Reading Notes: Adam and Eve, Part B

(Treasure Chest; Photo from Pixabay)

Story 1: Suicide and Salvation by Rutherford H. Platt

-Talks about how Adam and Eve beg to br brought out of the dangerous place they are in

-Uses some long dialogue parts, but it doesn't help bring the characters to life; I think shorter dialogue would have been better in this instance

-Adam and Eve committed suicide to try and stop suffering

-God explains they were treated well & with grace, until they decided to break his commandment

-Adam and Eve beg several times to be set free

-God keeps a very calm and non-empathetic demeanor the whole time

-God then says he will take all the suffering and save Adam because he had admitted his wrong doing and asked to be forgiven

-The story doesn't cover much plot; I believe it could place more emphasis on the commandments; I think this story could easily be brought more to life, which is why I was so drawn to it

Story 2: Worship and Blessing by Rutherford H. Platt

-Adam and Eve make an offering to God

-They used their blood as a sacrifice on the Alter

-They admitted their transgressions

-Less dialogue

-3rd person point of view

-Uses a lot of repetition when explaining what Adam did, and so God will then do too

-Adam was told his time was not up

-Adam made his first of many offerings to come


*Tried a new storytelling method: bullet points. I haven't decided if I am a fan of it yet or not, but I am trying to just try out new strategies each week until I find one I like*

Reading Notes: Adam and Eve, Part A

(Adam and Eve stained-glass window; Photo from Pixabay)

Reading Notes Week 3:

Story: The Fall, by Michelangelo

This story has always been interesting to me; even growing up in a Catholic school when we would read it.  This story has a lot of dialogue, and stuck out to me because I could make a huge plot twist in the story when I retell my own. The serpent is depicted as sly, deceitful, and convincing. Eve is depicted as very easy to push-over, and did not stand her grounds when she knew God had said not to eat the fruit.  The story places more emphasis on the dialogue AFTER Adam and Eve eat the fruit than emphasis on dialogue leading up to them eating the fruit. For my retelling of the story I would want to make Adam the one who gave in to eating the forbidden fruit as a plot twist to the well-known story. I would also like to change the point of view to be first person point of view, Adam speaking, instead of third person point of view.

Story: Creation of Eve, by William Blake

This story had less dialogue and more definitions/explanations.  It discussed how men and women are different, and why the formation of a woman is much more complicated.  This story used a very casual tone of voice, and also showed that everything God hoped women would not be, they ended up being in some way, more or less. This story is from a 3rd person point of view.

Story: Adam and Eve in Paradise

This was my favorite story to read because of the concept: the seven portals to pass in order to arrive in Heaven or Paradise.  This story did an incredible job of breaking up each portal and giving a good description on what needed to be done in order to get through the portal. The point of view is 3rd person, I think it would be cool to make it first person. The story is very well organized in chronological order of the portals.

Topic Research: Popular Princesses.. But French!

(Princesses; Photo from Pexels)

Story Idea 1:

For my first story idea, I think I could focus on a main theme of Princess Weddings.  If you have seen the movie Bride Wars, then I think I could do a fairytale story version of this movie.  It is about two best friends who want the same venue and day for their wedding, and they get engaged at the same time.  This would be a very interesting romantic comedy that could entail two french princesses getting engaged and married at the same time and the other princesses taking sides.  This type of storytelling would have majority dialogue elements to make the story really come to life.

Story Idea 2:

My second idea for a story of French Princesses would be the princesses competing in a French cook-off.  This could let me tie in the cookbook idea, and say that each princess was focused on making one meal, and give the symbolism of that meal.  This would allow for me to tie two subjects into one. This storytelling technique would be from the 3rd person perspective looking in and talking about all the Princesses.

Story Idea 3:

My last story comes from the story of Blondie, Bonne-Biche and Beau-Minon.  This story reminds me of the movie A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff as the main actress.  I could do a story about how a young french princess lost her mom and her dad had to remarry; the dad then remarries a horrible lady who is awful to the daughter.  Then, the dad dies too and the young princess is left alone with her "evil step-mom", as she would call it.  Then, in the end, things turn around for the young french princess.  This is my least favorite idea because it is a tad generic, but I could see it coming to life if I made a few dramatic plot twists. 

