Week 15 Reflections

Looking back on this semester, I have really enjoyed this class and the writing skills that it has brought me. I have always thought that writing has been easy, but I have truly learned how much I enjoy writing while taking this class. These stories have been so much fun to think of and to write and I think that I want to continue on and keep writing short stories in the future! I really enjoyed the extra credit options in this class and the readings were great! I got a little bogged down in how long some of them were, but that was probably just me being lazy! I would've loved to have more suggestions for storytelling ideas and strategies because towards the second half of the semester I started to blank on new ways to tell the stories!

Reading Evaluation

I really enjoyed the readings this semester! I noticed that I tended to only do the half reading options because of time constraints!
The best reading diary strategy for me was to decide what kind of story I wanted to write before I read the reading and then write notes over it that way! It was easier to write notes this way!
I think there was a little more reading vs writing and commenting! I wish there was a tad more writing instead of quite so much!
Overall, I loved the readings this semester!

Week 14 Tech Tip: Editing a Pinterest Pin

I feel like I know my way around Pinterest pretty well but these tech tips have allowed me to learn more about how to efficiently use the website for all types of things! I like being able to edit the pins because when I have done something, I can edit the description so that I know in the future that I have done or tried it!

I am really excited to use this tech tip in the future!

Week 14 Growth Mindset: Quotes that make you think

"Think of all you have learned so far, and don't fret over what you have left to learn"

As finals week approaches, I have found myself using this quote more and more as I begin to study! I think it is extremely important to think about all the knowledge that we have attained before we worry about all of the things we still have to learn! This very much reminds of the Growth Mindset that we have been looking at of the whole semester and I like to keep that in mind as I move forward. It is so important to value and celebrate your milestones, even when you have miles left to go before you have finish and fully succeed. This applies to classes, as well as work and everything you attempt in your life!

Week 14 Essay: Poetic Speech and Style

This week I read from the unit, Fables of La Fontaine, which was written in the poetic style. The stories were a collection of Aesop's Fables from a French writer and I definitely recognized a few stories, but most were completely new.

The poetic style has always been hard for me to read and understand, so I generally try to stray away from reading poetry when I can. I have never understood the beauty of poetry or heard the underlying meanings that I am told poetry holds. The largest problem I find when I am reading poetry is I cannot understand a lot of the language used and I fail to see the metaphors that are often central to understanding the poem. Though I do not personally prefer the poetic style that was used in the Fables of La Fonatine, I believe that the style really was an important element of the stories. The style allows the moral to be driven home, without it having to be flat out stated multiple times.

A strategy I used to better understand the poetic language and style is reading the poem through once and then a second time to try and actually understand what the poet was trying to tell me. Also, a lot of the stories were similar to other Aesop's Fables that I had read in past units and that helped me be able to understand the underlying moral easier and for the new fables, I looked up analysis of those stories to help myself better understand them.

Overall, I enjoyed these poems much more than I have in the past and I think that is because I generally enjoy the stores of Aesop's Fables. I think in order to grow to like poetry in general would be to read poems about things and stories that I am already familiar with so that it can be much easier to understand.

Image source: Wikipedia

Week 14 Storytelling: The Tortoise meet Two Friendly Ducks

Sit down and let me tell you about the story of a Tortoise who simply just wanted to get out of her home, out of her hole.

Marie was a simple tortoise. She only knew her own shell and now, she wanted a new home and a new way of life. She wanted to have a bigger life, a life filled with adventure and promise. So she set on her way to find a new life, although she had no clue how she would be able to accomplish that, only that a tortoise of her abilities surely could find a great life somewhere!

She began down the trail through the woods in the search of something new, whistling as she went. Down the way a bit she saw two ducks talking to each other as the walked towards her. She started walking quickly toward them, well as quickly as a simple tortoise could, as she was excited to see another animal on the lonely trail. The ducks hadn't seemed to notice her yet, but she was determined to get to them.

After some quick tortoise speed, Marie reached the ducks and smiled at them as she huffed and puffed. She looked at the two of them and asked,

"Can you guys bring me a new life?"

The ducks looked at her and felt bad for her so they looked at each other and said,

"Well, we can help you fly! If you grab onto that stick right there real tight, we can take you real high in the sky so you can see the whole forest. But, we must warn you, you cannot talk while we are up in the sky and you can't even open your mouth so that the stick does not fall out!"

Marie was so excited! She was going to fly high up in the sky. So she grabbed the stick and clenched her mouth with all of her might as the ducks grabbed hold and flew her higher and higher.

But as she was flying through the sky, Marie heard from below,

"A miracle is seen! There goes the flying tortoise queen!"

Well, Marie thought that was exactly what she was now. After all, she had to be the first flying tortoise in the whole wide world! So she exclaimed, 

"The queen! I'm truly that, without a joke!"

But as she opened her mouth, her grip on the stick was released and she started to fall through the sky as fast as could be. The ducks sighed as the tortoise had not heeded their good advice. 

Author's Note: For this week, I decided to rewrite the poem The Tortoise and the Two Ducks from the La Fontaine unit because I liked the story but the verse form was sort of hard to read for me. I wanted to do it in the storyteller format where someone was telling the story. I also decided to end the story really bluntly because I feel like the tortoise falling would end the story abruptly. 

Image Information: The Tortoise and the Ducks from Youtube

Week 14 Reading Diary: La Fontaine

This is my last reading diary for the class and I am doing it over the unit La Fontaine because they are a lot like Aesop's Fables and I really enjoyed those!

The Cockerel, the Cat, and the Young Mouse
The verse format can sometimes be hard to work with because it can be much more confusing than a straight forward story format. I loved that this one had a moral like Aesop's fables but it was much more subtle than the english versions as it was just the last two lines in the poem.

The Tortoise and the Two Ducks
I remember reading this story in the english version (not in poem form) and I really liked it then! I loved the idea of this story because it shows how foolish someone can be even when they are warned not to do something. It also shows how easily someone can succumb to vanity and believe the hype that people say about them.

The Frogs Asking a King
This one was really interesting but I had a little trouble understanding the story and what the underlying moral was!

The Swallow and the Little Birds
Like the first poem, there is a sort of moral stated at the end of the poem in the last two lines: It's thus we heed no instincts but our own; believe no evil till the evil's done. Trust your instincts and don't believe something bad has happened until it has occurred and you know that it has.

