Elizabeth DiSalvatore - Myth-Folklore

I enjoyed this assignment, for constructive criticism is something that I think everyone needs to practice learning from. I found Eight things students should do when they make a mistake   interesting. I think all of the information was relevant to students, and should be taught to us our freshman year. Topics like "Balance is key" and "Find a support group" are critical things to learn starting your freshman year, or even before in high school. Perhaps my favorite piece of advice from this unit was "Proceed with kindness". It suggested that we talk to ourselves the way we would give advice to a friend. I liked this because I feel like we are all often too hard on ourselves. I also enjoyed The Psychology of Comparison and How to Stop it.   We live in a world that is constantly comparing each other, especially on social media. It is hard to stay focused on your own goals and not feel as though you are not good enough because you don't get as many l...

For my project I think I am going to go the Portfolio route. I am interested in too many different areas to narrow my scope. I am excited to read about many different cultures and write my own stories! I love studying other cultures and will probably write a story based on a different culture for each post. Below are the four topics that have caught my eye. I have studied abroad in Italy twice now, and my family is very Italian. Therefore, I think I would enjoy writing at least one of my stories based on Italian culture. I have found several of the Italian Popular Tales interesting! I think it would be fun to combine several of the popular tales into one story! I had so much fun writing Trickster stories that I would like to include another one of those in my project. For this story I think I will base it off of S tories from the Congo.  As I said last week, I have been very interested in that region since I recently watched a movie based in that region. I would enjoy researc...

The Shark, the Sting Ray, and the Manatee Once upon a time, a shark was caught in a fishing net. The greedy shark belly rolled and belly rolled but only seemed to make his situation worse. In despair, he let out a large sigh knowing that he indeed was stuck. A charming Sting Ray came swimming by. "Sting Ray, help me out of this net would ya?" yelled the Shark. "Why would I do that?" the Sting Ray yelled in response. "You always bully people of my kind and act as though you own these waters." "Oh dear, I am so sorry you feel that way. I promise I do not mean to come off that way. If you help me out, I promise I will be more kind and leave all of you and your buddies alone for as lone as I live!" the Shark pleaded. The gluttonous shark wailed and besought help from the Sting Ray. The charismatic Sting Ray was too easy to win over. Once the Shark said that he would be more kind and leave him and his buddies alone, the Sting Ray foolishly be...

While I enjoyed all the stories, perhaps the one that was most engaging to me was the Trickster story. Trickster stories are fun and show a lot of personality! With my minor in IAS I love reading about different cultures, and I think that it will be fun to compare and contrast Trickster stories from different regions and cultures. The Tiger, The Braham, and the Jackal  was a fun read from a famous folktale of India. I enjoyed how descriptive this story was. I could picture the emotions of the character. For example, when the Braham was nervous the author describe him as "his knees knocked together with fright" and I could picture the Brahams stature. I think it would be fun to write a Trickster story, and I might try it out this week! The Tiger, The Braham, and the Jackal Source: Illustration by John Batten   Since I was a kid, I have always loved Fairy Tales. They are full of adventure and there are many different versions based on culture and region! I enjoyed the ...

I enjoyed skimming through many units for this assignments. There are so many options it is going to be hard to pick one! I am interested in reading some Italian Popular Tales due to my heritage and the amount of time I have spent studying in Italy. The unit over Saints and Animals also sounds interesting to me. I am not catholic, and have always found the idea of Saints hard to understand, so I would like to see what I would learn through units in this story. I also love animals, so why not read some stories that use animals for explanation. Lastly, I enjoyed the unit over The Congo.  Recently, I watched a new movies called Tarzan - the one with real people, not the Disney one - and it took place in the Congo. This movie provoked my interested in the historical era of this film. I started to research this time frame for fun, and I found it very interesting. I would like to see what folklore is out there about this era! Tarzan Source: Flickr  images