Reading Diary, Week 10: Tejas Legends

How the North Wind Lost his Hair was a cool story because it explained two different things. The first was why the South is so much warmer than the North. I thought it was an interesting twist to think that one of the winds had beaten out the other. It also explained the Spanish moss in the trees. I wonder why they chose to combine the two stories? I want to research more about how the wind and the moss would be connected where it would make sense in their minds to combine the two. 

It sounds like to me that the Indians found drugs in the story When the Woodpecker Pecks. The fact that they ate buttons that gave them visions, caused them to forget about their children and work, and fall asleep definitely sounds like the effect of some kind of hallucinogen. Its curious to me that this would make it into their folk stories and be part of an explanation for something in nature, like a woodpecker. It makes me wonder whether drugs were a large part of Indian culture?

The Tejas legends seem to include a lot more creativity than some of the other legends. The stories are much more imaginative than some of the other one's I've read. They also seem to explain more than one thing. For example, in The Cloud That Was Lost, I first thought it was explaining fog since the cloud was down near the Earth. Then, it turns out it was explaining how the phlox got their color. 

Wild Flox
Photo by: Tim Ross 

I also like how the Tejas legends explain so much in nature. It was difficult for me to understand the purpose behind some of the other folklore stories we've read. I like how with the Tejas legends, it is very obvious what they're explaining. Yet, they do it in a very creative way. In my storytelling, I want to strive to be more creative. Truth be told, I could put more thought into some of my writing. I want to take the time to think up good ideas so that I can write more imagery and have more of a creative spin on my writing. This would not only strengthen my skill but also make my stories more interesting to read.

Bibliography:
When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton.

Reading Diary Week 9, continued: Myths and Legends of Alaska

Today, I finished the Myths and Legends of Alaska. 

The First Woman was really weird story to me. I get the point- that women in the north are good with their hands and women in the south are good dancers. But why did the woman have to be ripped apart?? It seemed really harsh and gruesome and I wish that wasn't how the tale went. 

The Land of the Dead was especially intriguing to me. I thought it was interesting how their storytelling included how dogs felt when they were beaten. It really seemed to teach lessons of empathy and understanding that must have been valued in their culture. I am curious why the two wrongs they chose to point out were chewing on the grass and beating the dogs, rather than acts against each other, for example. I would like to research more to see if I could understand why these two issues were brought up in the story. I also liked their emphasis on the festival of the dead. It must have been a very important part of their culture since they felt a need to explain it's existence. 

Illustration of the Land of the Dead from Judson's book

The Cradle Song was interesting because it was so relatable. I think everyone learns lullabies as they grow up, and this was my first time to read one from another culture. I think its cool that, even though Alaska is part of the United States, they still have their own culture and traditions that are completely separate. I'm learning that this includes creation stories, values, and so much more. 

The Discontented Grass Plain seemed really weird to me because, in the end, the grass had become a wolf. I couldn't tell if the story was trying to encourage one to find contentment in their life, or if it was explaining why the wolves are separate from each other. If it was to explain the wolves, I'm not sure why they did it in such an indirect way. In my own storytelling, I would like to be direct where the reader doesn't have to wonder my point. Confusion is something I've run into a lot while reading this unit. I guess because I am not as familiar with the Alaskan culture and it's history? 

Bibliography: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson

Reading Diary: Myths and Legends of Alaska

For Week 9, I chose to read the Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Barry Judson. I thought this would be interesting since I am not familiar with Inuit traditions.

The story The Raven Myth: Raven's Creation really enthralled me because I am so fascinated with other creation stories. I thought it was interesting that the story focused on the creation of animals like reindeer, caribou, and mountain sheep that were to be prevalent in the land. This made sense since these animals are so prevalent in colder climates like Alaska. I also thought it was interesting that they chose a raven to be creator of all things. I wonder why this was? 

The Raven

The Flood was extremely interesting to me since The Bible talks of a massive flood as well. I believe that the flood actually happened because I believe that The Bible is true, but it does surprise and please me that there is more evidence of this flood through other folklore traditions.

I also think it is interesting that all of the birds can push up their beaks to become human beings. I'm wondering where this came from where it is so perpetuated in their folklore. 

Raven's Marriage surprised me because the story was more about his struggle to fly with the geese than his marriage. I'm not really sure what the folktale was about. This story struck me as one about perseverance and not wasting all of your energy at the beginning of your journey- much like the storyline of The Tortoise and the Hare. If Raven had not sped ahead of the geese, would he have been able to complete the journey with more ease? Or, was it more of a matter of not having had to make such a long journey before? In my own storytelling, I want the title and the content to align so that it is clear to the reader what the story is about. 

I think the Raven got what he deserved in Raven and the Seals. I love seals so it made me really sad to hear of Raven killing and eating so many of them! I hope that when the Stump sat over the hole, it also saved the seals' lives. Also, I think Raven deserved it since he was boasting about what he had, trying to make Stump jealous. Any time you provoke someone, I think you deserve any backlash that you receive.

I thought it was really cool how the Alaskan people explained the long spans with and without light in The Bringing of the Light by Raven. A man piling up snow seems like such a trivial reason for there being no light, so I think its funny that it was a big enough part of their lives to include it in the story. I also am a little confused on Raven after reading the story. Can anyone become Raven? What is the importance of a rave? These are things I would like to research in the future to help me better understand their stories. 

