Myths and Folklore with Karissa

Africa Storybook I noticed a general theme between units of stories about animals, so it would be fun to travel throughout Africa as my storybook, using stories about animals - maybe they travel with the reader. However, I looked at the Africa unit and found that the Nigeria and Congo units had stories about human adventures that I would be interested in reading. My mother is from Zimbabwe, and I have visited a couple countries in Africa, so I think it would be fun to take a literary trip through Africa as well.  Native American Storybook When I was younger, my school would host a day, in which people from the community would come to share Native American culture and history with elementary and middle school kids. I always loved when storytellers would come to share a Native American legend. I specifically remember being enchanted when a man with a deep, rich voice told us an origin story. I think I could do a storybook based off of this feeling. Maybe, the readers will...

Harriet's Generosity There were four friends who worked in a nonprofit, called Education First, that provides school supplies to underprivileged first graders and elementary schools. Often the leadership of the nonprofit will ask its employees to contribute supplies as part of their in-house Back-to-School Supply Drive. The employees often have fun with this because they find decorations for classrooms. Some selfless souls even go as far as to pitch in to buy a bigger item like a printer, tablet, computer, or screen. The four friends were new to Education First and wanted to make an impression with their donation, but each of them was struggling to find the right thing to donate. Three days before the end of the drive, Jackie went to her sister's house for dinner. Her brother-in-law was talking about how he needed to get rid of one of their TVs before they moved into their new house. He could not quite visualize how they were going to fit all of their stuff into one movi...

Beauty and the Basilisk  This fairy tale had an abrupt transition from Mary nursing the Basilisk to it asking her to cut off its head (twice). As a writer, I want to make those plot twists make a little more sense, maybe giving more reasons as to why, without taking away from the surprise. It is a hard balance to find. The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi "Red as a ripe mountain cherry" - I just like the alliteration with red and ripe. The Hare that Was not Afraid to Die I like the repetitive structure of this story. How each small story within the bigger story is ended with the same phrase. It brings the reader back to the overarching story after being diverted. I also enjoyed how the actions of the animals were used to expose their personality traits. I think this technique sometimes has more of an affect than an author outright telling the readers what the characters were like. "pores of the hair" - I like the imagery of this. It is not common to think o...

" How to Beat Procrastination " by Caroline Webb: One of the main take aways from this article is learning to ask myself why I am procrastinating or why I have a blockage, stopping me from starting a task. It would help me get to the root of the problem. I also need improve my habits by just starting a task, by doing the smallest step possible. When I have a big goal, I often become overwhelmed, which leads me to put it off completely. This just makes the task even harder because I have to do it with less time. In order to help myself get started, I could visualize my feelings and the situation when the task is completed.  " Eat The Frogs First Thing in The Morning (And Other Better Work Habits) " by Thomas Oppong I have recently discovered that I can be very productive in the early morning, so I have identified this period of time as one of my highly productive periods. It also works well this article's teachings because I could "eat my frog" e...

I am not familiar with most of the blog post technology or website publishing. This classroom environment is very new to me, but I am happy to learn more because I journaled over the summer and might be interested in making a blog in the future about my travels. It would be fun way to keep track of what I have done and seen. My brother is very tech savvy because he is a programmer, and I hope I can get closer to his level this semester (key word: closer).  I set up a bookmark folder for this course and have already used it to bookmark a few important pages. I have not used any technology to create my own graphics, but I’m interested in learning more about it. In high school, I took computer class as my language credit and we explored Photoshop. It was really fun but complicated to use all of the tools in Photoshop - there were almost too many tools and I quickly found my favorites and stuck to them. It will be nice to learn how to use a web-based program tha...

I'm most intrigued by the Storytelling assignment; I don't do a lot of writing like this. It will be interesting seeing how comfortable I am with this kind of creative, informal writing. I have taken a few online classes before but none of them have been blog post based; they have been more based on formal papers and writing discussion posts. I have written a blog post before in my Non-western and Indigenous Medicine course, but we didn't actually post it on a website. It will be interesting to get comments from students, instead of feedback from a professor. The extra credit assignments that catch my eye are Wikipedia trails and Famous Last Words. I began writing a journal over the summer to document my travels, and it will be fun to continue that tradition with Famous Last Words. Image Information: Photo of Person Writing on Notebook by Jeshoots.com. Source: Pexels .

Hellloooo everyone, my name is Karissa Hughes, and here is a little bit about me. I have twin, who I live with and also goes to OU; the nature of our relationship is loving annoyance. Although I do not have a cat, my roommate does, and I'm already obsessed with him and his little socks. His name is Boomer, and sometimes I accidentally call him Sooner. My major is Health, Medicine, and Society. It is multidisciplinary, which I appreciate because I like learning from different perspectives, and is geared towards pre-Medicine students. I have already completed all of the pre-Med prerequisites, but I'm still not exactly sure if I want to go to medical school. I recently learned more about the field of Public Health and have become interested in possibly pursuing a career in that instead. Health has become my passion, especially learning more about the social aspects of health, how various identities affect health experiences, and the reasons behind and consequences of health...

This is the first time I have learned about the Growth Mindset. I have listened to another TED Talk about grit, which focused on how perseverance leads to success over qualities like intelligence. I think it is a similar concept. I hope in most things I lean towards the Growth Mindset, but I tend to reward myself through grades. Last semester, I had a difficult class and professor; I often complained about how the professor didn't express her expectations clearly and didn't create an environment conducive to learning. Although I frequently complained about the class's lot in life, I became stubborn and refused to get a B in the class. I realize that getting a good grade is not necessarily the goal of someone with a Growth Mindset - I was rewarding myself with the final grade, rather than my process to obtain it. However, I think my stubbornness is part of the Growth Mindset, and it definitely lead to success in the class. I read Paunesku's article, and I would agree w...

Chrystal's Storybook I like this storybook because it is playful. It takes an already interesting topic and adds something extra by putting it through the perspective of lions. It is reminiscent of lion king, and I appreciate the nostalgia of that connection. I also like how the stories are almost broken up into sections, along with a color change in the background. It helps the reader move down the page and transition between parts of the story. The thing I don't like about this storybook is the title of the website; it doesn't give the viewer any idea about what the storybook is about. The other two authors did a good job of finding a simple yet descriptive title. Silesian Folk Tales This blog storybook is about Rübezahl, a Mountain Lord with magical powers turned trickster. The storyteller includes small anecdotes to lead you into the story, maybe about how he heard it. In the introduction, I like how the author wants the reader to participate more in the store b...

When my parents read me the Dr. Seuss book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go," I could never quite imagine how beautiful and diverse the world would be. My mom's family lives in Zimbabwe and South Africa, so we have visited them twice over summer vacations. My favorite place to visit has always been Mozambique, because of its picturesque beaches. I would often take a jog on the beach in the morning, and my mantra when I was nearing home would be, "just around the next bend." (Peeking Sun photographed by Jason & Molly Kehrer. Source: Flickr) One of the interesting things about the place (I was too young to remember the name of the region) we visited was the beached boats. I have always wondered why they are there. Some boats are still in use by fisherman and become beached with the low tide. Others are permanently beached, creating a sad but beautiful foreground to the breaking waves.  (photograph by Luis Alvaro. Source: Pexels )

Check 1 . Check 2 . Check 3 . Ok I  think this mic is working. Now, please look to the screen to enjoy a picture of the Grand Canyon at sunrise. Take pleasure out of my effort to wake up at 5:20 am. (Image information: personal photograph, taken August 15, 2019)