Tech Tip: Blogger Template

When I had to do the blog comment, I noticed that students have blog very beautiful blog templates. I did not know how they got it until I read the tech tip for blog template. There were two-blog template that I really liked. Picking one was very hard. Both blog templates belonged to watermark category. One of them had greenery in it and other one was pink! Pink being one of my favorite color, I could not resist choosing it. Now you must be wondering how I found these templates. First click on View Post when you log in to blogger.com, then click on design on upper right corner. After that, click on templates and choose any templates you liked. It is that simple! 

Blog

Tech Tip: Blogger Template

When I had to do the blog comment, I noticed that students have blog very beautiful blog templates. I did not know how they got it until I read the tech tip for blog template. There were two-blog template that I really liked. Picking one was very hard. Both blog templates belonged to watermark category. One of them had greenery in it and other one was pink! Pink being one of my favorite color, I could not resist choosing it. Now you must be wondering how I found these templates. First click on View Post when you log in to blogger.com, then click on design on upper right corner. After that, click on templates and choose any templates you liked. It is that simple! 

Week 1: Curation

I have been using google chrome bookmark from high school. In the beginning when I started using it, I just bookmarked the links I wanted and did not put them in to folders. Later on, when I wanted to find something it became more difficult. Especially when I was in 11^th grade, we had to do a research and I book marked many links. When the time came for accessing all the links I have bookmarked, it became a great difficulty to access them. I spend an extra ten minutes sitting in front of my computer, going through my bookmark, and putting all the information for the research in to one folder. After that, I started using folders in the bookmark. I enjoy watching dance videos and when I have to choreograph dances, I go back to these dance videos and get ideas for dance steps from the dance videos I have bookmarked. Putting them in to folder according to songs helped me a lot when it came for me to choreograph. I did not realize what I was doing was curation, until I read the assignment “curate and share”. I am also very familiar with Pinterest; I mainly use it for making DIY projects and cooking. I am also planning to start using Pinterest for this class. 

Pinterest image: Curation

I found this image on Pinterest. I picked this image because it breaks down the idea of curation and how to do it.

Week 1: Growth Mindset

I liked the idea of growth mind set. However, I feel like it is too good to be true. When I was growing up, in my school system if you got anything beyond a C, it is considered as failing. If you fail one class instead of re –taking that one subject, you have to repeat the same grade. So many children was held back several grades because of this system. A common pattern one can notice is that, these kids kept failing and even when they passed, they did not do well in class. Most of the time these students also get in trouble for talking or being distracted in class. One time, in 6^th grade one of our teacher called on one of my friend who kept failing classes, unlike other teacher who scolded her for her under achievement, she praised her efforts and told her that she will expect to see more effort on the next quiz. She didn’t even mention grade like other teachers. On the next quiz she received a ninety percent. The same teacher called her in again and told her that she was very pleased with her. She ended up scoring the highest for that subject on the next exam in our class.  She started improving so much. When she reached 8^th grade, she started doing so much better and at least receive eighty percent in all the subjects.  This one teacher made a lot of difference in her life by praising her efforts and not putting so much pressure on grades. However, unless we have people like this teacher, growth mind set idea will just remain an idea. I have never heard about Carol Dweck before this video. When she started talking about it, I realized what our teacher did was praising the effort and not focusing on the grade as much as other teachers have done. The same teacher was also a positive influence in my life. I am planning on using this growth mind set beyond class room. I am going try to use it my personal relationships and my work. 

Growth mindset

I really liked this picture because after I came to united states, everything was easy for me, I stopped trying and when I started taking harder classes, I kept my pattern of not trying, which lead to a downfall. Instead of making things easy, students need to be taught how to work hard.

Week 1: Storybook Favorites

I started out with the story book "Elephants of Indian Epics". I thought the title was very catchy and interesting because I always thought of elephants are mighty creatures. I used to be scared of them when I see them walking through the road sides with their care givers when I was in India.The title gave me an Idea that the stories are going to be about elephants. Even though I grew up in India, I never heard any of these stories. In the introduction, the author gave us a clear understanding of what to expect in coming stories. I really enjoyed the stories. I liked how the author took the story and narrated them as bedtime stories. He also referred to current day problems as bullying, respecting parents etc. He made reference to harry potter, which I thought was interesting.  I thought the layout on this story was pretty simple. It was not as attractive as its title or the story.