Sources researched:

D'Aulnoy, Madame. SurLaLune Fairy Tales: The Fairy Tales of Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy, 

Blondie, Bonne-Biche and Beau-Minon.

Learning Challenge: The Jar of Goodness

(Inspirational Happiness Quote; Photo from Needpix)

For this learning challenge, I am going to make it a two week process. My plan is to try the Jar of Happiness Challenge.  This challenge sounds simple: to write down something that makes you happy every day and put it in a jar; then, at the end of the week, read the things you have listed, and it will help with happiness levels.  My plan is to write what made me happy each morning; I have decided to write them in the morning, discussing what made me happy the previous day, because I feel as though if I have a really tough day, then my thoughts and judgements will be clouded.  On the other hand, if I give myself time to sleep off my bad day, I will have a much more positive outlook and be able to fully contribute to my happiness jar. I can't wait to update you guys on how it goes!

Tech Tip: Duck Duck Go

To begin, I think Duck Duck Go is a great alternative to Google.  I have never heard of this search engine, but the main thing that draws me in is the fact that it doesn't keep your personal information. It is also super helpful to do the Bangs; I wanted to see Pinterest boards about cooking recipes, so I tried to "Bang" it, and the results were incredible.  The pluses of using this search engine is the safety of your personal information, and the results are almost similar to the ones you would be given from Google or another search engine. I have never used it before, like I mentioned earlier, so I did not happen to see any minuses.  These tech tip activities are so cool because they allow me to become more technologically advanced, and I quite enjoy it!

Feedback Strategies

Feedback is a good thing!!

(Thumbs Up; Image from Pixabay)

Article 1: Be a Mirror: Give Readers Feedback That Fosters a Growth Mindset

As a whole, I saw the title of this article and instantly wanted it to be one of the ones I looked at because of the positive title; the title drew me in and had me wanting to know more about how a mirror could be used to symbolize the structure of feedback. There were two main points that stuck out to me in this article: focus on what the reader is doing (not what is missing), and take yourself out of the feedback.  The first one about focusing on what the reader is doing is so important because I feel like we can all get caught up throwing out all the negative things that are missing or need to be added and that prevents us from seeing the bigger picture.  Secondly, I am guilty of not taking myself out of the feedback. I often find myself saying "I like how you..." or "I enjoyed this part...", and I now understand why that is not beneficial feedback because it takes the focus off of the story and the writer and instead, inserts me into the focus of the conversation.

Article 2: Why Do So Many Managers Avoid Giving Praise?

I chose to discuss this article because of all the bar graphs included; I found them to be very shocking for what I would've expected. I had the kind of manager who, as discussed in the article, was "quick to criticize and slow to praise".  This caused a lot of problems, but I now can understand the thoughts coming from my manager; she was so focused on the negative thoughts that she forgot the good things she wanted to say, which led me to view her in a negative light. I feel as though this article helps us change perspective that while we do want to give constructive criticism, we also want it to be positive and not discouraging.

For a quick example here, I used to be the assistant manager for a store I worked at.  My manager avoided conflict at all costs; in exchange for the avoidance, she had me deal with the difficult situations.  I was frustrated that the duties were getting passed on to me to relay negative feedback and comments because of her avoidance, but, I then realized I began to act the same way.  I began to just tell the feedback to one of my close co-workers and ask him to spread the news.  I twas a poor strategy, but I feel like in our day in age we run away from giving criticism just as much as we run away from getting criticism. 

Famous Last Words: Surviving Syllabus Week

(Assignment picture; Photo by The Blue Diamond Gallery)

