Portfolio Guide

The Magical Plant

The Story of Noah and Joshua

The Fish and The Leopard

Herald's Bad Year

Online Education Review

I have mixed feelings for taking course online. I probably wouldn't take major courses online, just because I learn more in person. I have taken a few classes online in the past and this one has probably been my favorite because the communication has been so good. I usually forget about most online classes and don't do very well in them, but this class is different. I would suggest this course to others! I think one of the best things about online classes is the fact that you can get in done on your own time. I like going to a coffee shop and just doing the work when I can.

Online course can be very beneficial!

Gen. Ed. Review

This is my final Gen. Ed. course to take at the University of Oklahoma. I have to admit, I'm not always the biggest fan of taking Gen. Ed. courses that take up a lot of time because it takes away from learning and time in important courses that are apart of my major. I have found that the Gen. Ed courses often require more time than any other class and it leaves me just trying to hurry and finish it so I can get to the courses I care about.

I have definitely learned from these courses, though (well some of them). I liked this course a lot even though I thought it was a little demanding to have something due each day. I understand the importance of Gen. Ed courses, but at the same time, I feel that maybe a change is needed.

President David Boren - A Hero at the U of O.

Essay - Italian Fairy Tales

For my LAST unit, I chose to read Italian Fairy Tales. This was a great unit to end on. It was full of fun stories that I really wasn't expecting. I had a lot of fun reading these stories that had humor, personality, resilience, and emotion. Each story had its own power and story. My favorite story from the unit was called Water and Salt. It was about a king who asked his three daughters to tell him how much they loved him. When one of the daughters told him he loved him as much as water and salt the king was furious and told his guards to kill her. The guards ended up not killing her, but a goat instead and covered up her story. The girl was rescued by a magician and fell in love by another prince. They threw a party and invited all the kings to come. The daughter told her maids not to give the king any water or salt. He could barely eat his food and then the girl said now you know what I meant. The king couldn't believe it.

This was an awesome class and I'm really glad I got to enjoy so many great readings. This was a great unit to end on and I would suggest it to anyone looking for an easy and fun read. The best thing about these stories is the opportunity to learn about so many different cultures. These Italian fairy tales are a prime example. They are great stories that I had never heard of before, but loved anyway.

Have some extra time on your hand? Go check it out!

That's a wrap!

Storytelling - Salt and Water

There once was a young prince you lived in a large palace with his family. His parents were the king and queen of Lottenville and he was first in line to take their place out of his three younger brothers. One day, when the king was spending time with his sons, he asked each of them to tell him how much they loved him. The youngest son said he loved him more than the son. The next said he loved him more than air. The third said he loved him more than life itself. When it came to the oldest prince, he said he loved his father as much as salt and water.

Astonished by his answer, the king had his guards take his oldest son away and have him killed. The younger brothers pleaded to their father to have mercy on the oldest prince, but he was too furious to allow any type of grace on his son. The guards took the prince away and fed him to a den of hungry lions. The brothers were traumatized by this cruel act from their father.

As a few years passed by, a famine grew over Lottenville. There was no rain for over a year and the people of Lottenville were beginning to starve and thirst. One day, the king sat to eat dinner with his family. When he bit into his meal, he began chewing like a goat. The famine had taken away quality seasonings and flavors, even salt and the food was too hard to get down. He asked for a cup of water, but the maid said they had no more water to give. At that moment, the king realized what his oldest son meant when he said water and salt and saw the value in the two products. He mourned for his lack of trust in his son and asked for his family’s forgiveness.

The next day, rain poured over Lottenville for 21 days. Each pond and river refilled and life began to blossom again throughout the land. The king and queen rejoiced for the gracious blessings even after their mistakes. They created a holiday in honor of their lost son and treated his life memory as heroic and brave. The king was humbled and decided to show mercy on everyone in his kingdom that liked him or not. The oldest prince’s memory was the never forgotten.

Author's Note: This story comes from the original Italian Fairy Tales: Salt and Water. The basics on in this story, but their is no killing in the original story. You should go check it out for yourself, it is a great read! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!

Bibliography: 

Italian Popular Tales 

by Thomas Frederick Crane 

(1885).