The Bear and the Amateur Gardener
"A foolish friend may cause more woe than could indeed the wisest foe" sometimes your friends can get you in more trouble than you enemies can when they are foolish and do not think of the consequences! This could be a good story!

The Astrologer Who Stumbled Into A Wall
This poem was super hard to read because there wasn't any separation between the lines or the stanzas, it all sort of ran together!!

Week 13 Growth Mindset: Editing Challenge

So for  this Growth Mindset challenge I decided to do the Editing Challenge! I really struggle with keeping my writing short and sweet because I tend to ramble, in writing and in talking. I decided to edit my story, The Lunch Box and the Math Test, from my Storybook, Kindergarten Shenanigans, a second time!

Screenshot of my story on my google site taken on 11/30/15

This was a really hard challenge for me because I really like long-winded writing! I went through my story and looked for sentences that repeated each other. I know that I tend to repeat myself when I am trying to explain myself and so I worked on cutting that down! 

I really enjoyed going through and working on my writing and writing style, rather than just focusing on grammar like I normally do! 

Tech Tip: Week 13 Changing my Blogger Template (again!)

So I've discovered that I absolutely love changing my Blogger template on my blog! I probably should keep more consistent for you guys, but there are WAY to many options! This time I just changed the font and the font color to enhance my blog, as I am really enjoying the background picture that I chose from my last template change!

Here is a screenshot of my new blog!

Screenshot taken on 11/30/15

I went with a subtle font color, but one that you can still see well on the background, and I changed the fonts to be more striking in the Title but more subtle in the wording! I think that my choices really help the flowers really stick out. I hope you guys enjoy!

Week 12 Reading Diary A: King Arthur

This is my reading diary for the second half of unit of King Arthur that I did not finish last week. I also am planning on doing the same diary format because I did not get to write a story last week, as I let the week get ahead of me.

The Adventure of Sir Galahad
Sir Galahad finds knights in the Abbey that tell him of a shield that when a man hangs it around his neck, they die in the next few days or something happens to him. The monk tells them that only the worthiest knight in the world can hang the shield around their neck. I dont think this story would work very well for a diary post.

The Adventure of Sir Percivale
Percivale goes on an adventure in order to help another knight.

Sir Lancelot and the Five Hundred Knights
I really liked this story but Lancelot's feelings about what is happening isn't well described in this story. I think it would be hard to add enough personal feeling into the diary to make it feel authentic to use this story.

Sir Gawain and the Hermit
Kind of hard to follow, I had to reread parts several times to understand what was going on and where the story was headed. I really like the illustration at the top of the page though.

Gawaine, by Howard Pyle

Image Source: Wikipedia

The Adventure of Sir Bors
I have noticed that these knights are very quick to trust others and do as they ask with no proof that their claims are true.

Sir Galahad and the Mysterious Ship
I like that this story is about more than just one of the knights. The ending of this story was sort of sad. This could be a good reflective diary post, written after the adventure is over and Pervicle's sister has died.

Sir Lancelot meets Sir Galahad
Again, the knights are following strange voices and people without another thought. It was such a different culture when these stories were written. It is interesting that the story implies that Sir Galahad is King Arthur's son, I hadn't picked up on that yet.

The End of Arthur
I liked the ending but I thought that it could have been written better, although I cannot use it for my story because all of the characters die and no one would be left to write the diary!

Week 11 Reading Diary A: King Arthur

This week I am going to continue my reading strategy of taking notes based on the type of story that I am going to write that week. This week I am reading from the unit of King Arthur and I am going to attempt my story in a Diary post. I am going to write one diary entry, or multiple depending on the length and amount of details that are important, from a major character, probably King Arthur or one of his main knights.

Image of old diary entry 

Image Source: Flickr

The Drawing of the Sword
I could do a single entry from Merlin about his thoughts as he comes to Canterbury and decides to have a 'competition' of sorts to find a true king. I could add in how he created the sword in the stone and etched the writing onto the stone. His thoughts as he creates this task and his worry that no one will be worthy and England will continue to suffer. Merlin could watch Arthur ride away, probably to do something for his foster-brother, and think how good of a man Arthur is. Merlin watches as Sir Kay and his father fail to pull the sword out and Arthur pulls it out easily. Merlin rejoices in his head as he realizes that he had not made the enchantment too hard and there is a worthy king to lead them to prosperity. He knew the moment that he delivered Arthur to Sir Ector that he would become a great man but he always had fear that Arthur would be unable to fulfill his destiny and birth right to be king.

The Questing Beast
This story begins with Arthur having to prove to others that he was the true king and having to conquer other kings to get there but Arthur struggles and needs Merlin's help and the help of Excalibur. Arthur sees Guenevere for the first time and falls in love. He has a bad dream of his people being killed by monsters and he being injured. The story ends with Merlin telling Arthur that his sister shall have a child that will end him and all of his knights.

The Round Table
The story of how Arthur marries Guenevere is told in the beginning of this story. That could be a cool diary entry.

The Passing of Merlin
It would be cool to begin the story with Arthur finding the diary and then reading the entry and then ending the story with him reflecting on what a wise friend Merlin had been and how distraught he was over his death and that Merlin had warned him this is how he would die.

The Quest of the Holy Grail
It is interesting that King Arthur did not want his Knights to find the Holy Grail but they went anyway.
The King's Pilgrimage
This story was sort of confusing and hard to follow. I don't think I am going to use it

Week 10 Storytelling: Exposé - Nephew Tells All

EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Nephew tells all
Imagine if your uncle, a man supposed to care for you and love you, instead only wanted to kill you and you had no clue why. That was the life of a young boy we will call "Nephew," as he wants to keep his true identity hidden for privacy purposes. He has come forward to tell us all about his struggles and divulge the once strictly-kept secrets of his childhood.

Before Nephew was even born, his family was plagued with a curse of an Uncle who let his jealously get the best of him when it came to his nephews. The two boys born to Nephew's mother only made it to a few years old before their Uncle took their life to make himself feel better about his own. The man became known as the "Unnatural Uncle" to his village when people started to notice his unnatural ways and the fate of his nephews; the people of his village felt uncomfortable around him and knew that something was wrong, but never dug any deeper into their gut feelings.

Even Unnatural Uncle's wife knew of his ways, but was too scared to confront him or tell anyone of what had happened. Instead she went to Nephew's mother when she learned of her third pregnancy and told her to pretend that Nephew was a baby girl; this worked for a couple of years until the gender was finally revealed to Unnatural Uncle.

