Week 15: Backup and Review

May 5: Cinco de Mayo. In Mexico, the Cinco de Mayo holiday is not a national holiday (it is celebrated mainly in the state of Puebla, in east-central Mexico), but in other countries, especially the United States, Cinco de Mayo has become an important holiday to celebrate Hispanic cultural heritage and traditions. You can read more about the holiday in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this great image of a children's Cinco de Mayo parade in Minnesota:

Week 15: Famous Last Words

This week I finished up my portfolio! I did some small revisions to each of my stories and made sure that the portfolio index was clear and easy to navigate. 
I am so grateful that this class has introduced me to one of my new all-time favorite literary characters. I definitely plan to keep looking into the character of Amba, in all her various forms, to discover more about her portrayal across different sources.

I also finished up several of my other classes. I will never attend another flute studio class, which was a very bittersweet realization; studio has been a bit of an oasis in the dessert of music school, and my professor is a truly lovely human who can make any terrible day better. I love my colleagues in the studio and am so grateful for their friendship -- I wish I didn't have to leave them! However, I'm excited to see the direction that the studio is heading in and I know that we are only going to continue to improve.

We also had our last concert with El Sistema! As always, concerts are stressful, exhausting, hectic, but SO WORTH IT. Every single ensemble played brilliantly -- by far the best all year. We also got to feature several performances from smaller chamber ensembles and I know that those students will cherish that opportunity to display their skills on a more individual basis forever. We even had a guest STUDENT conductor on one of the pieces. Next week, we will have a recital featuring all of the works my students have been composing this semester! I can't wait for their hard work to to validated during this experience. Some of my students have found a real love for expressing themselves through original compositions and I am so excited to see them grow and develop as musicians and as people with important things to contribute to our world! I am so proud to be a part of this wonderful organization. 

An El Sistema orchstra; Source

Tech Tip: Blogger Privacy

This week I removed the "posted by" attribution on my blog posts. I try to remain very low-key in all of my internet doings -- I am very diligent in making sure that my online and social media presence is under my control and exactly how I want it. As a teacher, it's super important that my employers and students see only what I want when they search for me. I don't have anything to hide, but I do know that the current state of technology and social media necessitates an abundance of caution in this area. 

Week 15 Learning Challenge: The power of vulnerability

Brené Brown: The Power of Vulnerability

This week, I have been trying to incorporate the lessons in this TED talk into my thought processes and actions. I have a lot of trouble with the topics and habits she addresses, so this has been a real eye-opener for me and something I have been working very hard to begin to internalize.

Week 15 Growth Mindset Challenge: Ready for a challenge!

Found at the Growth Mindset Blog

I chose this meme for my growth mindset challenge this week because I have several big challenges coming up in my life. The first is finals week. Obviously. We'll see how that goes...

The second is my student teaching semester in the fall. I will be working at a school with a 98% free and reduced lunch student population. It is going to be a big challenge! But this is the path I have chosen for my life and I'm ready for my first real test as a public school educator. 

Third, I have recently begun to address some health concerns with a counselor and although I'm dreading the long slog through my own unhealthy brain, I know that this is important for my own happiness for the rest of my life.

Week 15: Readings

I most enjoyed following along with reading options that had an accompanying reading guide and many images. The online options that had a blog post with links to each story were my favorite, as those were the easiest to navigate, whether it be reading everything in one go or coming back several times throughout the week -- I could just find where I left off and jump right back into the story. I also liked that they had summaries of each story to accompany the link; if it had been several days since my last opportunity to read, the refreshers on the plot were really helpful!

I honestly found a lot of the commenting to be a bit tedious toward the end of the semester when we were connecting with 5 people per week (3 storybooks/portfolios, 2 storytelling+intros). I do think the word limits were really helpful in inspiring me to really think about what I could respond to in order to make the most productive comment possible.

