Famous Last Words for Week 1

While the first week of a new semester is generally pretty slow, my week was a little bit more hectic than I expected. This is my first semester taking an online class and I am enrolled in two different ones. Luckily, for this class I have friends who have previously been enrolled that were very helpful while I was getting started and have been nice enough to answer any questions that I’ve had. Being enrolled in online classes is going to require a lot of discipline and organization to keep track of everything I need to turn in. Hopefully I will be able to stay on top of things. I have exported the canvas calendar onto my phone and laptop calendar, which will send me alerts when I need to turn something in on canvas. Aside from that, I really like the flexibility this course offers and think my time management schedule will be a great fit for me.

Organization Meme
Source: MakeaMeme

After getting my blog up and running and finishing up my first week of posting I have to admit I’m a little bit relieved. I have never been a natural born writer and I know this class requires a large amount of writing so I was not sure how I would do. While my writing is not top notch, I really like this form of learning and hope by practicing through this class this semester I will be able to strengthen my writing ability.

So far I have enjoyed reading other students stories and learning about them. Though I am not extremely creative, I love the amount of creativity possible in this class. Apart from the writing I am really excited about learning and reading Indian epics. This is a culture I am very unfamiliar with and I look forward to learning outside of my comfort zone.

Week 1 Review: New Blogger

I chose the announcement on blogging for learning because this class is my first time ever blogging. I had never thought to create a blog before but after getting starting this week I'm excited to have all my work for this class in one unique place. I'm looking forward to continuing this semester and improving my writing while I blog! 

Blogging for Learning
Source: Announcements 

Tech Tip: Canvas Calendar

The tech tip I chose was the Canvas Calendar options. One of my favorite aspects of canvas versus D2L is the color coordinated calendar auto populated with the due dates set by teachers. It is a great was to visualize your week and not let anything slide through the cracks. I also love that when an assignment is turned in on canvas, the assignment is marked off as completed on the calendar.

Wikipedia Trail From Tom Gauld to the Vietnam War

My Wikipedia trail began with Tom Gauld, the illustrator of the image, map of the area surrounding our holiday home, that I used to write my story this week.

Tom Gauld
Source: Wikipedia

After looking through his page I learned he is a cartoonist and illustrator that regularly produces cartoons and illustrations for The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Guardian. From here I clicked on the New York Times link and was taken to that page. In the overview of the Wikipedia page on the american daily newspaper, I saw a link in the table on contents titled The Pentagon Papers, which I was interested to learn about. I learned that the Pentagon papers were a secret US department of defense history of the US political and military involvement in the Vietnam War which occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from November 1955 to April 1975. 

A US tank convoy during the Vietnam War.
Source: Wikipedia

My Wikipedia Trail:

Tom Gauld

The New York Times

The Pentagon Papers

Vietnam War

Growth Mindset

I have never heard of Carol Dweck or the growth mindset before but found myself agreeing with everything she said. I personally find few things as defeating as trying your hardest and still receiving a bad grade. Adding value to the process in which a student thinks, I feel would help students stay motivated regardless of their actual result. Since I've been at OU, I feel the teaching style has mostly shifted to appreciating the process. Being an engineering major, most exams and homework's that I do are lengthy and requiring several steps. Because of this, most teachers give partial credit and recognition of the process I use and thus encouraging the growth mindset. I also know many students who began engineering, did not perform well and ended up dropping out of the major. I feel it would have been beneficial for students like that to have had the "not yet" grade. So many students, including myself, are so scared of failure that they would rather remove the challenge and do something they are comfortable with. I strongly believe the growth mindset could make a huge impact on the number of students challenging themselves and remaining motivated regardless of any sort of grading system. I look forward to digging deeper into this concept and applying it to my life. 

Growth Mindset
Source: Cheezburger

Time Strategies

Throughout college I have mostly managed my time through the use of checklists and keeping a very detailed calendar with me at all times. I don't like to procrastinate and to avoid so I like to schedule about a week in advance when I plan to get things done based on approximately how long I think a task will take. I really enjoyed reading The Psychology of Checklist by Lauren Marchese as creating checklists is one thing I routinely do. I found the science behind the motivation and good feelings that result from completing an item on a checklist to be really interesting and motivates me even more to continue to create checklists. I have also recently read an article from the Harvard Business Review about energy management rather than time management. The article discusses small simple behaviors such as taking breaks throughout your work day and not multitasking that can actually increase your productivity. I try to also incorporate those small changes into my day in order to minimize stress and increase my productivity. 

Title of Energy Managment Article
Source: Amazon

Reading Options

Ramayana Choice
After looking through the reading guide on the Ramayana options I have decided that in week 2 I would like to read the Public Domain Ramayana. I made this decision based on a few factors. Having a free online version of the book is more convenient for me as I do all of my work for school at home so I can also take care of my dog. I am also a very visual learner. Having illustrations during the reading will help me to visualize and better process the information and allow me to dig deeper into the meaning of the text.

Other Interests
This class is really the first time I have been introduced to epic literature. I am a big fan of Game of Thrones but beyond that I have not had any exposure to this type of literature or culture. However I am eager to learn something new!

Game of Thrones
Source: LifeHacker

Storybook Favorites

The Himalayan Elephant 

To be honest, scrolling through the list of stories was a little bit overwhelming for me. This story caught my eye because elephants are my favorite animals. I felt the title was a good representation of the storybook as it was what the boys sought to find and each story is their journey in search of the elephant. After reading the introduction, I found I related very strongly to the two boys desperate for adventure. Growing up, I was always outdoors looking for an adventure or exploring in the creek by my house. I also found the interaction between the boys and the shaman to be interesting. I love that while he tried to warn the boys about the dangers their adventure could find, he realized that he was once just like them and did not discourage them from their dreams. I felt this storybook was very well laid out with links to each section with labels that made navigation through the site quick and easy. 

Elephant
Source: Elephant Photos

A Karmic Hero

The introduction to this story really sucked me in. I really enjoyed the style of writing and found myself eager to read more. While I have read many stories about the journey of a hero, I felt this story had a very interesting twist in that the character will be traveling to the past in order to restore the disrupted karma in universe. I also found the layout and use of pictures benefited the story as they gave a visual throughout the story. I liked the design of the page and thought the front page with the question of whether the reader wanted to continue into this dark uncertain story really added to the setting of the story.  

Yama, the god of death
Source: Universe of Comics

Darma Queen
At the beginning of the introduction to this storybook I found myself unable to relate to the character's desire to break the routine she had adopted from following the social norms. However, I find her ability to understand the rut she’s in and seek change inspiring. I found the authors use of dialog and paragraph spacing to add to the flow of the introduction and kept my interest. While the introduction was not titled introduction, the order of her links was helpful in navigating through the Storybook. 

India
Source: Eat Pray Love