This is where Nephew starts to remember the events of his life and tells us of the first time his Unnatural Uncle attempted to take his life. "He wanted to go and get some wood from the forest and I thought, what could be weird about that?" Nephew begins. "But he kept insisting that there was better wood father into the forest and we just kept walking. He asked me to retrieve something that fell into this really big log for him and all of the sudden I was inside the log and unable to get out. Somehow, I knew that he had left me there and I knew that I needed to get out." Nephew struggles to get out. But he takes a deep breath and there is a resolve in his eyes as he continues, "I had some cranberries with me and I remembered how my grandmother had told me that plants hated their sour juice. So I took a chance and spread the juice all over the inside of the log and all of the sudden it opened up for me to get out."

Nephew manages to escape and head back to his Uncle, who is shocked by his very presence. But the Unnatural Uncle does not stop there. He is angry and his pride has been wounded when he learns that his young Nephew was able to thwart him. He attempts on his Nephews life three more times, but each time Nephew is able to outsmart the trap and escape. Unnatural Uncle grows angrier and angrier each time Nephew escapes and even angrier so when Nephew becomes chief of their tribe. Nephew, unable to forgive Unnatural Uncle for how treats Nephew's parents over the years, tells Unnatural Uncle that he will spare his life only if he can swim across the lake. Because Nephew is chief, Unnatural Uncle is unable to deny nephew and attempts to swim across the lake but, lacking the knowledge and skill on how to swim, never makes it across.

If you ask Nephew, Unnatural Uncle deserved everything that came to him. And if you ask the majority of the village, they would probably agree with him. There is an element of karma that people are just unable to escape, no matter how hard they try.


Author's Note: I wrote this story based off of "The Jealous Uncle" from the Native American Hero Tales Unit. I kept to the plot of the original story, shortening it in order to keep the entire plot in one story. In the original story, all four attempts on the nephew's life are described, as is the way that the nephew kills his uncle. I decided to just describe the first attempt in order to keep the length down and because I thought it was the most important.
This week, I tried a new storytelling style by creating a newspaper story about the events that transpired the story and allowing the nephew to come forward and tell the story from his point of view. I really enjoyed writing this way and it made reading the unit easier, knowing what I was looking for and being able to decide if each story would be able to be applied to the storytelling style. I kept all of the dialogue within the paragraphs because that it how it would look in a newspaper, however it leads to pretty big paragraphs to read.

Image Information: Newspaper clipping image I created with "The Newspaper Clipping Generator" on Fodey.com (10-28-15)

Week 10 Reading Diary B: Native American Hero Tales

This is my second reading diary for the second half of Native American Hero Tales.

Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away
The two boys grow up despite being thrown behind the curtain and in the stream. The mother wakes up and follows the boys back home. I didn't really understand the story as the concepts of death is much more fluid in Native American tales than in traditional English.

The Son-in-Law Tests
Wemicus is trying to trick the son-in-law but it keeps backfiring on him. This story wouldn't really work for a newspaper story

Dirty Boy
This reminds me of medical Europe and what you see often in princess movies, like Merida; a prince fighting for the marriage of a daughter through his marksmanship skills. The chief goes back on his word because Dirty-Boy is bed ridden. I like that the younger sister is rewarded for sticking by her sick husband, while the older sister must stay with her ugly husband.

Illustration of Native American fishers 

Image Source: Wikipedia

Week 10 Reading Diary A: Native American Hero Tales

I am trying something new this past week and I think from now on; I am going to try and decide on a storytelling strategy before I start my reading diaries and take notes over how I can apply that to how I am going to write my story that week.

This week my Reading Diary is for Native American Hero Tales and I think I am going to write it in a "newspaper front page article" format. I am really excited about trying to write this way!

Newspaper Image from Pixababy

The Jealous Uncle
The way that this story is starting out makes me think of an expose on the "Unnatural uncle." I could make it like he has been caught by authorities and this is his family speaking out about what happened. The third boy manages to thwart his uncle after he is left for dead, and is determined as ever to kill him.
I want to make the expose about the boy who managed to thwart the Unnatural Uncle

• He first is left for dead in a log, but uses his brain to think of a way out: he put the sour juice of a cranberry on the log and make it let him go
• The uncle pushes him down a cliff after asking him to gather some eggs, but the down of the feathers allows him to land softly and he ascends back up the cliff, eggs in hand.
• While trying to hunt for some clams, the uncle tells a calm to engulf the boy and it does. The boys cuts the inside of the clam to persuade it to open its mouth. 

Dug-From-Ground
I liked how this story started out, but I am not sure if I can apply it to a newspaper type story.

The Attack on the Giant Elk and the Great Eagle
Hero: Jonayaiyin - sent by the gods to relieve the humans of the attacks from the giant Elk, the Eagle and other giants

• He uses the coat of a lizard to disguise himself
• The gopher digs a whole for him to get to the heart of the elk
• The Eagle carries him to its nest and thinks that he is dead
• He kills the eagle and the eagles husband

Tech Tip: Blogger Design Template

Hey guys! This week I decided to change up the Design of my blog on Blogger and I explored the Design Templates! I love how many options that Blogger has to offer and that you can customize each one to fit your style and needs!

I really wanted to do the "dynamic" templates on Blogger, but they do not allow me to keep the labels to the right side of my blog, which is definitely something I need for this class!

I started with a "watermark" template design because I really liked that it had sort of transparent boxes and let the background image show through! The hardest part for me was choosing a background image for my blog that I thought fit the blog content, my personality, and allowed the text to be easily read by visitors! I ended up going with a simple purple/grey background with an orange and yellow flower to the right side!

Screenshot of the Watermark template choice and my background image choice

(October 26, 2015)

I also chose to customize the fonts and fonts colors under the "Advanced" option and really liked this because it gave me the option to make sure that everything could be read easily and add some personality and style to my blog! I chose a purple and lavender color font scheme so that it matched the background but still had enough definition that you could read it!

Ive changed my blog design several times, I think this is my 3rd or 4th time, but I am really happy with how this one turned out and the simplicity of it! I also really like the light colors of the blog versus the darker colors that I had before!

If you want to check out my new design, you can at annmarieandmyths.blogspot.com

Week 9 Essay: Setting and Landscape

This week I read from the Blackfoot stories, specifically mostly from the Kut-O-Yis hero legend, and noticed that the setting and the landscape were very important to the story. To set the scene in most of the stories, the location was identified by the rivers that are near that place; for example, in the beginning of the Kut-O-Yis story, the author begins with "It was long, long, ago down where Two Medicine and Badger Rivers come together, that an old man lived with his wife and three daughters." To a Native American hearing this story, probably orally from an elder, this description would probably conjure up an image of a specific place, even if they had not specifically seen those specific rivers.