Week 15: Reflections

This semester, I am most excited by what I have learned about the history and culture of India. My obsession with the Mahabharata (and one character in particular, haha) have provided me a link to the India of old and of the present that I never would have felt without this class. I feel that I have a better understanding of the values inherent in Indian culture and the amazing worth of their traditions. Through learning about the ancient characters that they hold dear, I can make connections to more modern figures who have already and continue today to shape India and its people. 

As far as the blogging aspect of the class, I have had a lot of fun reconnecting with my creative writing roots and flexing a part of my brain that has been severely under-appreciated throughout my college years. I've learned a lot about what it means to blog, as well -- from the technology to the design to the content -- especially from seeing the amazing art many of my peers have made of their blogs! I have very much enjoyed gaining a glimpse into a random selection of OU students' lives and getting to know some of them on a deeper level through repeated visits to their posts and comments.

Portfolio Index

Story 1: The Brief Afterlife of Amba
This story describes the short time between Amba's suicide and her reincarnation, wherein the goddess Ganga receives her with much sadness.

Story 2: Sikhandini and Sthuna
Another story of Amba suspended between her past and her fate; this time, her Sikhandini incarnation meets the benevolent yaksha Sthuna, who promises to help her however he can.

Story 3: Riddles at the Lake
A break from Amba; this is a humorous take on the episode in which the Pandavas come across a dangerous, answer-seeking body of water.

Story 4: Sikhandin after Bhishma
The conclusion to the Amba/Sikhandini/Sikhandin trilogy, in which the character is finally met with victory and must create his own peace from the emptiness left.

Week 14: Back up and review

This week's review comes from the Saturday, April 30th blog post. As a future crazy cat lady who has loved many a calico, I couldn't resist diving into the Indian Word in English. :)

Indian Words in English: Today's word from India in English is CALICO, via Arabic Qaliqut (Malayalam Kolikodu), a city on the Malabar coast of India. It originally described a type of colorful fabric from that city but now it most often refers to tricolor cats. For details, see this blog post.

Week 14: Famous Last Words

This week I read Twenty Jataka Tales, which was a really cool break from my obsession with the Mahabharata! I picked three favorites for each reading diary, and then three bonus tales for my extra credit reading. It was really neat seeing how the stories were similar to the nursery rhymes of western culture. There were so many parallels in some, right down to the cheesy moral of the story and the "happily ever after" line that ended every single story. One story, about a hare convinced that the earth was breaking apart, reminded me of a way cooler, more interesting version of Chicken Little. Animals misinterpreting the natural actions of trees as the end of times must be a common theme in many cultures, haha!
Others, however, were entirely new stories, and those were actually my favorites! Some struck me as a little odd and seemingly pointless (like the one about sailors trapped in a goblin-town saved by a random winged horse), but I'm sure many western fairy tales and fables inspire the same feeling in those who didn't grow up with them.

Outside of this class, the big event for me this week has been my second senior recital! I presented a lecture recital on the topic of Darius Milhaud's Sonatine pour flûte et piano. The piece was one of the first instances of "authentic" jazz used in a classical setting, and includes a lot of Milhaud's unique version of the futurism movement in music, so doing all the research was really fun and interesting. It was a great experience to try something new as a performer, since I've never given a lecture recital and only ever attended a few as an audience member. I'm super grateful for the opportunity to grow as a musician, expand my knowledge, and challenge myself as a student of music! 
With all that being said... I'm so glad it's over. It was crazy stressful to have to prepare a recital on two very different fronts. Not only did I have to do months of research into the historical context of the piece, then analyze it structurally and theoretically for the influences that the research pointed to, but I also had to prepare the piece itself and perform it. It was a lot to try to fit into this crazy part of the semester, especially just a few months after my other senior recital. I wouldn't recommend the experience of trying to do more than one of those in a 3-month span to ANYONE, haha. But, it's over and it went well, so I'm happy!

Source

Darius Milhaud, the composer I've devoted the last two months of my life to

Tech Tip: Embedding NPR Interviews

I noticed in my Learning Challenge this week that the NPR article I referenced had an "Embed" button, so this week I'm experimenting with how I can include the interview in a blog post!

