end isn't quite as near as I'd like for it to be. I've been coasting by this semester and admittedly even that has been hard for me. This is the first semester that I've ever turned in late assignments, that I've missed as much class as I have, and that I've just genuinely had no motivation. I've been trying to turn that around in the past couple of weeks but it's been getting hard. I'm hoping knowing that graduation is just 3 weeks away will give me the boost of motivation I need to get me going. After graduation, I will have one class in Norman in May and then it's off to Leipzig, Germany for me all summer to learn more German before starting Medical School. I'm really excited for my summer and I think that is making this semester even harder. I've been putting my assignments off even more than I usually do but I think I've found a way that can help me get through the rest of this semester and fight off the senioritis. I'm a list-maker. I love making lists and checking things off of them. I'm convinced that there is no better feeling than checking things off my list. So, for the last three weeks of the semester, I've become even more of an avid list maker. I've made a list of every assignment that must be completed before I graduate in May and it's been incredibly therapeutic to cross things off of that list. It's made working on the assignments a little easier because I can see my list getting shorter and shorter and that means I'm getting closer and closer to graduating and whisking away to Germany!

Wikipedia Trail: From Grimms' Fairy Tales to National Park Service

Link 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimms'_Fairy_Tales
I started with the Grimms' Fairy Tales. I read a lot of their stories this week and they're the focus of my storybook and I just find them really interesting so I wanted to learn a little more about them.

Link 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Yolen
I decided to explore a topic of somebody that I didn't know. This led me to the author Jane Yolen. She is an author that has written many a books.
Caption: Jane Yolen, the author, Link.
Link 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty
I thought that it was interesting that Jane's wikipedia page contained a link to the statue of liberty because it's hard to see their connection by looking at them separately. I decided to follow this link because I thought it would be an interesting read and that I could stand to learn more about the topic. 

Link 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Park_Service
I admittedly do not know much about the National Park Service, so I decided to follow the link to its' page to learn more about it. I thought it was an interesting read and lead me to a very different ending than my beginning so I thought it was a good end to this trail. 

Learning Challenge: My Health Guide

Caption: Health. Link.

My guide to being happy and healthy! Health isn't always something I've been super keen about. Growing up, my family wasn't very healthy so it's just not something I ever really thought about. However, in the past year, I've started to really focus on my health and I'm a lot happier because of it. One of my biggest health tips is to find something you actually enjoy doing. You will not enjoy exercise if you do not enjoy the type of exercises you are doing. There are TONS of ways to get your exercise in so don't spend your time doing it being unhappy. Find something you enjoy and stick to it! That's similar to my next piece of advice, eat what makes you happy, just not too much of it! You're not going to be able to keep eating things that you don't like, so don't even try. Eat what makes you happy and eat things that you enjoy, but don't eat too much of them and try to balance out what you eat. I always try and work out in the mornings because it sets me up to have a healthier, more productive day. I like to work out with people, because it keeps me accountable. I don't weigh myself because I care more about how I feel, not how a number describes me. 

Growth Mindset: Growth in Training

Caption: A line of triathletes waiting to swim. Link.

I've recently picked up the sport of triathlons. I did my first ever triathlon back in December and I immediately fell in love with them. I've been training and on April 2, I completed my first Half Iron Man, going a total of 70.3 miles. Training was admittedly very hard and I didn't train quite like I had wanted to for it. I was hoping to have trained a bit harder so I would be more prepared. However, there were many times where I wasn't training for the goal of becoming a better athlete and preparing for my triathlons to come. There were many times where when I was training, I was just trying to finish the workout I had set for myself to do. I wasn't working for a larger goal, I was just thinking about accomplishing the task at hand. I think that I could apply growth mindset to my goal of becoming a better triathlete and preparing for my future triathlons. That way, I don't look at the individual workouts as something to get over with, but as stepping stones to the bigger goal at hand.

Google Timer Tech Tip

Today for my tech tip, I learned how to create a timer using google. I rarely use timers now, though I see how they could be incredibly useful and handy. Sometimes, I tell myself I'll devote x amount of time to hardcore studying and then I'll give myself x amount of time as a break. This would be a great way to do this without watching the clock constantly and causing myself to focus on the clock instead of my work. I also think that this could be useful for spending too much time on one problem. Often in my homework assignments, I'll have a long list of problems to solve and I'll tell myself that I'll work for x amount of time on a problem before I'll move onto the next one if I haven't figured it out yet. This would be a great way to ensure that I don't spend too much time trying to figure out one problem to no avail.

Week 13 Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm Hunt Part A

Bibliography: Margaret Hunt, Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, Link.
Caption: An illustration of Hansel and Gretel. Link
Reading Notes: I didn't realize that in the story of Hansel and Gretel, their parents were trying to be rid of the children and had left them in the woods to die on their own. That is pretty heartless and definitely changes my outlook on the story. Hansel was very clever to use stones that would shine in the moonlight though. What a horrible mother to keep sending them into the woods to die! It's too bad about the birds, because Hansel was clever to leave a path. My heart goes out to the dad who loves the children but must be faithful to his wife and go along with what she says. I think Hansel is a really interesting character because he is so smart and cunning. It's very clever of him to trick the witch into thinking that he isn't getting any fatter. I think that it's interesting though that the final trick that saves the kids is done so by Gretel. All along, Hansel is the smarter of the two but ultimately Gretel saves them and I think that's great. I really like this story and think that it would be interesting to write a story based off of the characters of Hansel and Gretel. 

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Week 13 Story Planning: The Big Bad Wolf

Bibliography: D. L. Ashliman, Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales, Link.
Caption: A wolf. Link.

Story Planning: I really liked the wolf character in the Grimm Brothers' stories. I noticed him in (obviously) the Red Riding Hood story and also in the story with the seven children raised by their mother who goes to run some errands and the wolf eats her children while she's away. I liked the wolf because he had such a defined character and this is something I immediately knew I wanted to use in my story. I want to give a backstory of the wolf and hopefully explain why he's the way he is. He is deceitful and hungry, but he didn't know any better because that's the way he was raised. In my story, I intend to tell about the wolf's story. I plan to explain his rough childhood and his parents' stories, because I think that there should be an explanation for why he's not very nice. I think it'll be interesting to give his back story and will make people pity him more, because he always ends up dying in the Grimm Brothers' stories, which I don't think is always fair. This way, the readers will sympathize with the wolf more and will understand his story. I plan to explain how his parents taught him to be deceitful and were never loving, supportive parents so he hates the children with supporting parents (or grandparents, for Little Red). The Wolf was raised with a lot of other siblings (way too many), and his parents never gave him any real attention. His older brothers bullied him and he was always bullied at school too. He didn’t have very many friends because his older brothers were notorious for picking on anyone and everyone. The Wolf was a solitary child who liked gardening and music, but eventually gave both hobbies up as he got older due to his brothers’ bullying.