Growth Mindset - Meme Galore - Week 2

Image from Automotivator

For this assignment I created a MEME about growth mindset. On the image I wrote. I know I am not the best, but I am still learning. It is a picture of a puppy bulldog... My favorite animal! I think the idea of this meme is particularly powerful for people in grade school, but is also highly relevant to people in college and outside of school in the work place. Day in and day out we see people with amazing talents and abilities, but I often find myself forgetting that it probably took them many years of hard work and practice to get there. I think young school kids in elementary school up to high school should be continually reminded that no you are not the best, but guess what? No one started out that way! You become the best by working and working hard. As I discussed in my first Growth mindset post. The problem right now is that we are not encouraging students to understand that we cannot judge ourselves based on others around us. Everyone has their own way of learning and their own pace to do it. I wish we could reform public schooling and have a more individualistic approach to learning. These kids are not machines, they are individuals that need individual attention and learning options. The Growth Mindset project seems to be all about this learning style. If I could say something to kids that were going through school right now I would tell them... “I know it sucks, but just keep trying. Challenge yourself everyday and you will make it!”

Reading Diary B: Public Domain Ramayana

Public Domain Ramayana: Table of Contents

I am going to try a new style of writing while reading the stories. Instead of summing up just a couple of stories I am going to sum them all up. It will make the stories make more sense when I go back for notes.

22. Bharata performs funeral rites for his father. While both Rama and his other brother are still exiled. Bharata cannot go seek his brother until this is done.
23. Rama is found by Bharata in Chitrakuta.
24. Bharata is unsuccessful in his attempt to persuade Rama to come home. Instead Bharata takes Rama sandals to represent Rama while he is gone. The sandals are able to represent Rama because they have touched his feet. In the end Bharata decides not to return to the kingdom and to wait for Rama to return too.
25. Rama and Sita and Lakshmana visit the sages Atri. Sita tells the sage’s wife her life story. The wife of sage gave blessings to Rama and Sita and Lakshmana.
26. Sita was abducted by Viradha, a crazy demon!, and Rama and Lakshmana go to battle with it. Viradha is actually a gandharva called Tumburu.
28. A rakshasha, Shurpanakha, falls in love with Rama. Rama does not share the same feelings Shurpanakha feels towards him. Rama tells her his wife is Sita! Rama then tells Shurpanakha to hit up his brother Lakshman because he has no wife... Win Win?
29. Shurpanakha is upset about the rejection she faced from Rama. She is so madden that she and her brother attack Rama and the gang. Rama was able to push the attackers back.
30. Again Shurpanakha and her brother attack Rama and again the hero defeats them. To end it Rama shot Khara with a blazing arrow of death! Sita was pleased by her husband.
32. The story changes pace. Maricha gave advice to Ravana who was plotting to abduct Sita. Maricha’s advice was to not mess with Rama. Maricha agreed to help Ravana kidnap Sita. Maricha was transformed into a golden deer and roamed the woods near Rama, waiting to be seen by Sita.

33. Rama, Sita and the Golden Deer

33. Sita sees the deer and of course wants it. So, she send her husband to retrieve it. Rama left Site with Lakshmana.
34. The sneaky sneak golden deer. It turns out the Maricha is not only able to shape shift, but he is also able to imitate the voice of Rama! How devastating for Sita. When Maricha returns to where Sita is he cries out for help. Sita wants Lakshaman to go help Rama, but Lakshamana tells Sita is is a trick of demons.
35. Sita and Maricha are both convincing enough to persuade Lakshaman to leave Sita’s side. When he does Ravana changes into a sage to get close to Sita. Ravana eventually sized Sita and carried her away :-(
36. Ravana captured Sita and they flew away in a car. Sita is smart and drops her jewelry as they fly away so that Rama may follow them. Brahma foresees the death of Ravana and rejoices because his plan to have Rama kill Ravana is coming to light!
37. Ravana was to force Sita to have sex with him, but because of a curse he cannot. So now he must convince Sita to have sexual intercourse, but she refuses thinking of the good time between her and Rama.
38. Rama finally finds out that Sita is gone. Lakshamana and Rama return to the hut and are told by Jatayu what happened.
40. Rama learn more about Sita from a Rakshasha. They head to Sugriva where they find a hermitagee. A woman named Shabari has been told a long time ago that Rama would come to her. The place was caught in a time warp, The woman ask Rama to preform funeral rites and burn her to flames, now that her task is complete.