Reading Diary B - Italian Fairy Tales

If you weren't convinced but my diary from yesterday, hopefully this one will do the trick. Read this unit! Seriously, you will not regret it. There are several great stories throughout this unit that everyone can enjoy reading from all ages. One of the cool parts of this unit is that several of the stories are pretty similar to the American fairy tales I grew of reading and hearing. Most of the stories will have something different to them or maybe different characters. Looking for a fun read? Look no further! Italian Fairy Tales is the answer!

Reading Diary A - Italian Fairy Tales

Wow! What a cool unit. I read Italian Fairy Tales for my final unit in the course. After reading the first half of this unit, I can already tell this may be one of my favorites yet. The stories are so unique and interesting. The writing style is pretty simple to read too. My favorite story was called Water and Salt. This story is about a king and his three daughters. When the youngest daughter says she loves him like water and salt, the king has her killed. Luckily, the guards kill a goat instead to act like they killed the princess. A magician finds the girl and saves her. A young prince falls in love with her and during the wedding, they invite kings to come join them, including her father. When they serve the king food without salt and no water, she reveals who she is and why salt and water are so important. They all live happily ever after.

Salt + Water

Essay - Europa

This unit on Europa is one for the record books. I loved reading it! I have had the privilege to read Joseph Jacobs before and he never disappoints. The coolest part of this unit is the fact that there are a lot of familiar stories that are retold. They are mixed and matched and really do a great job of providing a new style and freshness for the reader.

I thought most of the stories were pretty easy to read and had a nice tone to them. I would definitely recommend this unit to others and I know they would enjoy it just like me. Like I mentioned in my reading diary, one of my favorite stories was Beauty and the Beast. It is just a great story that I have admired for quite sometime now. Joseph Jacobs did a great job rewriting this famous story and gave it a cool twist.

The unit really isn;t too long in its entirety. I really wasn't sure what to expect when choosing this unit to read so I didn't have a ton of expectations. I chose it because of the author and the interesting summary of it. I am beyond happy with my choice though. With only one more week of reading, I am glad I chose to read this unit. It was good to end on a positive note and read from such a good author.

It has been cool to see the different reading styles over the course of the semester. I have had the opportunity to read bits and pieces of just about everything and this was a good finale to it all. It is kind of sad to see it coming to an end, but these readings will stick with me. I have learned so much and I would encourage anyone to do the same readings too!

Beauty and the Beast

Reading Diary A - Beauty and the Beast

This unit was great! It is retold by Joseph Jacobs who help mix and match some of the classic stories. I had fun reading these cool stories in the first part of this unit such as Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella. Of course, my favorite was my childhood's favorite story - Beauty and the Beast! It was full of energy and depth and was different than what I had expected. Everyone go read this!!

Beauty and the Beast

Portfolio: Harold's Bad Year

There lived a man long ago named Harold. He was a nice and gentle man who didn’t have much going his way. Harold's wife and children died in a car crash earlier in the year and he lost his job at the coal mines due to budget cuts. T0 state it plain and simple, it was a bad year for Harold, a very bad year. 

On the brink of depression, Harold had sat on his old couch in his lonely home for two whole days without moving. Late one night as Harold sat miserably on his couch, he heard a loud knock on his door. Startled, Harold jumped from his couch. He never received visitors, especially late at night. He walked to the door and looked through a peep hole to see who was at his house. He didn’t see anyone. He opened the door and still no one was there. Baffled, he shut the door and walked back to his couch. Just as he was about to fall back to his couch, there was a banging on the door again. Now a little irritated, Harold ran back to the door to find what he thought would be a mischievous child playing a mean prank. When he opened the door, there was no sign of anyone. 

“Hey! Down here!” yelled a voice.

Harold looked down on his porch to find a man standing on his porch no larger than four inches tall. He thought he was dreaming. “What? Who are you?” asked Harold.

“I’m your guardian leprechaun,” promised the mini human on his porch, "And I’m here to give you some luck after your not so lucky events this past year.”

“I don’t need your luck. This is not real. Please, leave me alone!” said Harold. 

“Harold, I’m here to help! What can I do for you? Maybe treat you to some fine food and drink? Buy you a new house? Perhaps a new family??” said the leprechaun. 

Harold was reluctant to trust this mischievous little guy, but decided to play along with his game. “How about you get me my job back at the mine?” said Harold.

“Deal! But there’s a catch: when you gather your coal, I get to grab as much as I can hold in one trip to cash it in for my own profit.”

“Sounds good to me!” laughed Harold. 