Two Rivers Meeting 

Image Source: Wikipedia

One thing that I have learned in this class from reading many different myths and stories from different cultures, is that they way the setting and landscape is described often depends on that culture. Rivers are very important in the Native American culture, as are their natural surroundings and nature in general, and, therefore, stories often use rivers to describe the setting and landscape in their legends and stories. Rivers and nature are often featured in their spiritual belief and stories, showing just how important those features are. In an English story or fairytale, where rivers and nature are not as culturally or spiritually important, a river would most likely not be a main feature used to tell the reader where the story is taking place.

The variance is the description of setting and landscape by culture can make it difficult for a reader of another culture to get a bearing when starting a story. When I began to read the Kut-O-Yis story I couldn't really conjure up an image of the story because I have never seen a place where two rivers come together in my life. Not only that, but in the stories that I read growing up there often weren't descriptions of rivers to give me an idea of what the author of Kut-O-Yis is talking about. It is important for us to understand that our culture shapes us and our thoughts, even something as simple as understanding a setting of a story from another culture.

Week 9 Storytelling: The Blackfoot Psych Ward

Notes of Dr. Nina Hunt

October 12, 2015

Patient 3529

It seems that Patient 9's most recent delusions have revealed themselves over the course of this week's group therapy sessions. After reading the various Native American stories in the library during his free time over the past couple of weeks, patient 9 has convinced himself that he is the hero, Kut-O-Yis, calling himself Kut for short. For simplicity purposes, I will refer to patient 9 as "Kut" for the remainder of my notes. 

October 12, 2015 10 am Group Therapy Session

This week's session started off pretty normally: patient 6 began by explaining that 

"since I haven't heard the voices in FOREVER, I should obviously be released so that I can get back to my freaking life!" 

After I explained, once again, that she can't be released until she has completed her treatment and she subsequently rolled her eyes at me, I asked the usual Monday morning question: 

"How has everyone felt this weekend? Any changes you want to talk about?"

Kut immediately raised his hand and told everyone that he has discovered his "true self" and his "true identity" after a presence visited him. The presence apparently told him of a past life that he had been made to forget and the presence had placed him in this hospital for his safety. I decided that this might not be the best thing to allow him to ramble on about, so I told him he could continue his story tomorrow so that others could have a chance to share. He reluctantly quieted down and let others begin to talk.

October 12, 2015 7 pm Individual Therapy Session

I thought that now would be a good time for Kut to explore his delusions, without the others encouraging him, so that I can try and figure out what causes Kut's delusions and what I can do to help him face reality. It didn't take much prodding to get him started on his life story. 

"I was born of the blood, Dr. Hunt. I obviously dont remember the exact start of my life, but all I know is that my old father boiled a blood clot and there I was. My old mother pulled me out of the boiling water and no one knows how it was possible." 

He pauses and looks at me. I give him an encouraging nod that he can continue and he goes on.

"Soon, much sooner than it should have taken, I was a grown man. And boy was I strong. I learned that my brother-in-law abused my old parents and did not allow them to have any of the meat that my father helps kill! How can a man do that?! My father helped him kill it each time and my brother-in-law just keeps it all for himself! Well, obviously, I had to help my father; there are bad people in this world that do bad things and they need to be taken care of, Dr. Hunt."

He pauses again looks at me. I can see a true anger and betrayal in his eyes, but also a sense of power and self-assurance that I had never seen him possess before. I can tell that he truly believes that he did these things and that he made the world a better place. He continues with his story.

"I knew that my father needed to be the one to defeat him though; he needed to stand up to him like he had always wanted to. I took him hunting and once he had killed the buffalo, my brother-in-law made his way to the meat with a murderous look in his eye. I stayed hidden and coached my father through standing up to that evil man. Soon though my father became to scared that my brother-in-law would kill him so I stood up and I took care of him myself."

I decide to give into his delusions for a little bit to see where his feelings are at. I ask him, "How did it feel to avenge your father? To kill another man?"

He looks at me and with tears in his eyes says, "Dr. Hunt, I never knew that I was capable of something like that, but it felt good to balance the scales a little bit, you know? I knew the evil he had done and I knew that it was justified. But, I also knew that I had to keep going and make even more wrongs right for people who couldn't themselves."

He stops there and I knew that I needed to give him some time to tell me the rest; after all, these delusions are real things that happened to him and the feelings that he is experiencing are very real to him. 

October 12, 2015 General Notes

Kut has been a very different person today than in the past. He is much more caring (he is pulling chairs out for girls, helping the older ladies and gentlemen get things off the floor/high shelves, etc).

Maybe these delusions can be helpful until he comes to a point where he is ready to face reality.

Author's Note:

I wrote this story based of off Kut-O-Yis, The Blood Boy from the Blackfoot Unit. The original story tells of the old man who marries his daughters off to a strong young man who then asks him to hunt with him because the old man and woman have nothing after their daughters are gone. Soon though the son-in-law stops sharing his meat with the old couple and they begin to starve. The old man brings home a clot of blood from a buffalo after one kill and when he dumps it into the boiling water, a baby boy emerges; they call him Kut-O-Yis, or Clot of Blood. The next part of the story tells how when Kut-O-Yis grows to be a man he helps his old father kill his son-in-law. They kill a buffalo and when the son-in-law comes, Kut-O-Yis tells his father what to say to the son-in-law and they shoot arrows at each other until the father is too scared. Kut-O-Yis kills the son-in-law and punishes his sisters for turning away from their parents. 

I chose to write this story as if it is the delusion of a psych patient. I saw this on another story and fell in love with the idea and I loved how this story turned out! I wrote it from the perspective of the doctor taking notes on him because I wanted to add in her commentary on what he was saying to make him a more human character. I was going to write more of the story, he continues on a journey to kill 6 more bad characters, but I found myself writing more detail about just his birth and his first kill. I tried to write dialogue, but how you would see it in someone's notes, not necessarily being spoken out loud. 

Image Information:

Photo of Psychiatric Hospital in Michigan Image Source: Wikipedia 

Week 9 Reading Diary A: Blackfoot Stories

I think I want to do a psych hospital angle for my story this week, make the protagonist of the story actually be a psych patient that believes he is doing what the stories are saying he did. I am gonna write notes about how these stories can be integrated into that idea.

