Week 1 Review

This was my favorite post in the announcements page because the squirrels at OU are crazy but I have always wanted to catch one.

Featured Storybook: Animal Tales From India to Oklahoma. You've all seen those squirrels on the OU campus, but there is one special squirrel in particular, a talking squirrel, who is eager to tell you the tales of his days in ancient India.

Tech Tips: Background and Font

At the end of the week I decided that I wanted to change the design of my blog. I did this by going to my blog website and then clicking on design in the top right hand corner. Under background there are any different options for a background which also changes the style of your posts. I have chosen a "garden" like background because I love to garden. I also changed the font of my header under advanced design.

Learning Challenges

H.E.A.R.T

The H.E.A.R.T concept is also newly introduced topic to me from this class. Although the concept of learning by H.E.A.R.T is not actually about the human heart, the picture below is what I imagined when viewing the title of this topic.

Real Heart
Source Wikimedia

H.E.A.R.T. stands for Health/ Happiness, Empathy, Attention, Reading, and Time Management. All of these topics are important in our lives. The first video given gave me a wide prospective of how much time I have in my life to spend doing things other then the necessities. The way the video is set up make the viewer feel as if they have wasted their time in life. One of the hardest things for anyone to do is manage the time they have in their lives. The second video gave insight to all the things we have given up because of procrastination and all the great ideas that could have been used if only we had not given up on them. This way of looking at things could change the way manage our time and our lives.

Introduction to Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset

This is the first time I have heard of the concept "Growth Mindset". After watching the videos provided I realize that it is a great tool for people to use to grow and be success. In this learning experience students are rewarded for their thought process as apposed to their results. When students are rewarded for results then they are taught they everything that they do should be easy and that is what is good. In this was of teaching there is no development or challenge. 

Growth VS Fixed Mindset
By: Jessica Ottewell Flickr

This mindset allows for students to accept and invite challenges because they know that the outcome will be more fulfilling if reached after a challenging process.

Storybook Favorites

When Love Confesses

The title of this story mainly caught my eye because I am a sucker for a good love story. When I clicked on the link I was drawn in to the style of picture put on the front page. It did not seem like the typical love story.

Rama and Sita at their Wedding. Source.

The introduction was a bit difficult for me to follow at first and one thing I did not like about the design of the page was that the title of the story did not show up on every page of the storybook so when I was switching tabs on my browser it was no always easy to find it. One thing I did like about the design was the simple of love inspiring background. I thought it fit the story well.

Here is the Storybook When Love Confesses

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The Royal Girls Room

What first made my click on this storybook link was the humorous name and the first picture once entering the link held up to my expectations. I am a big fan of the Amanda show in which this picture is from. I watched it as a kid all the time so I was interested in the story that could be behind it.

The Royal Girls' Room created using Pixlr

Source: Pixlr

I like the way the Storybook it set up and the easy navigation but I would not want to include such bright colors in my Storybook. It made the page somewhat hard to look at but overall looks like an interesting site to be on.

Here in the Storybook The Royal Girls Room

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Campfire Animal Tales 

The name of the Storybook spiked my interest because I enjoy the outdoors and animal I expected a combination of both from this story. The front picture was not incredibly interesting but it did fit with the title.

                                                                                  Campfire, Wikipedia, 2011

  Websource: Campfire   

It had a strong introduction and simple page organization. I liked the dark colors that went along with the theme.

Here is the Storybook Campfire Animal Tales

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Class Overview

I plan to read the second version of the Ramayana. The online availability of the second option was the main influence for the decision because I will be able to do the assignment anywhere with no need to go to the library. 

The image below interests me because of the story I think it might tell. But other than this picture most of the other content of the class was very foreign to me but I am excited to learn what I like.

Khandoba and Mhalsa

killing demons Mani-Malla

Lithograph by Ravi Varma Press

(Wikimedia)

Introduction to myself

 Hi my name is Sara Leonard and I am 21 years old.

