Growth Mindset: Week 14

This is the first time I have done a Growth Mindset challenge. I chose to look through the memes. With the semester coming to a close things tend to get pretty hopeless. I scrolled through the list but one caught my eye. The "Difficult is not Impossible" meme caught my attention because something things being difficult is the central theme of a college student's life during finals week. I need to try to stay positive and stay confident that I can tackle any challenge that I face. Good luck to everyone on their finals!!

Finals Week

Famous Last Words: Week 14

The semester is coming to an end! I think it’s safe to say I am ready for it to be over and the end cannot come soon enough. Now that the end is approaching I have been primarily focusing on prepping for finals. I have always hated this time of the year. Sleepless nights, caffeine binges, not eating right, and stressing out way too much make for a pretty rotten time. I started preparing sooner than normal to try to avoid the great deal of stress I normally face during this time of the year.

This past week my biggest accomplishment was probably the essay I wrote for my History of Science class. It was an analytical essay over Galileo’s Letter to Christina. This was the longest letter I have ever seen but it was pretty interesting. The purpose of it was to seek the help of the Grand Duchess Christina to avoid condemnation for the Copernican theory and overall the harmful side effect this would have on the study of the physical sciences all together. It was a pretty interesting piece that had points applicable to today’s society in addition to Galileo’s 1600’s world.

Looking forward to the infamous dead week I hope to stay on top of my studies and not procrastinate! I have my Principles of Physiology final this Tuesday and a Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy lab practical this Thursday. I really wish that OU had a true dead week that allowed students to have time to prepare for finals. How does it make any sense that I should have presentations, practicals, and assignments due right before finals?  Shouldn’t my professors want to give me all the time in the world to study for their tests, rather than cramming because I have to worry about other assignments.

Overall I am ready for the end of the semester!

Peace

Reading Diary A: Brothers Grimm Librivox

This week I chose to read the Brothers Grimm Librivox unit. I wanted to read this one because it contained stories I grew up loving as a child. The second story within the unit is the story of Rapunzel. I really enjoyed this story and I honestly did not expect a happy ending for the two of them! My favorite was the story of Briar Rose. I grew up loving the Disney movie and I really enjoyed the Maleficent remake from just a couple of years ago.  It's really interesting to see the exact same story in three different ways. I have to say I was kind of disappointed that there was no dragon in the original story!!!

Sleeping Beauty

 

Essay: Children's Stories

This week I read the Hans Christian Andersen unit. In it were several stories I remember from my childhood; The Princess and the Pea, The Emperor's New Suit, and of course The Little Mermaid. The Disney version of Andersen's most widely known piece was quite different from the original. The other two stories were essentially the exact same as what I grew up reading. Looking back on these stories I find it comical that such dark and terrible stories become beloved children's books or movies.

The Princess and the Pea is such a terrible story for children because it has no meaning to it. Its sole purpose is about finding a true princess and the only way to do this is to have her sleep on 20 mattresses with a single pea beneath them. This essentially teaches kids that to be a princess and get everything you want out of life you need to be a spoiled brat!

In The Emperor’s New Suit all of the town’s people fall victim to the trick of some swindlers. They do this simply because they don’t want others to think they are not worthy of what position they hold or that they are stupid. Even the Emperor falls victim to the trick. He pretends to see a set of clothes when in fact there is nothing there. In the end only a child stands up and points out the fact that the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. It does teach the moral of thinking for yourself and not succumbing to peer pressure however, it is such a ridiculous story!

Lastly is The Little Mermaid. It’s a story we all grew up loving because of Disney’s rendition of it. This however, is far from what was originally written. Ariel doesn’t get her happy ending with the prince in Andersen’s version. The story was sugar coated to make it more suitable for children. While I do love the movie and I think it is great for children I also think it would be good for kids to hear the original. It would teach them that life isn’t fair and we don’t always get what we want in life.

Overall it was really neat reading stories that I grew up knowing. They don’t make the best children’s stories but they will always be classics!

Children's Stories

Week 13 Storytelling: The Little Mermaid

Gathering around their grandmother, the children were bustling with excitement. Tonight she was going to read them a new story. She found an old dusty book deep within her closet and it told the tale of a magical world with mermaids. It begun with the story of a little mermaid…

 Ariel was the youngest daughter of the mighty King Triton, who was the son of the God Poseidon. Triton had inherited the throne from his father in place of his sister, Ursula the Sea Witch. Poseidon made it very clear throughout their childhood that Triton was his favorite. Ursula held a great deal of jealousy within her heart and because of this she became very wicked. Her domain was in the fiery depths of the sea vents where no other creature was brave enough to venture. 
 

King Triton ruled his kingdom in peace for many years and even gave his top advisors regions to govern themselves. Though his father created his base in the waters off the coast of Greece, Triton developed his kingdom in the Atlantic Ocean. He did this in order to be able to reach other regions of the world more easily. He enjoyed the immense amount of power he held over all the seas but there was one thing he loved even more. His family.

