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Week 15 Story: The Tourist

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As the sun rose over the horizon, Sarah closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. She had been up for hours, anxious for the day to start. She filled her lungs with the cool, crisp November air. She had finally found the peace she was looking for. Just out of a nasty divorce, she had decided to take a trip to clear her head. For years she had begged her husband to take her to Italy. It was her dream vacation and where her family roots had started out. But no amount of pleading had ever allowed her to take the trip. Anytime they travelled it was to a beach somewhere. Always a beach. For her 34 th birthday, she was going to travel around the world and see all of the beautiful places she had dreamed about. The cool blue waters of the Trevi fountain. The crumbling ruins of the Coliseum where so much history was made that you could almost hear the roar of the crowd in the ghosts that still lived there. She wanted to take the cheesy picture “holding up” the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
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Review Week 15

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For this week's back up and review assignment, I watched The Epic of Gilgamesh video . The first thing I noticed about the video was the instrument used to play this son. What an interesting looking thing! I think I will do my Wikipedia on it! It is long and skinny and has only three strings that I could see. However, the sounds made from this instrument were very soothing. I also liked the singer's voice. It had a lot of emotion in it. I wish that I had listened to more music for part of my assignments for this class. They are so soulful and I think we forget that music can be used to tell stories. I know in America it's more of a form of entertainment, but I know in other cultures, music has more meaning to it than that. I thought this was a very powerful way to retell this epic story. Title: Fluffiest Source: Twitter The image I chose this week was of a cat sitting in front of a mirror asking who was the fluffiest of them all. I know that they were probably
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Extra Credit Reading: Jatakas Take 2

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For this reading assignment I decided to go back over the Jatakas to see if there was something new that caught my eye at the end of the semester. Having read so much new information and had the creative juices flowing through my brain for 16 weeks, I thought it might be fun to browse back through these to see if there is something that I can base my very last story on. So far, these have been my favorite stories to retell throughout the semester. 1st thing I learned, they were told from Buddha. I had read more things from Buddha this semester, but had no idea that we started our semester off this way! Well...I feel dumb now. The Foolish Timid Rabbit I did a story about this Jataka and added it to my portfolio for the semester. However, I've read so many different versions of this story this semester that it was nice to go back to the original and see how each adaption changed the story just slightly to be told in the author's own words. It's fun to see how many differ
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Learning Challenge: What I'm Thankful For

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I know I said I was going to do the thankful jar challenge for my last one, but that didn't work out as planned. I had so much going on the last two weeks that I didn't get an opportunity to write something down each day. However, I can tell you a few things that I became instantly thankful for over the last couple weeks that I think I take for granted. 1. My husband. I know that I should be thankful for him each day, but this last week it has been apparent even more so. These last two weeks I have been cramming in work and homework more than I have in a long time and unfortunately that meant it didn't leave a lot of time for family. He has been amazing these last two weeks! He has cleaned more than his share, watched the kids and kept them out of my hair so that I could study and he has cooked for me and told me to take breaks when he could tell that I was getting frustrated. 2. My son Sebastian. He has been such a trooper this semester with me. He struggled with getti
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Tech Tip: Duck Duck Go

I decided to do this tech tip this week because I actually have used this application recently. We are taking a family road trip to Cascade, ID next summer for a family reunion and then are continuing on with just our little family. We were trying to figure out the best route to take, places to stay and things to do in the places we chose to stop for the night. The first thing I noticed is the layout. Usually when using Google, it shows a few picture options with your search, a bunch of add websites at the top and then once you scroll down, it gets to the meat and potatoes of what you are searching for. With DuckDuckGo, there were a few links at the top of the page that took you to another page, but your search pretty much started at the top. It was simple to use and had a similar format to Google. The images didn't really look any different than what Google shows. Or at least not anything that I noticed. The one disadvantage that I saw was that it doesn't have a mapping
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Growth Mindset: Feedback

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For this assignment, I chose to read the article titled, "Why Giving Effective Feedback is Trickier Than It Seems" written by Katrina Schwartz. This is a link to the article! In the article, they quote Susan Brookhart who says, "The job of feedback is to meet the student where they are and give them what they need to take their next steps." I found this quote particularly useful. You have to meet them where they are. There is no baseline or general start place that you can use as a guide. You have to assess the student or employee, where they are currently at. If you don't, then the feedback may not be effective. She talks about how many teachers try and give one round of feedback and give them everything that they need right then. Even if there are large gaps in performance. It tells that feedback is an ongoing thing and may take many rounds to accomplish that goals that you have set forth. It says to praise their strengths and then point out one or two thing
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Famous Last Words: The End

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Title: Ending Source: Wikimedia Commons For this week’s picture, I googled ending and this is what came up. There were lots of pictures of sunsets. I found this quite appropriate for my last Famous Last Words post. It’s as if the sun is setting on this semester and it’s very bittersweet. I have enjoyed this class immensely, but I’ll be glad to be done with it. The coursework for this class is quite hefty and I was not prepared mentally to be as creative and write as much as was required. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t struggle in this class this semester to keep up. However, I have learned so much and seen some really cool things. I have also discovered that my fellow classmates are so creative and there are so many different personalities out there. From Star Wars Weapons to WWII stories to things told from a gossip columnist point of view, there was never a dull read in this class. I have also been very blessed to have classmates that had such positive things to say abo
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