Mythology and Folklore Storybook Topics

1. Possible Topic :  Animals. I am an avid animal lover so I think a storybook with animals or an animal as the topic would be interesting for me and enjoyable to create. I like the idea of using a frametale with animals as the storytellers, such as Tales of a Parrot, where a parrot tells the story. After going through the topic list, I think I would want to focus on a "real" animal, and not a mythological one.
Research : After researching through past projects, the un-textbook, and other online sources, I found of a lot of good information and research. The past project, Old Cat + New Puppy + Aesop's Fables = Life Lessons, has a cat as a frame-teller and the author retold/re-wrote a story from Aesop's Fables from the cat's perspective. I enjoyed this approach while still incorporating original work from Aesop's Fables. I liked a bunch of images from Winter's Aesop such as the picture below because they provide an accurate illustration that helps you imagine the story in your head. 

Winter's Aesop 

2. Possible Topic : Fairy Tales. This topic caught my attention because who doesn't like a good fairy tale? I agree with what I read on the topic page  and want to defiantly steer away from Disney and maybe try to expand my horizon and think of some different fairy tales to retell or use as the basis of my storybook. I ran across the The Ugly Duckling from Andrew Lang's Fairy Books and am familiar with the story but was more importantly intrigued with the meaning behind the story.
Research : I looked further into the fairy tale on wikipedia and found that there might have been some other motivation to the story. Instead of using this story as a metaphor for inner beauty, it is speculated that it can also be a metaphor for secret royal linage. I found that interesting and possibly fun to use other morals, themes, adaptations, and metaphors to retell the story. Maybe in current day situation?

3. Possible Topic : Nursery Rythmes. Nursery rhythms are shorter than fairy tales and could be an advantage to myself to expand on an idea and use my imagination without any limitation. Some nursery rhythms are hard for me to interpret so I had to do some research to understand the basics and plot summaries. I feel since the rhythms are so short, there is a lack of detail, so the interpretation I could take on the nursery rhythms have endless opportunities and no limits. 
Research : . I looked as some past storybooks about nursery rhythms from last semester and loved the creativity and interpretation they took. There was only 2 storybooks that had nursery rhythms as their topics. Both were based off of The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fisher Wright. There are endless amount of nursery rhythms in The Real Mother Goose and I feel like I could intertwine some of these rhythms together with the same character or using individual stories that happen to affect the next story in the book.

4. Possible Topic : Urban Legends. The title "urban legends" caught my attention instantly. I expected a lot of the topics on the topics list to be very ancient, and traditional. But in fact, a lot of topics included football, love, college life, marriage, animals, food, and so on. Football would be a very fun topic because I love the sport and have so many personal experiences with Football since I have front row tickets every game;) (hence being a cheerleader).
Research : I found so many topics on snopes.com that were so interesting. For example, the Food topic had so many interesting urban myths about foods such as Walmart great value ice cream not melting and how the Chinese are raising St. Barnards for food . I was actually so sad about the St. Barnards myth turing out to be true.

Storytelling Week 2 : Jealously Never Wins XOXO

Jealously Never Wins
XOXO

At the final summer hooray before the fall school year begun, Blair Waldorf held the annual back to school bash at her house in The Hamptons. Blair was the most popular girl at Upper East Side High and everyone worshiped the queen bee. In order for her party to be a hit, like usual, Blair asked her talented and glamourous cousin, Lauren, to provide entertainment for the night. Her voice was beautiful and her music was hip. Everyone was satisfied and elated with Blair's selection.

All of Blair's friends could not stop admiring Lauren and were so ecstatic that Blair let her upper-east side friends meet her cousin. All except one, Ashely. Ashley had always had the lead role in musicals in school, become appointed president of the choir club, and took voice lessons weekly with an elite voice coach. Ashley was envious of all the praise that Blair and her friends were showering Lauren with. Ashely had always wanted to win Blair over. She craved to have a friend as popular, trendy, and powerful as Blair. Impressing Blair would ensure that Ashely's senior year would be off to fabulous start and maybe she could finally sit on the front steps for lunch with the rest of Blair's posse.

Ashley was sure that she could sing and provide entertainment as good as or even better than Ashely. She climbed gracefully and effortlessly onto the stage and started to sing one of her personally written songs, one that no one has ever heard before. In fact, Ashely had never let anyone hear her sing before. 

Confused and surprised, Blair and her Lauren obsessed posse turned around to see Ashley all alone up on stage, belting emotional and personal lyrics out. Desperate for some positive or enthusiastic crowd response, Ashely began to panic. She started to stutter her lyrics and stood there completely silent. Her mind fell blank and she could not recover or improvise as a natural stage performer would.  

