Week 10: Famous Last Words

 This past week has been very stressful for me. I find myself playing catch up on Sunday evening because I chose to slack off. I was really struggling in another class and had to come to terms with it. I was also ill due to stress and allergies. Everything seemed to catch up to me all at once and it was a bit overwhelming.

It was also a busy week at work. Working with children around the time of Halloween requires a higher level of patience. We struggled with behavior issues and children that would not listen at all which makes things difficult.

I think this week will go better. I plan to stay on top of my assignments and not fall that far behind again. Writing in this class is something I enjoy. I struggle with wanting things to be perfect and not realizing they can be revised. I also enjoy the readings because most of them have a moral we can apply to everyday life.

The Native American unit was one of my favorites. I was proud of my story from the previous week, “The Deer Ghost.” I was able to relate to the story since I spend so much time in the woods. I liked being able to feel connected to the story because I hunt myself.

I like when I can make a connection to my storytelling. Rather it be a personal experience and I am creating an example, or if it is just something I am passionate about.

I think doing the Famous Last Words post will help me because I can evaluate how the week went. Hopefully this will encourage me to pick up the pace so I can excel in this course. I also plan to do more exercising and activities to relieve stress. I think time management is the key to success and is something I need to work on.

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Week 10: Growth Mindset

In the first Growth mindset post I wanted to explore how talking to my children at school about not having a fixed mindset would help them succeed. I help them with their homework and during the last few weeks their math has gotten more and more difficult for them. Seeing as I struggled with math myself I tried to give them an encouraging example of how you just have to keep trying and it doesn’t hurt to try something different. We used marbles as an example to help with the math problems so they would get a visual image instead of just writing it down on a piece of paper. I found that when they did not have homework they wanted me to write down math problems they could solve because it had made math “fun” for them.

I learned from this a better way to teach them and to help them succeed. I try to apply what works when I study to what might help them. Even though some days are more difficult than others, I think the children are starting to realize it is okay to struggle but it is not okay to give up.

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Extra Reading: Native American Hero Tales

 My extra reading was the Hero Tales of the Native American Unit.

I found the stories of the “Jealous Uncle” to be strange and terrifying for a child. I feel like most of these tales are passed down and told to generations of tribe members. I cannot imagine hearing a story about my uncle killing my siblings. In this story the young boy was the hero because he finally got rid of the mean uncle, but he also used all the resources he had to survive the obstacles that uncle put him through. I found the last of the story to be strange. I understood the significance of the eagle, but not how the child seemed to put on a suit and become one. I found this part very far-fetched and had a hard time wrapping my mind around it to create a mental image. The story did keep my attention because I was constantly worrying if the boy was going to survive or not. I do not know that I could use this story as a retelling because I don’t think I can create a scenario with an uncle that kills children. 

Hero Tales

Image from the story

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