Famous Last Words: I did EVERYTHING???

It's official! This is my last assignment for week 13! I realized (a little too late) that I was WAY behind on point, so for week 13 I did everything. Yes, everything. All of the normal work as well as all 8 extra credit assignments. I'll be honest, I didn't know if I was gonna be able to pull this off. I'm going to have to do the same for week 14 as well as the extra dead week assignments in order to pass the class, but I'm optimistic! All of the stories and portfolios/storybooks I read this week were fantastic. I'm so proud of how far everyone in the class has come. Myself included! Who would've ever thought that I would be successful(ish) at running a blog? Who knows, maybe I'll start up a personal blog after this class. We'll see.

As far as my plans for this coming week, I'm honestly just ready to be home in Maryland for a bit. My flight leaves at 5:05am Wednesday morning, which I'm not excited about. I also haven't even started packing yet 😅. Unfortunately it looks like I'll have quite a bit of homework to do over break, but none of it is too terribly difficult. I have one test today on Monday and two quizzes (in the same class) on Tuesday this week before I get to leave. My Italian teacher tried to move our test to Tuesday too, but thankfully that got shut down. Especially since it's a Monday/Wednesday/Friday class anyways!

My adorable friend Alyssa, who was awesome enough to
agree to drive me to the airport at 3am on Wednesday.
Source: Personal Photo

The reason I had to use the grace period for my extra credit assignments this morning is because last night was the initiation ceremony for my sorority. I took a little this semester, so it was definitely a proud mama moment.

I don't necessarily want to leave this class, but I'm kind of ready for this whole semester to be over. Bring on Week 14!

Review: Week 13

Source: Class Announcements, Saturday, November 17

I chose the above image because it makes my heart warm and embodies the ideals that my family has always supported, especially around the holidays.
I decided to watch the video from the Tuesday, November 13th class announcements because I LOVE animals and the android advertisement was just too cute. I've imbedded it for y'all to enjoy in case you missed it.

Wikipedia Trail: From Mermaids to the Element Lithium

I started on the mermaid page because they are probably my favorite mythological creature. Then I checked out Sirenomelia, a birth defect that leaves a child's legs attached to one another, vaguely resembling a mermaid. The condition is usually fatal, but it turns out the longest surviving patient is from the place where my uncle lives now! Next up was the Andes Mountains. This is the mountain range that runs along the west coast of South America. Apparently this mountain range holds very high deposits of Lithium. Which is our fourth and final stop on this trail.

Thanks for joining me on this journey!
Source: PublicDomainPictures.Net

Tech Tip: Getting Started with Twine

This was SO much fun! I made a game that will guess what number you're thinking of. Now to figure out how to post it to my blog... That can be for next week. Something tells me I'll spend WAY too much time on this if I don't stop now. I would highly recommend checking out this Tech Tip!

Source: Pixabay

Learning Challenge: Review Your Class Schedule

At the beginning of the semester, I had my three hours divided into two three hour chunks on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This worked okay until my Organic Chemistry class started kicking my ass and I needed that time to review functional groups and conjugation properties. I have since shifted to working 1-2 hours a night every day of the week after classes. This seems to be working better for me, but unfortunately I screwed up bad enough in the beginning that the highest grade I can hope to get in this course is a C. Because of this, I will most likely be spending most of my Thanksgiving break working on Week 14 assignments. This class obviously didn't go quite as well as I had planned, but I did learn a lot about needing to ask for help earlier rather than later. Thankfully, when Laura contacted me about my lack or work, my grade was still salvageable. This also made me take a step back and reevaluate ALL of my classes and helped me get into a much better rhythm all the way around for the back end of this semester.

Useful, but I feel attacked right now. :)
Source: Learning by HEART

Growth Mindset: Focusing on "Yet"

Challenge: Explore Growth Mindset Beyond School

This semester I have applied a Growth Mindset best to being on my sorority's social committee. There were a lot of events planned last minute and the only way to keep from going crazy was to stay hopeful and take things one step at a time. With finals week approaching, and my list of homework growing, the "I haven't done it YET" mindset will hopefully help to keep me somewhat sane.

Source: Growth Mindset and Feedback Cats

Reading Notes: American Indian Fairy Tales (Part A)

2-3. Shin-ge-bis Fools the North Wind

• Synopsis:
• The indians go north the fish in the summer
• when the north wind (winter) starts to approach, they head back south
• One decides to stay
• The north wind is angry that anyone would dare to defy him
• The north wind tries to destroy the indian
• it doesn't work
• Possibilities:
• Told from the North Wind's point of view

4-5. The Little Boy and Girl in the Clouds

• Synopsis:
• A little boy and his sister go swimming
• They come out of the pool of water and climb onto a rock
• They fall asleep
• The rock magically grows as tall as a mountain
• Their parents can't find them
• The Coyote determines that they are at the top of the mountain
• None of the animals can jump high enough to reach the children
• The inch worm arrives and offers to climb
• It takes him a month, but he gets to the top and wakes the children
• The kids come down safe and sound
• Possibilities:
• From the Inchworm's perspective

via Flickr

Story Source: American Indian Fairy Tales, W. T. Larned

Week 13 Story: The Second Generation of Nuggets

Author's Note: This week's story is based on the Nun's Priest's Tale from Eva March Tappan's Canterbury Tales. In the original story, there's a rooster who has a dream about a fox stalking him. His girlfriend, essentially, calls him a scaredy-cat so that he'll ignore the dream. A few days later, the rooster is singing when he suddenly sees the fox in the bushes watching him. Through some flattery, the fox is able to convince the rooster to keep singing. When the rooster closes his eyes and starts to belt out his song, the fox grabs him by the neck and takes off.