The party fell silent. All that could be heard where whispers to one another commenting on the embarrassing and humiliating situation Ashely just put herself in. "Let's leave the entertaining to a someone who knows what they are doing, and someone who doesn't eat lunch in the hallway,"Blair snickered. The upper-east students burst out into contagious laughter and turned away from Ashely to finish their scandalous and immature conversations.  

Embarrassed and mortified, Ashley ran off the stage almost as fast as she convinced Blair that she was not worthy. Maybe she learned her lesson and won't try to imitate her betters.

Author's Note :I chose to re-tell the story of the Monkey and the Camel in a modern and more relatable way. In the original story, a monkey was chosen to dance for the king and a camel became envious from all the praise the dancing monkey was receiving. The camel then attempted to imitate the monkey and dance at the party in order to hopefully engage the audience and draw attention to himself. The camel's feet got tangled and he fell face first in front of everyone. Disgusted with this jealous animal, the rest of the party decided to eat his ribs and meat afterwards. I wanted to express the theme "Don't try to ape your betters" in a Gossip Girl setting because I am obsessed with the show! Blair, her house in The Hampton's, her glamorous parties, and her upper-east side friends are all a part of the original TV series. I introduced Lauren and Ashely as new characters, taking the place of  the Monkey and the Camel. Instead of dancing, I changed the act of entertainment to singing. I wanted readers to be able to understand the theme of "don't try to ape your betters" and the theme of jealousy. 

Gossip Girl (Image by Sarina Rose)

Bibliography : The story The Monkey and the Camel came from the Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter book. (1919). 

Week 2 Reading Diary : Aesop For Children (Winter) Continued

Here are some other stories from Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter that I enjoyed and took some notes over for my second half of my Reading Diary.


The Fox and the Leopard
I enjoyed this story because it had a great message about how looks are beauty do not always indicate that someone is kind, friendly, sweet, intelligent, or posses positive qualities. This would be another fun story to re-tell in the storytelling section of this class.
"A fine coat is not always an indication of an attractive mind."

The Wolf and the Shepard
This story was short and easy to understand. I enjoyed that the author didn't use a long introduction or take forever to introduce characters, the scene, the plot, the problems, and the resolution.

The Wolf and the Shepard

The Mouse and the Weasel
I am fascinated to see each story in this unit have different animals that interact with an unexpected animal. A weasel would have never crossed my mind if I was brainstorming for possible animals for characters. It could potentially be a strategy to pick an animal based off of its symbolic meaning. I looked up both animals to see if there was any symbolic meaning behind the two, and it was interesting because weasels usually hunt mice. In the story, the weasel did not kill the mouse, instead left him to suffer from eating too much. Interesting...

Mercury and the Woodman
I loved this story! I loved how cleverly the theme "honesty is the best policy" was narrated naturally in the story without trying to hard. Easy to follow, and a happy ending. You can't help but smile for the Woodman who got his axe back. Interesting to have a god appear in the story when this unit isn't focused on greek gods or goddesses. A "guest appearance" or a "character crossover" might be an interesting thing to add. Definitely keeps the audience surprised.

Week 2 Reading Diary : Aesop For Children (Winter)

I choose some of my favorite stories from Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter, and described some of the things I liked or paid close attention too.

The Oxen and the Wheels 
I loved this story and the theme behind it. I thought it was very interesting that the author made wheels, a non-human object, a huge character role in the story. This story could have been easily told using two "typical" characters, but instead the characters were stretched to animals and objects.

The Plane Tree
This story had an awesome message behind it, "our best blessings are often the least appreciated." I thought the message was very true and I also thought that the way it was portrayed was very interesting. The story had a good use of descriptive words and instead of saying a hot afternoon, the author used "walking in the noonday sun."  To describe the tree, I liked how the author used the phrase "sought the shade of a wide spreading tree to rest" to describe the appearance of the tree.

The Monkey and the Camel
 I loved this story. It is so true about real life. People become envious so easily and so quickly. I could see myself having fun re-telling this story in a high-school setting.

The Envious Camel

The Dog and His Master's Dinner
I felt bad for the dog when he was stopped by the pack of dogs. How could you outrun them when you are cornered you and you couldn't get away from them? I felt sympathy for the poor and faithful pup!


The Dogs and the Hides
I thought this story was going to be different then what actually happened. I had no idea the dogs were going to burst from drinking water. I had to laugh, it was sad but very funny. Stories with amusement and hilarity are often the best.