Tech Tip Site Navigation

So somehow earlier today, while updating my storybook. I managed to make my new story a subpage of my Introduction and to completely delete my navigation bar. Needless to say, I was freaking out because I could not figure out how it just happened. Luckily, I figured it out by following the GoogleSites: Adjusting the Navigation Panel blog to help me figure it out!

I decided for my webpage that a horizontal navigation would look best since a lot of my titles are really short. It works really well for these since the whole title can fix in the box. Also, I think it helps focus the viewer on the text since it takes up the whole page, rather than leaving space on the side for the navigation panel. It also easily lays out how many pages they are and makes it super easy to navigate to each. All you have to do is refer back to the top, just like you would when searching on Safari or Google Chrome. 

Once I got the Navigation Pane back by going to More-->Edit Site Layout-->Horizontal Navigation. I then, had to figure out how to get the first story out of the Introduction page. I went to More-->Manage Sites--> Pages (from the left hand tool bar). From there, I could drag the Cinderella page to underneath the The Magic of Reading page. This popped it back out to being a page of it's own!

I hope this could help anyone who's struggling with the same issues I did! To view my Storybook site, click here.

Reading Plan- Weeks 9 and 10

For week 9, I want to read the stories of the Mississippi Valley/Great Lakes unit. I chose this unit because I do not have any experience with the Biloxi. I want to learn more about the values they incorporate into their stories and the information they deem valuable. As I've mentioned before, I like reading different cultures ideas on creation and how things came to be, and this unit seems to be centered around this. In addition, I like the idea of trickster rabbit and would like to read more about this. Lastly, to be honest, I like how many of the stories in the unit are pretty short. I have a really hard time maintaining attention and focus for long, multipage stories. 

For week 10, I want to read the stories from the Inuit people. I think their stories will be fascinating because their setting will be in the polar world and it contains levels of supernatural beings like ghosts. I'm really excited to read more of this unit since I really enjoyed the first story, The Coming of Men, A Long, Long While Ago. 

Visit Greenland, Flickr

Blog Ideas

There were several blogs that I enjoyed looking at, however there were three that really caught my eye. 

Two of them were sort of for the same reasons. I thought Adrienne's blog Mythology and Folklore was cool because she used color schemes I hadn't seen before. She really inspired me to play with the background and text box to find a look that really captured my personality. I also really liked the images that she used. I thought they were well thought out and added to her interpretations of the stories. From what I read, Adrienne and I could probably be very good friends because we have the same humor and like the song Lush Life.

The second blog I enjoyed was Cassie's blog. I mentioned this in my comment to her, but for some reason her color scheme reminded me of strawberry ice cream. I also liked the cream, off-white color she used for the text box. It added color without it being overwhelming or busy. 

Lastly, I really liked the color scheme of Jasmine's blog. I really enjoy the color combination of the teal, black and white, and pink. She did a good job of adding in color without it seeming overwhelming. I also enjoyed how she linked her Pinterest account to her blog. It added an element that I did not see on many others and really intrigued me! I wanted to get to know more about her and had the possibility to through clicking around on her Pinterest boards. 

Mid-Semester Time Management

At the beginning of the semester, I decided to lay out my schedule for this class with each week starting on Sunday. I would aim to get the reading done for the upcoming week on Sunday, the storytelling done on Tuesday, and the weekend assignments started on Thursday and done by Saturday. As much as I want this schedule to work, it just doesn't with me. That is why I have decided to change my week start date to Monday. Between Monday and Tuesday, I will get the reading done. By Thursday, I will have the storytelling done as well as start the weekend assignments. Then, Sunday I will finish up the week's assignments to have them all in on time. 

Working ahead, in my mind, would be to have the storytelling done on Tuesday to allow the rest of the week to prepare for the project and my weekend assignments. I think this is usually a feasible task based off of my experience. However, I don't want to make it an absolute deadline for myself. 

A checklist to use to highlight completed assignments

Ideally, I would also start the weekend assignments earlier than Sunday so that my Sundays are not as stressful. However, with the way my work and class schedule is this semester, usually I do not have time to do so.

Some strategies that I want to use for the rest of the semester is setting aside specific time that I will use for class, but making it shorter time. For example, rather than saying "I'm going to work on assignments all Tuesday afternoon", I want to set aside a specific hour or two that I will really focus on getting work done. I think having this set time and then giving myself a break will allow me to stay more focused and motivated than having just the vague idea of "the whole afternoon to work". Also, I will be motivated to get my assignments done if I know that I can actually relax and watch an episode of Netflix in an hour rather than putting off the work and taking a break early, but being stressed the entire time. 

An idea for how to break up my study time- The Pomodoro Technique

Another time management skill that I want to use is to write my assignments down in my planner more. I used to be very good about this. However, recently I have relied more on my memory which has resulted in my rushing to finish some things due to the fact that I forgot the deadline. This results in a lot of stress for me since I don't like feeling like I am turning in sub-par work. Writing down when assignments are due and writing down a plan for getting them done will help me stay on track.