Google images: The Mighty Elephant

The next storybook I read was "Love Diaries". The title didn't give me hint that it was about Sita and Raman, Satyavan and Savitri. The introduction gave me hope that I will be able to read more about the Indian Epic love stories. However, when I read the story, it did not give me any details. It only provided a very short summary of what happened. I wish the author added details of how the Sita's kidnap happened, how they met Hanuman etc. I wanted to know more about how Satyavan and Savitri fell in love. However, I liked how the author decided to tell the story in a diary form. 

Google images: Sita And Rama

The third story I read was Sita and Rama. I picked this one because it was titled Sita and Rama. After reading love dairies, I wanted to know more about Sita and Rama. When I finished reading this storybook, I was like OHMYGOSH!!! I really loved this story. The author's introduction lead us to what to expect in the story while keeping  suspense.  The ending was definitely amazing.  The author's writing style made me hooked to the story. My head was filled with imaginations and pictures from reading this story. I really enjoyed reading it.  I liked how the author mentioned the conflict in Sita's mind about her marriage. Even though she loved Rama, she didn't have much of choice on her wedding decision because the final decision was up to her dad. Coming from an Indian background and traditional parents whom wanting me to get an arranged marriage, I was able to relate to Sita on this issue. In addition, I enjoyed the way the author portrayed the story. The therapy session idea was definitely creative. This was my favorite story out of the three stories I have read.

Links to the storybooks
https://sites.google.com/site/hennessyelephantstorybook/home
https://sites.google.com/site/lovediarieszaveri/home
https://sites.google.com/site/sitaandrama/home

Week 1: Overview

I grew up in Kerala, India. I used to hear some of the epic stories when I was growing up in India. I had many friends who were Hindus and they used to share some of their beliefs with me. However, I am not completely familiar with these epic stories. I believe this class will help me familiarize myself with Indian epic stories. I was always fascinated by the amount of gold jewelries these epic characters wore in pictures I saw about Indian epic stories. I have always wondered that if they are gods, why do they need to wear gold. I do realize that it is definitely a weird thought.

Google images: Ganapathi - one of the gods in Indian Epics

 I haven’t previously taken any courses on India in college or high school. I can fluently speak, read and write Malayalam, a south Indian language. I can understand Tamil very well, which is also a south Indian language. I am a big fan of Bollywood. I love Bollywood songs, movies and dance. I used to choreograph and teach kids Bollywood dance.  I lived in India till I was in 9^th grade, and then moved to United States.

Introduction: My life

I am Anu Roy. I was thinking about the ideas to write on this introduction blog. The first thing that came up to my mind is butterflies… Yes butterflies! I love to draw butterflies. I think they are such a beautiful creation of god. Speaking about drawing butterflies, I love to draw. Drawing is one of my hobbies. I also love to dance. I have heard somewhere before that dance is the fuel to soul. I have to agree with whoever came up with that saying. When I dance I feel happy and free. I also love to watch movies, read book (well sometimes) and SLEEP. I definitely love my sleep. If anyone wants to find me, the only place that they have to look is in the bed in my room. On average, I spend at least eight hours of my day sleeping.

Google Image: Butterflies

So let’s get to more about my professional life. I am a pre-med with biology major at University of Oklahoma. Currently a senior who is taking seventeen hours and working twenty hours a week (I know, it is a little too above my capacity, but let’s see how this semester goes). I used to work as a pharmacy technician at CVS pharmacy. Currently I work at the OU library. So far, I love my job.

Enough about my professional life, let’s talk about my ultimate life goal. I want to become a doctor. I want to practice family medicine, built a nice living for my family and I. I also want to go to different countries and provide free checkups and assist people in need. I also want to practice medicine to help people who don’t have enough money to afford medical check-ups and care. I also want to be able to help my parents retire and have a great retired life because they worked so hard for my sister and I.  