Learning Challenges

In all of the HEART areas, I found that Happiness/Health and Attention were the topics that interested me the most. I have actually been working on all of these areas in my life but am a little unsure how to really make a change, difference, or become more invested positively in these areas. After browsing the Learning by HEART website, I stumbled upon a few challenges that I would like to try this semester.

Happiness/Health : I would like to try the happiness jar for a week or two to see how it goes. I think that remembering the positive and happy things (little or big) can help keep your mind in an encouraging state. Also, it would be rewarding to look back and read all the happy moments over time.

Attention : I have practice mindfulness before and gave up because I believed that I wasn't very good at it. I would like to try mindfulness again and start to incorporate meditation into my daily life. I have done a little bit of mindfulness before bed when I am anxious and can't sleep, but I give up too quickly. I would like to improve this area of my life.

Staying Focused

Growth Mindset

  

I had never heard of the growth mindset before until this class. After watching the videos, I became very interested in the growth mindset and was eager to learn more. 

I can relate personally to the growth mindset. I am a perfectionist, always trying to make everything I do in cheer, school, relationships, and every aspect of my life correct and perfect.  My biggest challenges in learning new things is not learning the material and understanding it fully, but instead being able to regurgitate it perfectly and correctly to get the best grade possible. I struggle with anxiety and knowing that I didn't complete or do something flawlessly, makes me very nervous and worried.

The growth mindset videos allowed me to realize that challenges and failure is okay. Challenges should be exciting and something I should want to do in order to broaden my mind, experiences, and opportunities.  Last semester, I got mostly B's and one A. I was crushed that my perfect 4.0 was ruined. Instead, after a lot of convincing from friends and family, I learned to except it. My classes were all upper division and challenging and to do absolutely perfect in all of them AND maintaining a social life, being an OU cheerleader, and taking care of myself mentally and emotionally was something so unrealistic and far fetched. 

I am much happier knowing that life is a journey, not a destination. You will never be completely satisfied and should never try to be perfect. Life is continuous and so are the challenges that it brings. Being able to get through life and challenges is way more rewarding that perfecting every detail on the way.

I definitely want to learn more about the growth mindset and apply different growth mindset challenges throughout the rest of the semester. I think learning more about the growth mindset could help me not work in just this class, but other classes and cheer as well. 

Embrace Challenges 

My Storybook Favorites

Bedtime in Oz. This storybook caught my attention right off the back because of the word "Oz". I love the Wizard of Oz and frequently played the role of the Lion in many different childhood plays. I thought that the author did a great job of coming up with creative titles for chapters/sections such as Toto's Tellings and The Scarecrow's Story. Each different story is about a different character telling their personal experience of the road to Oz. I loved this idea and have been brainstorming about creating a storybook using a similar angle on a famous story, movie, or show. I also thought the photo of Toto on the Toto's Tellings story was very cute and allowed me to imagine cute little Toto actually telling the story himself.

Yellow Brick Road

Another storybook that caught my attention was the Happily Ever After? A Prince's Perspective . Each story was about a different Disney story and what happened to the prince and princess afterwards, years later. Once again, I enjoy taking a classic story or movie and rewriting it, changing the viewpoint or perspective in which it is told. I also liked that the author elaborated and made the stories of the storybook modern day. The different princes' stories made the book easy to follow and easy to understand. 

Lastly, I also enjoyed  E! True Hollywood Story: Women of the Bible. I liked how the author turned Bible Women into a celebrity gossip show in the form of a storybook. The storybook had a consistent and identical structure to how hosts speak on E! True Hollywood Stories I enjoyed the modern day twist and also the title also grabbed my attention because the show E! is very familiar to me. The author had an image on each story's page which allowed me to make each story more realistic and made me imagine the E! drama as if I was watching it on TV. 

Un- Textbook Overview

After browsing the different units in the Un-Textbook, I have decided that I want to read the Bible Women for my Week 2 reading and Alice in Wonderland for my Week 3 reading.

Bible Women. I have always have had a strong Christian faith growing up and I think I would enjoy the readings and understand them better. I also find details about the Bible and aspects of Christianity very intriguing and would love to learn more and dig further into the content.

 Alice in Wonderland. I loved the Disney version growing up and am very familiar with all different story versions of Alice in Wonderland. It will be very interesting to read different stories about Alice in Wonderland in the Un-Textbook. I have always been a big fan of Disney and this unit immediately caught my eye.

A Mad Tea Party (illustration by Sir John Tenniel)

Some other units I found interesting and perhaps possibilities for future readings include Nursery Rhythms and Cupid and Psych.

