Myths and Folklore with Karissa

" A Simple 5-Second Habit to Rewire Your Harshly Self-Critical Brain " by Joel Almeida Sometimes I self-criticize when I put too many things on my list and am unable to complete all of them. I have to remember that I did accomplish some things. I could sprinkle that self praise throughout the day or study session so it is easier for me to appreciate myself after I complete a task. I like how the reality-based self-congratulation is based on past, tangible things. Sometimes, I tend to avoid self-criticizing by telling myself that I will accomplish everything the next day, creating an idealized future self that is almost impossible to achieve. I want to use this technique on other aspects of my life, including personal goals. For example, I have been wanting to find a nonprofit to volunteer with, but keep getting sidetracked by other things. I just looked up some nonprofits in Norman and made a list of the ones I want to look into further. Now I can say to myself, "I...

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...