Wikipedia Trail: Tattercoats to Pharisee and the Publican

Wikipedia Trail

So this week I decided to try out the the Wikipedia trail extra credit assignment. I wish that I had tried this assignment sooner because it actually turned out being really interesting. Anyways for this assignment I started by looking up the term "gooseherd" on Wikipedia because it was in the story,Tattercoats, that was in my reading for the week and I had never heard of a goose herder. This search led me to the actual Wikipedia page for tattercoats.

Tattercoats Page

The page about Tattercoats basically gave a synopsis of the original story that was written by Joseph Jacobs. Since this name was familiar from all of the reading I decided to go to his Wikipedia page next.

Joseph Jacobs

On this page, I learned about the life of Joseph Jacobs and how he has done extensive work writing folklore. From this page I chose to go to the page on "publicans" because I wasn't exactly sure what it meant and Joseph Jacob's father held that position.

Publican

On this page I learned that a publican was someone who collected taxes, which is not what I expected at all. I also found out that in the Jesus told the story of the Pharisee and the Publican so this is where I went next.

Pharisee and the Publican

On this final page I found out more about this biblical story. The story actually had a great moral that I really enjoyed. The moral of the story was to be humble and to not depend on pride to survive.

(Pharisee and Publican: Credit to James Tisso)

Review: Thanksgiving Edition

Backup and Review

So this is the first time this semester I have backed up my blog, so it was a long time coming! Other than that based on the progress chart I am ahead of schedule and should be finishing the class a bit sooner. This is great because it will give me a bit extra time to study for my finals. Anyways, I was glad I looked through the class announcement page because it gave me some useful information on finishing up with the class. The link to that day is here. I also enjoyed this meme about  Thanksgiving.

(Thanksgiving, credit to Laura Gibbls.)

Famous Last Words: Week 13

Famous Last Words

This Class

So this week in the Mythology and Folklore class I chose to read about English fairy tales, and ended up writing one of my favorite stories of the semester. This whole semester I was excited to read about fairy tales so when this unit came up I immediately knew I wanted to use one of the stories in the unit as inspiration for a story in my storybook. In the reading there were a few versions of Cinderella so I decided to do my retelling of one of the Cinderella stories. The retelling, This is Ever After, ended up being one of my favorite stories that I have written this semester and I am excited to get feedback on it!

Other Classes

In my other classes I have had a lot of success. Usually at this point in the semester I am freaking out about my grades but by studying more consistently over the course of the semester I have no less than a B in all of my courses. In fact, this past week I received all of my midterm grades back and I was pleasantly surprised. One course that I am really enjoying is my intro to drumming class. Although the class was not required for my major I am really glad that I chose to take it. Since I already play piano and some guitar I was very surprised at the difficulty of drums but even though it has been challenging I have learned quite a bit! 

(Drumming, credit to Heyme at pixabay)

Outside of School

Outside of my coursework I have tried to focus more on my hobbies since they usually get pushed to the side for schoolwork. Specifically, this past week I tried to spend time playing the banjo that I got for my birthday in October.  Since the banjo is a six string banjo it has been an easier transition that I expected.

Week 13 Story: In the Ever After

Update: This story has been added to my portfolio! Follow the link to see the revised version.



"Another hard day," August asked with a smile as he climbed into the giant bed.

"Well, I must say raising three crazy kids is way more difficult than herding sheep," chuckled Ella.

August leaned to give Ella a kiss on the forehead but before he could reach her he heard the pitter patter of tiny feet running down the hallway. "Uh oh" he sighed, falling back into his pillow. "It looks like we have another nightmare victim on our hands."

Before he could even finish his sentence their youngest daughter Amelia came flying into the room and jumped on the bed.

"The monsters are back daddy!" she exclaimed as she hid her face in his chest. With a laugh Ella onc explained to her daughter that there is no such thing as monsters and there was nothing to worry about at all.

"Let's get you back to bed sweetie," August said.