Two Fast Runners
I could make two patients be the deer and the antelope racing through the cafeteria and when the bet their dewclaws, it could be their hospital bracelets through the playground.

The Wolf Man
This story was sort of confusing. I dont think I would be able to apply it to the psych ward

Kut-O-Yis, The Blood Boy
This would be cool to start my story-- the patient telling of how he was born and where he delusions began. Maybe in a group therapy session, those would be cool notes

Next he will tell the group of how he helped his old father defeat his brother-in-law and saved him from starving to death.

He had decided to go on a journey after he knew that his parents were safe. There is a big bear near by that takes all the good food from the village for himself and his wife and children. When the bears came to take the meat, he slays all of them and saves the old woman.

The journey continues. Now a snake takes all of the good food. He reacts the same way and the old woman goes to live in the snake lodge.

Next he goes to find the woman who wrestles and kills men. He hurriedly defeats her with her own sharp stones and moves on. He sees a woman who tricks men to trip and fall over a cliff to their death. But he was much too clever for her and cuts the rope before she can trick him and she falls into the lake to be eaten up by fish.

Soon he finds a man-eater parading as a chief and goes to his lodge. He allows the man-eater to kill him and cook his bones. When a child sees the bones after he has eaten all of the meat, she asks for them and the man-eater obliges not realizing that Kut-O-Yis had made an arrangement earlier. Soon Kut-O-Yis arises from his own bones and destroys the man-eater.

Reading Plan

Here is my tentative Reading Plan for the next 6 weeks!

Week 9:
Blackfoot Stories
I think this could be really cool to do the psych hospital angle!!
Week 10:
Native American Hero Tales
Week 11: 
King Arthur
Could maybe really cool to do this in a Diary form story coming from either Arthur or one of his companions!
Week 12:
Alice in Wonderland
Week 13:
Brothers Grimm (Crane)
Week 14:
Grimm (LibriVox)
I am super excited to read the Brothers Grimm fairytales and see the differences! Everyone knows that the Brothers Grimm versions are much more graphic and sad, but I am excited to see just by how much!

Illustration from a Brothers Grimm book

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons

Tech Tip: Embedded Youtube

Hey y'all! This week I embedded a youtube video into my Introduction post and it was SO easy! All you have to do is click the video icon, next to the photo icon, when you are creating the post:

And then if you are using a youtube video, you click the "From Youtube" link and search the web address of the video you want to use:

A thumbnail should come up and then you select that and you are done!

Here is my youtube video!

Image Information: screenshots taken by me, October 2015

Week 8: Reflections: Looking Forward

I've already looked back at the last seven weeks of this semester and now I want to look forward at the rest of the semester!

Writing:
In the rest of the semester, I really want to work on writing in different styles than I typically do! I think that I have gotten stuck in the same ideas for the past couple of weeks without really going outside the box to look for ideas! One of my classmates stories was really cool, it was a myth retold as if the main character was in a psych ward and the story was his delusion! It really stuck me as cool and I really want to try something like that! I also tend to retell stories in a different point of view, which I like, but I think I should try some new things! I also want to start adding more dialogue to my stories, something I struggle with sometimes!

Reading:
As the semester moves on, I want to focus my readings on more what interests me and not as much on the first thing that catches my eye! I also am guilty of not doing Reading Diary A on Monday and only doing half units, which I am definitely working to change!

Interactions:
I  really like how my interactions are going and my only thing would be maybe to start trying to reply to the comments on my blog posts!

Time:
I need a lot of work in this category as the semester moves forward! I am not very good at sticking to a schedule, especially on days like Tuesday and Thursday because I do not begin class until 12:30 and I usually try to do my assignments in the morning. However, I tend to sleep in instead of getting up and doing my homework! I am going to try and block out time chunks each week to work on this class, rather than focusing on individual assignments that need to be completed!

Location:
I am pretty happy with varying the locations that I do this classwork, it keeps me interested!

Growth Mindset:
I am going to work on starting to do my growth mindset posts again, as I really enjoyed them! They were easy to get done and they really help me in my classes!

Curation:
I need to work on my curation skill, as I usually just keep everything open in different tabs and different windows of my safari right now! This really stinks when I have to restart my computer and I loose everything that was open.

Points:
Right now I have the amount of points needed to stay on track for an A at the beginning of next week! I need to work on doing all of the extra credit again and getting back ahead in this class, as I would like to finish early!

MOTIVATION:

Staying positive is half the battle in life!!

Image Source: AllPosters

Week 8: Reflections: Looking Back

During this post, I wanted to talk about what I have experienced in this class and what I have learned about myself.

Writing:
This class and the past eight weeks have really shown me how much I enjoy writing stories and how much it helps me relax during the week! My favorite story by far was from Week 3 based on Aesop's fables: http://annmarieandmyths.blogspot.com/2015/09/storytelling-week-3-kindergarten.html! I think my project is going really well, I like the concept and I really enjoy writing the stories for it. Sometimes it's hard to think of stories that can applied to the kindergarten age group with the morals from Aesop's fable!

Readings:
I like the readings, although that's what I find myself having trouble making time for each week, and my favorites have been the reading over Aesop's fables! It makes sense that I chose that for my project!

Interactions:
This is my first fully online class and it took me a couple of weeks to get used to the interactions with classmates online, especially in the commenting on each other's blogs! I do feel like I am getting to know the people in this class each week!

Time:
I think the hardest part about this class for me is time management, as without a physical classroom, sometimes I find myself getting behind! I am working on sticking to a more concrete schedule each week to make sure that I get all of my work done on time!

Location:
 I usually do this class wherever I have time! Whether it be my apartment, my sorority house, the library, or the building I hang out in between my classes, I typically work on this class wherever I can when I have time!

Growth Mindset:
I have been doing growth mindset posts, although not for the last two weeks, and I am really enjoying them! I definitely think that my mindset has changed in this class and I have been able to apply that to my other classes as well, which is so freaking cool!!

My favorite Growth Mindset picture I have found so far on Facebook!

Curation:
I don't typically do curation posts, but the few that I have done have taught me how to curate things better. I never thought I would have needed those skills, but they are proving helpful in my classes, especially when I am writing papers!

Week 7 Reading Diary A: Chinese Fairy Tales

This week I am reading from the second half of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit and I am really excited to see how they differ from the English fairy tales that I have read!