Via GoodFreePhotos

The screeching was, in truth, quite beautiful. It would be a shame to end such lovely music, but the fox was hungry. He slowly crept closer to the chicken cage as the rooster slept. Closer... closer... but as he was about to grab the rooster through a hole in the chicken wire, he woke up! A nice, juicy looking hen waddled over to comfort him.
"I dreamt of an orange creature, coming to take me!" cried the rooster. The fox slowly backed into the forest as the rooster looked around frantically. The whole hen house was awake and alert now, he'd have to try again later
Two days later, the fox returned to the farm. The rooster was singing again. The fox paused a moment in the bushes next to the pen to listen. He remembered the roosters father. He too had had a beautiful voice. The father had made delicious chicken nuggets as well. Such a shame, but food was more important than music. The squirrels had learned to stay up in the trees whenever he came through. Just then, his stomach rumbled. The rooster stopped and snapped his head in the direction of the sound. He gave a startled scream when he saw the fox.
"No please, continue!" said the fox. "I was just enjoying your wonderful singing. I remember when your father used to crow. He would close his eyes and stretch his neck out to sing. Would you, perhaps, be willing to close your eyes and stretch your neck out while you sing? I do miss him so." Flattered, the rooster agreed and began to sing once again. Once the rooster had his eyes closed, the fox leapt out and grabbed the him by the neck. The fox took off running through the forest, back to his hole, thinking of all the ways he could prepare the rooster for dinner.

Bibliography
The Cock, The Hen, and The Fox, Eva March Tappan

Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales (Part B)

3-5. The Cock, the Hen, and the Fox

• Synopsis
• A widow and her two daughter live on a small farm
• They are poor
• They have a rooster and seven hens
• The rooster dreams of a fox one night
• His favorite hen calls him out for being afraid
• The rooster then tells her two stories about how dreams can sometimes be real (ish)
• The rooster goes about his day, ignoring the dream at the insistence of his girlfriend (?)
• While he's singing one morning, the fox approaches
• The fox tells him he just wants to enjoy his music
• He flatters the rooster
• The rooster goes back to singing and gets attacked
• The hens scream as the fox runs away with the rooster
• The widow and her daughters hear the screaming and chase the fox
• The whole damn village ends up chasing him
• The rooster tricks the fox into speaking, but when he opens his mouth the rooster flies up into a tree
• Possibilities
• Any story about dreams being real
• Fox's perspective
• What if he really did know the roosters father?
• What if this widow is the same one from part A?

Source: Pixabay

Story Source

Canterbury Tales, Eva March Tappan

Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales (Part A)

Canterbury Pilgrims by Thomas Stothard
via WikiMedia Commons

1-2. The Unknown Bride

• Synopsis:
• A knight fails to uphold his vows
• Should be out to death
• The ladies of court save him from punishment by their favor
• He shall not be put to death fi, in a year, he can discover what it is that women want most
• He travels the country asking women what they want most
• No two answers are the same
• He happens upon a group of young women dancing in a field
• They Scatter
• When he reaches the clearing there is only an old hag there
• She tells him the answer to his question in exchange for a promise to do the first thing asked of him
• He agrees
• All women want to rule over their husbands
• The knight returns to the queen's castle with his answer
• It is correct
• The old lady demands he fulfill his promise to her in front of the whole court
• She wishes to marry him
• At first, the knight protests, but gives in
• There isn't much happiness at the wedding
• His new wife calls him out for being inna bad mood
• The old women asks him if he would rather have an old, but faithful wife or a young, but cheating one
• The knight realizes that maybe things aren't so bad afterall
• He kisses his bride and she transforms into a beautiful young women
• The ones he had first seen in the field?
• They live happily ever after
• Possibilities
• Told from the woman's point of view
• Who are her friends?
• What were they doing in that forest?
• Why did she want to marry the knight?

9-11. The Revelers

• Synopsis:
• Three men were drinking in a tavern when they heard a bell outside
• The bell was for a funeral
• The squire and bar keep told them that death had been running around killing people
• The three men swore to go hunt death down and kill him
• On the way, they ran into an old man
• He pointed them in the direction of death
• Death was not by the tree, but a pile of gold was
• The youngest was sent back into town for bread and wine
• While he was gone the other two devised a plan to kill him so they wouldn't have to share the gold
• Along the way, the lone man came up with a plan to poison the other two
• All three men ended up dead, so no one got the gold
• Possibilities
• Was the old man death?
• Was the gold even real?
• What if it was the magician from stories 6-8?

Story Source:

Canterbury Tales, Eva March Tappan