Week 14 Review

I just finished backing up my blog and storybook and double checking that I have not missed any declarations. This is the last post that I will be doing, because this assignment gets me to my desired A! Woo-hoo!

After looking back at this week's announcements, I stumbled across a very funny video. If you have ever experimented with Google Translate, then you will probably find this pretty funny. The faces that she makes at the funky sentences are hilarious.

Shakespeare According to Google Translate

Week 14 Learning Challenge: The Science of Procrastination

I just watched the video: The Science of Procrastination. This was a very informative video that showed how our motivation is highly dependent on how imminent a reward is perceived to be. That means that we have a tendency to go for immediate rewards over long term rewards. This shows why we cram for tests. We can spend a lot of time procrastinating and not studying for a test because we don't see the immediate pay off a long way out from the test date, but when the time draws nearer and nearer to the test date we start to give the test more value and begin to cram all night long. I have been a victim of this a few times myself. 

One of the ways the video says to combat procrastination is to change your mindset and not say that studying is torture, you should think that you enjoy being productive. This will help you enjoy the process of achieving something and not let you get sucked into procrastination. 

Source: A year from now you will be glad you started today

Week 15 Growth Mindset: Making a Meme

For this challenge, I made a growth mindset meme. This was my first time making a meme and I found Cheezburger to be really easy to use. 

Always try to raise the bar. (Image from Cheezburger)

Week 14 Growth Mindset

Image from cheezburger

This image really captured my attention because of how stealthy that cat is in the background. The message is also really powerful. It is so easy to just give up when things are going bad or you are having a hard time, but if you embrace the challenge then you can gain the confidence to reach your true potential. Here is a diagram of what growth mind-set looks like when compared to a fixed mind-set:

Source: Growth Mind-set vs. Fixed Mind-set

Reading Evaluation

My favorite readings for this course were the PDE versions of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. I also really enjoyed the video options. The Epified Mahabharata was my favorite overall.

I usually focused in on the story I was going to base my storytelling off of in my reading diaries. I would give a brief summary and remind myself in the blog post that I would use this as my basis.

I felt the balance of reading to writing to commenting was great. I personally dislike writing, so it is usually a challenge for me to get motivated to write a story.

I really liked all of the readings that I did, but I didn't always make the time to do both halves of the reading assignments. I would suggest that future students set aside time to try to read both halves in one day. That way they will have a clear idea what they want their weekly story to be about.

Week 14 Reading Diary Continued: Tales of Ancient India

This my take on the second half of my reading of Tales of Ancient India by Edmund Charles Cox.

My favorite stories from this half of the reading include Indra, Soma, and Vishnu.  This should be no surprise to those that have visited my storybook because these are the main characters.

In the story about Indra, it was interesting to see the character Ahi, who was jealous of the praise for Indra, trying to rise up and challenge Indra. Ahi had stolen the Indra's rain and caused a drought, but Indra eventually killed him and returned the life-giving rains to his worshipers.

I never knew that Soma was also a god. I always thought is was just a drink that gave immortality and strength, but this story captures him as a god that steals Vrihaspati's wife, Tara. Brahma forces Soma to return Vrihaspati's wife and then Soma's dominion on Earth was taken away from him for his wrong-doing. I think a good story could use the aspects of how Soma became a curse to men and forced them into madness.

The story of Vishnu was very interesting to me. I like the last portion of it where Bhrigu went to Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu to see which one was the greatest of them. Both Brahma and Shiva were pissed that he would dare ask such a question, but they spared his life. When Bhrigu went to Vishnu, he found him sleeping. Bhrigu tapped Vishnu on the chest and Vishnu was embarrassed at his negligence and apologized profusely. This was all Bhrigu needed to here to make him see Vishnu was the greatest of the three. I will most likely do a retelling of this story for my storytelling post.

Source: Bhrigu talking to Vishnu

Reflections

The semester has been pretty hectic. I have never had an online class before this one, and  I also had never heard of any of the Indian Epic stories. Even so, I feel like I learned quite a bit and I found this course to be really fun. The amount of reading that is required really helps you retain the material.

Most of the writing I do in other classes is technical, so creative writing was a welcome break from the norm. I think my biggest achievement in this course is my storybook. I spent many hours on it and I am really proud of the stories. I never thought of myself as a great writer, but this class helped me towards becoming a better writer. The positive feedback from the other students was really nice and helped give me the motivation to keep writing stories.

Finally, the Learn by H.E.A.R.T. and Growth Mindset sites were great resources that I would like to continue on with.