Hello Joey (AKA Kate right?),
Glad you liked the Ancient Egypt unit. If you enjoyed that you would probably like reading about the Ancient Greeks or Norse peoples. I personally don't know too much about their cultures as I'm just a mythology buff. But search up the ones you find kinda interesting out of the following outlines of stories about Ancient Greek and Norse mythologies, it is a neat insight into their culture.
Greek Mythology (Interesting to note that opposed to our stories nowadays these don't really have many happy endings)
Narcissus and Echo (Personal fav)
A story about how echo's came to be and the Narcissus flower (along with narcissism, look it up it's a good word). It has the moral of not to love those who cannot show love for you.
Tantulus
A story about the punishment of a foolish king. With the punishment being rather interesting and rather famous. The punishment is that he is given unquenchable thirst and hunger but the kicker is that he is trapped in a river neck high and the water recedes every time he tries to drink. There is also a fruit bearing plant above him but whenever he reaches for the fruit the wind blows it out of his reach.
Bellerophon
The ultimate hero in Greek mythology (or he is in my opinion). Slays many beasts and tames the Pegasus. Tries to join the gods on Mount Olympus but Zeus casually shoots him and the Pegasus out of the sky with a bolt of lightning.
Other things to look up greek mythology-wise:
Perseus & the Medusa/Gorgons
Artemis the huntress
Persephone Wife of Hades
Titan Gods; Birth of Zeus
Chaos, the beginning of Greek mythology
Norse Mythology:
Skadi
Has to choose her husband by his feet
Ragnarock
The final battle of the gods and giants, kinda like the rapture or the apocalypse
Freyja & other Valkyries
Sheildmaidens that take the souls of fallen warriors into the halls of Valhalla where they fight to the death every day in preparation for Ragnarock (and in those halls they are called einherjar).
Other things to look up:
Loki the trickster
Fenris the Wolf
Thor and his hammer
Balder/Baldr the beautiful
Hope you enjoy a little bit of the insight into these peoples if you look them up.
Sincerely,
GreyMW
Student Mentor
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Kate / Joey
Read Kate's/Joey's blog post. Seemed to enjoy the Egyptian project so thought I'd whet her palette with a couple other civiliazations. Kind of confused as to what this persons name really is though, link says Kate, blog says Joey. You can see the post here.
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4 comments:
Hi GreyM,
Will you offer me your perspective? It would be of great value to me.
You and I have talked about wanting to encourage conversation before. And I returned to Kate's post to find she had not replied to you. I had the same experience last week with this comment to Ludlow, a student teacher. Previously he had answered my comments and questions and in this instance he did not.
I noticed that we both added additional information we thought would be of value. My sense was that you get excited just as I do!? (BTW, you enticed me with some of the descriptions in your comment) Do you think if we focused more on Kate's/Ludlow's thoughts and validating their writing, (I was thinking maybe I didn't listen well enough when I read Ludlow's post)-- they'd be more likely to engage us in conversation?
Thanks for taking time to think on this with me---
Best,
Lani
Hello Lani!
More praise less content? In my opinion that's not the way to go. It's nice to be told you do good work but there's no need for overkill. It may entice a response but it probably won't be the response that is wanted. More along the lines of a "Thank you" would be forthcoming then. Better that maybe one of the things you write sparks something in their minds and they respond to that and the more content vs praise would act as better flint. I would rather have one comment back that's meaningful then five that are "Thank you"'s. (And sorry for the late response, whole afternoon off and I'm busier than ever!)
G'day
Graeme
Hi Grey-M,
Thinking I wasn't very articulate in composing my questions from your reply-- I really regret that.
First. to your thoughts on praise and content-- I totally agree that seeking a meaningful conversation is an important goal for a mentor and that a simple "good job" doesn't help that occur. I'm far more interested in offering good feedback on thinking and writing than praising. Do you believe specific feedback that helps a learner understand in what ways excellence has been reached --or not-- is of value? My sense is that benefits many students to internalize criteria for excellence-- I'm wondering, if I've correctly interpreted what you're saying, if you feel that mentors need to be experts in the content of their mentee/protege's studies in order to support growth and learning?
Now, let me see if I can better explain what I meant in my previous comment-- I may be wrong but I'm thinking the term "validate" gave the wrong impression. It's my belief that listening carefully (sounds pretty funny since this is all text I know) and responding to the author's thoughts is important to engaging in conversation. And I wasn't sure we were doing a good job of listening. And the intent of my question was -- how can mentees/proteges be best served-- and in what ways are they more likely to be engaged (what's the flint)-- through a mentor's sharing additional content or through probing questions and/or very brief selected content that encourages deeper thought and understanding of the topic at hand?
I know it is surely a coincidence. Since I commented to you, Ludlow posted again; and mindful of my thoughts on possible ways to spark a conversation, I very briefly shared what he wrote that resonated with me and using one of his phrases asked him how he would respond to perspective of a another blogger I quoted on the same topic. His response is the beginning of a great conversation. Hopefully I've clarified from whence I was coming!
BTW, apologies are never, ever necessary!!!
Hello Lani,
How mentees/protegees are best served really depends on the situation. I now am fairly sure I'm not going to get a conversation happening so I've laid off asking questions that really need a bit of follow up to be truly effective (who really gets exactly what they are looking for the first time a question is asked? Just as I misinterpereted your previous question last comment and now there is follow up for clarification.) and decided on trying for exposure for the last two posts because I wish that people would have given me glimpses of many things in life earlier on. I thought this would would be a good method at first but upon rethinking it it should not be my focus. If it works as the flint then great, but I think that is just an off chance. I may abbreviate this style and just add a little tidbit here and there with a link or something of the sort just to whet the palette. The strategies in the next comments will probably more probing and far less exposure. Though I will make sure to make my questions as clear as possible, though I do wonder how close their attention is to the subtleties of a question and if they will see all that is packed in there. I have had one response and it was concise and not quite what I was looking for but it seemed as if the topic had been discussed already with Clarence so I felt there was no need to flog a dead horse. I know for myself being extremely self motivated that if I'm exposed to something I'll investigate it but I believe that isn't the case with most so that strategy would work for people such as that but the buck would stop when the people aren't intested in looking deeper for others. For an overall broad spectrum catchall mentoring technique the probing clear question I now believe will be best with interesting bits thrown in to catch the eye.
I really hope I didn't repeat myself or ramble, but much more to do tonight and I think I got down what I wanted to say.
Sincerely,
GreyM
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