Week 15: Cheezburger Tech Tip

This one is for our wonderful professor! :)

Week 15: Famous Last Words (For Me!)

(Image info: "Positive Thinker" by Leland Francisco (2011). Flickr.)

For my final Famous Last Words, I wanted to mention some personal things. My semester was the hardest I have ever had and this is my super senior year! I hope this can serve as a good message for people in the future or anyone in this class that might be struggling with the same things.

I started this semester in 17 credit hours. I ended this semester in only 6 credit hours because I dropped the other classes. I may only pass one class and am struggling to pass the other. Now, for the longest time I was always so very scared of failure. I thought it would be the end of the world. This semester has taught me that sometimes life has different plans for us than what we have for ourselves at the time. I am looking forward to my last semester here to get things back in shape and stay on top of everything!

My family and I struggled through a huge financial crisis this year and I was unable to stay in Norman for quite some time due to it. I did not have internet access back home and so I tried to stay on top of my class from the library, but eventually it just got overwhelming. There were a lot of situations that came up that I had not experienced before and it really wrecked havoc on my school semester.

Now, what has helped me get back up this month, is the help and support of my department and the Goddard clinic. They offer free counselling for anyone who is struggling in college for pretty much any reason! If you have anxiety, depression, fear, or anything about school, relationships, your life away from school, anything, you can speak with wonderful counselors over there for free. They legit are the reason I've been able to try to finish my semester out now that I am back in Norman with some stability!

So PLEASE! If you end up in any semester feeling like you are struggling to find motivation, feel anxious, or can't get out of bed. Or if you have problems with any sort of thing whatsoever, do yourself the biggest favor and get help. They can help you come up with plans to lessen your stress, anxiety, depression, keep up with school, tackle problems head on, and more. For me, I got so behind that I kept just putting off getting things together. I just gave up. But now I am trying to kick my own butt and finish with passing grades!

On that note, I hope everyone had a wonderful semester. I hope next semester is wonderful. I hope next year is wonderful. Keep your heads up, get through, because you will feel such a sense of achievement when you get that paper! And remember, sometimes it gets tough. It is okay to take a break, or slow down, and sometimes you might even mess up and feel bad. It's okay. Failure is not forever and it is not to be feared. It builds us up and makes us stronger. :) You will overcome.

Happy Holidays!

Week 15: Writing

What I enjoyed most was the storybook. While I was unable to finish much of it, it was my favorite part of this class! You set that up in a way that really let us be creative and have fun with it. The storytelling is fun but I feel like sometimes I lack motivation to do it when there are units/weeks that the stories do not interest me as much. So I think the storybook is for sure my favorite part of the writing (as well as reading) of this class.

I chose the Storybook and yes, I loved the story I created for it! I think you already have it set up in a way that makes it clear for people whether or not they would enjoy the storybook or the portfolio.

For commenting on storytelling and storybooks, just be sure to read the whole story then comment on your thoughts. Sometimes it can be hard to think of what to say, but I feel like if you read the whole thing then reflect on the moral, point of the story, what's being taught by the characters or what can be learned from the characters, and those sorts of questions can really help come up with what to say.

Comments about ways to make my storybook more interesting helped me. Such as what details people were wanting more of (a certain relationship between characters, more environmental details, etc) helped me created better stories.

I LOVED THIS CLASS. And yes! It really helped me learn about creative writing. The tips and information available as well as people's comments and professor comments really brought me a long way. It is an exceptional class.

I will always write fantasy and romance stories, because creativity to me is so important. I might continue to write the Princess Constellations in an original writing, because I am in love with that idea now. Even if I do not use storytelling to do it, I think I am going to come up with my own unique stories to base it on the concept.

Stay ahead in this class. Sometimes life has different plans than you make and it can really be a bummer to get behind. Once you're behind, it's hard to catch up. ENJOY the class! It's one of the most fun classes you can have at OU if you are into mythology, reading, and writing. :)

Week 15: Reading

I loved the fantasy based stories in this class. Of course, being mythology, that is easy! Being able to follow the suggestions for Fairy Tales, etc. was so helpful because it made it easy for me to find stories relevant to my interests. 