"Noooooooo,"  Amelia yelled. "Not without your story, Mommy!"

"Ok, fine" Ella responded lightly. "I suppose I can tell my story."

Once upon a time there lived a happy couple in a great castle. The couple was deeply in love and through the years tried to have many children, but only had a single daughter, Amelia.

"That's my name!" squealed Amelia.

"Yes, sweetheart. Amelia was your grandmother" August said before taking over the story.

Anyways, for years the family lived in the palace full of love and joy. Eventually Amelia fell in love with a young man, and  they married. Shortly after the marriage they announced that Amelia was pregnant, and everyone in castle was elated by the news. While her husband was away, Amelia gave birth to a baby girl. Unfortunately the delivery did not go as planned and even though she did not live to see her only daughter she had time to name her. In grief, Amelia's mom died of a broken heart and the Lord refused to accept his granddaughter. He said that she was the reason for the death of his wife and his daughter and that she was not welcome in his castle. In his anger he told Amelia's husband not to come back to the castle, since nothing was left there for him.

Luckily for the baby girl,  Ella, Amelia had a loyal nurse that took in Ella and tried to feed her and clothe her as much as she could afford.

This worked for years, but in her old age the nurse died before Ella was fully grown.  Ella continued to live on the streets but never became discouraged by her situation. Ella was very generous and she often gave what little she had to other people in need. In fact, one evening Ella was walking through a nearby meadow when a stray sheep came her way. Being kindhearted, Ella leaned down to pet the sheep and told it that she would help it find its shepherd. It took a full day of walking nearby meadows but finally Ella spotted young shepherd tending to a flock of sheep.After Ella returned the sheep to the relieved shepherd they began to talk. The young shepherd explained that he was an orphan and offered Ella a job, helping him with the sheep. Overjoyed with the opportunity, Ella accepted and within the next few weeks the shepherd and Ella became great friends.

One day they were walking through a country town and heard of a grand ball that the King was hosting. Ella, never having been to a ball, greatly wanted to attend but was embarrassed of her shepherds clothes. The shepherd was quick to reassure her and insisted that they go together. "Who cares what we wear?!"  he exclaimed. "We will have fun nonetheless!"
Reassured, Ella and the shepherd began the two days journey to the castle. Not an hour into their journey they stumbled upon a strapping young and gallant man mounted on a grand white stallion. Might I add that he was quite handsome!"

Ella started laughing at her husband's retelling of the story. Giggling she said, "Oh really, he was all that handsome? I remember him looking rather confused and lost. I will take it from here."

So anyways, Ella offered help to  handsome young man. She gave him food and water and suggested that they travel together to the castle. There was an immediate spark between Ella and the man. Even though he was clearly wealthy he was not too proud to ask a commoner for help or to travel with a flock of sheep.

When they reached the castle the young man said he must go, but hoped to see them both at the ball.

After tending to the sheep Ella and the shepherd gathered the courage to enter the great ball, remember that they are still dirty from the fields and smell of sheep. As soon as they walked in the lords and ladies all began to snicker and laugh at these commoners. In embarrassment, Ella turned to run to the door but before she could make it she heard a familiar voice yell, "Wait!" As soon as she turned around she recognized the young man from earlier, only now he had a crown on! She assumed that he was wealthy, but a Prince!?

He ran to her and gave her an embrace before turning to the crowd to explain to them that Ella was more kind than all of them, and they should be ashamed of themselves.

Ella was impressed at the Prince's reaction, but before she could say a word the shepherd stepped forward.

"I have seen this woman choose kindness over bitterness again and again, and now her inner beauty will match her clothes.And as for the Prince, he has proven to be a kind and understanding man. The two of them will have countless blessings"

In an instance Ella's shepherd's clothing was transformed into a beautiful dress and the shepherd disappeared.

Although they never saw the shepherd again, the two truly did live happily ever after.

"Well, it looks like she has passed out," August said while looking at his sleeping daughter.

