Review: didaskaleinophobia

It's hard to believe that an entire  movement has been made out of this song. I love how this program is aiming to bring learning into the 21st century by going beyond basic comprehension and encouraging critical thinking and curiosity. This new system looks like it will work better because it caters more to a child's individual strength, encourages free thinking, and acknowledges that there are different kinds of intelligence. After reading articles on how State Testing and the current school system may be hindering innovation I am surprised that more systems like this one are not being implemented.

Tech Tip: Blogger Templates

I changed my blog design from the simple dark template to the dark themed picture window template. I then customized it by changing the themes color scheme from orange to a light blue. From there, I changed the background image from the provided blurry mountains to a someone kayaking on rough waters. I chose the kayaking picture because it reminded me of an adventure of Odysseus, where he sailed between Scylla and Charabdis, and thought it would be fitting for this class.

Growth Mindset

I had never heard of Carol Dweck 's growth mindset before, but after hearing about it I can see how it plays a major role in today education system. So much of education today is geared towards the final results and not on learning or enjoying the process. Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle of her scale, somewhere in between fixed and growth mindset. When a class challenges me, I am definitely growth. For me it is all about learning, not a grade. Rather it is about the sheer enjoyment of learning something new. I will go out of my way to acquire new and interesting information, because that information may a missing puzzle piece that will start to complete my picture. In reverse, if a class is easy I will do just barely enough to get an A , and that is it. I will not try. Everything seems gray and drab in comparison to a challenging course.

I agree with Dweck that the end result should not matter as much as contemporary education thinks it should. The process, how and why the knowledge was acquired should matter. Knowledge should be gathered for the should for the sake of leaning new things, not to satisfy some far off end-game requirement.

I would love to learn about how how growth mindset could be applied to daily life. I think it would be interesting to see how it could be applied to overcoming personal goals outside of school. Perhaps, in pursuing competency with technology or personal health goals, like healthy eating or exercise. I can definitely see growth mindset or a similar program helping me overcoming my shyness and getting me to go beyond my introvert safe comfort zone. Hopefully I will not need to use these strategies in class, if they are challenging enough on their own I can rely on my previous habits of going above and beyond out of enjoyment. However, growth mindset could certainty encourage me to challenge myself regardless of the difficulty of my classes.

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
issue 5/22/1992: Go Comics

Time Strategies

I think Caroline Web's article on How to Beat Procrastination is a good article for those who struggle with procrastination. I know that I am one of them. I love how she explains that it is not a fault in character that causes procrastination, rather it is a in the overall physiological program of our brains thorough out  history. It is important to keep that in mind when tackling the problem of procrastination. These are some important tip that Web outlined in her article.

• Commit Publicly- peoples expectations of you will cause you to take action sooner-probably because you do not want to disappoint those that hold you in regard
• Think about consequences of inaction- the longer you wait the less time is left to fix a problem that may show up
• Tie first actions to a reward-no matter how you go about it people will always want immediate reward, promise something immediate then immediate action gets done

Pavlov's dog: source

Jory Mackay's article The Important Habit of Just Starting follows up on the importance of starting a task. Mackay's main point is that the most difficult thing about doing anything is starting. It is the work itself that is daunting but rather the trial of first singing. The hardest thing to do is not write a story, its knowing where to begin. These are the most important points I got out of Mackay's article

• delayed gratification is very difficult to follow
• importance of environment- a clean an organized environment and a clear idea of actions improves working ability 
• do not worry about perfection or the end goal- just 

The one one thing I noticed when reading these articles was that I already did most of what they recommended. There are several other strategies I use that I have found useful.

• Give yourself time to relax- if you feel wound up do not do something that might stress you out more, do something that relaxes you then work on the stressful stuff
• If you can double up on tasks do so- that is not saying do two assignments at once, rather if you have to do laundry do that at the same time as reading a book for class, or get an audio-book and listen to it as you go shopping/work out
• Get started early-you will be surprised how fun it can be to do a project if you give yourself room to breath and explore, rather then waiting until the last moment and freaking out. This tactic also gives you time to go get help if you are stuck and to fix any mistakes you might find as you look over your project at a later date
• Take breaks every once in a while-even if it is just getting up to stretch for a bit or go to the restroom, getting better circulation through moving will make you feel more alert and prepared then sitting and trying to cram all the work in at once

Reading Options- A Difficult Choice

This was a very difficult choice to make. There were too many options that all sounded great. Why must I choose!? Unfortunately, choose I did.

