Thoughts about Assignments

I have only had one online class before, and so far it seems to be nothing like this course. Although the other class consisted of readings, videos, and commenting on others' posts, it was far less interactive than this class seems to be. I've had to blog for other classes before, but I rarely really used my blog besides a couple assignments. For this class, I'm excited about the storytelling assignment. I used to really enjoy writing, but have noticed I enjoy it less since arriving to college where almost all my writing assignments have been research papers. I am looking forward to being able to write creatively again. Honestly, though, the extra credit options seem the most interesting to me. I am particularly excited about the Tech Tips, Wikipedia Trails, and HEART options. I am not very tech-savvy, so I think Tech Tips will be beneficial for me. I think Wikipedia Trails looks interesting because there have been many times I have found myself clicking through links in articles and ending up on an article that is seemingly completely unrelated to the one I started on. I haven't heard of HEART, but I enjoyed learning about Growth Mindset, so it seems like it's something I will enjoy researching.

Heart by Kevin Dooley. Source: Flickr

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Reading Notes: Nursery Rhymes, Part B

In the "Jingles" section of the Nursery Rhymes unit, there are several well-known tales. The first is "Hey Diddle Diddle." HEY! diddle, diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laugh'd To see the sport, While the dish ran after the spoon. The next is "Tweedledum and Tweedledee." TWEEDLE-DUM and Tweedle-dee Resolved to have a battle For Tweedle-dum said Tweedle-dee Had spoiled his nice new rattle. Just then flew by a monstrous crow As big as a tar-barrel, Which frightened both the heroes so They quite forgot their quarrel. Another is "Rub-a-dub-dub." RUB a dub dub, Three men in a tub: And who do you think they be? The butcher, the baker, The candlestick-maker; Turn 'em out, knaves all three! As I said in the other reading post about the Nursery Rhymes unit, I think it would be difficult to write my own jingles inspired by these. They are all fairly short and follow a similar rhyme scheme. Th...

Story Lab: Writers Write

I chose to look around the Writers Write website. It offers advise to writers, writing courses, and writing motivation. One of the articles I most enjoyed was " 45 Ways to Avoid Using the Word 'Very.' " I thought the quote it started with was very funny: "Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to use the word 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be." -Mark Twain The article then gives a chart with adjectives commonly used after the word "very" and then gives a word that means "very (insert adjective)." Sometimes when I am writing, one of the harder parts is picking strong adjectives; this chart gives me a go-to list. I also liked the article " 20 Myths to Use as Writing Prompts ." The articles does not give specific stories to base your writing off, like I usually do for this class, but rather gives general myths to use as a starting point. A few of the id...

Story Lab: TED Talk Videos

For this Story Lab, I watched Ted Talks about stories and storytelling . The first video is the TED Talk of a woman named Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Nigeria. From a young age, she has been a storyteller. She read foreign books for much of her childhood and based the stories she wrote based on what she read in these books. She eventually discovered books and she learned that writers could look like her. When she came to university in the United States, her roommate was surprised to learn Nigeria has English as an official language and that she was familiar with many of the comforts of American life. She believes people like her roommate have a view of Africans because of writing that portrays them as living in a dark place. When Chimamanda wrote a book, her professor told her the book was not "African enough" because the characters were similar to him, a middle-class man, and they drove cars. When she visited Mexico, she realized she saw the people there as poor immigran...

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