Nursery Rhymes . I am such a kid at heart and can relate to a lot of the nursery rhymes described in this unit. It is rather fun to go back and digest something that you once did when you were young.

Cupid and Psych. I learned about Greek Gods and Goddess in sixth grade and am a love story fanatic. I really enjoy romance stories and I think the love story of Cupid and Psych will be very fascinating.

Introduction to an OU Cheerleader

Hi! My name is Bailey Farmer and I am a junior at OU. I am an advertising major and also minoring in health and exercise minor and Spanish.

I was born in California and moved to Southlake, Texas when I was 3. Southlake is a suburb, 30 minutes outside of Dallas and Fort Worth. I enjoy being in the middle of these two awesome cities and only 10 minutes away from the DFW Airport. Southlake is a such a beautiful city family oriented community.

Gameday in Norman, OK (taken November 2014)

I am also a third-year on the OU All-Girl cheerleading team. I have been cheering since I was 9 and my love and passion for the sport hasn't changed at all over the years. I remember how ecstatic I was when I made the team at the end of my senior year of highs school. I struggle with ankle issues from multiple previous injuries, overuse, and the excess pounding and stress that cheer puts on my body. Regardless of the pain, I am so blessed to be able to do what I love for my university and so thankful for all the opportunities this team as to offer. I am also so lucky to be able to share this experience and cheer with my best friends.

In high school, besides cheerleading, I was very involved in track. I ran the 400 meters and 4x4 relay. I had to give track up in college in order to cheer. I still run everyday, reliving my glory days at the OU track. I also am avid workout fanatic and love to be active.

Bid Day 2015 (Taken August 2015)

I am an active member of the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma. I am very thankful for my sisters, pledge class, and to be a part of a chapter that shares my beliefs, goals, and morals.

Bid Day 2014 (Taken August 2014)

I love to cook. My mom and her mom are both excellent cooks. Growing up, I always aspired to cook as well as they both do so I decided to teach myself how to cook when I moved into my house last May. It has become something I look forward to doing everyday.

When I'm not cooking, I enjoy eating Mexican Food at Mi Cocina or enjoying a nice steak at Bob's Steakhouse. I have recently discovered that I like sushi and have been trying new things on the menu each time I'm at a sushi restaurant. However, my absolute favorite food in the entire world is chocolate and peanut butter. I could not think of a more perfect combination of foods. I love sweets and desserts in any way, shape, or form. Chocolate is my weakness.

My family is the most important thing in my life. I love going home to visit them and I love that they come up very frequently to watch me cheer. We enjoy traveling to different countries for vacations and spending time together. My sister, Keaton, is a freshman at TCU and my brother, Jordan, works and lives in St. Louis. 

Farmer Family (Taken May 2015)

Jackson being Photogenic (Taken October 2015)

Jackson is my pride and joy, and the family pet. He is a miniature schnauzer and is 15 years old. He is  and old soul but is in such great shape due to the exercise, special food, and love and affection that we give him.

Jackson with Christmas Socks (Taken December 2014)

I am also very close with my extended family. We have traditions each year including summer vacations to Beaver Lake, Thanksgiving spent in Dallas or Chicago, and Christmas spent with all 50 members in Kansas. 

Christmas in Kansas  (Taken December 2015)

Thanksgiving @ Beaver Lake (Taken November 2015)

Lastly, I enjoy going to the beach, wake boarding, snow skiing, bing watching on Netflix (I recently discovered Gossip Girl and am obsessed), eating chocolate, and taking long naps. 

I am very excited for another semester at OU and can't believe I am already over half way done with college!!!

Image information : All personal images from personal camera 

Week 1 Storytelling : The Monkey And The Dolphin

The shipwreck was still daunting on me. How I managed to survive the storm, the crash into the rocks, and the raging sea was beyond me. I am only one of the few who survived the shipwreck and am only one of the few who are stranded. I believe we are close to Piraeus, the port of Athens, but I am not certain how I will ever get back home without a ship or any sort of transportation.

I saw something in the water near the shore. It started to approach me, so I walked towards it in the water. To my surprise it was a dolphin.

“Are you one of the shipwrecked victims?” the Dolphin asked me.

 “Yes, yes I am. I need to get back home to Athens but it is too far and dangerous to swim there,’” I answered.

“I can take you to Athens. It is custom for us dolphins to help stranded Athenians, like yourself, out,” said the Dolphin.

“That would be so generous thank you so much.” I felt so thankful to have found someone who was willing to help.

I set out to Athens on the Dolphin’s back. He was very kind. He asked about my family and life in Athens, and was genuinely interested in my noble family.

