Caitlyn's Corner

I have been super spacey about checking my email lately, so I have been messing up on do revisions on my portfolio for this class.  I somehow keep missing my emails from Laura about her feedback, so I bet she will appreciate the fact that I paid attention to this graphic from this week... Image source This week, the video that stuck out to me from the announcements was a TED Talk about The Power of Vulnerability.  It really spoke to me, because I have had several people tell me lately that I need to be more open and vulnerable sometimes, because I can be way too guarded.  It is something I need to work on and watching this video really helped me understand that.

I watched the Sprouts video Learning With Passion and Enthusiasm and really enjoyed it. It really makes a difference in how much you retain if you put a little passion into your learning. It is so much easier to handle a difficult class if you have passion and enthusiasm for the subject. I learned this a few years ago when I finally found a major that I enjoy. I am curious to see if I can find a bit of passion in my classes that I do not like the subject as much.

This past week was one filled with one crazy thing after another.  Monday, I went to the capitol in OKC and joined my old teachers, some fellow classmates, and my teacher friends in the Teacher Walkout.  This experience was one that I will never forget.  Monday, they had over 50,000 people at the capitol and we really thought the legislators would not be able to say no anymore.  As the week went by, our spirits fell a little with the news of returning to the schools with little to show of our efforts, but we can feel the change in the air that is coming. Wednesday and Thursday evenings, I was able to go up to Edmond and help finish making decorations with my brother and his fiance for their wedding on Saturday.  We shared many laughs and I definitely could feel some tears starting as I realized that my brother was about to get married. Friday morning brought the beginnings of one of the greatest weekends.  My brother's fiance, Aly, asked me and the rest...

For extra reading over this week and next week, I decided to do the  Beowulf Unit .  I actually read Beowulf my senior year of high school, but decided I wanted to reread it.  This story was actually one of my favorites from that year.  I think it was because it was one of the first stories that I went and did a lot of research over just for fun.  I was curious about the history of it: how old it was, translations, and anything else surrounding this epic. My favorite part from the first half is definitely The Wanderer's Song .  This is where we first learn of the torments from the monster Grendel.  I feel like this section is where we begin to feel excitement.  From the descriptions of the monster, you can tell the story is about to take off and become an exciting adventure. I really love how beautiful the language is in this translation.  The descriptions and imagery really help the reader feel like they are a part of the story.  Yo...

Image: Squirrel Alice was sitting in a hammock on campus while her lab partner tried to go over their chemistry homework.   Alice tried to pay attention, but science classes were never of any interest to her.   She found her thoughts drifting as the warm spring breeze blew threw the trees and made the hammock sway. As Alice began to think of anything other than chemistry homework, she noticed something darting between the trees.   A little squirrel wearing a little jacket and beanie.   Alice found nothing off about this until the squirrel looked at his wrist to check the time on his little watch.   This is when Alice began to wonder what a squirrel was doing with a watch and why it would need to know the time anyways.   The squirrel began to run off and went into a large hollow tree.   Alice decided to abandon the chemistry homework and followed the little squirrel into the tree. Alice stepped into the darkness through the hollowed-out tree...

Finishing up the reading for this week, I realized that I should have read this book ages ago.  I absolutely love the story and I really love Carroll's writing style.  I did a little Wiki Trail over this week's reading when I first started reading the book and found some interesting facts about Lewis Carroll and allusions to his real life in the book.  I am so glad I did that research before reading, because it was neat finding the characters in the book that had deeper meaning. The Mad Hatter by Sir John Tenniel My favorite part of the book was the chapter about A Mad Tea-Party.  All of the characters in Carroll's book are so colorful, but none compare to the Mad Hatter and his party.  I just love how ridiculous everything is and I kept picturing the animated characters from Disney's version.  I think for a story this week, it would be fun to do something with the tea party.  Either rewriting the characters into a different setting or creati...

For this week's reading, I decided to check out the  Alice in Wonderland Unit  from  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865).  This story has always been a favorite of mine growing up.  The Disney movie will always hold a special place in my heart.  I'm fairly certain I have seen it upwards of 100 times over the years.  Despite loving the story so much, I have never actually read Carroll's book.  When I saw it listed as an option for reading this week, I immediately started reading it.  While reading it, I became very curious about where Carroll got his ideas for the characters.  I ended up having a very long Wikipedia Trail over different facts in the book. I talked about a few of these articles in my Wiki Trails post this week. It is rumored that he based Alice off of a daughter of a family he befriended , but many think the book was simply dedicated to her.  I learned that the Dodo is supposed to be based off o...

For the Learning by HEART Challenge this week, I decided to check out the article in the I Wish My Teacher Knew page.  What Kids Wish Their Teachers Knew  talks about a teacher that had her students anonymously write down something they with that she knew about them.  She ended up getting responses that ranged from kids wanting her to know they want to learn more history to finding out that some of her kids struggle with having a place to sleep at night.  I thought that this was an incredible idea.  It is important to know what your students are dealing with.  Sometimes there is more to that kid that always hands in his homework late and if you understand about his home life, you realize he would be your best student if he wasn't having to work two jobs already as a high school student.  I think that I will do something like what this teacher did when I start working as a teacher.  I know some of my teacher friends already do something like t...

For this week's reading, I focused on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland .  As I started the reading, I remembered hearing that  Lewis Carroll  was a mathematician, as well as a writer.  So, I decided to begin a chase down the Wikipedia rabbit hole. After reading the article on Carroll, I learned that he befriended the Liddell family shortly before writing his famous stories about Alice and her times in Wonderland.  Some argue that  Alice Liddell  was his inspiration for the stories, but others disagree.  I decided check out the article on this Alice to learn more about her.  In this article, I learned that Alice found herself basically broke after her husband's death and resorted to selling the manuscript copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It sold for much more than Sotheby's had appraised it for.  I had heard the name Sotheby's many times before, but never really knew much about it.  In the article about Sotheby's, I learned...

I decided to make my profile visible on my blog.  You can see it in the side bar on the left side (when using desktop view).  When you click the link to my profile, you can learn a little more about me.  It shows some personal stuff like where I am from, what town I live in now, and a recent(ish) picture of me.  I decided to add this so that readers can get a better sense of me.  Often, I feel like online blogs and such are very hard to make a personal connection with.  How do you relate to someone you only know through words on a screen?  I hope adding a little more about me helps people have an easier time feeling like they are reading from a real person.