The Little Hunting Dog

• I love that the story starts with "Once upon a time"
• The imagery of the little soldiers and hunting dogs is really cool and way not what I was expecting at all! It could be cool to explore the small soldiers and dogs further 
• The ending of this story was really weird and kind of confusing, did he flatten and kill the little dog?

Fox-Fire

•  I think this would be a cool to retell in a super creative story telling style!
• Start with the ending of the story and then say 30 years earlier... like what suspenseful shows often do!

Meme I made with makeameme.org
• Start with him dying as he stares at the ball of fire above him and seeing the fox in his peripheral vision
• 
  
• Maybe add more conflict before he dies and more dialogue (since I tend to lack that in my stories)

The Talking Silver Foxes

• The different names were really confusing in this story! 

Retribution

• The old man killing the water-carrier was an odd twist
• The dialogue also doesn't make much sense in this story

The Night on the Battlefield

• The beginning kind of reminds me of the story of bethlehem because there is no room or food for the old man
• The story is interesting but I wold have to research it more to understand it better!

Storytelling Week 6: Discovering the Enchanted Mountain

The hunter was tired and had been tracking a large animal through the jungle for three days now; as soon as he got close, the animal would disappear without a trace, only to find a trail leading away minutes later. The hunter was frustrated, he was hungry, and he was exhausted.

Soon the hunter found himself at the top of a very lofty mountain and he wondered where he was. He had never seen the vines look quite like they did here and the air had a different quality to it, was it fresher or more clear here?

Then the hunter found himself in a clearing unlike anything that he had seen before; what was this magical place, he wondered? A mystifying smell hit his nose and he smelled the scent of oranges, sweeter than he had ever smelled before, and he wandered in the direction of that smell. He came to a tree with the largest oranges he had ever seen before and, slowly, he took one down and began to peel it. Surely this has to be too good to be true, he thought to himself.

But as the hunter bit into the fruit, he knew that it wasn't too good to be true and that he had found paradise. The magical tasting fruit made him very thirsty and he wandered over to the lake that he saw to his right. The lake sparkled in the light and was as clear as crystal; one could see all the way to the bottom and see all of the fish swimming around and playing with each other. He bent down to take a drink and as soon as the water touched his lips, he felt a new man. He was more awake and his brain felt as sharp as it had in his young adult years. As he stood, he immediately felt that his muscles were stronger and all of the aches and pains he once felt had suddenly disappeared.

Image of Split-Level Clear Lake in OR 

Source: Flickr

The hunter knew that he needed to tell his family and people of this magical place and so he went to the trees and gathered some fruit in his arms to bring back to share with them. He began to walk away, but as soon as he crossed through the vines away from the place the fruit disappeared from his hands. In that moment, the hunter knew that he would never be able to share this place with his people, as it was supposed to be only a refuge to those who need it.

Author's Note: This story was written based on the story The Enchanted Mountain from the Folklore of Loas Unit from Loas-Folklore by Katherine Neville Fleeson, with photographs by W.A. Briggs (1899). The story described a place, much like the Garden of Eden is described, that was a refuge for hunters within the jungle. The place could only be found by weary hunters and no animals could be killed there and no fruit could leave there. When I read the story, I thought of what the first person to discover this felt like and that what I decided to write my story on. I used a third person story teller point of view and tried to tell the story how I imagined the oral folk tale was told out loud. I used the words magical and mystical to describe how unexplainable the place was.

Week 6 Reading Diary A: Folklore of Loas

Reading diary for the unit: Folklore of Loas

A Child of the Woods

• First off, this reminded me of Native American stories that I read earlier
• I like how the woman grew in the jungle and she lost her anger while wandering through the forest
• It was interesting that she left the village she was adored at to go back to her own.

The Enchanted Mountain

• The lake sounds sort of like the fountain of youth in english folklore
• The place also reminds me sort of the Garden of Eden, especially the description of the fruit and the fact that hunters cannot take life from the animals
• Story idea: write a story as if you are the first hunter to discover this place, wonder over the beautifulness, exhilaration as you drink the water and feel younger, and frustration that you cannot kill the large fowl
• I like that the place is a reward for the tired hunter

The Spirit-Guarded Cave

• This journey seems long and hard and the emotions of the travelers are not discussed
• It seems foolish to me to leave your jewels in a cave but it was also a different time and travel isn't safe either
• I liked the ending, that the treasure stays hidden for all time

The Mountain Spirits and the Stone Mortars

• I like the theme of spirits in these stories
• The story was really short and seemed a little pointless

Why the Lip of the Elephant Droops

• This story was really weird
• I didn't like that the elephant wasn't brought up until the very end of the story!
• Story idea: the twelve maidens journey as they discover the bones until the mouth of the elephant

The Man in the Moon

• There seems to be the moral of the grass isn't always greener on the other side

The Origin of Lighting

• the element of reincarnation in this story is really cool and I like that the selfish wife doesn't get to go live in the sky

The Parrot and the Minor 

• The explanation for why parrots and minor birds can only echo what man says was really cool 

The Faithful Husband

• How did the nymph just set aside her wings?
• I like the sort of friendship the ape and Chow Soo Tome have made 
• Its really cool how large of a role that the animals play in these stories

The Faithful Wife

An Akha Woman, Laos Source: Wikipedia

I thought this image really helped picture the story when you see what the woman would have looked like as a noble, instead of a  slave. 

• The shame that the young boy felt for just the thought of marrying a salve is an interesting insight into the culture of Laos
• The young man seems very concerned with what others think of him marrying a slave, even after she has become noble
• Its sad that the man had to come to love his wife after she went to so much trouble for him

Week 5 Growth Mindset Challenge: Picture

Picture I found on Facebook that reminded me of Growth Mindset

This picture came across my Facebook feed this past week about changing your words and changing your mindset and I immediately saved it to use this week! I loved the idea that just changing the words that you say, or even just the ones that you think to yourself, can completely change your mindset. This reminded me of my struggle to change my mindset when it comes to my classes and even though this is made for elementary aged school children, I found the signs really helpful!

So I challenge y'all to read the signs and incorporate them into your classes and your lives!

Thoughts about Comments

I love to read through my comments that people post to my different stories and other blog posts! The most fun ones to read are the ones left on my Introduction post, because the author usually tells me something about him or her in their comment, which I really enjoy! While the ones on my introduction post are the most interesting, I appreciate the comments on my stories the most. Those comments allow me to improve my writing and I love when people critique my writing in their comments. I like to read which parts of my story they liked best and which parts they thought needed work! I really appreciate when commenters leave suggestions on my story posts as well! Adding a personal touch, or just why they liked or disliked my story, also makes the comment really stand out to me.