Week 14 Learning Challenge: Mindfulness

This week I read a really interesting NPR article based on an interview with a researcher discussing the benefits of mindfulness and demonstrating an exercise to increase mindfulness. It reminded me a lot of the little bits of meditation I've dabbled in. In fact, it was just similar enough to remind me that I really, really need to take this lesson to heart! 
Everything the researcher was describing as a symptom of low mindfulness -- constant feelings of rushing around, being stressed mind racing, lack of appreciation for the moment one is living in -- we're extremely familiar to me. He discusses how these feelings in people with low mindfulness act as a constant stimulus to the amygdala, which triggers the fight-or-flight response. Basically, my stress and inability to handle it has tricked my brain into constantly feeling like I'm being chased by a tiger. Whoops.
I was also really interested by the idea of performing the mindfulness activity with children. I know from talking with my students that their school experience is different from mine and the generations before me in that the stakes feel infinitely higher -- constant standardized testing, pressure to exceed not only in academics but a plethora of extracurricular activities, and the various home problems my students face. I'm not convinced some of my younger, wigglier classes could handle a minute of mindfulness, but I'm very tempted to try this with some of my older students. 

Source

Week 14 Growth Mindset: Multiple Intelligences

From the Growth Mindset Blog

I'm a big believer in the idea of multiple intelligences and the potential of ALL humans to make contributions and shine in their unique talents. I like the different examples Marek Bennett has listed here of ways one can be gifted and intelligent .
However, I worry that this idea -- and some of these specific categories -- lend themselves to a mindset of limited growth. For example, a class I took for my music education coursework had us take a "musical aptitude" test, to see where we rate on our inherent aptitude for melodic and rhythmic capabilities. I am a decently accomplished musician and feel confident in my musical intelligence, but I scored very low on aptitude in both areas. If I had taken that test as a kid with an idea of multiple intelligences, I might have thought of myself as not "intelligent" in this field and been discouraged from devoting myself to it. I think it's important to remember that even though intelligence is a much wider field than its typically thought of, hard work is still the most important factor in success!

Week 14 Reading Diary: Twenty Jatakas Tales (Extra)

The End of the World: Hare sitting under fruit tree, pondering the end of the world; piece of fruit falls and makes a sound behind him; hare assumes it's the world ending, runs away; sees other hares, they ask why he's running, he says the world is ending; all run away
More animals see hares running, panic, run with them; wise lion sees thousands of animals running away, worries that they will run over cliff; roars to stop them; asks what's going on
"The earth is breaking to pieces"
"Who saw it breaking to pieces?"
No one!
Asks elephants if they saw it, they so no the lions did, lions say no the tigers did, tigers say no the rhinoceros did, etc. etc. Finally to the hares, who say the one little one saw it, he says yes I did!
Lion says get on my back, take me to where the earth broke; hare guides him to fruit tree; lion sees fallen fruit and knows what happened
Happy ever after

Source

The Goblin Town: sailors ship-wrecked on shore; see a bunch of women calling to them, enamored with their beauty; secretly women cast invisible chains binding them; they live there for some time; at night one sailor wakes up and hears goblin voices, goes to look around and sees that the women are secretly goblins! Tries to warn the others but many don't believe him; those that do ask how they can escape, since they are bound with magic chains, he has no answer; white horse descends from heaven, says that it is there to save them and if they climb on his back, their chains will break; some do, others stay; those that escape live happy ever after

The Master's Test: Wise old masters tells his pupils that they need to find him money; they say that begging will not work because the people in their town are greedy; master says that stealing is okay as long as no one is watching, tells his students to find a rich person and wait until no one sees, then silently grab their wallet and bring it back to him; all eagerly run off to do so except one student, who says he can not carry out the task because he can never be somewhere where no one sees, "Even when I am quite alone, my self is watching." Would rather beg than see himself steal. Master smiles and says he passes the test, other students are ashamed. Moral: your self is always watching!