His wife unfortunately lost her life in a horrific incident. She became entangled in a net and was pulled up onto the deck of a ship. The crew killed her in hopes to take the mermaid to their queen for a reward. Little did they know that when a mermaid dies their body dissolves into sea foam. Shock and disappointed overtook the men. This however could not compare to the terror that gripped them once King Triton discovered what became of his beloved wife. The waves Triton procured engulfed the ship and pulled the men to the deepest depths of the ocean. For years ships could not sail across the Atlantic without facing great peril.

Triton’s anger subsided over the years as his daughters grew. In particular his youngest, Ariel, had a special place in his heart. She was very young when her mother passed but she could not have been more similar to her. Triton saw his wife in Ariel more and more with every passing day. She had her mother's wild spirit, never-ending curiosity, and her beautiful scarlet hair.

On her fifteenth birthday, as customary, Triton allowed her to venture up to the surface as long as she didn’t stray too far. Arriving at the surface, Ariel couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. She quickly became entranced with all things from the land above the sea. One night she came across a ship. As fearless as she was, Ariel swam right alongside it and hoisted herself on a small shelf along the exterior. She watched the crew dance and listened to the music. Then she watched beautiful color explosions in the sky. In that moment she saw him, the most attractive being she had ever seen. Captivated she wanted nothing other than to grow close to him.

Her father received word of how close she was to the humans so he conjured a great storm. The waves grew tremendously and rocked the ship. It did not take long for the party to become a place of panic. Soon enough a monstrous wave overtook the ship and broke it into hundreds of pieces. All Ariel could think about was finding the man she had seen earlier and saving him from the storm. Floating amongst some debris she spotted him barely hanging on. Ariel wrapped her arms around him and swam to shore as she could. She knew he was still breathing but he had yet to open his eyes...

The grandmother was quite surprised. Apparently some of the pages within the book had been torn out so she had to think on her feet to not disappoint the children. So she continued…

After a very long nap the man awoke and instantly fell in love with Ariel! He asked for her hand in marriage and when she said yes he went off to find a magical fairy that could give the little mermaid some legs to walk on. Her father forgave her for mingling with the humans and even grew fond of his daughters groom. The two had the biggest and most beautiful wedding, all of the townspeople were invited. They went on to live happily ever after.

Satisfied with the happy ending the children willingly went to bed with visions of mermaids in their heads.

 

Ariel

Author’s Note: It’s not too hard to figure out that I retold the popular story of The Little Mermaid! I used Hans Christian Andersen’s version as my primary basis for the retelling. Other aspects that I added in were from previous knowledge, the Disney movie, and my own imagination! In Hans Christian Andersen’s version there is very little mention of King Triton. In the Disney movie however, he was one of the primary characters so I wanted to incorporate him back into the story. I knew that he was the son of Poseidon and that some people claim Ursula is his sister. Both of these tidbits were left out in the original story and the movie. I wanted to develop Triton’s character and really make him into a family man, which he is in the movie. I have no idea why Ariel’s mother is never around but I felt an explanation needed to be given. Neither the story nor the movie attempts to explain why. This would also explain why Triton has such a problem with humans. The Little Mermaid was a really long story so I had to find a way to only be able to tell part of the story, that is why I cut it short.

Bibliography: "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen, from Fairy Tales and Stories (1872). Web Source: Untextbook.

Reading Diary B: Hans Christian Andersen

The second half of the Hans Christian Andersen unit was entirely devoted to The Little Mermaid. I wanted to read this story because I grew up watching the Disney movie and because my Storybook project is focused on mermaids. I was always told that the original version was very different from the movie I grew to love. Disney has a way of always creating happy endings even when the original didn't! Although the original was different from the move, especially in the end, there were still many similarities. One thing that I was surprised while reading was the fact that the little mermaid was not rebellious like her Disney counterpart. She waited until she was allowed to venture to the surface of the water. In the movie Ariel frequently disobeyed her father to go up to the surface. The absence of King Triton was another factor that differed, The grandmother had more of a role in the original than the little mermaids father did. The ending was not what I expected it to be. I was under the impression that she was supposed to dissolve into sea foam. Instead she became a new being entirely and was given the chance to still obtain an immortal soul because of her good deeds. As much as you hate to see someone else end up with the Prince, you at least know that he was truly in love!

The Little Mermaid

Reading Diary A: Hans Christian Andersen

This week I chose to read the Hans Christian Andersen unit. I really wanted to read this one because the story of The Little Mermaid is in the second half of the unit. In the first half of the unit there were two familiar stories, The Princess and the Pea and The Emperor's New Clothes. I clearly remembered reading these stories when I was a child, but I did not realize how terrible they were. The moral in the first story is that Princess is defined by her spoiled nature. And in the second story a whole kingdom is fooled by two swindlers into claiming they see something when in actuality it doesn't exist. They just didn't want to admit they didn't see the clothes because it meant they were stupid... according to the swindlers. I really enjoyed the story of The Brave Tin Soldier. I found it very interesting that the whole story was written from the perspective of the toy. It was a very Toy Story-esque read. I wish the soldier and the little lady didn't have to burn at the end! I look forward to reading The Little Mermaid in the second half of the unit!

The Tin Soldier and His Love