Week 5 Essay: The "Bad Guys"

One of the most common themes of almost any story, across all cultures and times, is containing a "bad guy." There is almost always someone in the story to for the main character to fight against and be victorious over, usually to end the story. Sometimes the bad guy makes you hate him, sometimes he makes you feel sorry for him, and sometimes you can completely understand the bad guy.

This week I read the Story Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, which is most commonly known by it's Disney adaptation in the movie "Aladdin." First things first, the original story is MUCH different than the movie version, exemplified by the fact that the original story takes place in China while the movie adaptation by Disney takes place in India. In the original story, the "bad guy" is a wizard who disguises himself as Aladdin's uncle in order to convince him to retrieve the lamp from the cave which he cannot enter. This wizard then disappears from the story after he seals Aladdin in the cave when Aladdin refuses to give him the treasure unless the wizard asks for it until the end of the story when he discovers that Aladdin is not dead. In the movie however, the role of the wizard and the Grand Vizir to the Sultan, two separate characters in the story, is combined into "Jafar" who is present throughout the movie. In this post, I am going to discuss the bad guy from the original story, the wizard.

In the original story, Aladdin does not overcome his opponent through his own merits. It seemed that every time that Aladdin was in a pinch, he would use the unlimited wishes he had from the genie, another difference between the story and the movie, rather than overcoming the wizard himself. In the story, the wizards motives and back story are not well revealed, making it hard to sympathize or understand why he does what he does in the story. This made for a very flat bad guy character; one that you did not understand their motive, you only reacted to his bad actions. I do not personally like these types of characters; I think that they are very unrealistic and in the real world, there are very few truly "evil" people that do bad things just because they want to. Every one has the capacity to make bad decisions and do bad things; I like characters who reflect that no one starts out completely evil and who show that, at least at one point, they are human and can feel compassion. The wizard from Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp did not show that to me.

Bad guys will always be prevalent in stories, especially stories containing some sort of hero and conflict, and in my opinion, it is better when those characters have back stories and can be at least partially understood. The wizard from Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp did not do that for me and I wish that he were more prevalent in the story.

Storytelling Week 5: Thoughts of a Faithful Mother

As I stand there for the sixth day in a row, I think, "I am Aladdin's mother. This is my duty. He loves this girl and I love him. I must ask the Sultan for her hand." But each time I think these words, they become less and less passionate and I become more discouraged.

The first day I stood in this place with much hope, holding the napkin hiding many fine jewels beneath it, and knew in my heart that the Sultan would talk to me. But that day passed, as did the next one and the next one and the next and the next one, with no success on my part. I had not even been able to speak to the Sultan and each night, I went home and disappointed my son more and more each night. But I keep coming because with each disappointing night, he asks me with a small amount of hope in my voice if I think tomorrow will be the day that I can ask the Sultan for his love's hand in marriage.

So here I stand. My feet hurt and I am frustrated, but I stand here for Aladdin so that he may be happy and find true love, like I once did long ago. The Sultan whispering something to his vizir catches my attention and brings me out of my daydreaming haze. All of the sudden the vizir is walking straight towards me and I do not know what I am going to say. I have been waiting for this moment for so long and yet I had no clue what I would say to make my case. The vizir approaches me and asks whether it would please me to follow him to kneel before the Sultan. I can't get any words out, so I just feebly nod my head and follow him through the chamber.

I kneel immediately as I reach the Sultan, my son will not lose his happiness because I can't remember my manners and respect. The Sultan tells me to rise and tell him what I want. When I hesitate and look around at the people around me, the Sultan quickly clears the room and tells me to talk to him honestly and that I will not be punished for what I say. How do I begin to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage? Though, he seems kind; I mean he did clear the room so that I could be comfortable enough to be able to ask him my question. Here goes nothing.

I blurt out how much my son loves his princess and explain that, "I prayed for him to forget her but in vain; he threatened to do some desperate deed if I refused to go and ask your Majesty for the hand of the princess. Now I pray you to forgive not me alone, but my son Aladdin."

He's staring at me quietly; is he mad? I hope he heard my desperation when I spoke of Aladdin committing unspeakable acts if he cannot be with the one he loves. I cannot lose my husband and my son. That is too much for an old lady like myself to handle.

Photo of jewel from Pixabay

He is asking to see my napkin. Oh my lord! How could I forget to present him the jewels?! I show him the marvelous jewels that Aladdin found and his face changes and he seems happy. He turns to his vizir and though I can not hear them whisper to each other, the vizir does not seem happy.

I am told that Aladdin will be allowed to marry the princess but I must not return to him for three months. What an odd request. Still I have made my case and I have succeeded. I must hurry home and tell my son the amazing news!

Authors Note:
This story is based on the 2nd part of the story Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp where Aladdin falls in love with the princess when he sees her and asks his mother to take some jewels that he found when searching for the lamp and have her ask the Sultan for the princess's hand in marriage. In the story, she stands in the chamber of the Sultan for 7 days before he talks to her and I thought that it showed so much loyalty on the mother's part to stay for so long and not give up. I thought it would be really cool to write the story in the present tense as if the reader was hearing the mother's thoughts and I think it turned out well! After the mother presents the Sultan with the jewels, he is very impressed and he is about to immediately grant her request, until the vizir interrupts and convinces him to wait for three months, so that his son might have a chance to win her over. I decided that the mother probably couldn't hear this exchange though, because I thought if she did, she probably would've told Aladdin of this, which she doesn't in the story.

Bibliography
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp from The Arabian Nights' Entertainment by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H.J. Ford (1898).

Week 5 Reading Diary A: Arabian Nights (Aladdin)

Reading diary for the Aladdin portion of the Arabian Nights Unit, I am super excited to see what differences there are between the actual story and the Disney version!

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp
Part 1: 

Image from Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

This illustration is WAY different from what I would expect after watching the Disney movie based on this story.

• The story starts out different than the Disney version, I thought it was cool that Aladdin basically caused his father's death by being a bad kid. The disney version sort of ignores Aladdin's childhood.
• I wonder what the ring's purpose is?
• It seems kind of odd that the magician goes to so much trouble to get the lamp and then gives up when Aladdin simply refuses to give it to him.
• The genie comes from the ring instead of the lamp in this story! I wonder what the lamps purpose was then!

