Elizabeth DiSalvatore - Myth-Folklore

I am currently applying to be a medical scribe. I have to take several typing test in order to get the job. I thought this game would be a fun way to practice my typing accuracy and speed. While the Ninja cat is fun, I did not find it very challenging. Other websites, while not as fun or creative, more accurately test your speed and accuracy. These are the two websites I have enjoyed the most: https://www.ratatype.com/typing-test/test/ http://www.keybr.com  When I was younger I used to play a spongebob typing game. It looked like this: Source: Moby Games It was a lot of fun, and taught me how to type fast.

This week I am reading stories from  Tales of the North American Indians   by Stith Thompson. These are part of the Native American Marriage Tales unit. Like Part A, these stories were just as crazy. I don't know how I am going to write a story this wild! The stories in part B are a bit longer, but still enjoyable. The Dog-Husband   was nothing short of crazy. A girl had a dog, which turned into man secretly at night. Soon enough the girl became pregnant, and her family and the town thought she was knocked up by the dog, not the human form of the dog, and were disgraced. They killed the dog and exiled the girl. Shen then had 5 puppies, which she later discovered could turn into humans. Eventually the town returned to the girl and her children, and the children grew up to run the town. What blows my mind about these stories, is for the most part they don't have a lesson and are simply just crazy stories! I bet if I were to think about some stories that I was told as ...

This week I am reading stories from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson. These are part of the Native American Marriage Tales unit. These stories were wild!!!  There were many parts of these stories that were absurd such as a girl being taking by an eagle and escaping by tying s string of baby bird's wings together to get down to a kayaker who took her home to her family ( The Eagle and Whale Husbands ).  One story, The Fox-Woman  was of a fox that transformed into a wife when he went into this man's house, and she did all the chores. The man caught the fox one day and they decided to live together until the man questioned the fox-woman's oder. The fox was offended and left, never to return. This story was short and would be fun to rewrite later this week. If I were to rewrite it, I would use two different animals and come up with a lesson that is suppose to be learned from the story. Writing a story about an animal/human being with a human is ...

It was a time when men were plentiful and the plain's creatures grew abundantly. However, the leader of the Plains Tribe, Eagle, was oppressing many people of the nearby Mountain tribe. The Mountain tribe were good people, who listened and worshiped the Raven, unlike the majority of the Plain's people. The Raven heard of this enslavement and was angered. He went to Eagle's oldest son, Arrow, and said, "You must convince your father to let the people of the mountains leave his reign. He will refuse, so I will bring down my fist on the Plains people. Then I will rescue the mountain people, and all will know I am the creator and true leader." Arrow did as the Raven commanded of him. Eagle's heart was hardened and he refused to listen to the Raven's threats. Then the Raven appeared to Arrow, "Your father's heart is stubborn and he is refusing to let the mountain people go. So go to him and tomorrow and watch him as he witnesses my first curse on the...

In the past I have always used my phone for a timer. Now I know that I can use Google as a timer. I like to work in time frames. For example, I will work on one class for an hour, then when that time is up work on another class. Having the ability to use a timer on my computer will be nice when I am doing homework or taking a break from studying to watch television.

These stories also all come from  Myths and Legends of Alaska ,  edited by Katharine Berry Judson. The readings from Part B were much shorter than the ones in Part A, but not any less exciting. These stories still discussed creation of people and legends that describe different environmental behaviors. For example, The Boy in the Moon was a story about how the moon and sun was created. I think this story would be a fun one to rewrite because it is short and explains a story of something that it relatable to all people. The Wolves and the Deer is a story about why deer are now afraid of wolves. There was a feast and they both say each other laugh. The wolves notices that the deer had no teeth and the deer noticed that the wolves had sharp teeth. This made the wolves eager to eat the deer and the deer afraid of wolves. This story was short, and the dialogue was comical. Alaskan Moon Source: Pixabay Images

The stories I read this week come from Myths and Legends of Alaska , edited by Katharine Berry Judson. The first four stories were all parts of   The Raven Myth . This was a very interesting creation story. Man came from a pea pod on the beach and the creator was a man that had the ability to turn into a Raven. The Raven created Woman and all the animals. The Raven taught the people how to sleep and eat. He also taught them about each animal, and which to be careful of. More men fell fro the pea pod, but he took them to a different place and taught them how to hunt. These stories were very entertaining and a fun legend. I would love to research this legend more! I am not sure I would want to write my own story based on this because it is so long and complex, but I loved reading it and I can't wait to research it some more. The Raven seems to be the "God Like" creator in most of the stories. One story, The Flood  , is a story about when the Raven got angry and decid...