Indiana Jones Knight
Source

Week 2 Choices

Bible Women

I felt this unit would be a great choice to fuhrer my understanding of the Bible and its underlying message. I have been studying the Bible on and off for over five years. While I know a lot about the history and culture behind the stories, it is difficult for me to find specific stories about the women of the Bible and keep them straight. I expect some of these stories to be familiar but I also think that many of them will be completely new.

Homer's Illid
I have read the Oddessy many time but I have yet to touch the Illid. Mythology has always a passion of mine, I fell like one learns more about people through stories, then through their recorded history. Though I know the basic story in the Illid many of the details are foreign. I am definitely interested in its connections to the Oddessy and other tales from that region.

Further in Semester Possibilities
Voyages of Sinbad
I have heard about Sinbad before. I watch an animated feature about it several years ago, but I am almost completely sure that the movie was inaccurate, and I am curious to see how much of the move stayed true to the original story. Also when I was reading the overview it mentioned similarity to the Oddessy and I think a story about those two people meeting would be a rather entertaining tale, but I need understand Sinbad first to do so.

Sinbad:Legend of the Seven Seas
Movie Poster (2003)
Source: IMBD

Brothers Grimm (Ashliman)
I love Grimm's Fairy tales. I grew up reading them, the true ones not the watered down versions. I think it is important to know these tales because they play a huge role in today's world, even if no one reads them any more. Grimm's tales teach lessons and give warnings that have not been invalidated by a modern world. It is important to understand where these tales came from and why they exist. I wold love to compare how some of my favorite stories have evolved and how they could be re-imagined in a modern setting while still maintaining their dark lessons.

Fairy Tales That Will Never Be in Disney Movies
Scource

Storybook Favorites - Behind the Stories

Alice's Journey...Through Social Media?

Whoever wrote this spin on Lewis Carol's classic was a genies. The author took a story that has become one of the most popular classics and completely revamped it while maintaining the original story plot. He/she takes our beloved Alice and turns her into a modern, media addicted, self-obsessed teenager. Overall this was my favorite story to look though. Everything was clean and precise, there was no excess or distracting backgrounds. Each part of the story was easy to locate and navigate. The story itself was a seamless blend, it flowed form words to images and from topic to topic without taking away form the story itself. I love how the author incorporated the notes at the bottom of each page explaining how and why he/she chose that particular scene. For my own project I may use a similar layout for my stories, but the writing style itself, while interesting, is not for me. 

Example of incorporated image
"Was it Really a Dream"
Source

Greek Goddesses on Trial 

I loved Amber McKnight's storybook. Straight from the introduction it hooked me and I had to read every trial to sate my curiosity. I love how she took the most popular goddesses and made them defend themselves against their most famous actions. Although it was slightly difficult to navigate from trial to trial, the individual ascetic of each trial was incredibly reminiscent of true trial records, a fine balance of irritating and fascinating. I can see myself using a similar style on popular fairy-tale characters. I think it could have been better, if McKnight had used more artistic photos rather than pictures of statues, just to bring more life to the story.

Nursery Rhymes Gone Wrong

The stories that this storybook was based off of were slightly less familiar then the previous two. The premise given in the introduction was great,  what happened to nursery rhyme characters. It provided a good hook to catch the readers attention and explained clearly what the rest of the stories are going to be like and what they are about. However, it was extremely difficult to read the navigation icon, and the entire layout of the pages was to bland that it took away form the story itself. It felt rushed and somewhat incomplete. The use of images was phenomenal, perfect images that helped the stories along and gave them a new dimension. There is not a whole lot that I would take from the overall design if I were to do my own project.

Introduction to a History Nerd

Myself  Personal photo taken by my mother

My name is Carol Brockmann. I am a junior, that is hoping for a classics major when I graduate. I love classics. It gives me an opportunity to go back into the past and see just how much history and the beliefs of others have impacted our world today. For me, it is important to remember what came before, because it those beliefs and cultures that shape modern society. Too many people forget just how important understanding history is. It is more than just stories of a time long ago, it is the modern world’s bloodline. The classic major allows me to go back and understand the roots of the western world.

Last semester was my first semester at OU, I had transferred from a smaller college in Kansas. I have to say, OU knows how to bring out the welcome mat. I cannot chose a single class from last semester that was the best, simply because I enjoyed them all. However, there were two classes that had a major impact on me. The first was Death, Dying and Religion taught by Marie Dallam. This was a class that truly challenged me to think outside the norm. Though the class got a little morbid at times, it was fascinating to look at the different ways death was thought about and the variety of different ways across the world of respecting the dead. It was a class that forced me to have an opinion about death and all that surrounds it while also upholding my own beliefs in the face of others disagreements. The other class I loved was Introduction to Latin, taught by John Hansen. This was the first class in many years that challenged me. It forced me to apply myself, by making me go beyond simple compression and recollection. It did not help that I am terrible with languages. On the upside now I a much better speller (I was horrible before).