Hello everyone!! I just recently finished the most stressful syllabus week... ever! Typically the stigma behind syllabus week is few assignments, lots of free time, lots of social time, and lots of time to sleep. All of these were not the case for me; each of my classes started getting deep into the material on the first day of classes and assigning homework due the next class period. I found myself incredibly stressed, building several to-do lists, and simply not thinking there was enough time in the day.  My thoughts for this week are to stay ahead of the game; I stayed ahead in this class, for the most part, but I need to continue to do that as well as in my other classes.  I let all my work build up until Sunday night, the dreaded "Sunday Scaries".  I was so overwhelmed with all the work I had to complete; I thought I wouldn't get it all done. This week will be different because I am going to use my time wisely and make sure I get things done ahead of when they should be turned in to relieve my stress at the end of each week. Another suggestion I am trying out this week for myself is to limit my amount of social time and time on my phone unless it is beneficial to the work I need to be getting done.  Last week I watched a lot of Netflix, and stayed up late with friends, which then caused me to sleep in more than I have ever slept in.  This week I need to focus on physical and mental health, to assure myself I am capable of all the things coming my way. Overall, senior year of college can be all fun and games, but you need to make sure you have time to settle down and get stuff done at the same time, otherwise, it will not be all fun and games.

Week 2 Story: Beauty and the Lonely Boy

Once upon a time there was three brothers: John, Jake, and Jack.  John and Jake were twins, while Jack was the youngest, who always got picked on and told he would never find love.  One rainy afternoon, the boys were bored and asked their father to run out and grab a few things at the store.  Their father then mentioned that he had to go to a meeting today to look for potential wives for his boys to marry; the twins immediately listed off qualifications they wanted for their potential wives: pretty, pretty, and pretty.  The younger brother, Jack, simply said he wanted a woman who could be his best friend, and that looks were not of major concern to him.

After hearing all the boys' requests, the father went out to find potential wives for his sons.  While at the gathering, the father ran into several girls he believed would be the perfect fit for his twins, but he could not seem to find one for Jack.  After trading information with two young women for his twins, the father, discouraged, began to head home to tell his unfortunate news to Jack: he could not find anyone for him at the gathering.  On the father's way home, he ran into a pumpkin carriage. Inside the carriage he found a fairy god-mother, and a young woman covered in rags complaining about a lost shoe.  They offered the father a ride home, and the father accepted.  Upon his arrival home, he told the twins they would be meeting their future wives the next day, and could not seem to find Jack.  After several hours of searching, the father had found Jack down the street from their house at a shoe store.  When asked why he had wandered off from home, Jack said he was visited by a fairy god-mother who told him to go purchase one single glass-slipper.  After purchasing this slipper, Jack walked outside and saw the same woman that was in the pumpkin carriage, the same woman who had given his father a ride home.  The woman slowly pulled up her dress to show she was wearing only one shoe, and that the shoe Jack was holding was the missing one.

Jack quickly bent down to put the shoe on, which was a moment that changed his life forever.  Right when the shoe was placed on this woman, she immediately turned into a beautiful princess wearing a beautiful white wedding gown.  Jack had always believed in love at first sight, and this was it, the woman in front of him was going to be his best friend, the woman he wanted to be with for the rest of his life.

One thing quickly led to another, and the young woman agreed to be Jack's future wife.  Shocked by the success of their younger brother's findings, the twins were reluctant to support the relationship because of their own jealousy.  The disapproval of his brothers was not of any concern to Jack; the only thing he was concerned about was that he was happy and had found his best friend.  It goes to show you that the best things in life come out of nowhere; the best things in life come from listening to your mind and following your heart.

Jack and the young woman lived happily ever after!

(Glass Slipper; Photo from Wikipedia Commons)

Author's Note: Hello everyone! I took the original story of Beauty and the Basilisk, and the main change I made was the gender of the main characters.  The original story had three girls, the mom went out to look for the things they wanted, and the overlooked sister got traded for a rose to a basilisk.  My version of the story was three boys who all asked for wives to bring home, except for one who asked for a best friend.  This added a special extra romance twist to the story; it makes for a twist on Cinderella as well.

*This is my first time doing creative writing, so bare with me!*

Bibliography: Story source: Beauty and the Basilisk from The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis (1922).

Maddie's Topic Brainstorm

Hello everyone, below is a list of my brainstorming ideas for 4 possible storybook projects! 

