The Stories, the Myths, the Folklore

The story of the Trojan War is a major story in Greek mythology and would be a main event in my story book. The idea is take that war and turn it into a scene using OU students--specifically cheerleaders and football players or athletes from other sports. The goddesses: Athena, Aphrodite, Helen, and Hera would be cheerleaders or pom girls and the Gods or warriors would be football, basketball, or other male athletes from OU (or Texas... being the rival). The gist of the story is that Paris of Troy (or Texas) took Helen from Menelaus, from Greece (or Norman). The war began because of a competition between three goddesses all wanting the golden apple reward naming one of them "the fairest of them all." Trojan Horse from Wikimedia The death of Achilles at the end of the Trojan War would be a great story to tell because he was a major hero in the war and he only had one way that he could die (by his achilles). Achilles, in my storybook, would be played by a well known m...

Receiving feedback that will help your character improve is very important. Receiving praise and glory is exciting, but if all we get is praise, then we have nothing to use to improve. I personally seek constructive feedback because it will motivate me to be "perfect" and not need feedback anymore, if that makes sense. The article "The Difference Between Praise and Feedback"  by Anya Kamenetz highlights the fact that adults tell children to "try their best" and then they receive praise for doing their best rather than receiving feedback that could potentially help them in the future. For kids, they do not want to shamed for not being perfect, but constructive feedback spun into a positive statement could be beneficial to their developing character. Language is so important in any culture and consistent/constant praise only teaches children and young adults to have a fixed mindset. The process of constructive feedback will develop the young minds into a gr...

One beautiful day in the Land of Duplication, a young mother gave birth to two gorgeous twin baby girls, Mary and Marlie. The twins were identical so everything about them was the exact same. As the sweet girls grew up, nothing changed; they dressed the exact same, they finished each other's sentences, and they exclusively played together. They even had the twin powers that when one twin is sad or hurt, the other twin feels the emotional pull.  As years passed and the girls got older, something changed... their similarities declined and their mother's attention shifted... The mother seemed to focus more on just one of the girls, specifically Marlie, and left the other, Mary, feeling lonely and unwanted.  The loneliness of Mary escalated to isolation while Marlie thrived with success in friendships, schoolwork, and community activities. Venus grew envious and enraged with the treatment she received from everyone, even her own family. She constantly wondered, "ho...

In order to make sure I reached the work count for each assignment, I would copy and pasted my passages into a Word document. It did not take a lot of effort, but it was unnecessary. I downloaded the extension of the word count into my browser and it has made everything so much easier. This tip is a handy little one. I am gonna start using it for a lot of things when I am not using Word. It really is true that you can learn a new thing everyday, I really like the the tech tips and cannot wait to see what else I can pick up on as the semester goes on. I hope I can share tech tips to friends as I learn about them. Tech Tips Meme from MacQuarie University 

After reading Venus and the Goddesses from the Cupid and Psyche unit, I was shocked to see how things changed. Venus used her son, Cupid, to revenge her and torment her enemy, Psyche. The biggest twist that happened was..... Cupid fell in love with Psyche. Never thought I would see that coming. Venus, of course, was furious and felt betrayed by her son. But whose fault is this whole mess? It is VENUS'!! She is the one that dragged Cupid into her devious plan. In this story, Venus complains and complains. She talks about conceiving another son to and stripping Cupid of his wings and bow and arrow. Being a mother, she is not acting like a good one at all. She is not there to talk to her son about his first love, she is shaming him for loving the girl she hates. She also calls upon her friends, Ceres and Juno, to help her find and destroy Psyche for poisoning her son. The next story, Psyche's Prayer, is about Psyche trying to survive. She knows that Venus is after her in a ...

The story Psyche's Beauty and the Anger of Venus grabbed my attention by the way the story was told. The main character Venus is furious because this young, beautiful girl is being compared to her. The people say that the young girl is so beautiful that she looks just like Venus, but Venus takes offense because all the people worship this girl and admire her beauty and nobody gives Venus the time of day. Venus is jealous because she is not getting half the attention that the young girl, Psyche, is receiving. What caught my attention in the book is that Cupid, Venus' son, the God of Desire, was using his power of attraction for "evil." Venus is so envious of Psyche that she calls on her son to revenge her and seize her with passion for a "wretched man." I always thought that Cupid made people fall in love for the good of both parties--not use his powers for revenge and wrongful lust. The big twist that popped out to me was Cupid being somewhat evil--I was...