"I guess it is just that good of a story," Amelia said with a smile.

(Castle Beyond the Meadow, credit to slipdem)

Author's Note
In the original story, Tattercoats, an old lord loses his daughter when she was birthing his grand daughter. He was so upset at the loss of his daughter that he swore to never look at his grandchild and he neglected her. The grandchild had a nurse maid that took care of her but was ultimately forced to live on the streets where she befriended a goose herder. In the end she makes it to a ball with the goose herder and the Prince falls in love with her even though she is poorly dressed. The goose herder then turns her tattered clothes into a beautiful dress. In my version of the story I really wanted to emphasize that Ella truly had a great personality and won over the Prince with more than her looks. In accordance to this, I wanted the Prince to be appreciative of her personality and to be kind as well. Even though this is a fairy-tale I was inspired to create a version of the story that shows the happily ever after, rather than eluding to it. By adding a small narrative of a "here we are now" theme to the beginning of the story, I hoped to capture this.

Bibliography

More English Fairy Tales, Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1894) link

Learning Challenge: Sleep over Studying

Learning Challenge

This week for the learning challenge I chose to read the article Why Sleeping May be More Important than Studying written by Katrina Schwartz. To be honest there has been many times that I have stayed up late to cram for an exam and I have many times felt like going into the exam exhausted does more harm than good. This article definitely confirmed my idea by describing how a good nights rest can be even more beneficial than a late night cram session. The biggest surprise from reading the article was the suggestion that school should start at 10 a.m. to ensure that students have enough sleep. That would be great!

(Sleepy Student, credit to Love Krittaya)

Learning Challenge: Happiness Jar

Learning Challenge

This week I chose to do a Learning by H.E.A.R.T. challenge. The challenge that appealed to me the most was the Happiness Jar challenge since I read about classmate doing the challenge while doing the commenting assignment this week. The premise of the challenge is to write down something that makes me happy every day and then reflect on the writings at the end of the week. I feel like this will be a great challenge because it would make me more aware of the positive things that happen to me during the week. I look forward to this challenge!

(Happiness Jar, credit to Marta Z on flickr)

Growth Mindset: Week 15

Growth Mindset

For this growth mindset post I chose to find some growth mindset cats on pinterest that I really could relate to. The first meme that I enjoyed was the "Study hard, and then take a break" meme. Being a chemical engineering major here at the university I often find myself studying for hours on end and only recently have I found a better system. I found that the way of studying that works best for me is to take a ten minute break every hour so that I do not get overwhelmed.

(Study, Study, Study. Credit to Laura Gibbs)

The second meme that really spoke to me was the "There are many paths to success." Going into college I thought that I was for sure going to graduate in four years, and when I found out that I needed to take five years I was devastated. The idea of my plan being thrown off by an entire year was very scary and I felt like I was a failure in some ways. After some time I realized that taking an extra year really helped me to mature and taking less hours decreased my stress level significantly. This meme reminded me that there really are multiple paths to success and my plan was not the only plan that could lead to success.

(Path to Success, credit to Laura Gibbs)

Growth Mindset: Week 14

Growth Mindset

After reviewing what the growth mindset was last week, I was inspired to dig a little deeper into the concept of growth mindset. Specifically, this week I am exploring how I am using the growth mindset in other aspects of my life outside of school. 

Where I apply Growth Mindset Outside of School

So when I am not studying for exams or completing assignments, I really enjoy trying to express myself in creative and artistic ways. This can include playing piano drums or guitar, or even drawing sometimes. When it comes to doing the best job of applying the growth mindset it would have to be when I am learning something new on piano. Since I genuinely enjoy playing piano it is easy to relax and allow myself to take time and focus on what I am learning rather than get frustrated every time I mess up. Even when I am learning a difficult piece I can usually find a way to embrace the process and be excited for the outcome even though it is time consuming and difficult. I hope that in the future I can apply this amount of patience with myself when I am trying to learn a new concept for class rather than get frustrated when I don't understand it immediately.