(Brainstorm; Image from the Blue Diamond Gallery)

Idea #1: Goddesses

I am very interested in the idea of goddesses because they were the stories I grew up reading as a kid.  As a kid I read all about Greek Goddesses and found it so interesting, so now I think it would be beneficial for me to learn about the goddesses of a different culture in order to branch out a bit with my knowledge.  I would like to learn how other cultures' goddesses compare to the Greek goddesses: what similarities they have, what differences they have, and whether or not one culture influences another culture in any way.  I would like to tell stories about goddesses sticking together, sort of like a girl group in the modern day: dinner parties, gossip, drama, etc.. It would be fun to bring the goddesses into the modern world with technology as well.  I would tell these stories with a lot of dialogue between all the goddesses; I would need to research which ones were more likely to be friends than others and all the relationships between them. An area I would be most interested in exploring specifically would be the Roman Goddesses.  I found this website that talks about some of the goddesses; the website has a lot of valuable information. I think the Roman mythology would be interesting to see all the counterparts to the Greek goddesses.

Idea #2: Mermaids

As a kid I always believed that mermaids were real; I had myself convinced. I think a project about mermaids would be fun to do because of my childhood experience believing they existed and that one day I would be able to be one.  The story I like the most that I would be interested in recreating or telling is the Mermaid Wife from the Shetland Islands; it was listed as one of the research ideas, and it drew me in. I would like to tell stories of the mysterious underwater and everything that goes on. In this story I would like to include some kind of love story similar to Ariel the princess that includes love, a trickster, parents approval, etc.  I would like to learn more about the origins of the mermaids as well: how they came about, whether or not they were liked by communities, whether they caused good or bad things to happen, etc.

Idea #3: Cookbook

The idea of a cookbook is very interesting to me because of my new found love for cooking.  I used to eat out all the time when I first came to college; over the past few years I realized that is way too expensive, and very unhealthy.  I would like to do a Greek cookbook because of how healthy their food tends to be.  My roommates and I now cook all the time, and I could try out recipes on my own and include personal pictures in my storybook of how they turn out along with a story that goes with it like was mentioned on the research page.  I looked at the Apple Symbolism page for a good inspiration of what I would like to do. I would like to do foods that have a specific symbolism behind them. The greek foods I am most interested in include greek salad, baklava, and the cheese trays. 

Idea #4: Fairy Tale Princesses

Finally, one of my most favorite storybook ideas is fairy tale princesses.  I am a lover of all things romance and love; what better way to portray that than through the use of fairytales and princesses? The storybook I looked up to get more ideas was the most well put together storybook I have seen (maybe I am biased because I am so interested in it though!).  It was Madame Gossip: The French Princesses You Haven't Met Yet. I would like to focus on the French/Italian culture since I have always wanted to go to Paris since I was a child.  I have also taken four years of French language and find the French culture very beautiful and mesmerizing. I would like to tell stories of all the princesses meeting and hanging out, similar to what I would want to do for the goddesses as well. The only previous knowledge I have about princesses is the ones I grew up watching over and over again: Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella (my favorite), Beauty and the Beast, etc. 

Feedback Thoughts

For this assignment, I read the articles and chose my two favorites to discuss in further detail.

Article 1: Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head

I chose this article because I feel it is one of the ones I most strongly can relate to.  Growing up and even now, I have always had a tendency to focus on the negative; I can never seem to get the negative thoughts out of my head, no matter what I try.  For some reason, the negative thoughts had so much more weight than the positive. People would be afraid to give me criticism because I had a habit of taking it so personally and literally, that I thought they no longer liked me as a person. I know I would blow the criticism out of proportion, but I believe that is because I did not know how to deal with it.  After reading this post and realizing I was not alone, I found a lot of comfort and confidence in the four strategies provided to overcome this: look for the positive, hear the positive, dig in to understand the positive, believe the positive, and act as if it were true.  These are all feasible tasks that I can practice in my daily life to help me change my frame of mind and viewpoint.

Article 2: Seven Ways to Crush Self-Doubt in Creative Work

(Girl Questioning; Image from Pixabay)

I chose this article because I feel as though I am a victim of self-doubt; sometimes I even let self-doubt take control of my life and prevent me from doing certain things because I tell myself I am not capable of doing them.  For instance, I am about to be applying to grad schools to hopefully get my PhD, and all I hear is negative voices in the back of my head asking why I ever thought I would be good enough for this, how I will never make it in, and how all my studying will turn out to be a waste of time.  The seven steps provided in this post shed some light on how to find confidence in myself again.  The first one really stuck out to me: Don't Compare Yourself to Others.  This stuck out to me because I feel in our day-and-age with all the social media we have, it is so hard to see pictures of other people doing cool things, having great relationships, etc, and not comparing their lives to our lives. I fall victim to that every time I get on Instagram, and I know this is a bad habit I need to break.

