The first article I read was " How to Get past Negativity Bias in Order to Hardwire Positive Experience." The article discusses how are brain will thrive on negative experiences and keep remembering them. When applying this to a learning situation we remember bad grades and mistakes that caused those making us not want to learn anything new. The article described a plan called heal. Basically if you start to have a negative thought about something start by thinking about something happy to get rid of the negativeness and engulf yourself in it. Afterwards start working again on what gave you the negative thoughts while keeping the negativeness in the background and happiness up front. This seems to me like this would be a good way for students to think, but even through the process of heal students will still struggle, but it is a good first step to helping students be less discouraged by new knowledge. It a good article and i would suggest people read it.
The second article I read was "Seven Ways to Crush Self-Doubt in Creative Work." The article gave as the title states Seven great ways to crush self-doubt. The ways in my opinion are really based on believing in yourself and not trying to be perfect at the same time. The author gives seven great ideas to get rid of the doubt, but the most important in my opinion is trusting yourself. This article gives ideas that I believe are use full and would help students to have more confidence in attempting new ideas. I would suggest people read this article also.
This post is based on the thought that I want to write my project based on a portfolio.
Subject 1: Death
I would like to write a story based on death. I have always found the idea of the mythical figure of death to be interesting. I know death can be described in many ways and even be replaced when death believes it's time to die. I have read stories about death and what it does in the past and would love to make one with my own twist.
I have always found the subjects based on Dante's inferno to be fascinating. Though I have never read the original book The Divine Comedy, I have read many shorten versions of the stories about Dante's descent into hell. I have always loved how the level of hell are described and why people are there. I would love to maybe make a story about where people who commit modern sins would land in hell and have a character do his own descent to see their punishments.
The Grimm brother fairy tales have always interested me. They are not your typical Disney fairy tales with a happy ending. I know the original tales are very old and very dark at times. Also when I was younger my father used to read to me out of a Grimm's fairy tale book. I would love to put my own twist on a Grimm's tale.
I have always found the subject of dragons to be fascinating. I know there are lots of dragon fairy tales with different plots and twist to them. I would love to find some good dragon fairy tales and rewrite one with a twist of my own.
Once there was I, a curious tiger was minding my own
business and I got caught in a cage. I thought I would be done for until a
brahman came through the same area as me and saw the cage.
“Stop, will you help me” I asked the brahman.
He replied “no, for you will eat me.”
I replied “No, I will not for I will forever be in your
debt.”
The brahman, after hearing this, opened the cage for me. A
few seconds from emerging from the cage my stomach started to growl, for I had
been locked in the cage for days and had not eaten. My primal instinct started
to take over and I had the need to eat something.
I explained to the Brahman, “I will give you a choice here.
I owe you a debt for opening the cage for me, but I am fighting my primal
instinct to feed on your flesh. I will give you a choice for I do owe you. I
will let you talk to the first three things you see fit to ask if you should
let me eat you or not.”
So, the brahman set out. I told him I would stay where we
were, but little did he know I followed him.
The first thing he asked was a tree and the tree responded,
“I have provided shade and cleaned the air for many but in the end, people will
cut me down. Just accept your fate.”
From there the brahman left unhappy and saddened. Next, I
followed him to where he spoke to a chicken. He asked the chickens thoughts and
it replied, “people use me for my eggs and when I am unable to lay eggs any
more they will eat me. Man, up and let what happens happen.”
Once again, the brahman left with low faith. As I followed
him he finally came across a road and asked its thoughts and it replied,”
People use me to have something to follow but never do they praise me for
helping them not get lost. We all get used for what is needed.”
Knowing the brahman had failed to find a reason for me to
not eat him I raced back to cage so that he would not know I had followed him.
I arrived at the cage and waited for him to arrive.
Later that day the brahman arrived at the cage but he was
not alone. He had brought a jackal with him.
I asked the brahman” Have you found a reason for me to not
eat you?”
He replied” I do not, but the jackal has something”
The jackal made the statement, “I am confused on how this
whole thing started. Will you explain to me what happened?”
I consented to his question being a good tiger and explain
the whole situation. Then the Jackal responded, “I am still confused will you
explain again but slower.”
Irritated I nicely explained the situation again.
The jackal once again stated, “I am still confused”
So, in a spur of the moment decision I jumped into the cage
and asked if the jackal understood thus far. He responded, “I understood the
whole time and now your locked back in the cage.”
The brahman thanked the jackal and they went their separate
ways. I had felt cheated because the brahman had spoke to one more thing than
we had made a deal for and ended up cheating me. I will remained locked in this
cage and starve to death because I was cheated the brahman and tricked by a
jackal.
end story
author's notes: I took the original story of the the Tiger, Brahman, and Jackal and told the story from the tigers point of view. I made the story to look like the tiger really was not the bad guy but the brahman and the jackal cheated and were bad. By changing the point of view it changes the whole tone of the story. I also changed one character which was the buffalo to chicken for I related the chicken more to the story.I wanted to tell from the tiger view for I thought it would be fun.
bibliography: Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912).
I have noticed a lot of these stories include animals that can speak or represent a symbol in the story. The animals can represent a person or even moral for the story. I have also noticed that through the stories people will directly interact with the animals to learn a lesson. i have also noticed that there is always a villain who seems to be be evil in some way, but in every story the protagonist will overcome the villain or any negative evil that gets in their way. When I say evil I mean from the ghost stories. Though the ghost doesn't have to be pure evil they pose a challenge for the protagonist to overcome which I would see as evil. I also noticed that a lot of the stories started with once upon a time so that must be a good way to start a story. Another aspect that stood out in many of the stories is the protagonist would win or try to take someones hand in marriage. Ending with a marriage and happily ever after seem to be a running theme. These are my thoughts so far on what I have read and noticed. As i read more I believe i will notice other themes but these are the main ideas that stood out to me this far. I will use a picture of a jackal because many of the stories contain a jackal.
link to Myth-Folklore Anthology: these are the stories I read: Author - NA
I am going to choose stories that are familiar to me in the way that I have heard about them but never actually read them myself. I will also pick stories that seem like they would stand out to me such as myths from foreign countries. I want the stories i pick to peak my interest and not be something i am forced to read and not like causing me not to be as focused when reading. If I like what I'm reading i will gain more from it.
choices I've picked out
Grim (Librivox)
I have chosen this because the stories here are stories I have heard of but never read myself, thus causing my interest to peak. link to stories
Dante's Inferno
I have always heard about Dante's inferno through people talking about it in movies and even played a game based of Dante working his way through hell. The story peaks my interest and makes me want to read it. Link to stories
Sinbad
This is another one of those stories I heard a lot about as a child. I watched movies and shows that had Sinbad but now I will be able to read his original stories as an adult. link to stories
Dante seeing the devil in the lowest level of hell