Sure enough, the next day the coal miners found a whole new cave of coal and all the miners got their jobs back. Harold ran to the mine to gather as much coal as possible. After almost 12 hours in the mine, he came up with hundreds of pounds of coal in his barrel. 

“Wow! Good job Harold. Now, as you promised me, let me take all the coal I can carry,” said the leprechaun. He put one piece after another in his pocket. Soon enough there was no more coal in his barrel.

“You fooled me!” shouted Harold.

“Sorry, it’s what I do,” said the leprechaun as he started to walk away. As he walked away his pants split and he lost all the coal. Harold pushed him out of the way and took it all back. He cashed it in for profit and lived freely and worked hard for the rest of his days.

The guardian leprochaun.

Author's Note:

In the original story, the Farmer of Liddesdale, the farmer has a bad year until a man comes to help his plow his farm. The worker fools the farmer and takes his corn. The thief ends of losing all of the corn when his barrel breaks and then he vanishes. I wanted to create a similar story, but with a couple of twists. As a Celtic story, I wanted to bring in a leprechaun and make it more interesting, too! I really felt bad for the farmer throughout the original story, so I wanted to make sure my farmer came out with a good victory by the time everything was over.

I liked the original story because it went from tragedy to triumph. I wanted to bring the same theme into my story and develop the characters a little more. I thought the leprechaun would add a simple, mischievous character that I could portray as the antagonist. This was, readers would want to take Herald’s side. I thought the title fit the story well; it was a bad year for Herald. Luckily, things work out for him in the end, but I wouldn’t want to have to go through the same things he did! 

Bibliography: 

Title: More Celtic Fairy Tales

Author: Joseph Jacobs 

Illustrations: John D. Batten 

Year: 1895

Essay - Nursery Rhymes

This past week, I had the opportunity to read old nursery rhymes from the British Isles. It was a blast from the past and I was so happy that I got to go back and read some of my favorite childhood stories. The unit was pretty unique because it was full of different types of nursery rhymes. For example, the first unit had riddles and songs and various other types of stories, while the second-half of the unit had jingles and classic rhymes.

What made this unit so cool was the different types of familiarity in the stories. I knew several of the stories in the unit, but I had never heard of most of them. After reading so many big stories throughout this semester, it was good to have a change of pace. My goal was to have a better understanding of readings from different cultures, and I think this unit helped get me closer toward that goal. Not only was it a fun read, but it also brought me closer to see how the European culture stories are told from generation to generation.

There were good overall notes for this campaign and I don't believe any more need to be added. I remember seeing this unit last week and I purposely chose to save it for this week to end on a good note. I wasn't let down. This unit was an easy read that had a ton to offer. If you are looking for some nostalgic classics, I would recommend checking some of these stories out for yourself.

Of course, my favorite story was Humpty Dumpty. I was pumped when I saw that story in the readings, because it was one of my favorites growing up! I can remember my baby sitters saying that rhyme to me and imagining a giant egg witty on a wall. It is such a small story, but is always so good to read.

Humpty Dumpty

Reading Diary B - Nursery Rhymes

The second part to this unit was just as good as the first. It was fool of jingles, stories and relics. I really enjoyed reading some of the jingles. They were al super short, but a lot of fun to read. The second part of the unit was easy to read and gave a cool British vibe. I would encourage anyone to read this unit over nursery rhymes becasue they are all relatable and nostalgic. Don't believe me? Go check it out for yourself!

Picture from the riddle "Hey Diddle Diddle"

Reading Diary A - Nursery Rhymes

I chose to read the unit on nursery rhymes. This unit from the British Isles was pretty interesting. It was full of different nursery rhymes and stories. From tales and proverbs to songs and riddles, the first part of this unit had a lot to choose from. When I chose to read this unit, I thought I would know a lot of the stories, but I was unfamiliar with most of them. This made it pretty interesting and they were all super easy reads. Of course there was the classic Humpty Dumpty riddle which was always one of my favorites. I would encourage you to take a step back into your childhood and check out some of these stories for yourself!

Humpty Dumpty

Essay: Celtic Stories

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I chose to read this unit on More Celtic Stories. I'm glad I chose to read this unit, because it was a lot of fun! There were a lot of different types of stories that all had certain characteristics and personalities. I thought the wiring was uniques because there were different types of words that gave the reader a Celtic feel. Of the unit, I wrote about a couple of stories that were my favorite in my Reading Diary.

