Extra Credit Reading: King Thrushbeard

Grimm: King Thrushbeard - One thing I liked from this story is that right from the start you get a sense of who the princess is. It gets straight to the point with her calling her potential suitors rude names. I also really liked this line: 

"Look now!" said the man; "you are no good at any sort of work; I made a bad bargain when I took you.

It is hopefully a line that would make the princess realize she needs to change herself--even a beggar realized he didn't want her. A few lines later her pots she was selling broke and she thought "what will my husband say?" which I feel like is a great step in character development because she is considering the thoughts of others. In the end, when it turned out that the "beggar" was King Thrushbeard (whom she had made so much fun of originally), I really liked the reveal because he was gentle and kind, even though she did not deserve it. 

I could potentially use this story for my Department of Mysteries story in my storybook project (although I'm thinking of switching it to Dumbledore's office, but I'm still unsure). This would be a great story to use as a frame tale to show a character that they can change and be better. 

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Image information: illustration by Walter Crane

Bibliography: Brothers Grimm (Crane) unit. Story source: Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm, translated by Lucy Crane and illustrated by Walter Crane (1886).

Week 8 Progress

Looking back, I am happy with my progress so far. I am most proud of the ability I am beginning to develop to ignore perfectionism. Even though my stories aren't perfect, it feels good to have written them. Feedback is also a lot less scary now that I've received a good amount of it and nobody has been harsh.

My weekly routine works really well for me in this course, except that I procrastinate on writing stories because of lingering perfectionism. I'm slowly improving on that, though, as I mentioned. My favorite assignments are ironically the ones that I procrastinate on the most: the story writing. It's hard for me to be decisive about a story I want to re-write when I end up liking so many from that week, but once that part is over, I feel a lot better.

I have been using the extra credit options, more just for fun than for finishing the course early. The extra credit reading works great for my storybook since I really need to learn about more myth/folklore stories for it. In terms of developing my blog and building my website, things have gone well. I've figured out how to use the basics of the platform and I think that's really all I need for this course.

Looking forward, one change I would like to make for the second half of the semester is to not feel like I have to rush through my assignments. I usually end up finishing them fairly early in the week, anyways, but I've always been one to want to finish things as soon as humanly possible, even if that sacrifices quality. I'd like to try and slow down and absorb more of the stories we get to read for this class.

A pitfall I want to avoid in this second half of the semester is giving up. I have a hard time finishing strong because I put so much effort into the first half of things that I'm burnt out for the second half. I'd like to be mindful about maintaining my current amount of energy and effort for the rest of the semester.

Something new I might want to try in my writing would be choosing an option outside of my comfort zone from the list of storytelling ideas. If I come across a week where I just really cannot come up with a story idea on my own, using one from that list would be a great exercise.

I found the below image to bring me some motivation and self-awareness for the last half of the semester:

It's a good reminder that we can spend a lot of time and effort creating obstacles and excuses for ourselves, and yet that same amount of time and effort could have been instead spent creating and working on what we're avoiding. Also, don't take everything so seriously! The girl on the left is having fun just creating, never overthinking it. I struggle with that a lot, and I'm working on fixing it. 

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Image information: Comic by Sara Zimmerman at unearthedcomics.com. A really wonderful artist with a ton of wonderful and inspirational comics!

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

The feedback I am receiving from other students is very helpful. Most of them are just kind comments on what they liked, which is useful because it helps me realize what I did right. I would give a high rating to the quality of comments and feedback they are giving me because none of it has been overly critical or harsh.

The feedback I am leaving for other students usually also focuses only on the good. I never want criticism to seem like an attack so I don't like saying anything critical, but the feedback tips we're given is teaching me how to give constructive criticism in a way that doesn't sound condescending or rude. I really like the tip about saying "I wonder..." because it doesn't state my criticism as a fact but instead as an option that the writer can choose to use or ignore. It's more of a question on my part, wondering if the author would like to consider what I have to offer (instead of telling them they must do what I recommend).

I do have a sense of getting to know people by connecting at their blogs. While there usually aren't replies to comments, I feel that I learn a lot about people through their writing. I'd say I'm more familiar with my peers in this online course than I am with those in my in-person classes. Also, a lot has changed since my introduction post was made, and I've considered changing it but I felt like that would confuse new commenters since previous people have commented specifically on certain aspects of my post that would have to change. I've added in an "edit:...", so I think that works well enough currently, though.

The feedback assignments are pretty useful already, and I don't think I would do anything differently. Sometimes I find it hard to reach the word minimum, but then I look back at the assignment instructions and re-read the suggestions for what to give feedback on. That helps a lot. Also, I actually did make some changes to my Comment Wall after I saw the creativity that other people had! I changed my image to Platform 9 ¾, and I changed the words at the top. I love that this course allows the freedom for us to edit our content whenever! It allows for constant growth, and it helps me realize nothing needs to be perfect because I can always revise and improve.

For an image that expresses what I think is an important aspect of the feedback process, I chose the one below:

This image does a great job of summarizing the best ways to give feedback. Two of my favorites are nonjudgemental and easy to understand. Being nonjudgemental is so important for giving feedback because you have to remember to be sensitive to something someone might be proud of. You don't ever want to make them feel ashamed of something they worked hard to create. As for the easy to understand tip, a lot of feedback can be confusing and is not thought out well enough. You really have to remember that nobody can read your mind, and it can be helpful to make specific references to specific sentences/parts you are giving feedback on.

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Image information: 21 Components of Effective Feedback from Growth Mindset Memes Blog

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Looking back: Overall, the reading and writing assignments are working well for me. I was overwhelmed at first but once I got into a routine, I realized that this class can be really fun if I don't allow myself to stress out (and if I finish assignments early). Taking notes helps a lot, and I love that we can write them however we want to. That gives me freedom to learn about how I best analyze and research for writing projects. I've realized my best bet for note-taking is writing out the basics of the story, and then after every few sentences I write why I like/dislike them. This helps me a lot when looking back because it gives me specific examples of aspects of a story I like.

I am fairly satisfied with how my writing is going for my project and story posts, although it could use improvement. Also, the creative writing bits are definitely the parts of the class I procrastinate on the most. This is mostly because I want them to be perfect, but I'm finally starting to let perfectionism go since we've had to write so much at this point that I feel a lot less scared to just run with whatever idea pops into my head. This is my biggest accomplishment in the class thus far, I think. I've never felt so free to write before. Being forced to write really does help, and it's reminded me of how much I love to write!

I've been adjusting my blog and project website layouts throughout the semester, so I think where they are now is where I am most happy with them. I'll keep tinkering with them just because it's fun, though! I have started adding a banner image to each page on my storybook website, which I think enhances the stories a lot.

Image: My favorite image from my blog so far is this one that I used recently:

(Bay of Kiau Chau from Wikipedia)

It's from my Week 7 story, but I originally saw it in a story from the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. I thought it was such a beautiful image and I adore the art style, so I had to use it. It has a very calming effect on me, which I definitely need halfway through the semester. 

Looking forward: I don't think there is anything I want or need to do in order to get more out of the reading and writing experiences in this class. I really feel like it is such a perfect course for me and the pacing is so helpful--it's not too slow or fast, and it gives us time to breathe but also work hard. I'm really excited about the second half of the course, and I'm excited to see if any of my current note taking or story writing strategies will change with all of the suggestions we're given.