Extra Credit Reading The Monkey Bridge

The Monkey Bridge by Noor Inayat
I really enjoyed reading this story. The writing of it was beautiful and very easy to read, it flowed like a story should. I like the idea of this story better then the last two, especially if it is being targeted for children. In this story a worried king tells his followers to not let the beautiful fruit from their tree fall into the water of the river. If a piece falls it will travel down the mountain and into the village with the humans. The humans will then want to find the tree and steal all of the fruit. Not only did this exact thing happen but when the humans found the tree and saw the monkeys living in it, they waited around until daylight to kill all of them. They wanted to kill the monkeys for meat and then take the beautiful ripe fruit with them. The king of the monkeys saw the fear of his followers and new action had to be taken. All the other trees were to far to get to so all of the monkeys were stuck. The king leaped as far as he could and made it to another tree where he tied a rope to his foot. He then jumped back across to the tree with his followers but the rope was a little short. The king had to stretch his body to make the rope long enough and his followers ran across his back, onto the rope, and into the forest. The strength of his back gave out and eventually broke after the last monkey crossed safely. The human king at the bottom of the tree saw the generosity of the monkey king and treated him as kindly before he died. The monkey king with his last couple breaths explained to the human king that he was willing to die for his followers and that he should learn from him. He also explained he should lead by love, as if all of the followers were his children. I think this story teaches a lot about what being a leader is about, some notes others can take from this story. 

                                 (Golden Gate Bridge: Image from Wikimedia Commons)

Reading Notes Crab and Crane

The Crab and the Crane by Ellen C. Babbit

               This story, I also think, is meant to be a children’s book. Although, I don’t think it is a very nice read for children and I do not agree with its message. In the story there is a pond with very little water because of lack of rain and over consumption from other animals. In that pond lived many fish that were beginning to struggle because there was no water in their pond. The crane showed compassion to the fish, or at least that’s what they thought, and offered to take the fish to a new pond that had lots of water. At first the fish were hesitant because they thought the fish would just eat them all but the crane took one of the fishes to check out the new pond and when they came back the fish told the others that the pond was great and full of water. So, all the fish trusted the crane to take them to the pond one by one but instead he took them to a different place and ate them one by one. Eventually all the fish were gone and the crane became hungry again. He saw a crab by the pond where the fish once lived and he decided to play his game again. He told the crab there was a pond in a different place he could take him to with more water and food. The crab agreed to go and check it out, but the only way the crab could travel was to hold onto the cranes neck very tightly with is sharp claw. The crane took the crab to the place where he ate the fish instead of the pond where he promised. The crane said he was going to eat the crab and leave his shell with the fish bones but the crab still had a hold of his neck. The crab then killed the crane to avoid being eaten. I think this lesson teaches kids that even though you are smart and ask the right questions you still can trust people which I don’t think this should be taught to the young, no matter how true it is. I also don’t think that teaching the lesson that you should kill the problem instead of fixing it should be taught to the young.       

                                              (Crab: Image from Wikimedia Commons)

Reading Notes The Ox

                                                             (Ox:Wikimedia Commons)

THE OX WHO WON THE FORFEIT by Ellen C. Babbit

The story of the ox that pulled the 100 carts was interesting. It seems that it was written as a children’s story because it teaches the fundamental act of treating someone nicely.  It was very easy to read with not very difficult wording or sentence structure. In the story an owner owns an ox that he enjoys telling all of the other people in town about. The owner loves his ox but mostly for his strength and never seems stop talking about it. He is always very kind to his ox and feeds him well so he can remain strong. One day while in town he began to gloat about the strength of his ox and bet that his ox could pull 100 carts. The gentlemen accepted the bet because they thought the ox could never pull 100 carts. The owner brought his ox out the next day to prove to the others how truly strong his ox was, and to collect his money. They tied the ox to the first cart with 99 following and the owner began to whip and yell at the ox. To the owners surprise the ox did not move even though he knew the ox could and the owner lost the bet. Once they were home the owner was very upset and asked the ox why he did not pull the carts. The ox responded by saying he did not like the way his owner was speaking to him and that he did not like being whipped. The owner apologized and said it would never happen again and the ox trusted him and forgave him. The next day the ox went to town and pulled the 100 carts to win the bet for his owner. I think this story is told in this way to teach kids its not okay to bully someone to get what you want. And if you need something to ask for it and not force it.      