(Growth vs Fixed, credit to Jessica Ottewell)

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Growth Mindset: Week 13

Growth Mindset

With finals week fast approaching, this week seemed like a great time to revisit the growth mindset concepts and hopefully find some motivation and advice to carry me through to the end of the semester. Since it had been a while since I have explored the growth mindset I decided to read an article by Saga Briggs titled 25 Simple Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset. In the article I was reminded that the growth mindset is just believing in the idea that I can grow, rather than my intelligence and personality being fixed. 

Out of the 25 ways to develop the mindset I chose a few that really spoke to me. First was the concept of replacing the word failing with learning. Throughout my college experience I have had a few times where I became extremely discouraged from failing an assignment and in retrospect if I had thought of the experience as having more to learn rather than failing I may have been able to handle the situation without getting so upset. Second, was the concept of  paying more attention to the growth rather than the speed. I always try to learn things quickly and have many times crammed before an exam without actually learning the concepts. I feel like it is important to give yourself time to grow rather than rushing a process and ultimately becoming discouraged with the learning process. 

(Grow, photo from flickr)

Tech Tip: Typing Test

Typing Test

So after trying out the typing games and realizing I could use some improvement I decided to get a baseline of my typing skills in order to see how much I can improve in the remaining of the semester. 

Before I took the test at MyHero.com I looked up the average typing speed and found that the general consensus is over 40 words per minute is above average. This being said, I was surprised that my first attempt was 50.88 words per minute with 92.39% accuracy.  The second time I took the test I had an even better score at 97% accuracy and 62.98 words per minute. With this data I was able to set a goal for the end of the semester; to type over 100 words per minute. 

Tech Tip: Touch Typing Games

Touch Typing Games

For this tech tip I chose to try out some typing games online in order to assess and improve my typing skills. Being an engineering major I do not do too much writing, and this translates into not doing too much typing. The first game that I played was the NinjaCat game, and I must say I have some improvement to m ake! I was not terrible at the game  but it was clear that I am not an expert typist. I also tried out the game Typing Alien. I personally enjoyed typing alien more since it reminded me of the old game Galaga. 

Tech Tip: Canvas Calendar

Canvas Calendar

So this week I chose to write about the calendar for canvas.The canvas calendar is a really useful tool that I have used this entire semester to help with time management and assignment reminders. The calendar is particularly helpful because it shows due dates, test times, and more depending on the professor. Since I already use a physical planner and an online daily planner I really focus on using the canvas calendar for assignment reminders only. Even though I already write all my assignments in my daily planner it is nice to have an online reminder just in case I miss something or forget an assignment. 

Reading Notes: More English Fairy Tales B

Reading Notes

As I stated in my last post, I really wanted to read the More English Fairy Tales section of the British and Celtic unit in order to find inspiration for the retelling of a fairy tale since my portfolio does have the term fairy tale in the title. Anyways, in the second part of the reading I really enjoyed the story Rushen Coatie as well as King O' Cats.

Rushen Coatie

The story of Rushen Coatie is yet another retelling of the classic Cinderella story. In this version the fairy godmother is a calf that helps Cinderella, or the Rushen Coatie, get food as well as clothes to attend church where she meets the prince. Like the other classic Cinderella stories, the Rushen Coatie loses a shoe at church in a rush to beat her evil stepmother home and the Prince searches for the owner of the shoe. This version was a bit more gruesome because the  stepmother actually cut off the toes of one of her daughters so that the shoe would fit. If I were to retell this story I may keep some classic aspects like the shoe and the wishes but I might change how the story is written. I could tell the story from a first person perspective or I could do a complete perspective change and tell the story from the side of the actual daughter. Maybe she disagrees with her evil mother and could try to help the Rushen Coatie but in the end gets her toes cut off. 