Overall, I have always looked at feedback in a negative way, but his activity has helped show me that feedback can, after all, be a positive thing. Over the past years of being a student, the most productive feedback assignments I have received was when we did partner projects, and then had meetings with another partner group to discuss critiques. This was very helpful because it did not feel as though I was being attacked by myself, it felt as though someone else was helping take the weight of the criticism off of me, and allowed me to breathe a little bit. 

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

Hello everyone, below are my reading notes for Myth-Folklore Anthology.  There were two specific stories that stuck out to me from the readings this week.

Story 1: The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal. Story source: Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912).

Intro: The first thing that caught my attention about this story was the amount of dialogue. The tiger and the Brahman exchange a few words at the beginning of the story, and I feel as though this sets up a very good introduction; this would be an idea I could use for my story.  

Also, while the Brahman goes around asking for advice, there are even more moments of personification. I think I could use personification in my story such as with the use of wedding rings or something. The story also uses similes. 

Favorite Character. The Jackal was my favorite character because of his wit. The Jackal is the trickster in the story, he reminded me of the scarecrow from Wizard of Oz at first because he was not comprehending anything; then, I realized that was his plan the whole time in order to trick the tiger into going back into the cage. 

More Dialogue: This story uses a lot of dialogue like I said earlier, and I think it makes the story easier to follow along with and more real. It's easier to imagine people actually speaking to each other rather than just some he said she said here and there. I think I would want to have a Jackal in my story, but a gender switch. I think I could have her be the evil step mom, similar to the story of Cinderella, just an idea!



Story 2: Beauty and the Basilisk. Story source: The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis (1922).

Intro: The beginning of the story starts out similar to all the other versions, which I like. It was nice to see the sudden change at the end where the person who gets mad at the mom was a Basilisk, and how he came to be a beautiful youth. The writer did a great job of starting with a familiar intro, and then leading into his own version of the story in order to make it his own.

Story Setting: The main thing that stuck out to me about this story was all of the descriptions. The writer did an excellent job of describing the setting, especially when discussing the large garden full of roses. The author described it using personification as well, just like the story above used personification. I think this is something I will want to use in my story.  

Mother Character: The mother had a weakness of taking the easy way out; I felt bad for the daughter who only asked for three roses and her mother forgot that, the simplest of all the requests I am sure.  

The Daughter: Mary, the daughter who wanted the roses, was a very mature character: calm, go-with-the-flow, slow to anger. Another thing I really liked was the arrival part of the beautiful youth; I at first didn't understand why she had to nurse the Basilisk three hours a day, but, she did it anyways because she was asked to. 

PLOT TWIST: It all made sense when he said she delivered him, so now they must get married and own the castle together. That is something I want to put in my story, a big plot twist at the end that turns out to be a happy ending for the couple or the underdog.

(Red Rose; Photo from Wikipedia Commons)

Learning Challenge: Deskercise

For this learning challenge I decided to look at the articles discussing "Deskercises".  I chose to do this one because I am constantly getting back and neck aches from slouching too much while studying or doing homework at my desk.  During this past summer, I had my internship in Tulsa, OK, and they used standing desks.  I thought the standing desks would be more helpful in preventing my muscle aches and soreness, but I was proven wrong.  I found out I have a very poor standing and sitting posture. I believe I could use these deskercises whether I am standing or sitting. Today I had to study five hours for my GRE test coming up in October, and I found these very helpful in keeping me flexible instead of remaining stiff the whole time.  My favorite exercises, of which I will continue to use throughout this semester (especially during dead week), are the Back workout, Shake it up, and Shoulder and Neck stretches.  I got these exercises off of the article called "Deskercise: 17 Exercises You Can Do At or Near Your Desk," and I have already bookmarked this page for further use.  Thank you for the learning activity! I hope you find it interesting as well!

(Girl Performing Hamstring Stretch; Photo from Pixnio)

Week 2 Reading Overview

Hello!! Here is a tentative plan for the reading I plan to do each week:

Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4.