 A little more about myself. I am one of the few people my age (that I know personally) that can remember 9/11. It was my fifth birthday and I remember watching it live on the television with my brothers just after I had unwrapped presents. I have two brothers, no sisters sadly. My older brother, Chalres,  is currently in the Navy, stationed at Charleston, South Carolina. I spent most of my winter break with him, enjoying his company (I had not seen him in almost two years) and sightseeing the beautiful city.

Charles Brockmann Personal Photo by me

My “younger” brother, Brice, is currently attending West Texas A&M. I say younger because I am only older by a few minutes. We are fraternal twins, born September 11, 1996- which makes us 20 now. I will be glad to get away from him when school starts.

Brice Brockmann Personal Photo by me

My mother’s greatest goals when raising my brothers and me was to make us avid readers and not to make us food snobs. To the former she succeeded. As evidenced by our many books and that whenever we go shopping there is always a bookstore to visit. To the later, she failed spectacularly. Home cooked meals have solidified my expectation of wonderful food. Nothing prefab is particularly appetizing, there must be flavor, and now I am very particular about how any form of meat should be cooked. Both my brothers and me are food snobs, and proud of it. I cannot say I have any favorite genre of music. I love anything from classical to rock, with the exception of most rap and all of county music. Though at the moment I do have a delightful ear worm. Same goes for books, I read far too many to narrow it down enough. There are two authors that have influenced me in how I write, Jack London and Edger Allen Poe.

                       

Edger Allen Poe Daguerreotype
by Edwin H Manchester
Wikimedia Commons

Young Jack London
Wikimedia Commons

I probably grew up reading these authors alongside Grimm’s Fairy Tales. IT is from them that I draw my inspiration for both topics and writing style. In my free time I love to read. Nine times out of ten when people see me around my noise is either suck in a book or I am listing to an audio book. Most recently, I have been stuck on a series introduced to me by my mother called Outlander. Unfortunately, I have not had much time to read them, as they are very long books. 

Cover of the first book in the series
more information here

When I am not reading I love to paint. Not on canvas but on glass jars. My typical project will take over 5 hours to finish, at the very least.

Personal photo

painted mason jar

taken by me

Personal photo

painted Kracken Bottle

taken by me

When I graduate from OU, I hope to go back to school and eventually get my Ph.D. Mostly though, I want to research, studying and learning is my lifetime goal. I want to be able to teach people about the worlds that made the one we have today. Not just history lessons about events, but who those people were, what they believed, how they acted. I want to know just how much a system of belief, like those of the Romans or Nordic, impacted and remain active in today’s culture. My biggest goal is to prove history is still important because of its continuing influence in contemporary beliefs.

I am looking forward to this class for that very reason. So far, it seems like the perfect combination of mythology and fairy-tales, those stores that help make up the past, and modern thought processes.

Week 1 Story:The Doubting Shade

As was the custom of my people, I was to go out into the forest on the eve of my birthday. One night alone, with no supplies and no food or drink, from dusk until the first glimmer of light at dawn. When I returned I would be different, in more ways than one. Not only would I now be an adult in the eyes of those around me, my spirit would be tempered, my resolve tested. There would be something different about me then when had I left. No one who succeed in this trial remained the same. Those who came back successful where changed irrevocably, like they knew some great secret, a burden that was accepted with defiant grace. Those who came back in failure were broken and though they lived among us, they drifted though the village like wraiths. Then of course, there were those who never came back at all.

Before tonight, I had never entered the forest alone, it was forbidden, and doing so would call for my immediate exile from the only home I had ever known. Better not risk it. However, I had been in the forest before, walking with my friends, gathering and hunting with my parents and siblings. I knew how to survive, I knew every trail like the back of my hand. The forest was not a scary place to me, it was home. As I stood at the edge of the village, waiting for the horizon to engulf the sun, it was not fear that caused my body to tremble, rather it was a strange mix of apprehension and anticipation that held me suspended in my body. What would happen tonight, what I would learn that I had not already known,. As the final rays of light faded, my grandmother hugged me, she was the only one allowed to wait by my side as the time approached, kissed my forehead and left without a world. As I watched her silver head vanish I knew this was it. I turned and took my first step onto the shrouded path.

