Mythology and Folklore 2020

    In this post, I'll be talking about some time management strategies and how they can be applied to this class and academic life in general. The articles I chose to read from the list Laura provided us are: 11 Ways Unsuccessful People Mismanage Their Time  -  Áine Cain The Myth of "Too Busy" - Tim Grahl     As someone who is very Type A, most of the concepts discussed in these articles weren't necessarily new, but were things I had already been doing. That being said, it was interesting to learn the reasoning behind the techniques I had already been practicing, and to even pick up a few new ones, as well. I'm a big fan of planners, and every couple of days I sit down and plan out the next few days, what assignments I should do when, my work hours, etc. I actually get a weird kind of peace from doing that (which might be some undiagnosed personality disorder or something, but it's been working well for me so far...). Having everything lined out an...

    First off I just want to thank Laura for outlining all of these tools for us in one place. That will be really helpful later on in the semester when we begin working on our projects. Most of the programs that she mentions, like Canva and Wix, I've used once or twice before, either for college classes or even in high school. And most of these programs are very user-friendly, so even if I am a little rusty with them, they should be pretty easy to navigate.     In May, I'll be departing for my service with the Peace Corps, and I've been thinking of using some digital platform to be able to write about my time there and share it easily with my loved ones. A blog or a website would be perfect for that, because then everyone could go to one place to keep up with me, and I could just share the link with those I want to keep in the loop. So being able to do both of those things this semester will be a great way to figure those programs out before I leave.   ...

As a social sciences major, I'm pretty used to reading being a large component of my classwork, so that aspect of the class assignments isn't new or unwelcome to me. Normally, though, I would be given academic articles and news pieces to read, so the idea of stories being the reading for this class is interesting. I personally love to read during my free time, as mentioned in my introductory post, so being able to do that for a class is great! The storytelling aspect of this class is a little new to me; most of what I write for my other classes are drier, non-fiction things: literature reviews, policy papers, etc. I don't have much experience in storytelling, but I'm excited to try it out this semester. The assignments that focus on interacting with my classmates' blogs is new, but I'm excited to see everyone elses' interpretations of the same stories that we will all be reading, and to learn more about everyone in general. An infographic from Now Novel ...

    I had not heard of Carol Dweck or the growth mindset, though I am a big fan of TED talks in general. This concept is really interesting to me personally, so thank you, Laura, for introducing it to me this semester! Up until I was ten, I attended a Montessori school in Kansas City (my father was a teacher there, so my sisters and I got discounted tuition),  at which point I switched to public schools, so I've gotten to experience two wildly different teaching methods. I don't know much about the technical foundations of the Montessori Method, but I remember my father explaining to me when I was older and had switched to private schools that it is centered around the idea of allowing children to "discover" concepts for themselves, as opposed to being taught through rules and lessons. I don't remember ever sitting down for a lesson at that school; we were mostly given a selection of toys and games that were meant to teach us things like multiplication, geography,...

Hi, I’m Cece! I’m currently in my last semester of the accelerated BA/MA program at the College of International and Area Studies, expecting to graduate in May (if my thesis doesn’t kill me first), so if any of you see me around campus looking dead inside, know that I probably am. As you might have guessed if you read my “favorite place” post, I’m a big fan of Mexico and Latin America in general; Latin American studies and energy policy are my two focus areas at CIS. I’m fluent in Spanish and currently am learning Jopará, which is a language spoken in Paraguay that is a combination of Spanish and the local indigenous language, Guaraní. I’m learning it because, as of last month, I have been invited to serve by the Peace Corps as Community Economic Development Promoter in Paraguay. I’m really excited to be offered the opportunity, as I’ve been obsessed with the Peace Corps’ mission since my freshman year here at OU. My boyfriend, JP, and I, New Year's Eve of 2018. When ...

Here are my top three favorite storybooks from past students: 1.  Storybook: Hawaiian Mythology This storybook is centered around the Hawaiian legend of "The Shark Man of Waipio." In the introduction, the author gives us a good geographical and cultural background on the Hawaiian islands. The next two sections give us then the origin of the Shark Man's arrival at Waipio Valley on Big Island, and then the actual legend itself.  Waipio Valley (Source:  Love Big Island ) I liked this storybook for a lot of reasons. One of the main reasons is because it's about Hawaiian mythology. I think in mainstream media, when we think of mythology and legends we tend to immediately go to Ancient Greece, Egypt, or Scandinavia in our minds. Up until Moana came out, we in general didn't seem to think much about myths or legends from this part of the world very much. So, I liked that the author chose a region that most of us don't know much about when it comes to myt...

My favorite place in the world currently is Guanajuato, Mexico. I lived there for a year, taking political science classes at the Universidad de Guanajuato, and even met my boyfriend of two years while I was studying there! My boyfriend and our dog, a Siberian Husky puppy named Juno, still live there, and I try to visit whenever I can. Just had to include a picture of Juno, sorry.                                                      Guanajuato is considered the cultural heartland of Mexico. The capital of the state, also called Guanajuato, was among the sites where Mexico experienced its first stirrings of its independence movement in the early 1800s. A few notable battles where the Mexican colonists fought the Spanish Empire's army took place in the state. The state is rich in both Spanish colonial and pre-Columbian history; the capital is the s...