Week 3: Aesop (Jacobs)

Week 4: Cupid and Psyche

Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6.

Week 5: Tales of a Parrot

Week 6: Ancient Egypt

Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.]

Week 7: Japanese Mythology

Week 9: Congo

Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11.

Week 10: Blackfoot

Week 11: Marriage Tales

Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13.

Week 12: Alice in Wonderland

Week 13: Looking-Glass

Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15.

Week 14: Crane

Week 15: Italian

For starters, it can clearly be seen that I tended to go towards planning to read any of the stories that involved fairy tales, love, marriage, relationships, etc. I have always had a liking for anything love related, which is why I feel these stories will all be particularly interesting to me throughout the weeks of reading. One of the specific readings I am really interested in is week 15: Italian.  I have always had a fondness for the Italian culture, and it will be really interesting to see some of the popular stories and fairy tales told in the Italian cultures' way.  I am curious as to whether or not any of the stories have to do with a little bit of psychology or mental health in a way; I know that is sort of a stretch, but I think that would be a great addition for any psychology majors looking for additional readings. 

(Fairy Tale Castle in Germany; Photo from Flickr)

I chose this image because I hope to focus my storybook project this semester on the topic of love and romance.  This picture shows a true fairy tale romance in front of a castle, what better way to depict my ideas for my future storybook? :)

Tech Tip: Canvas Mobile App

Welcome to my experience with the Canvas mobile app! I have used this mobile app since the first day of my freshman year; I am currently about to start my senior year.  This app has been the most helpful tool in me staying on track and up to date with all my assignments.  I have notifications turned on to remind me about due dates, to notify me when stuff is graded, and what I think is most important, to notify me when I receive messages, usually from my current professors.  The canvas mobile app also makes it incredibly easy to talk quickly back and forth with your teachers; it has been a great communication tool for me.  Whenever the Canvas app crashes, it has only happened a few times in my experience, I start to panic a little.  I start to panic because I rely so heavily on the app, which has worked out for me so far.  Overall, I would highly recommend getting the app and using the notification settings on there as well as the "Show Grades" option so you can stay on top of your classes throughout your weeks!!

Time Strategies

After reviewing the Time Strategy resources provided in this assignment, two of the links stuck out to me most because they are ways I have been using to manage my time in the past.  The two sites I liked the best were Eat the Frog First Thing in the Morning, and The Psychology of Checklists. These articles were very useful because they helped remind me of the importance of the strategies I have been practicing.  I continuously keep checklists in my planner including due dates, meetings, and appointments.  There's no quite satisfaction similar to crossing something off a checklist, and I believe that is why I have become so productive while using my planner and checklists. It helps motivate me to get everything crossed off and to leave nothing left unfinished.  The strategy I sometimes struggle with is Eating the Frog First Thing in the Morning; I struggle with this because at times I will put it off until the very last because I want to complete all the little things first.  This has been an issue for me in the past because it causes me to get insanely stressed out and insanely behind.  My biggest time challenges this semester will be that I don't have classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays; while this may sound like the perfect schedule, it will take a lot of self-motivation to get up on those days, on my own time, and get all my online homework done.  I will have to stop myself from sleeping in and being lazy on those days; those are the days I will need my checklists the most. Out of all time management strategies, the one that works the best for me will always be the checklists; they help keep me on track, focus on what needs to be done, and make sure everything gets done.

(Sand Timer Image by Nathan Bunney; Image from Pexels)

Technology Tips Introduced

Hello everyone!! To be quite honest, I am not too familiar with many of the class tools we will be using this semester besides image editing and Google Docs.  While this at first made me anxious about starting this course, I have decided to change my mindset and instead, be excited for all the tools I will be able to use once I do complete this course.  This online environment is unlike any of my other courses, but I like it much better.  Having my very own blog feels very organized to me, and I am a very organized person, so I enjoy it.  I like seeing all my assignments on one page, all completed. I find the honesty policy to be so important in this class in reference to when we have to complete the declarations.  This class is a different/unique set-up, but I have enjoyed it thus far.  One particular web skill/technology skill that I am most excited to work on this semester is the Image Editing and Graphics Creation; I feel as these will both be very helpful in my future career in making infographics and other things like that.