It became easier as time went on to make diary posts because I realized I should focus on just the ones that stand out to me rather than the whole unit. I was too focused on knowing what each story meant than focusing on the ones that I could potentially use for my storytelling.

I did not do a lot of the full reading because I did not like doing it. I preferred reading half a unit then focusing on the writing portion of the class, but I think that is because I mostly enjoyed writing and making new stories based off prompts and the readings. It could be personal to me on that note.

I think offering a reading assignment as extra credit could make up for missing reading during the week, especially for the people that enjoy the reading section of the course more than the writing section!

STAY AHEAD! WORK AHEAD! FINISH EARLY! Be at least a week ahead at all times. Sometimes things come up and it can really mess up your online schedule if you aren't ahead.

For the UnTextbook of Myth-Folklore, I loved having it. It was so amazing to not have to buy extra things and books for this class and it gave us access to SO MUCH INFORMATION!!! 

I did not read many of the notes anyway for the sections because I would just glimpse stories and see if it was to my liking. However, I do like the introductions to the stories because it gave us vital information such as if there are words we would not know the meaning or unclear concepts. The introduction posts actually helped me TONS.

I think adding images helps break the stories up and give us some reading relief. So yes! They are important!

If I have any suggestions for new units, I would say maybe Russian culture. ;) But that is just because I have a Russian minor. The folklore is incredible from Russia though and might give people some insight they didn't have before.

Anthology units with different themes would've been fantastic for me!!! I think that is an excellent idea for future semesters because love stories and hero stories are amazing topics.

Week 14: Famous Last Words

(Image Information: "Sometimes, a hug is all what we need" by Jesslee Culzon. Flickr.)

I want to focus this Famous Last Words on everyone else in the class. While I ended up extremely busy with a tough semester and things happening that kept me from school, I want to say that I was so blown away by everyone’s writing this semester. The storybooks are incredible and I have read so many fun ideas that it really makes me happy that people were able to tap into their creativity and come up with such great ideas.

All of the storybook nominations for this semester were incredible. Kudos to each one of you, because you guys did awesome! Of course, the storybooks I read that did not make it to the nominations were phenomenal as well. From fantasy to riddles, to diaries and articles, from every genre and style and more, I think everyone did an amazing job. It really has made me want to dive right back into creative outlets like writing.

So I hope everyone was able to bring away something amazing from this class. Whether it be an appreciation for others art, for others introductions and life, making new friends, or tapping into their own outlets. It could be anything positive! Good job on all of your work and here is to the ending of a semester soon. I wish everyone good grades and a good future. I know that the year is ending but next year is a new year with even more exciting experiences to come. So be sure to remember this wonderful class!

I really wish I had taken this another semester to fully enjoy what I could’ve gotten out of it! Unfortunately, financially and personally I had a lot of struggles this year (family health) and I was unable to focus as much as I wanted to. But this overall was a super fun class!

Week 14 Essay: My Writing Memories

(Image information: "Notepad" by Sam (2009.) Web Source: Flickr.)

Writing has always been a very important aspect of my life. It has been the outlet for my creativity, emotions, thoughts, and more. In a way, it is an art form of its own league because there so many styles and paths you can take with writing. I have noticed what I write now is so much different than when I first started.

I began writing poetry at a young age. My first solid memories of writing come about 9 or 10 years old and my mom would always submit those to those national books and whatnot. I would write poetry about love, family, my country, and more. Over time, especially when I got to my teenage years, my poetry became much more symbolic. It was about religion, my beliefs, my emotions, and my future. When I was in high school I started writing stories. My stories were always about romance and fantasy, which is something I still continue to write about today but with much more talent.

For me, writing was a way to funnel my creativity. There would be times I could dream up something awesome and write down the ideas as soon as I woke up and from that I could find ways to dream a new story, literally.

Style is something that has changed for me over time. When I was young, my style was not very defined. I wrote in simple sentences and used simplistic language. My writing was bland. Now, I try to make my stories flow and use language that helps describe situations, the environment, and to really help bring the writing to life. It takes practice and a lot of dedication to improve, as any art form does and classes have helped my writing tremendously. Classes in college have shaped my writing and I absolutely love each memory of it!

Google Language

I switched to Russian language for google!