Growth Mindset

I hadn’t heard of the notion of growth mindset before this class assignment, so everything is new to me. I enjoyed the notion of getting a grade of “not yet” instead of a failing grade. Transitioning to college from high school was hard for me because I never really had to apply myself to get a good grade. So, coming to college and getting two failing grades in the same semester really through me for a loop. It was hard for me to recognize that my failing grade didn’t mean I was stupid, it just meant that I needed to approach school from a different angle and try again. As my dad always tells me “As long as you know you tried your best you can’t beat yourself up for getting a bad grade. Just try again next time”. As I have been here at OU taking different classes that require different things from me, I have started to develop my own way of doing my school work. I have figured out what methods work for me and what don’t work for me. However, I am still learning and still trying new ways to make my study habits and homework habits better. I have discovered that reading or working on homework for long periods of time is not the best method for me. Doing small chunks of one task and having a small break in between is better for me because it gives me time to recollect my thoughts. I’m not sure how much I will want to continue learning about growth mindset. I might do a few extra credit assignments just to learn more about what exactly it’s all about, but I don’t think it will be something that will keep my interest the rest of the semester. Maybe as I work through the extra credit assignments my interest in the concept of growth mindset will get bigger.

I'm trying to do this more!

Time Strategies

I read the articles The Psychology of Checklists by Lauren Marchese and 4 Questions to Help You Overcome Procrastination by Peter Banerjea. I really enjoy making checklists and task list to help me accomplish task, so it was interesting to find out that there was a scientific reason for my love of lists. Even though I love making lists, I am sometimes bad at checking things off. I realized that not all lists are created equal, and I need to get better at creating to do lists that are filled with tasks that I can reasonably do in a day so that I don’t get overwhelmed by the size of my list. I also learned that procrastination can be combated by reminding yourself about the importance of finishing the task on time. I have the problem of convincing myself that I have more time to do something than I really do, or telling myself that the task won’t take as much time as it actually will. I think I need to just get better at looking at my planner daily to see what tasks I have coming up, that way I can start them early enough. Another thing I can do is just being realistic with how I will spend my time and factor in break time. I don’t do well with focusing for long periods of time and I like to be able to take short frequent breaks throughout my day. So, factoring that into my schedule beforehand will give me a better idea of how long I will need to complete a task. Which in turn will help me to start them at the correct time so that I can work at a good pace. The last thing I can do to be better at managing my time is to just put myself in a location where I won’t get as distracted as much, that way I can use the time I do have better.

 

My outlook on doing homework

Reading Options

Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche

I really love Greek mythology so I was excited to see that as an option as one of our week 2 reading options. I have always loved reading about Greek mythology even from a young age. I don't know everything so I probably don't know much about these stories, but I am excited to read and learn more.

Psyche and Her Sisters

English Fairy Tales

The reason I chose this set of stories is because they looked really cute and fun. I just love England as a whole so I thought I would give their fairy tales a shot. I don't think all of them will be happy and fun stories, but some of the titles just sound fun.

Russian Folktales

The reason I chose this set of stories is because I feel like Russian culture is very dark when it comes to their fairy tales and I am looking forward to reading some darker stories. I think that these set of fairy tales will be pretty much the opposite from the set of English fairy tales.

Storybook Favorites

Journey to the Past

I like to read fairy tales so I know a bit about the classic characters, but not much is said about their parents (they are usually dead by the start of the story), so that was a fun unique take. I really enjoyed this storybook because it focused more on the parents of the fairy tale characters. It helped to show how the characters were shaped by their parents to become the people in the stories that we know. Because of Ella's mother's kindness, Ella was able to have that same attitude which ultimately helped her to get her prince. With Belle's father, his love of books and unrelenting kindness shaped Belle to be the woman who fell in love with the beast and broke his curse. Rapunzel's story explains how she got stuck in the tower in the first place. Her parents decided to steal some plants from an evil enchantress’s garden. This resulted in having Rapunzel being taken away and help captive.

Greek Game Show

I thought this was such a fun story. I really love Greek mythology, so it was fun to see these characters put in the setting of a game show. It was also a fun way to learn more about Greek mythology. I knew some of the answers to the questions that were asked, but most of them I didn't really know how to answer them. It was a fun and simple read. The introduction did a good job of getting me interested in the stories to come.

Tragically Ever After

This story caught my attention because of the title. I knew from the title that these stories would somehow twist the happily ever after trope and make the storybook characters to have a sad ending. I really enjoyed seeing how it wasn’t a different ending from the original fairy tale, but it was after the “happily ever after” where all the bad things started happening. The introduction to these stories was fun because it kind of was tongue-in-cheek and warned you not to continue reading, which of course made me want to read the stories. 

Cinderella's glass slippers

Week 1 Story: The Girl Who Got To Close To The Fire

Little Polly Flinders

Sat among the cinders,

Warming her pretty little toes.