The King O' Cats

The King O' Cats is not a typical or well known fairy tale but I really enjoyed reading it. The story was about a man who works in a graveyard and saw a funeral for a cat by cats and was freaked out. When he is retelling the story to his wife, who has a cat on her lap, the cat jumps up and shouts that he is the King of the Cats now and runs off. If I were to retell this story I may go into more detail on this secret cat community and maybe even form the story into a comedy about the cats trying to cover up what the old man saw in order to keep their society secret.

(King of Cats, photo from flickr)

Bibliography

More English Fairy Tales, Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1894) link

Reading Notes: More English Fairy Tales A

Reading Notes

For this week's reading in the British and Celtic unit I chose to read the unit over more English Fairy Tales. The title of my portfolio is Fables, Fairy tales, and other Fantastic Stories so I feel like I needed to read about fairy tales to potentially write a story about a fairy tale. The story Tattercoats was one story that I really enjoyed reading and that I could see myself retelling.

Tattercoats

In the story of Tattercoats an old lord loses his daughter when she was birthing his grand daughter. He was so upset at the loss of his daughter that he swore to never look at his grandchild and he neglected her. The grandchild had a nurse maid that took care of her but was ultimately forced to live on the streets where she befriended a goose herder. In the end she makes it to a ball with the goose herder and the Prince falls in love with her even though she is poorly dressed. The goose herder then turns her tattered clothes into a beautiful dress. This story appealed to me because it is a different version of the all too popular Cinderella. I enjoyed this version because the Prince fell in love with her before she was beautifully clothed and I think it sends an important message about falling in love for personality rather than beauty. If I were to retell this story I would possibly tell it as if someone was telling their child a bedtime story. It could be really interesting to even tell the story from the perspective of this Cinderella but make it a retelling to her child about how she met the prince. In the retelling of the story I would probably go into more detail about the herder and rather than herding geese maybe he could herd something more familiar like sheep. This is not a major part of the story but I think it is more relatable if the characters are more familiar.

(Classic Cinderella, photo found at Wikipedia commons)

Bibliograph

More English Fairy Tales, Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1894) link

Reading Notes: Robin Hood B

Reading Notes: Robin Hood

As I stated in my last post, this week for the Celtic and British unit I chose to read about Robin Hood. Not only was this section different in the way it was written, it had very ideas of Robin Hood than I am used to. These ballads portray Robin Hood as more of a villain, which is very surprising. For the second part of this reading unit I found a few stories that could be interesting to rewrite. These include The Bishop of Hereford and The Bishop.

The Bishop of Hereford and The Bishop.

In The Bishop of Hereford Robin Hood disguises as a Shepherd and kills a deer in the Bishop's path so that the Bishop would condemn him for killing the King's deer. When this happens Robin calls for his men and they overtake the Bishop and steal his gold. In the story of The Bishop, the story of The Bishop of Hereford continues. After Robin Hood lets the Bishop run away after robbing him the Bishop gathers men and hunts down Robin Hood. Robin changes clothes with an old lady and tricks the Bishop into taking the wrong person. I think that it could be interesting to retell these two stories as one and to not do the traditional ballad form. Although the ballads are interesting they can be slightly hard to read and I would change it into a normal story. I could also tell it in first person from Robin's perspective or give a better backstory of the Bishop. If I were to retell these two stories as one I could also do a better job of describing the timeline between Robin robbing the bishop and the bishop hunting down Robin. Another idea would be to tell the story as if it was someone telling their child a bedtime story.

(Robin, Credit to Nilfanion, link)

Bibliography

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads,Francis James Child. (1882-1898) link

Reading Notes: Robin Hood A

Reading Notes: Robin Hood

This week for the British and Celtic Units I chose to read the Robin Hood section. I was torn between choosing Alice in Wonderland and Robin Hood, but since I plan to read the full Alice in Wonderland Novel I went with Robin Hood. In the reading I found a few stories that I would be interested in retelling, including Progress to Nottingham.