 I am a junior at the University of Oklahoma majoring in accounting. My mother is an accountant who specializes in taxes but I never thought I would want to follow in her footsteps until after taking my first accounting class when I realized how much I enjoyed the way it worked especially because I am an organized person. Professor Wayne Thomas was also a contributing factor to my decision. He taught my financial accounting class and made it very enjoyable.

I come from a pretty big family. I have three older sisters and one younger brother and we are all four year apart from each other. One of the main reasons I love the University of Oklahoma is because all of my older sisters went here and would take me to campus when I was younger. I also have three nephews and one niece so it is always busy when I go home for the breaks.

A Recent Picture of my Family
Personal Image 

 I also have a dog named Chevy. He is a shiba inu which is a Japanese breed that looks kind of like a little fox. He is amazing around kids and rarely barks but his mannerisms are funny. He often acts like a cat. He will climb to the highest bench in the backyard and nap in the sun.

A Picture of Chevy and my niece, Emma Grace

Taken by myself

I enjoy anything outdoors and I love the beach. Every summer I go to Gulf Shores, Alabama with my family (which I mentioned in my Favorite Places post) and even this past winter break I went to Florida to visit my sister.

 I am also somewhat of an adrenaline junky. I love roller coasters.  For my eighteen birthday my dad took me to go bungee jumping at a place called zero gravity and then just last summer I went sky diving with my sister which is an indescribable feeling. 

Week 1 Storytelling: The Search for the Hidden Cabin

The Search for the Hidden Cabin 

Tom was always one for adventure so it was no surprise to Jenny when he asked her to go hiking through the woods to find a "hidden cabin" as he called it. Jenny and Tom's tenth anniversary was coming up on the 14th of November and Tom had been planning their getaway for weeks.  One of their favorite things to do together when they were dating was going hiking but because of their busy schedules they hadn’t gone in over five years. Tom worked at a law firm and had become one of the most sought lawyers for law suits dealing with property and Jenny was always on the go managing her owe party planning company called Let's Party. On the night before their anniversary Tom asked Jenny to help him find the hidden cabin and Jenny was overjoyed at the thought of taking a break from work and going hiking. Tom had thought everything out. He took of work and asked one of Jenny's managers to watch her shop, packed all of their clothes into hiking bags, prepared food, printed out a Google map of the land, and reserved the cabin for a whole week. The one thing Tom had not planned was the path they were going to take to get to the cabin. The man who rented out the cabin seemed very nice. He told them the beautiful view it had and the amazing wildlife but what he forgot to mention was that having the map he made was very important to their travels. 

This is the map Tom and Jenny should have gotten.

Holiday Home Map 

Tom Gauld Map

When the car stopped at the huge plot of land Jenny jumped out, put on her pack, and ran to the woods excited for the week ahead. Tom ran after her and as soon as he had caught up they found their first wild life sighting. It was a deer eating grass next to a patch of mushrooms. The deer moved from the grass to the mushrooms and as soon as t had taken a bite it fell down dead. The couple looked at it in shock and quickly ran away. Jenny concluded that the mushrooms must have been poisonous so they would have to be careful.  Tom gathered himself and pushed forward though the woods. Jenny screamed as they came across a glowing green squirrel. They watched as the five legged squirrel ran up a tree and then flew away. Jenny took off running away from the two strangest things she had ever seen when she ran into a wall. The wall of a haunted house. By this time Jenny had enough and didn’t want to go to the cabin anymore she marched in the other direction and Tom hesitantly followed and they never came back to holiday home in the woods ever again.

Cabin in the Woods

David Flickr

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Author's Note:

This story is based off of a picture of a map. Since it was a picture and not a story most of the content from this story was made by myself. The poison mushrooms (dead deer), nuclear site (green squirrel with five legs), and haunted house were all from the map and fairly close to each other.

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Bibliography:

This story is based off A Map of the Holiday Home provided by Tom Gauld

A postcard from his book Robots, Monsters etc., 2006

One of my Favorite Places

I have gone to Gulf Shores, Alabama with my family ever since I was little. The beach is well known around the world for its white sand. The beautiful view makes for an extremely relaxing vacation. 

Gulf Shores, Alabama

John Tuggle Flickr