Reading Notes: Francis and Thomas Jataka Tales

For my last reading in this class I decided to do one more Jataka tale, this time from Francis and Thomas. One that I really enjoyed was titled "The Ass In The Lion's Skin." This is the story of a merchant who went town to town selling goods. He had a donkey that would carry his goods with him. When he got to a town, he would take the goods off of the donkey and send him out alone to eat. HE would cover the donkey in a lion's skin so no one would bother him. Farmers would see the ass, think it was a lion and stay away. This worked until one town saw the lion and tried to scare it away by shouting and beating on drums. This scared the donkey and he let out a "hee-haw" and the villagers realized it was not a lion. They beat the ass and stole the lions skins. I'm not sure what lesson this story teaches but I found it very amusing to read.

Bibliography: Francis and Thomas Jataka Tales (Link)

Donkey (Source)

Reading Notes: Inayat Twenty Jataka Tales

For this weeks reading I stuck with the Jataka tales that I have enjoyed so much. I read from tales by Inayat. I particularly liked a story called "The Forest Fire." This is the story of a family of quail that lived in a tree. There was a mother, a father, and 7 babies. Each day the parents would go out and collect worms, insects, and grass seeds to feed the babies. Sic of the seven babies ate the worms and insects, but the seventh only ate the grass seed. As a result, the six who ate the bugs grew and had bug, strong wings, but the seventh didn't grow at all. One day, a forest fire was traveling toward their nest. The parents and the six strong babies flew away to safety, but the small seventh baby could not fly. As the fire got close, the helpless bird spoke to it, saying he was small and couldn't fly. He asked the fire why it was coming to hurt him. As he spoke, the fire stopped and retreated, leaving the small bird and their home safe and unharmed. This was an odd short story but I enjoyed reading it.

Bibliography: Inayat Twenty Jataka Tales (Link)

Quail (Source)

Wikipedia Trail: Ravi Shankar to Timbre

I started this wikipedia trail by going to the class announcements page where I found a video of a man named Ravi Shankar playing classical India music. On his wikipedia page I read that he was a very famous musician across India and Europe and even served in the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. From there I found George Harrison, who had worked with Shankar in the 1960s. Harrison was the lead guitarist for the Beatles and was ranked as number 11 of Rolling Stone magazines "top 100 guitarists of all time." From there I found the slide guitar which is a techniques for playing guitar that involves a tube placed on on the the fingers of the guitarist which is slid up and down the neck of the instrument. This was popular in blues style music and started in the 1920s. Finally, I made it to Timbre. This is the word used in music for the quality of sound. Timbre is what makes the difference in sound between a guitar and a piano playing the same note at the same volume.

Slide Guitar (Source)

Learning Challenge: The Pomodoro Technique

For this Learning Challenge I chose to read about the Pomodoro technique. This is a studying/work technique that uses a timer to help you space out work and breaks. I chose this because I tend to race against the clock when I do school work and I think this technique could help me make better, more efficient use of time. The purpose of this strategy is to teach you to work with time, instead of against it. By taking short, scheduled breaks, it is easier to eliminate burnouts and manage distractions. I have tried this technique before and had good results. By taking a short break every 30 minutes to an hour I was able to get much more done in that time period than I can when I just work for hours on end. The Pomodoro Technique can be used by anyone with just about any task and I recommend trying it out.

Pomodoro Timer (Source)

Growth Mindset

For this post I decided to look at the Growth Mindset cats again. I think this is the most fun way to do this assignment. The first image that I was given was one that I really liked. It's caption says "The bigger the challenge, the more you stretch." I chose to use this picture because it really describes an idea that I try to remember whenever I am feeling very challenged by anything. The idea is that every challenge I face will result in me growing in some way if I stick with it. The hardest things you face will end up stretching you and making you grow as a person as long as you don't give up. 

Source

The second image I chose is one that kind of relates to the first idea I mentioned. The caption says "Real learning takes work." I liked this one because it connects to the first one in that it reinforces the idea that the hardest challenges take the most work but result in the best learning. 

Link

Tech Tip: Canvas Dashboard

For this tech tip I decided to do another Canvas feature because I think Canvas is something that students should take full advantage of because it is the hub for everything we do for our classes. The Canvas dashboard is the main page that you see when you log onto the site. The first thing I do with my dashboard at the beginning of each semester is change the nicknames of all of my courses to something that is easier to know which class is which. For instance, for this class I changed the name from "MLLL-4993-995" to "Epics of India." This change makes it much easier to navigate the page for me. I also really enjoy the "To Do" section on the dashboard. This is a list in the corner that has all of your upcoming assignments listed for easy access. The dashboard is very useful if you customize it to best fit yourself and I highly recommend taking the time to do that at the beginning of the semester.

Tech Tip (Source)

Extra Credit Reading: Francis and Thomas Jataka Tales

I decided to continue my reading of Jataka Tales for this extra credit reading. I read from a selection of stories by Francis and Thomas that I hadn't had a chance to read yet. From these stories, the one I found most interesting was one called "The Choice of a Husband." This is the story of a amn with four daughters and he is trying to decide which man to give his daughters to as wives. He asks a wise teacher for advice on which man to chose. The teacher tells him that although all of the men have good qualities such as beauty and years, the best man to chose is the one with virtue. He explains that virtue is the true measure of a man and a man should be despised is he fails at virtue.

Bibliography: Francis and Thomas Jataka Tales (Source)

Rings (Source)