Progress to Nottingham

In the story Progress to Nottingham Robin is only 15 years old and is already skilled with a bow and arrow. The main idea of the story is that some foresters do not believe that Robin Hood could possibly be that skilled with a bow and arrow since he is so young and so they challenge him to shoot in the King's shooting competition. Robin Hood made a wager with the men and won, but when they did not pay up he shot them all. I was definitely surprised to see him more of a villain type rather than the steal from the rich to give to the poor image that he has been portrayed as. The story was also different because it was written in the form of a ballad in old English, which honestly made it a bit more difficult to read. If I were to retell the story I feel like I could go two different directions. On one hand, I could change the story so that instead of Robin Hood killing all of the men they could have paid up and he could have given the money to the poor. On the other hand, I could fully embrace the more villainous Robin Hood and retell this version of the story out of the ballad form.  I think if I were to keep the villainous version of Robin Hood I could go into more detail of why he was wondering the forest alone at fifteen years old.

(Young Robin, credit to Mike Peel)

Bibliography

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads,Francis James Child. (1882-1898) link

Reading Notes: Extra Credit, Nursery Rhymes

Reading Notes

For the extra credit reading I really wanted to read something that was different than everything I have seen up to this point. I have enjoyed exploring tales from Egypt, folklore from Native Americans, and fables from Africa, but I thought it would be fun to read something that may be more familiar. When I was little, I was read and sung many nursery rhymes, so it seemed like the Nursery Rhyme unit could be both familiar like Little Bo Peep and even surprising like The Lion and the Unicorn. 

Little Bo Peep

Little Bo Peep is a rhyme that I heard many times as a child and it is about a girl who has sheep that get lost, she seeks them out but when she found them they had no tails. I think it could be fun to retell this story from her perspective! This could be the origin story of Little Bo Peep.

The Lion and the Unicorn

One nursery rhyme that I was unfamiliar with was The Lion and the Unicorn. This short rhyme was about a lion and a unicorn fighting for the crown, and the lion beat the unicorn around a village. It seemed as though in the rhyme the villagers did not want their town being destroyed so they offered the lion and unicorn bread to leave. I think it would be fun to retell this story since I would have the opportunity to add so much to it. When I read this rhyme I thought of instead of a literal lion and unicorn it could mean two armies that have a lion and a unicorn as their banner. This of course reminded me of Game of Thrones and since I am such a nerd it would be amazing to add to the story of Game of Thrones. Maybe there is an old tale about a family, the unicorns, that aren't around anymore because the lions beat them so badly!

(Lion Crest, credit to Kareldorado, link)

Bibliography

The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang and Illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke.  link

Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends, A

Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends

This week I chose to finish off the Native American reading unit by reading about Alaskan Legends. Growing up in Oklahoma, I am more familiar with tales from the Plains Indians and I was really interested in reading stories from another region of the United States. Overall, I was really surprised at the emphasis these Alaskan Legends put on the raven. In the reading I enjoyed the story Raven and the Marmot

Raven and the Marmot

In the story Raven and the Marmot, the Raven was flying overhead when he saw the hole of a marmot. Wanting the eat the marmot, Raven blocked the hole so that when the marmot returned it would not be able to escape into its' home. The plan seemed to work because the marmot returned and could not hide in his hole, but the marmot had a plan. The marmot convinced Raven to dance so as a final request and asked the Raven to close its' eyes. The raven agreed and then the marmot jumped between the raven's legs and hid. I thought this was an interesting story because the Raven actually gets outsmarted even though in quite a few of the other stories the raven seems to be powerful and intelligent. If I were to retell the story I could put it in first person for either the raven or the marmot. I could also change them from animals to humans and make the raven a true villain wanting to kidnap the marmot or something along those lines. I also think that it would be interesting to add more details to the story in order to give a better description of the setting since in the original there was relatively no description of the surroundings, time, or origins of the raven or marmot.

(Raven, credit to Philip Henry Gosse)

Bibliography

Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911). link