Week 2 Review

For this weeks review I chose to read the course announcement for Friday, August 28th

Friday is my favorite day and I am happy that we all made it through the first week of classes. I chose to do this course announcement because it featured a quote by Dr. Seuss. He is literally one of my favorite authors ever. “Oh the places you’ll go” is my favorite story by Dr. Seuss. Below is a burning man video where they had participants read the story out loud! It is a lot of fun!!! :-)

Youtube: Oh, the Places You’ll Go

In addition to Dr. Seuss I like the Indian Words in English post. I learned that bangle meaning ring-bracket or anklet comes from the Hindi word meaning glass bracelet. I love Indian culture and clothing is one aspect that makes that is especially intriguing to me, especially wedding attire! 

Storybook Topics - Week 2

I am really in live with the idea of doing something with Karma. I love this topic in Indian culture and it is so unique to me that I think it would be a mistake to choose a different topic. So I definitely want to start here. For my storybook favorites I read the Karma Times, which I enjoyed very much. A second topic I would like to incorporate is Reincarnation! I also find this topic very interesting. Again I read the storybook titled Reincarnation in Indian Epics, and I thoroughly enjoyed the storybook.

I am very interested in attempting to ties in various social media platforms, even if they are just for fun, into my storybook project. My thought is one page could be twitter, one Instagram or Snapchat, one Facebook, and one a blog. Maybe these different social media accounts could have the same user “Karma” or Rama!

Topics:

#1 - Karma’s Social Media Adventure
In this topic I would like to explore some events where Karma came into play for India Epic characters. I know Karma as a “you get what you give” thing, but I want to learn more about it. My question is can I turn any story from the Ramayana or Comics or other readings into a storybook story... can I simply inject Karma into the story even if it was not an original part of the story? If so, I think it will make my storybooks funnier, but not as adhering to the original story. You can see from above that i have already looked into previous storybook project about Karma and I think they are really fun! I think in my mind this is the project I really want to do, so I hope it can work out, but I think I can make it work.

http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/pde-ramayana-dasharathas-karma.html

#2 - Rama’s Tweets from Ramayana
For this topic I would like to set up a twitter or other social media for Rama as the posting entity. I think it would be interesting to read his thoughts in a tweet about his adventures in the Ramayana. For week 2 readings I read the Ramayana Public Domain version and I really enjoyed the readings. For this project I would like to pull from multiple versions of the Ramayana, but I would want to follow a story. I want to storybook to be a cohesive overall story about Ramayana, this may include leaving less significant parts out?!? I’m not sure. It would be fun to have other characters tweeting like Rama’s wife and his father.

#3 - This is getting hard ha ha. Reincarnations of ...
For this topic I would like to talk about the reincarnations of a character from the stories from Ramayana... probably Rama. Again using the social media aspect I think it would be exciting to have the character talk about their experience being reincarnated. I am not sure how I would do this project, but I love the subject of reincarnation. This would definitely require some outside reading to better understand reincarnation.

#4 - Comic Books
I really like the new addition of the comic books and I would like to add them into a storybook project, however I am a little lost in thought about how to do that... Do you have any suggestions? I may hop over to the library and just check them out for some inspiration. I think it would be fun to use the stories from the comic books. I wonder if they are set up in an unusual way with their own particular speech use and images? Maybe for comics I could compare Gods/ Goddesses of India!

James: the Unfortunate Sewer Creature - Storytelling Week 2

Rama Fights Maricha and Subahu

James lived alone in the repugnant sewers beneath London. His face was scarred by a lifetime of acne and his heart was scarred by a lifetime of sadness. His Monday started out like every other day he had experienced for the last twelve years... alone. James lived on the outcast of society and longed for a sense of belonging and fitting in. When he felt particularly lost he would look through grated sewer drains at candy shops, while children filled their pockets with sweets. He would also watch old man Bentley as he mowed his lawn every Sunday morning. James had never caused harm to anyone, in fact he had never touched a human before. 