There are lots of areas of my life where I experience Growth Mindset a part from school. Perhaps the area where I experience the most is my internship at St. Andrew's United Methodist church. I have been interning here for 3 and a half years now. I work with the youth group, 7th to 12th graders. They are a blast. I have so much fun investing in their lives. They have all become such good friends of mine. This job is not always easy, for I am often having to help students through rough patches in school, family, work, etc. I enjoy being there for my students, but it does get mentally exhausting. I am challenged to show empathy and help students through a variety of issues. I have learned a lot about what type of help works and what doesn't. I have also learned how to communicate efficiently with students and their parents, for they are different. These skills that I will use in my future profession in healthcare. Source: Meme Staff 

I have backed up my blog. This was a good skill to know, for I was wondering how to do that. I plan on going and backing up my Storybook on Google sites so that I do not lose all my work if something were to happen! As I was exploring the past week's announcements I was surprised to see how many people have already finished the course by looking at the progress meeter! I also love reading the news tweets. I have not been up to date on Twitter lately, but I would like to use it more. This week is Homecoming week (Oct. 23-28) and there are tons of activities this week for OU students. Below is a graphic full of information you might be able to include in this week's announcements: CAC Homecoming Reunion Week 

Attention Readers!!! You can now check the weather while reading my blog! Click my side-bar and the forecast is shown in the top left corner! How fun! If you want to add the forecast to your blog, click here:   There are several designs that you can choose from. I went with a simple blue one. It should look like this: Source: My Screenshots

Authors Note: This week I read tons of  Nigerian Folk Tales . Most of these stories came from  Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria  by Elphinstone Dayrell. I found these stories to be very engaging, for most of them provided and explanation of why something is the way it is today, like thunder and lighting for example. I would like to write my own folk tale to explain something, using the models of several Nigerian folk tales. I did some research and found a page called  Gateway Africa .  African folk tales usually have a moral point to them or are used to educate, entertain, or explain an animal behavior. In animal tales, a certain animal would always have the same character role in each story as to limit confusion. For example, the Hare is always the trickster, while the Hyena was always being tricked by the Hare. I decided to write a story explaining how the hyena got its laugh. Long ago in the Sahara Desert lived a family of royal hippos. These hippos live...

For this weeks reading, I decided to explore readings from the Congo. These stories all came from Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort which is a collection of stories collected in the late 19th century by R.E. Bennett. These stories were full of motifs and many stories involved the wife as the main character. One of my favorites was How the Gazelle Got Married . Many of this tales from the Congo were about discovering the Princess's name in order to marry her. In this story, a dog and his master try over and ever to discover their names. It was entertaining and a fun read! The Wicked Husband was also a fun one, but boy was it wild! A husband got mad at his wife, and took her to the woods and cut off her arms and legs and left her there. Eventually, the King heard rumor of this and ordered all the husbands to bring their wives to him. When the husband could not they had him killed and then cooked both him and his wife over the fire. MORBID!!! My favorite story from this secti...

As of right now I have 214 points, which means I am on track to earn an A! I would like to do more extra credit in the upcoming weeks now that I do not have to worry about graduate school applications! My schedule is working pretty well, so I do not feel as though I need to change anything.  I am satisfied with the process I have made thus far. I enjoy the weekly readings the most. I am not the best writer, so I struggle with the story writing assignments. I also enjoy reading others stories! Everyone has done such a great job and is so creative!  For the second half of the semester, I want to complete at least 4 of the extra credit assignments each week so that I am not stressed at the end of the semester. I also want to work ahead on my storybook project. Overall, I am excited to see where the rest of the semester takes us! Motivation Source: Pinterest  

Overall, the quality of comments and feedback is very good. The comments are helpful and constructive and I believe I have benefitted from feedback. In other class, I do not feel as though comments were helpful, for most students were just completing them for credit, so I appreciate these comments that are very helpful. The most helpful comments are the ones that say "what is you did...", for they provide another idea that I can incorporate in a particular story or a later story.  I have enjoyed reading other's stories and projects. Everyone's work is do diverse and creative. I do believe that I have given some helpful feedback, however, there are times where I read a post and find it hard to find anything wrong with it, so I end up telling the author what I felt their strong points are.  I do feel like I am meeting students by connecting with them on our introduction blog post. Surprisingly enough, I know a few people in here from other classes and campus ...