I cannot say how long I walked until something changed. Before, the trees had been comforting, whispers of reassurance trickled from branch to branch. The undergrowth a blanket over the cold grown, capturing the moonlight like droplets of liquid silver. The air pressed upon me, not oppressive but gentle. The new sensation of silence was peaceful. I felt like was floating. As if I were walking on paths made of gossamer. I was aware of everything about myself. The way my golden was caught up by the breeze, a stay lock trailing down my neck and tickled my skin. I could feel the rocks beneath my shoes, small pebbles turning over as I trod along the path. Every breath seemed to be too loud, too foreign, and too human to belong in this tranquil forest. Every sensation amplified. I could feel everything, hear the smallest noise, see every subtle movement of the world around me.

Then, suddenly, I was not alone. Standing in my path was not some frightening entity. Rather, it was me. Those were my own eyes staring back at me, piercing blue, calculating. Suddenly, I was afraid and as she opened her mouth to speak, I wanted to run, to flee from this specter, but I was frozen, caught like a petrified mouse in a cats gaze.

“Why do you try so hard? What is it about yourself that you think is so special that you are worthy of anything? There is nothing about you remotely good or useful. That’s why the sent you out here, you know, to be disposed of. Forgotten. You are a drain of resources, you have no skills to call your own, and no one will ever want you. It would be better if you never went back, that way you will not be a disappointment.”

That drew me up. I began to think about all the things I hated about myself. The scars on my face and back from a hunt gone wrong. That my eyes were slightly too small or my nose to big for my face. That I was I was too tall, and no male would want to be dwarfed his bride. That I was nosy, and insensitive. Or how I would rather hunt then mend clothing. All my doubts and self-loathing came to forward, and I was drowning in it. I was caught in a tide of reservations and repugnance that was drawing me out to sea. But then I had a thought, one small glimmer caught my mind’s eye and I spoke back to my mirrored image.

“It does not matter. Even if I am unable at the moment I will learn. If I am not worthy in the eyes of others at the very least I will be worthy in the eyes of myself. I will turn my flaws into strength and beauty I will make myself invaluable others. I will never give up. I will try and try again. If I cannot do it by myself yet then my mother will teach me, my father will guide me, my brothers will push me, and my friends will support me until I can. Either way, I will succeed. So it does not matter at the moment, the future is open.”

My specter smiled at me, a secretive smirk, both bitter and hopeful. Then she disappeared fading into the morning mist. Dawn had arrived. As I wondered towards home, I thought about what I had seen and done. I had not gained some great secret like I had thought I would. There was no great mystery I had uncovered. I had simply realized what was already there.

~ ~ ~ ~

As I walked by myself,

And talked to myself,

Myself said unto me,

Look to thyself,

Take care of thyself,

For nobody cares for thee.

I answered myself,

And said to myself,

In the self-same repartee,

Look to thyself,

Or not to thyself,

The self-same thing will be.

~ ~ ~ ~

Author's Note- While the original poem from Andrew Lang is simply about someone alone having a conversation with himself or herself it reminded several sayings. 1) Man is his own worst enemy. by Marcus Tullius Cicero. 2) You are your worst critic. Which both helped to inspire the specter. Also I was somewhat inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's story Young Goodman Brown where an unsuspecting puritan man goes out into the forest at night, where he meets other people along the way, and when he eventfully returns home his is no longer the same man who left. This story clearly inspired the setting of my tale but the plot is taken from the poem.

Bibliography- "As I Walked by Myself" from The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Lang. Web Source

"Young Goodman Brown" from Mosses from an Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Web Source.

Image:"girl person walking footbridge" by Unsplash at Pixabay

Estes Park, Colorado- My Favorite Place

When I lived in Colorado, I went on yearly trips to Estes Park, Colorado. It is a small town just outside of Denver that functions the primary base camp for people going up into Rocky Mountain National Park. Many of my fondest memories are found in the mountains, hiking its trails and discovering its captivating scenery. Estes Park itself, reminds me of when I was young and a cup of hot chocolate, a warm fire, and enjoying myself with my friends was the greatest possible thing in the universe. Though I have not been back to the mountains in years, I look forward to a time that I can once again scale its awe-inspiring peaks.

(Estes Park Welcome sign: Wikimedia commons)

(Rock Mountains National Park, Photo by Jim Williams: Wikimedia Commons)

(Photo of a camp counselor (left) and myself (right) age 13 at Estes Park Resort)

(photo taken by me of the Rocky Mountains)