One day while traveling his sewer James herd someone’s footsteps grow closer and closer until they stopped just around the corner. The footsteps were small and steady. It had been twelve years since he had met someone and he was a bit scared! A plump little girl in a pink outfit appeared behind the corner. Upon seeing James she immediately pulled out her magical pepper spray and began to assault James with her weapon. With eyes burning James frightfully ran away from the monster that had entered his sewer. The plump little girl followed closely using her magnified death screams to pierce James’s ears.

James ran as fast as he could down the hollowed sewer lines, but blinded and deaf he tripped over a boulder and was killed instantly when he ran into the hard concrete wall. The little girl returned to the surface to be rewarded by the community for her defeat of the scary monster that lurked in the sewers.

Author’s Note:
This week I chose to write in a style of storytelling that allowed me to reverse the roles of the characters in the original story. I also chose to keep some characteristics from the original story that I thought would help connect the stories. My main goal for this story was to make the character roles reversed so the character they was perceived as evil or bad, would in reality be a genuinely good character, even though his appearance may suggest otherwise. The original story is about two princes that go into a forest and kill a witch. The brothers are then reward for their actions with magical weapons that they latter use to kill more witches. I changed the story by making the witch character “James” a morally good character and undeserving of death. However, the ending for both the witches and James were the same. For this storytelling post I chose to use the image posted with the original story I read. It not only depicts the actions of Rama, but it is also really well illustrated to the ‘bad’ witches. Even though my story is different from the original and reverses the rolls of the characters I think the image help illustrate that 'the other’ is almost always viewed in a negative light, usually without given a chance to show humanity.

Bibliography
Donald A. Mackenzie, Thataka, 1913.

Reading Diary A: Public Domain Ramayana

Public Domain Ramayana: Table of Contents

For the next two weeks I am going to be reading the Public Domain Version of Ramayana.

Dasharatha’s Sons

Dasharatha was sad because he did not have any children between his three wives. He preformed a horse sacrifice to the gods so that he may have a son. The horse, accompanied with a ‘spiritual leader’ were let loose on the last month of the calendar to roam for a year. The sacrifice ceremony took place near a river and many elite attended. There were twenty-one sacrificial posts set up for the other animals beside the horse. The ‘chief queen’ killed the horse with a short sword/ blade while the spiritual leaders chanted a sacred utterance. The wives of Maharajah sat beside the horse’s body... an important part of the ritual. During the ritual pieces of flesh were offered to the sacred fire pits. Dasharatha gave gifts to the brahmins. The gods gave him four sons.

Dasharatha’s Aswamedha 

Thataka

The two princes were on their way to battle led by a sage. They traveled through a terrible forrest that which lived a rakshasa named Thataka. Rama, the beautiful prince, challenged her to battle and she threw boulders at the princes. The princes did not want to kill her because she was female. She turned invisible and they then tried to kill her. They succeed. Rama was rewarded with celestial weapons. The weapons said they were Ramas servants.

Rama Goes into Exile

Rama went to his wife and said he must leave without her. Sita said a wife must accompany him to the forrest. She would not be happy without him. If he leaves her then she will die. Rama thought of the harshness of the forrest, heat, cold, hunger, etc. He would not allow sita to come with him. Again she said she wanted to go with him, and she refused to be separated with him. Lakshmana, Rama’s brother, now also wanted to go with Rama. Rama consented to them coming with him. Maharajah wanted to send food and treasure with Rama, but he refused to take them. Sita was appalled by having to now wear common clothes, when she was used to wearing fine clothing.

Tech Tip: Blogger Template

Howdy All:

Today I decided to do the Tech Tip on Blogger Templates. I have already messed around with the blogger templates before, but today I finally decided on a design for my blog. I chose a golden yellow wheat background. It reminds me a lot of my home town in Kansas where we had many thousands of miles of beautiful rolling golden wheat, among other things. I hope you find this background to be as comforting as I do! I’m excited to see everyone else’s blogging templates as this class really begins.