(Technology info graph; Image from Pixabay)

Thoughts on Semester Assignments

After reviewing the syllabus and the list of assignments for this semester, I feel pretty confident in all the work that we will be required to complete.  I really enjoy the flexibility of this class and how we each are able to make our own schedule for how we want to complete these assignments, along with being able to work ahead if we want/need to.  This class is unlike any other class I have had for that exact reason; all the other online classes would have deadlines each week, and then the classes wouldn't open the following weeks' assignments until the week of. In my opinion, that is a very stressful way to do an online class because it has such limited flexibility; for example, if I had 4 tests one week, and none the next week, I like having the flexibility to work ahead instead of overwhelming myself during that week of tests and having to get assignments done.  The assignment I am most intrigued by is the storybook semester project.  I am most intrigued by this because after looking at examples of other peoples' storybooks I got very excited to create my own.  The project seems like a very fun learning activity that will help enhance the growth mindset, and it will help us learn in a unique and different way.  Speaking of unique, I have never had a class where we have to write a blog post for assignments, but, I have to say, I am a big fan of it.  I have no previous experience with blogging, but I am really enjoying these assignments and seeing the layout of all my posts and thoughts; it is so much fun!! Overall, I am very excited for this semester.

(Flexibility Photo Collage; Image by Pixabay)

Maddie's Thoughts on Growth Mindset

Growth mindset is a very interesting topic. To be honest, I had never heard about this theory until writing up this blog post and watching videos of Carol Dweck speaking about what she loves to teach.  I agree with Dweck when she said kids should be wanting to be challenged, we shouldn't just let them slide by.  She also said that we should make challenging our goals because if it was easy, then that means we already know how to do it and wouldn't be growing in our knowledge at all.  While being at OU, I have learned that different classes have taught me different things about my learning style.  For example, in the chemistry and other sciences classes, I would barely float by; I could never learn the information, and my brain wouldn't process it when someone would teach it to me, so I solely got a good grade in the class just because of the extra credit assignments, I never felt like I truly learned anything.  I would study so much for all the tests, and then the day after the test all the information would be out of my head.  On the other hand, in the classes I am interested in, such as psychology and nutrition, I tended to always look for more opportunities to grow in my knowledge because I genuinely wanted to learn and knew it would help me out in my future career.  Another point to bring up is that I have a class this semester about Understanding Dance, and I am not too excited about it.  I have never been interested in the drama/theatre topics, so I feel like I could use growth mindset techniques to help me want to learn the material, and to help me get the most out of the class. Overall, I would be very interested in learning more about growth mindset because I feel like it can be very applicable to not only school, but many other areas of my life as well. In the end, dreaming is a form of growth mindset, in my opinion, because it helps us think of unlimited possibilities for different scenarios, instead of staying in a fixed frame-of-mind.

(Growth Mindset Dream Quote; Picture from Pixabay)

Introduction to a Clinical Psychologist Specializing in Eating Disorders

Hello! My name is Madeleine Patovisti, and I am a senior at the University of Oklahoma studying to be a Clinical Psychologist and hoping to go to grad school.  With these high aspirations, my majors are Psychology and Nutrition, in order to learn about both aspects of the wellness scale, mentally and physically.  The coolest part of my major is that I will eventually be able to help people through whatever problems they may be dealing with; I have always been the "therapist" of the friend group because I greatly enjoy helping people talk through what's bothering them. I would consider myself a great listener, and this major will only enhance my listening skills.

(Psychology major representation; Photo from Pixabay) 

The best class I took last semester was Clinical Psychology with Carol Terry.  This was my favorite class because it was the one class that was most closely related to my major.  This also includes my biggest accomplishment because at the end of the semester we had to give a 10-15 minute speech.  I have the worst speech anxiety, and I avoid public speaking at all costs. I talked to my teacher about this and she made me feel very comfortable about the project, comfortable enough to even make it through a whole 12 minute speech. This was a huge accomplishment for me because I overcame one of my biggest fears that day, and public speaking doesn't seem AS bad anymore.  

