Feedback Thoughts: Learning About Positive Assessment

I think more professors and teachers need to be more feedback positive and less grade negative. So much pressure is forced onto kids at such a young age to be perfect and it doesn't lead to any successful impacts. The first article that caught my attention was Why rejection hurts so much - and what to do about it. As I learned, the part of the brain that registers rejection is also the area that gives use the experience of physical pain. The best way to deal with rejection is the increase your self-worth, avoid self-criticism, and to boost feelings of social connection. As social animals, we want to be accepted by our society, so we often rely on those opinions of people surrounding us. I hope to take these lessons and work on my own ability to process rejection and to have a better sense of self-worth.
The next article I read was Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head and I found it very informing. The most important area of this article was the four step plan into how to ignore negativity and increase productivity. These steps are look for the positive, hear the positive, dig in to understand the positive, and to believe the positive and act as if it were true. It follows the story of Rajeev, an executive vice president for a billion-dollar business. As he focused more on the negative effects of the job, he lost control of his mind. It became more negative and lead to decreased work productivity, so these four steps turned that negativity around.
I find that positive feedback is essential in mental health and stability. Increasing your productivity and work ethic, these more positive mind growth tools can help in the work place and at home. All ways of life are increasingly productive with positive feedback.


(Feedback: pixabay)

Topic Brainstorm: Making a Storybook

Project Idea I: For my first idea, I wanted to do a storybook about the different love stories within the Indian Epics realm. I have always been drawn towards love stories, from books to movies, they are always so beautiful in their own way. I would base the stories around another famous romantic relationship, although I haven't decided which one. Similar to How I Met Your Mother, I would use a famous story to integrate into the Indian Epic. I have seen many shows and movies and read many books about love stories, so I think I could be very good at it.

Project Idea II: Another idea I thought of was to write a story about Trijata, a demoness who is given the job of guarding the kidnapped princess Sita. I am interested in her power and strength. I would write a series of stories about her from the viewpoint of her life. For every story, it would be in the eyes of her thoughts throughout all the stories. I would like to learn more about her life throughout these stores.

Project Idea III: My third idea is about the elephants of the Himalayas. I have always loved elephants and their elegance. They represent so much majesty in Indian culture. As a sacred animal, they represent intellectual and mental strength. I would write these stories from the viewpoint of an animal activist hoping to bring awareness of elephants against poachers killing elephants for their tusk. I want to learn more about elephants through this research and storytelling.

Project Idea IV: My final idea is the write about Devi, a powerful goddess in Hinduism. I want to learn more about her story and everything she represents. I am drawn to the idea of a powerful feminine figure. I could retell her story through the eyes of a modern day women living in the city. I think retelling these stories in modern day times could bring more attention to these stories.


(Indian Epics: wikimedia)

Week 2 Story: Parks and Recreation

This story is about based off the story The Monkey Who Gathered Lotuses. I changed a good majority of the story, but stayed to the same morals and lessons of the original. Brahmadatta became Ron Swanson and Bodhisatta became Leslie Knope. Their kingdom was altered into the Pawnee Indiana Parks and Recreation Department. The self-absorbed "king", Ron, was eventually over ruled by "the son", Leslie Knope.

The Source: "The Monkey Who Gathered Lotuses" by Tayodhamma Jataka in The Jataka: Volume 1


Parks and Recreation 

It was a typical Tuesday afternoon at the Pawnee Indiana Parks Department. Ron Swanson was overlooking his department, as director of the Parks and Recreation Department. Ron was fearful of a subordinate that would overpower his directorship one day, so he used his fear tactics to deter anyone from overpowering him. As an avid outdoorsman, Ron was skilled at all typical masculine activities. He would even describe himself as a mans-man. All was going well, until one day a bright eyed woman named Leslie Knope walked in. As Deputy Director of the Parks and Recreation Department, Leslie Knope has so many dreams about future government opportunities and the entire city of Pawnee. Ron Swanson didn't like this new Deputy Director who challenged everything he stood for. Leslie began to question Ron and the decisions he was making for the department. Leslie noticed abnormalities that Ron said would help the department, but actually did not. As Leslie became more and more suspicious, Ron caught wind of these doubts. Ron had to come up with a plan to get Leslie fired in order to protect his job as Director of the department. So Ron began planning, and had a seemingly brilliant idea. Ron remembered the creepy guy named Joe in the sewage department that he could rely on to trap Leslie in a scandal that would ruin her political career. So Ron sent Leslie to the sewage department to "talk" to Joe about issues with the public restrooms in the park. Joe began to be very creepy with Leslie, and instead of falling for Joe and Ron's plan for entrapment, Leslie reported Joe's antics to the Mayor. Leslie returned back to her department and realized that Ron had set her up. The Mayor was informed on this action and Ron was fired in a fit of fury. Leslie Knope was promoted to Director of the Parks and Recreation Department, and all was well in the small town of Pawnee Indiana.
 
(Parks and Recreation: flickr)

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

One story that caught my attention was The Monkey Who Gathered Lotuses. Written by Tayodhamma Jataka and translated by Robert Chalmers, this story speaks about a king of a tribe of monkeys, Brahmadatta. As the sole king of Benares, Devadatta controlled an area of the Himalayas. Brahmadatta would castrate his male offspring with his teeth in the fear of one of them challenging his kingship. Buddha was then born as a monkey, Bodhisatta, and was a son of the king. His mother ran away while pregnant to protect him from the king. Bodhisatta had spectacular strength and became curious about his father. Bodhisatta's mother took him to see his father after he was persistent on seeing him. The king was instantly threatened by his son and wrapped him in a warm embrace. The son, as strong as he was, returned to hug and squeezed so hard the father's ribs broke. The father knew his son would eventually grow to kill him, so he tried to figure out how to kill the Bodhisatta first. The father knew of a vicious ogre that lived nearby, so he sent his son there to pick lotuses of a variety of colors. Bodhisatta realized as he approached the lake that an ogre haunted it, so he decided he was going to pick the lotuses without going in the lake. He leaped across the lake with all his strength and plucked two flowers as he crossed over. The ogre in shock of his power, came out of the lake and claimed the Bodhisatta had the ability to conquer all enemies. The ogre respected Bodhisatta greatly so he said offered to carry the flowers for him. At the sight of this, the father shattered into seven pieces. This story was greatly informative and many lessons were learned throughout.

(Lotuses: Wikimedia)

Week 2 Reading Overview

For my future readings, I chose to read the public domain edition: Ramayana. The first thing that caught my eye was that it is free, which tends to attract most people. As I read more about the two different versions, I discovered more reasons why I personally would benefit from the public domain edition. I am a visual learner, so since these readings have lots of illustrations, I was instantly attracted. The first comic book that caught my attention is Ganga. I have always been fascinated with rivers and oceans and all things water, so a story set in the sea seems very interesting to me. The other comic book I would like to read is Rama. The whole story of Rama seems very interesting to me due to all the drama that surrounds his life. My absolute favorite video was the Symbols of Divinity. Seeing what the lotus, linga, and other symbols represent for different divinities is something that I find really fascinating as these types of symbols really vary from culture to culture. The next video I loved was Indian and Greek Mythological Parallels  because I have always been in love with Greek Mythology. Ever since a young age, I have read about Greek gods and goddesses and can name a good majority of them, so seeing the similarities between Indian and Greek Mythology was really cool.
 
(Ganga: Wikimedia)
My favorite image is picturing Ganga, since I realized earlier how interested I am in her story and origin of the sea.