Looking Back I love the readings! I enjoy that they are from all over the world. My minor is in international studies, so I have loved this opportunity to use and build on my past knowledge. I find it hard to choose what stories to write about, because I enjoy them all! I could read stories from different regions all day. I do find it helpful to do some research prior to reading from a region so I can better understand the culture. Looking back on the readings, it has been fun to compare and contrast stories from different regions. A lot of stories have many elements in common. My favorite readings so far have probably been the Bengali stories and Nigerian Folk tales. The Bengali stories were fun to research, and I had little knowledge of that region, and it was nice to learn about that culture. The Nigerian Folk Tales were a lot of fun because they describe an environmental or animal behavior, which is always entertaining. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on my storybook project....

I am continuing to read Nigerian Folk Tales in order to obtain a better understanding of them for my story writing next week!  These stories come from  Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria  by Elphinstone Dayrell. I have thoroughly enjoyed this Nigerian Unit! These include many animal tales, which are always some of my favorite. I love that these stories tell what animals have a certain behavior, like why hippos live in water or why worms live underground . The tale of the worms is a story about ants vs. worms, where the ants lost and were scared of all living things so they retreated under ground. Sometime tales will have several titles because they tell of many animal behaviors. One story told of why elephants have small eyes, why worms are bling, and is also referred to as The Elephant and the Tortoise.  Perhaps my favorite story to read an animal behavior that was explained was Why a Hawk Kills Chickens.    This story was full of personality, attri...

For this week's tech tip I decided to test out my typing skills! I began by taking a test on Key Hero  to test my accuracy and speed. The first time I took the test, I typed at a speed of about 53 words per minute with 90% accuracy. The second test I tried was Typing Test . On this test I typed about 63 words per minute, with a total of 4 errors, which placed my adjusted speed to 59 words per minute. These stats placed me in the category of "fluent typer". I liked this test better, because it allowed you to continue typing if you made a mistake, then adjusted your words per minute speed at the end. This is more like typing in everyday life, because if you make a mistake, you aren't forced to correct it before moving on like in test 1. While I feel as though my typing skills are pretty decent, I am a believer that there is always room for improvement. When I was younger I had a spongebob typing game, and I thought it was such a fun game. I believe that playing tha...

Source: Pixabay   This week I read tons of Nigerian Folk Tales . Most of these stories came from Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell. I found these stories to be very engaging, for most of them provided and explanation of why something is the way it is today, like thunder and lighting for example. I would like to write my own folk tale to explain something, using the models of several Nigerian folk tales. To learn more about African folk tales, I did some research and found a page called Gateway Africa . African folk tales usually have a moral point to them or are used to educate, entertain, or explain an animal behavior. Culture and religion is very intertwined in African culture. Stories reflect a cultural identity and storytelling is used to restore pride in a community. Different ethnic groups have different ceremonies for storytelling, which creates a filling of belonging. Folktales have been a way to help explain the environment to children. In an...

I have loved the stories from this unit! These stories come from  Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria  by Elphinstone Dayrell. These folk stories are interesting because the tend to tell a story of why something is the way it is today. The first one I read,  The Lightning and the Thunder   was an a story about a mother sheep (thunder) and her son (lightning). This story explained why there is thunder and lightning and why it all occurs in the sky. This story might be one that I choose to rewrite with other characters. I enjoyed  The Affair of the Hippopotamus and the Tortoise .  This story explained why the hippo lives in water. I would enjoy writing a story that explains why something is the way it is today. A lot of these stories involve a Hippopotamus, so when I write my story this week, I believe that I will use Hippos. I am not sure what reason I am going to try to explain via folktale, but I do know that hippos will be involved. Another st...