Another thing I want to mention is the exciting internship I had this previous summer break.  I had an internship at Destiny Wellness Center in Tulsa, OK.  Destiny Wellness Center is a mental health clinic that focuses on the eight dimensions of wellness.  It has a therapy side of the building, along with a gym on the other side of the building.  Over the summer I got to create several nutritional PowerPoints for the clients as well as sit in on some therapy sessions for people that had eating disorders or other types of disorders including depression, anxiety, etc.  This was my favorite part of my summer because it gave me such a good insight into what my future career could include.  More than anything, I think it made me excited about my future and what I am currently studying as well.  

Madeleine's Storybook Favorites

Hello everyone! Today I will be reviewing three of my favorite storybooks I found, and providing you with a link to each one in case you would like to do some further reading about it!

The first storybook I really enjoyed looking at was called Suitor Tests.  I really enjoyed this storybook primarily because of the layout/design.  It had different sections labeled Intro, Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue: the classic components of a wedding fairytale story.  The organization of the page made me aware of what the storybook was going to be about since the labels were very well recognized universally.  Another thing I particularly enjoyed about this storybook was the introduction; it used a style of specific story telling to set the scene for the rest of the storybook. The tone was one of apprehension, hurry, and worry, and it drew me in wanting to read the rest of the storybook.

(Rose Blue Flower from Pixabay by GLady; From the

storybook discussed above) 

The second storybook that caught my attention was called Real Housewives of Happily Ever After.  This one specifically caught my attention because of the title. I watch all the reality shows about the Real Housewives, so I thought it was a pretty creative/unique title for the storybook in combination with the fairytale "Happily Ever After".  The physical layout of the storybook caught my eye because of how sophisticated it looked.  The titles included Happy Hour and First Class; the names drew me in, and the pictures used help enhance the titles and the content that was included.  I would want to do something like this for my storybook because of how pretty, clean, and sophisticated the layout was.  Overall, I enjoyed reading the content of the storybook too because it went perfectly with the titles that labeled it.  The content was very well written too. 

The third storybook I want to discuss is called Love at First Retweet.  This was by far one of my favorite ones I read because of the modernization of the storybook. Twitter is so popular in our day-and-age so this was a very creative title to use in order to draw in the younger generations and connect it to something they greatly enjoy.  The comedic and sarcastic intro also was a factor I liked about this storybook. I am a very sarcastic type of humor person, so this is something I would also like to use in my storybook.  The post also greatly discussed love, and that is another thing I hope to make my storybook about because I am so into everything having to deal with love.

Overall, this activity was very entertaining for me, and I hope you all follow these links if they interest you as well!

My Favorite Places: Paris, Dubai, & Florida

Throughout my childhood I constantly would look up "Coolest places to go on vacation", and would write them down in an ongoing list I had in my notebook.  Once I started to grow up, I narrowed that list down to three places I want to visit in my lifetime: Paris, Dubai, and Florida.  I believe each of these places holds its own true beauty. So far, I have had the chance to go to Dubai (once) and Florida (many, many times). Unlike the other two, Paris is the one I have yet to visit, but it in the near future for my plans!!

First, I've longed for a trip to Paris since I was 5.  I have always wanted to get a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower. Although I haven't actually been yet, I know it will be one of my favorite places once I get the chance to visit. A trip to Paris is my graduation present this coming spring, so I am more than excited to embark on that journey.

(Paris, France: Wikimedia Commons)

Secondly, I got the amazing opportunity to visit Dubai two Thanksgivings ago with all of my cousins. That trip was truly unforgettable; the pictures and stories I gained from there will stay with me forever. We took many tours, took many photos, tried way too much food. The environment there is nothing like I thought it would be; I had no idea how incredibly expensive it would be. 

(Dubai: Personal Photo from November 2017)

Lastly, Florida will always hold a special place in my heart because it was where my family went every summer for family vacation.  It gave us a chance to meet up with all of our extended family and cousins. There is never a dull moment when we all go on vacation to Florida. We have tried many different places to stay there such as Panama City Beach, Pensacola Beach, and Destin Beach.  Out of all of those, we continuously choose Destin over and over again because of the white sandy beaches and our most favorite restaurants.  

(Destin, Florida: Wikimedia Commons)

Madeleine Patovisti Introduction! Hello!

Hi everyone, excited for the upcoming semester!!