Her mother came and caught her,

and whipped her little daughter

For spoiling her nice new clothes.

{Original Nursery Rhyme}

The date was December 21, 1817, the temperature outside felt like -10 degrees Celsius . It felt like the coldest day of the year here in my small English village, and my family and I had just walked home from our Sunday evening church service. With it being that last service before Christmas, my mother wanted me to look extra special. She and my father save up enough money to be able to buy the nicest gown the village seamstress made.

Little Polly Flinders

It was so cold outside and the church was so far away, that by the time I got home I could hardly feel my toes. My mother started a fire for us all to warm up next to, but told me I had to change before I could sit down. I knew it would take me too much time to take the dress off by myself, so when my mother left the room I sat down on the floor right next to the fire and warmed up my feet as fast as I could. I was almost ready to get up and go to my room when my mother walked in to check on the fire. When she saw me sitting on the floor in my nice dress she was furious. It didn’t help that when I stood up to leave there was a giant soot mark on the back of my dress where I had sat down on the floor. This sent my mother into a rage. She started yelling at me for being so irresponsible and careless with such an expensive piece of clothing. I knew what was about to come, my mother never likes to let me off easy. She went to get her ruler so that she could smack me one the back of my hands. For not only disobeying her, but for getting soot on my dress, she said I would get ten smacks per hand. I tried not to cry, it was over rather quickly. After she was done with my punishment, she led me to my room so that she could make sure my dress got cleaned as quickly as possible. I just hope that I will never have to wear that gown ever again. 

Author's Note: There isn't much to the original rhyme so I had a lot of free reign. The only things that were stated was that it was cold out, because Polly needed to warm her feet up, Polly was wearing a very nice dress, and that her mother got very upset when she saw what had happened. Since the weather was cold I set the story close to Christmas so that Polly would have a reason to have such a nice dress. I decided to add more detail about her being at the fire place and then her subsequent punishment.

Bibliography: This story is based off of the nursery rhyme "Little Polly Flinders" from The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Land

Introduction to a Disney Lover

Hello everyone! My name is Morgan Humphrey. I am a junior computer science major from Fort Wort, Texas. One thing that you need to know about me is my love of Disney! (If you read my last post you will have gotten a little taste for how I feel about Disney.) I love Disney as a company, but I really enjoy the parks the most! The only park I have been to so far is Disney World.

Me at Disney World during

my latest trip.

 However, my ultimate goal is to be able to visit all of the Disney parks around the world. There is a total of six parks all across the world, so it will take me a long time before I am able to fulfill my goal. Once I graduate from OU I am not really sure what I would like to do with my major. My favorite part of programming so far would have to be the interface aspect. I have really enjoyed the projects where we must create the interface that the user uses to navigate the program. I enjoy having something physical to look at once I run the program. I think that I would enjoy creating mobile apps. I also have an interest in robotics, so I would love to learn how I can use my programming knowledge to work with robots. If I had to shoot for the stars with my career goals, I would have to say that I would love to work with the animatronics at the Disney Parks. I think it would be such a fun job to have, and I would love to be able to work behind the scenes of my favorite rides at the parks. Now a little bit about my family! My parents have been married 29 years and I have three siblings. My oldest sister Anna is 27 years old. She graduated from OU with an environmental engineering degree. My second oldest sister Caitlin is 24 years old. She also graduated from OU with an advertising major. I also have a twin brother Taylor who is 12 minutes younger than me. We are both 21 years old. He is also here at OU and is also a computer science major. I guess we have a hard time not doing the same things.

Disney World- My Favorite Place

When asked the question "Where is your favorite place to go?", the answer is always easy; Disney World! I first visited Disney World when I was twelve years old. My family and I were only there for three days, but I was hooked! Something about the attention to detail and the magical feeling I got when I walked through the Magic Kingdom gates had me the first-time round! As of now I have been to Disney World a total of three times, and each time it just gets better! Every time I have gone I have found something new to love and appreciate about the Disney Parks! If I were to rank the Disney Parks from best to worst the number one spot would go to the Magic Kingdom.

(Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom)

(By Jedi94 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46728419)

 There are so many great rides, and great restaurants too. With the iconic Cinderella’s castle, right in the forefront of the park, it’s hard not to get excited when you walk down Main Street towards it. The second-place park would have to be Epcot. There are so many fun places to shop within the World Showcase, it’s hard not to spend all my money there. Third place goes to Hollywood Studios. There are some good rides there, but I can never seem to spend a full day at the park. Lastly, we have Animal Kingdom. I don’t enjoy high thrill roller coasters, and with a lack of shops, there isn’t much that keeps my attention at this park. My favorite ride in all of Disney World is Splash Mountain. It is such an iconic ride that I could ride it all day long and not get bored! Overall Disney is my happy place! I dream of going back and can’t wait for the day when I can take my kids to the parks and let them experience the Disney Magic firsthand!