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!

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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. 

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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

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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!

Week 14 Reading Diary: Twenty Jataka Tales

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The Two Pigs: Two pigs in forest, taken home by old woman; grow up with her as their mother; men in town get drunk and want to eat pigs, offer to buy them, woman says no until they get her drunk; offers one pig but not the other; pig to be eaten sees men with ropes and runs back to brother; brother tells him not be afraid, they will bathe in water until they smell perfume, this is what he was raised for; his words soften the hearts of the men and woman; pigs taken to live with king, happy ever after

Quarrelsome Quails: Quails keep getting caught in net by hunter; he casts it over their heads and catches 100 at a time; king quail advises his subjects: if he casts the net over your head,put your heads through the holes and fly up as one to a hill so you can free yourselves, but don't argue or you'll get caught! It works for a while, until two quails start arguing over an accident; they get caught, but king never does

The Noble Horse: Brahmadatta has a beautiful horse; 7 kingdom's declare war on his kingdom; brave knight says he can vanquish the armies if he has Brahmadatta's horse; 6 armies in a row beaten, but horse wounded; knight decides to use a different horse but Brahmadatta's says no, knight can only beat 7th army with him, no other horse; knight binds up his wounds and takes him to war; 7th army vanquished; horse says to be merciful and release the prisoners of war, then dies; memory lives on, happy ever after

Week 14 Reading Diary: Inayat's Twenty Jatakas Tales

The Monkey Bridge:
Monkey chief rules over 80,000 monkeys in mango tree; mango falls, floats down to kingdom, is most delicious mango ever; Brishmadatta and men go off in search of mango tree, find it, plan to shoot monkeys and eat mangos; monkeys overhear plan; monkey chief makes bridge out of reed to next tree, but reed is too short, must use his body too; his back is broken; "Forget not that your life is but little to give if in giving you secure the happiness of your people. Rule them not through power because they are your subjects; nay, rule them through love because they are your children."

The Guilty Dogs:
Palace dogs eat leather straps of royal chariot; king is angry and orders all city dogs killed; city dog chief goes to king, tells him he's got it wrong, proves it; city dogs given food and royal care

The Hare and the Fairy:
Hare has three friends, jackal, water-weasel, and monkey; each finds some food, calls out "whose is this?", no answer, takes it; fairy changes herself into old beggar, asks each animal for food, each offers them what he found; hare has nothing but himself, offers to jump into flame; fairy places his image on the moon

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