 “So being from such a noble family, I’m sure you visit Piraeus a lot,” he asked.

“Oh of course. It is one of my favorite places to visit. Except this time when our ship wrecked right on the coast. I am just so thankful you are taking me back to Athens,” I replied.

 “Thats interesting, because earlier I saw something in the ocean. Thinking that it was a human, I picked him up on my back to return him back to Athens. On the way, I asked about his life in Athens and he described his family as very aristocratic and righteous. I then asked if he visited Piraeus frequently and he responded that he did and that Piraeus was his best friend.”

“Piraeus is a place though,” I said.

 “Exactly. So I turned around and realized that his person wasn't a person, he was a monkey! A MONKEY! So I reimbursed the fibber for his falsehood and dropped him off in the middle of the ocean for him to take care of himself.”

Point proven that dishonestly and falsehood never prevail. I’m glad I didn’t try to convince the Dolphin that I was a monkey.

Author’s Note: I chose to rewrite the Aesop’s fable, The Monkey And The Dolphin, from a different viewpoint. The original story of The Monkey And The Dolphin was told in third-person. Instead of re-telling the story in third-person, I decided to tell my story in first-person, and I also added a human character to the story. The original story plot discusses how dolphins are friendly to mankind and how the species returns shipwrecked humans to back home to Athens. When the dolphin picked up the monkey in the original story, the monkey lied to the dolphin about being from Athens and having a noble family. The dolphin was tricked and thought the monkey was a human until the monkey declared that Piraeus was his best friend. Piraeus is a place in the story, not a person. Immediately, the Monkey's comment caused the dolphin to dump him into the ocean for the monkey to fend for himself. I wanted to keep the theme of dishonesty involved in my story by describing an outsider's viewpoint. I chose to include a human character because it shows the friendship between the dolphins and humans of Athens. Also, I decided that the human character would be very nice and not lie about anything to depict the theme of honesty.

Bibliography.  This story is written by Espo and from the ebook The Esop for Children With Pictures by Milo Winter. Produced by Jason Isbell Christine D.

Photo Credit.  An Indian Monkey(Photo by Jim Ankan Deka.) Oceanic Dolphin. (Photo by sheilapic76)

My Favorite Places :Caymans Islands, Florence, Paris, Beaver Lake

Since I love to travel and have been many places, I could only narrow my favorite places down to four :)

Cayman Islands: My family and I took a summer vacation to the Cayman Islands in 2014.  The Caymans is my favorite beach spot to relax and get some vitamin D. During our trip, we swam with stingrays, took a catamaran out on the ocean, relaxed on the beach, ran on the beach, played beach volleyball, and enjoyed amazing seafood and drinks. 

The Caribbean Sea ( Photo by Patrick Nouhailler)

Florence, Italy: My family and I took another  summer vacation Europe this past summer. We visited three cities in France and three cities in Italy. My absolute favorite city was Florence. The history, architecture, churches, art, and vineyards were absolutely amazing. My favorite thing about Florence was seeing the Statue of David and viewing the entire city of Florence on the best site seeing hill.

Florence, Italy ( (Photo by Justus Hayes)

Pais, France:  During our Europe trip in 2015, we also visited Paris. I fell in love with the city and was memorized by the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel tower was so surreal, beautiful, and larger than I would have ever expected. The view from the top was breathtaking and it was so awesome to see the entire city of Paris from a bird's eye view. Of course being a cheerleader, I had to stop and take my signature picot (a back flip picture) in front of the tower ;). 

 (Image Information : Personal photo of me flipping in front of the Eiffel Tower; photo from June 2015)

Beaver Lake: Beaver Lake is a man made lake located in Rogers, Arkansas. My family has been taking annual summer vacations to Beaver Lake for over 50 years. This trip is such an important and enjoyable vacation, probably my number one favorite place out of all four places. The water is so clear and we enjoy boating, wake boarding, skiing, tubing, jet skiing, swimming, wake surfing, and relaxing on one of the country's most beautiful and natural lakes. 

(Image Information: Personal photo of Beaver Lake, Arkansas ; photo taken from July 2013)

Comment Wall

Hi everyone! My name is Bailey Farmer. I am 21 years-old and am a junior at OU. I am majoring in advertising and double minoring in health and exercise science and Spanish. I am on the OU All-Girl Cheer team and am a member of the sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. In my spare time, I love to run, workout, travel, and spend time with family and friends. I am excited for a new year and a new semester :)

Image information : All are personal photos I have taken :)

UCA College Cheer Camp, taken July 2015

Cayman Island Back Flip, taken July 2014

Venice, Italy, taken June 2015