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