Part 2:

• Now the genie came from the lamp instead of the ring!
• I like how in this version there is no limitation to "three wishes" but the genie seems to be a much smaller character than I think he should
• I like the role of the mother and how dedicated she is to Aladdin, although he doesn't seem very grateful
• A story might come from the mother's thoughts as she waits in front of the sultan each day without anything happening, until he finally notices her. 
• The way that Aladdin tries to marry the princess is kind of frightening, he doesn't try to win her over, only to lay next to her and say nothing but that she was his.

Part 3:

• The sultan seems very okay with what has happened and doesn't believe his daughter, a much different dynamic than seen in the Disney version. 
• The sultan seems very fickle and the mother seems to obey her son no matter what
• The way that Aladdin approaches the castle reminds me of the "prince ali" parade
• Its kind of odd that no one questions how fast Aladdin was able to build an entire palace
• The end of this part describes Aladdin as modest and courteous, which I didn't find him to be by reading this story

Part 4:

• The magician's plan is very clever and had Aladdin confided in the princess, this would not have happened
• The sultan seems to overreact to the palace being gone and immediately tries to execute Aladdin
• Are there two genies? One for the ring and one for the lamp? I am sort of confused by that

Part 5:

• I didn't know that the story of Aladdin originated from them living in China, not India
• The princess and Aladdin seem more in love in this part than any other
• I like how the magician is killed

Part 6:

• The ending of the story is very odd
• The genie does show loyalty to Aladdin and the princess by refusing Aladdin's wish though

Week 4 Famous Last Words

This week, my best writing definitely came from my story I wrote for this class! I absolutely loved the story I wrote from a Falcon's point of view, coming from the Bidpai story called The King, The Falcon, and The Drinking Cup.
It was a new style for me for sure and I tried really hard to understand how the animal would feel and what he would and would not understand, he didn't know his master was a king, for example, he only understood that he was a "regal man." I focused most on how the falcon felt as he decided the second time to fly into the king's cup even after he saw how angry the king was. I thought that was important because he sort of was choosing to accept the consequences of possibly dying of the king's anger in order to save the king's life.
I also really liked the title I chose, which is usually the hardest part of the storytelling posts for me, because it highlighted the loyalty I was trying to convey in the story. I also really liked the picture I picked, which was just one of a baby falcon, because I thought that it really helped the readers picture the story when they knew what the animal they were reading about looked like!

Source: Wikipedia

One thing I learned this week was from reading other people reading diary posts. I liked how several of them that I read were in bulleted form, instead of the sentence form I usually use, and that made it way easier to pick out their thoughts on the readings and the questions that they had.

Week 4 Review

I just love this mean from the Class Announcements! I have found a lot of inspiration from the cat memes related to growth mindset this week, as I have needed quite a bit of motivation this weekend to get my stuff together and do what I need to do!

Week 4 Growth Mindset Challenge: Meme

This meme spoke to my soul this weekend as I looked back on how much I have struggled through the past two weeks! Having 200 points out of a thousand total in the past couple of weeks for one of my classes, all in the form of exams or quizzes, definitely tested my mindset! But I worked really hard to make sure that I didn't look at anything I was doing through a fixed mindset, but rather a growth mindset! I loved this meme and I will definitely bring it to mind if I struggle in the week to come! Plus who doesn't love a cat meme?!

Tech Tip Theme

Okay, so I changed the theme to my website and I am loving what I went with! Since my setting is going to be a kindergarten class/elementary school, I decided to go with the "notebook" type theme! I love that it pays homage to my setting and plus, I like the design of it! I might tweek the font a tad, but its growing on me as well! My second choice was the legal pad, but I really liked the notebook and thought it fit my setting just a tad more!

Screenshot of my website design

Tech Tip Website

Here is my new website I just created: https://sites.google.com/site/kindergartenshenanigans/home
As of right now it is very plain and I am having trouble coming up with a Title that I truly love, but in the next couple of days I plan to play around with it some more and get it to something I really like!

Extra Reading Diary: Aesop (English)

My reading diary this week is from the unit Aesop (English) because I am doing my storybook on fables from Aesop units!

The Carter and Hercules
It was really interesting to see the fables in verse form and about the Greek Gods! It was WAY different than the fables I read from the Aesop (winter) unit and it was a little harder to understand in a verse, rather than a very straightforward story. I liked the moral of basically help yourself because it is so often in today's society that we ask others to help fix our problems before we have tried ourselves.

The Two Bags
This verse form fable was super interesting! I thought it was really cool idea that we carry two bags, one with our own faults and one with other's faults. The bag behind us contains our own but we never see that one, only the one in front of us! I really liked this one because I think it is human nature to find faults in others before yourself and I liked the explantation for that in this story. This would be cool to rewrite as an adult giving advice to children.

The Wolf and the Shepard's Boy
I thought it was so cool to hear this famous story in the original verse form and I liked how simple it was. This would be a really cool story to retell with human characters because I feel like this happens all of the time with younger kids wanting attention.

A Miser and Rotten Apples
This story was written in prose, rather than verse. Although this story was sort of hard to understand and the moral was very long, I did like the story and what it was saying. It would be hard to rewrite this story with children though.

The Dancing Apes
I really liked this story! It was super interesting and really unexpected! I liked that the moral was that the Force of Nature is stronger than learned behaviors. I had never really thought about it like that. It would be really really cool to rewrite, though it would be hard to think of a force of nature for children though.

The Fox and the Crow
This story was back to being in verse form. This seemed to really outline the typical tricky nature of a fox that you see in so many different forms. I also really liked that the fox was out tricked in this story by an even trickier stork. This would be cool to use for my storybook.

A Fox and a Cat
This was a cool take on 'tricks' and that the cat only has one sure trick and it work out for it because it can climb a tree when danger comes but the fox had hundreds of slippery tricks that did not help him when the danger came.

The Lion King
First off, I just got really excited to read this story because of the title! I liked the story but thought it would be hard to use for my storybook as the moral wasn't super clear.

The Ass and the Lion Hunting
I liked that the donkey was very quiet and did not boast about anything. He was also very wise which I find isn't usually the case when donkeys are portrayed in stories.

Two Laden Asses
This moral was very odd to me: poverty is easy and safe, while riches are a great snare. I think it makes sense in the context of being robbed, but not in any other context. I liked the story but I dont think that it would be a good moral to teach children. The illustration is really cool though:

Illustration by Billinghurst