Growth Mindset: Growth Beyond School

While being in school I have really only ever focused on the part of my growth actually relating to school. I haven't taken the time to think about how I am growing as a person outside of the classroom. I have gone from an eighteen year old with culture shock to a twenty two year old man in the blink of an eye. I have grown in my faith to God, and in my maturity over the past four years. Now, as far as I've come, I also realize that I have a looong way to go. I don't believe we can ever really stop growing as a person if we work at it. I think this growth is what we call wisdom. The only way to achieve this wisdom is through the passing of time. This way we can look back to what we once were and see the progress which we have made.

Scrabble Progress
Source

Backup and Review: Draco

Something I had never heard of was the root of the word Draconian. I knew that the word "dragon" came from draco, however I didn't know that this word came from the Greek lawgiver Draco, who was pretty severe. Crazy to think that a single person could be the cause of the creation of so much more.

Draco, a Greek Lawgiver
Source

Learning Challenge: Empathy

Empathy is a wondrous thing. It allows us to consciously place ourselves in someone else's position and see things from their point of view. In a way, we can feel what they feel. Now, we can't always know everything that's going on in their lives, or what past experiences could be contributing to the way they are feeling, but we can just try and understand the place they are coming from a little bit better. When you understand a person's motivations, fears, and feelings it is much harder to disregard them as a person. If everyone in the world showed a little more empathy, I believe we could make our world a truly better place.

Empathy
Source: Flickr

Tech Tip: Twitter Follow

This week I chose to do the "Twitter Follow" tech tip. In this, all we had to do was go to our twitter and find someone to follow who we were not previously. I chose to follow David Boren. There's nothing really funny on his timeline, which is usually the reason I follow someone, but I've respected David ever since I read his book A Letter to America. His Twitter probably won't be used as quite the outlet the younger generation uses it for, but hopefully it will still be helpful.

Wikipedia Trails: From Robin Hood to Anthony Munday

I started off on the Robin Hood page because I had just read about him. I was curious to find more information on his "merry men", so that's where I went next. This led me to Will Scarlet, who was apparently the most skilled swordsman of the group. I saw the name Anthony Munday and read up on this English playwright from the 1500s.

Reading Notes: Ballads of Robin Hood

The tale of how Robin met Little John has been told and retold, and every now and then changed to a humorous story. Reading this reminded me of "Robin Hood: Men In Tights" when Little John falls into the brook which may be four inches deep at most, and thinks that he's drowning. It's fun to read the original tale without any embellishment.

From The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child. Link to story

Robin Hood and Little John
Source

Reading Notes Part B: Tales of the Round Table

I've been interested in middle English writing ever since I read The Canterbury Tales in high school. The stories of King Arthur and his knights of the round table are just as great, if not better, in my opinion. The story of the White Knight and Sir Galahad was a little confusing. I wasn't sure if the White Knight was supposed to represent an angel or not, but it seemed that he was otherworldly because he told a knight that no earthly being should know his name. After telling Galahad he should wield the shield, he leaves. From there, Galahad returns to the Abbey and confronts some sort of fiend. However, the fiend can't attack him because it sees angels around him. I'm not sure if this is because Galahad is very pure, or the shield wields the power of angels. These stories are really inspiring me to write a story of knights.

Sir Lancelot and an unkown knight
Source: Wikipedia

Reading Notes Part A: Stories of King Arthur

Vivien sends Merlin underground
Source

One story in particular stood out to me from this unit. The Passing of Merlin is a very sad story. It details him falling so hopefully in love that it eventually kills him. Rather, the woman he loves kills him to be rid of him. I just think that it's so sad that we as humans have so many emotions that we can't control. A lot of the time, acting solely on emotions alone leads to one's undoing, as evidenced in the story. However, it's these experiences colored by emotions which we can't control which give events and situations in our lives special meanings.

From King Arthur: Stories of the Round Table by H.J. Ford
Link to story