One story was about a man who had never dreamed before. When he finally was able to have a dream, it was absolutely insane! Crazy things happened and he did;t want to have another dram again. My favorite story from the entire unit was about a farmer. He was having a bad year and lost his family and his workers. He needed help plowing his crops, but couldn't find any workers. When a man looking for work stumbled upon him, they agreed the man would plow the crops if her could take whatever he could hold in one trip. They agreed and the man plowed all of the farmers crops by himself. The farmer was thrilled until the plow man took all of his crops. He ended up losing the crops from his barrel and couldn't fool the farmer. The farmer was grateful for the work and was able to keep his farm going.

I wrote a story based of this in my Storybook. Instead of a plowman, I used a leprechaun. If you are looking for a mediocre read, go check it out!

I'm enjoying this theme of stories this week, and excited to choose another unit next week with the same theme. I'd encourage others to read this unit and to read it in an Irish accent. It makes it a lot more fun ;).

Celtic Stone.

Storytelling Week 11 - Herald's Bad Year

There lived a man long ago named Herald. He was a nice and gentle man who didn’t have much going his way. Herald’s wife and children died in a car crash earlier in the year and he lost his job at the coalmines due to budget cuts. T0 state it plain in simple, it was a bad year for Herald, a very bad year.

On the brink of depression, Herald had sat on his old couch in his lonely home for two whole days without moving. Late one night as Herald sat miserably on his couch he heard a loud knock on his door. Startled, Herald jumped from his couch. He never received visitors, especially late at night. He walked to the door and looked through a peak hole to see who was at his house. He didn’t see anyone. He opened the door and still no one was there. Baffled, he shut the door and walked back to his couch. Just as he was about to fall back to his couch, there was a banging on the door again. Now a little irritated, Herald ran back to the door to find what he thought would be a mischievous child playing a mean prank. When he opened the door, there was no sign of anyone.

“Hey! Down here!” yelled a voice.

Herald looked down on his porch to find a man standing on his porch no larger than four inches tall. He thought he was dreaming. “What? Who are you?” questioned Herald.

“I’m your guardian leprechaun,” promised the mini human on his porch, and I’m here to give you some luck after your not so lucky events this past year.”

“I don’t need your luck, this isn’t real. Please, leave me alone!” said Herald.

“Herald, I’m here to help! What can I do for you? Maybe treat you to some fine food and drink? Buy you a new house? Perhaps a new family??” said the leprechaun.

Herald was reluctant to his mischievous little guy, but decided to play along with his game. “How about you get me my job back at the mine,” said Herald.

“Deal! But there’s a catch, when you gather your coal, I get to grab as much as I can hold in one trip to cash it in for my own profit.”

“Sounds good to me!” laughed Herald.

Sure enough, the next day the coal miners found a whole new cave of coal and all the miners got their jobs back. Herald ran to the mine to gather as much coal as possible. After almost 12 hours in the mine, he came up with hundreds of pounds of coal in his barrel.

“Wow! Good job Herald, now as you promised me, let me take all the coal I can carry,” said the leprechaun. He put one piece after another in his pocket. Soon enough there was no more coal in his barrel.

“You fooled me!” shouted Herald.

“Sorry, it’s what I do,” said the leprechaun as he started to walk away. As we walked away his pants split and he lost all the coal. Herald pushed him out of the way and took it all back. He cashed it in for profit and lived freely and worked hard for the rest of his days.

The mischievous leprechaun.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In the original story, the Farmer of Liddesdale, the farmer has a bad year until a man comes to help his plow his farm. The worker fools the farmer and takes his corn. The thief ends of loosing all of the corn when his barrel breaks and then he vanishes. I wanted to create a similar story, but with a couple of twists. As a Celtic story, I wanted to bring in a leprechaun and make it more interesting, too!

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Title: More Celtic Fairy Tales

Author: Joseph Jacobs

Illustrations: John D. Batten

Year: 1895

Reading Diary B- More Celtic Stories

I thought the second half of this unit was even better then the first! I had a great time reading this one story about the Farmer of Liddesdale. It was just a simple and cool story about a farmer who had a bad year and received help form a random ploughman. Strange things happen, but the farmer is able to get his farm ploughed. The language is really different and sometimes hard to understand, but it helps give a Celtic feel. I'd recommend this reading to anyone!

The ploughman.