Famous Last Words: Survive the last month

                                                   (Graduation: Wikimedia Commons)

This week was a bit more hectic then other weeks. I had a large project due in another class and I only had time to do one of the readings this week. Although the reading I did do I enjoyed. I like reading the stories about the epic we just finished by other authors. It makes the idea that the epic resonates with everyone a bit differently so real. Surprisingly I think my best writing this week came from one of the extra credit assignments. It was the HEART extra credit assignment, I wrote about being successful and what that means. Success means a lot of things to different people and its not about how society defines it, it is about how you define it for yourself. My other classes are getting pretty difficult and are moving very quickly. I just got into my number one choice of graduate schools, The University of Michigan, so focusing on school is getting harder and harder. I have one exam the week we get back from spring break and two the following week so life is very stressful right now. Although I am very excited to graduate, I picked up my cap and gown this past week and it made everything a bit more real. I am a bit scared to move to another new place where I have no family or friends just like I did 4 years ago. However, I know that if I can do it once I can do it again. Also, what is keeping my mind at ease is that moving to Oklahoma brought me so many memories and lessons and I know moving to Michigan will do the same. I just better remember to pack some warm jackets. For next week I hope to do well on exams, get ahead in this class, and get some sleep!   

Learning Challenge "Success"

                                            (Dictionary: Image from Wikimedia Commons)

This week I read an article titled The 9 Principles That People Who Feel Successful Say They Live By by Bill Connolly.

This article talks about redefining what success means since the word and society are constantly changing. I agree with the author when he says that success is a abstract concept that means different things to different people. Since the author and most of society today does not accept what success used to mean they completely redefined it. However, since success means different things to different people I decided to explain why the old way can still be used today!

The dictionary defines success as “the attainment of wealth, position, honors or the like.” The author states that like the old version of success this is also societies norm today. The author says that this is a bad thing but what if it was not? Its all about how you interpret the words, sometimes not everything is meant to be taken literal.

Wealth is being assumed to mean money, therefore if you have money you are successful. However wealth does not have to mean money. One can be wealthy of friends, family, food, or more importantly you can be wealthy of time. Time is something most of us with we had more of so why cant a persons wealth be measured by the time they have to do the things they want to do.

Next is position, this is assuming that a person must have a high position in their career to be successful. However why cant position be defined as mother, father, brother, sister, friend, volunteer, etc. A position is a spot in which you put yourself in that can make you happy, it does not have to mean to be in a spot to earn the most about of money. It can also mean a position to earn the most wealth like the examples above.

Last is honors or rewards, this is also assumed to mean a person who receives praise from a superior. Why does it need to mean something negative. To be honored is a positive thing. Someone can be honored to buy you lunch, someone can be honored to be called a grandmother. Someone could be honored to wake up every morning. Honors and rewards dont have to be pieces of paper with your name on it or a sum of money.

Like I said earlier I agree with the statement that success is an abstract idea and difficult to define. However I do not agree with the idea of having to through out the whole idea of success because based of the first read of the definition it sounds like it is all about money and greed. Not all of us in society are searching for money or power, most of us want the same things. Success is but a word and everyone can interpret it for themselves. So I challenge people to not redefine the word and its dictionary meaning but to find out what success means for you. Dont get all hung up on the words and what society thinks.         

Growth Mindset with my Mom

                                                 (Growth Mindset: Image from Pinterest)


This week I shared the Growth Mindset concept with my mother who is an elementary teacher in Southern California. After I had finished sharing what the concept was and a few of my thoughts about it she responded. She had already known about the concept for a while now, but her and the other teachers in the area did not call it that specifically. She said she had learned about it at a teaching conference she went to a while back and since then her and the other teachers at the school have tried to implement it as much as they can. She said the teachers continue to push the students and at the own level. Each student receives classwork based on what level they are at so they are always being challenged. 

Tech Tip Canvas Mobile App

Prior to this tech tip I already had the canvas app downloaded! I will start by saying I use this app on a daily basis, it is really handy and easy to use. I found it very easy to download as well. I just downloaded it from the app store like any other app and then logged into it with my 4x4. I use it often to check a grade that was posted that I cant wait to see if I don’t have my laptop with me. I also check due dates with it as well. When I am in a hurry or forgot to do an assignment on the app like a quiz, I can also use it for that! The only thing I wished it did was tell me the class average but it will only show the grade you got.

                                            (iPhone: Image from Wikimedia Commons)