This is a picture taken during a family trip to Missouri. In this picture the  person standing in the front is my really good friend, then me, my favorite cousin and at the back is one of my favorite person in this entire world, my sister. Source: Personal Photo

Week 1 Story Telling: The Foolish Ass

There lived two Asses named Jena and Jippy. Their owner was a very nice man who worked very hard to help his family sustain. Jena is like her owner- hardworking. On the other hand, Jippy likes to try to find a way out of work. One day, the owner took Jippy to his work to bring back salt to the village to sell it to the villagers. When Jippy got back home, he complained to Jena how heavy the salt bags were. Jippy also complained about how heartless their owner is and he wants to teach his owner a lesson. Jena warned him to not do anything stupid and reminded him how generous their owner is and how well he takes care of both of them. Jippy ignored Jena's words. The next day when Jippy was crossing the lake with salt bags, he slipped and fell in to water. His owner pulled him out of the river with great difficulty and examined for wounds or cuts. The owner only found very minor scratches on Jippy. They proceeded to cross the river. Jippy noticed that the weight on this back have lessened by more than half. 

Most of the salt is dissolved from the bags

When they got home Jippy overheard the owner talking about how less salt there is remaining and they won’t be able to make a profit out of selling the salt he brought home. Jippy approached Jena with joy and told  her “look Jena, I have a plan. I fell down when we were crossing the river and the salt I was carrying dissolved in to the river and I only had to carry half as much as weight.”

Jena responded by saying,  “oh ohhhh, I see where this is going”

Jippy- “Oh yes! I am going to fall again tomorrow. This way I will also teach our owner a lesson. If he can’t sell all the salt, he won’t make any profits from his business”

Jena- “Your plan is only going to invite danger, it is better to do your work properly”

Jippy turned his head back to Jena and planned to proceed with this plan.

The next day Jippy fell in to the river and carried half as much salt back home. Without the profit from the salt business the owner didn’t have enough money to buy enough food to feed both Jena and Jippy. Since Jena is hard working and is more useful to the owner, he fed her and not Jippy. Jippy was so aggravated that he decide d to stay in water till all the salt melted away.

The next day, Jippy fell in to the river again, this time when he got up; he felt that his bags got heavier. Jippy didn’t realize that the owner started sponge business and the bags he was carrying was filled with sponges. He reached home starving and tired from carrying the extra weight.

Ass caring a heavy load

Jippy realized his mistake and decided to follow his owner’s order and work hard from then on. 

Author's note: The story above is based on the fable "The Ass and The Load of Salt" taken from Aseop for Children by Anonymous, Illustrated by Milo Winter (1919). "The Ass and The Load" of Salt fable made me think about how we all try to put in less amount of effort and expect great results. Usually, when we don’t work hard enough and do our job properly, we end up with twice the work load. In this story, the Ass didn’t realize how blessed he was to have a caring owner who takes care of him, Instead of being thankful, the ass was always complaining and being ungrateful. I wrote this story to show everyone what will occur when we are not grateful for what we have and when we try to avoid work and go around it. The main twist in my story from the original story is that I added one more Ass named Jena, who is like her owner- hardworking. I chose two images to illustrate the story. Image one shows an ass with not heavy load and the second image show an ass with a heavy load. The first image was used to show how the salt dissolved and the ass only had to carry less load and second image is to show the extra amount of weight he had to carry due to his own actions.

My favorite Place - Kerala, India

     

     There is always few places that holds a place in our heart. Sometimes these places provide us with a great escape from the busy world around us. For me this place is the little town I grew up in. When I was 12 years old, I moved from my little town to the city. The place I grew up in is a beautiful little town in Kerala, India. Kerala is known as God's own country. It is a land filled with exotic wildlife, many rivers and beautiful sceneries. Visiting my home town for vacations were such a relief to me. I was away from all the noise and crowded city areas and was in the world of gorgeous paddy fields and coconut trees. Every where I look, I can see green. 

Image information: Personal photo taken in June 2012 by Anu Roy

Personal photo taken in june 2012 by Anu Roy

The pictures above were taken when I went to Kerala in 2012, for summer vacation. These green paddy fields are located in walkable distance from my house. During every car ride, passing these paddy fields were blissful to my eyes. It was certainly one of my favorite places. As weird as it sounds every time I pass this area, I think about the ecosystems, microorganisms, and other organisms it gives a home to. It also makes me happy that there are many agricultural areas like this still surviving to provide the world with food and other resources. 

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