Blog Post #3
Creating a myth on my own was a bit more challenging than it was to learn ones on my own. I sat at my table and tried to think of something fun to talk about that was also eerie. Then I thought of something everyone is scared of...an entity following them. Can't be real...right? BOOM thought of making it anxiety. I found it very fun to do, and found it fulfilling to be so creative with something that felt like it was for a purpose. I learned a lot of things in this experience but I thought one thing that I could add and use in my future classroom is to make all of my assignments have a purpose that connects to the central topic or unit we are focusing on. Since we were working on myths, creating our own gave us a premise on what real myths are based on. If I was focused on giving the theme of Romeo and Juliet in a class, I could use a topic like creating your own forbidden love story before we even touch on the play, so that it makes more sense in the end. Those were my favorites. This experience enhanced my view on myths, and I had a lot of fun doing it. The way it enhanced my view on myths was that it allowed me to see a clear structure of what is needed in a myth, such as a premise, what it is, and so forth, and it also opened a portal for creativity for me I didn't even know I had. Also, Otoko Kowai means "Scary Man' in Japanese.
Hello, Kate! First and foremost, as someone who struggles with anxiety, I enjoyed your myth immensely; your description of "Mr. Kowai Otoko" was chillingly nightmarish, and truly encapsulated what a personification of anxiety might look like. I especially enjoyed how Mr. Kowai Otoko demands for you to calm down, but his mere presences causes you to be unable to-- an experience that I personally am all-too familiar with. With that being said, I agree in the respect that the creativity associated with this assignment truly allowed us to understand it much better, and engage with it in a way that was entertaining. Part of me wonders whether those who originally created myths felt similarly or not, if they perceived myths as an opportunity to flex their creativity while simultaneously preaching the values inherent to their culture. I suppose the answer to that question has been lost to time, but I cannot help but believe that they found some fun in weaving these myths together, too.
ReplyDeleteHi Kate,
ReplyDeleteLike you, I had fun with creating my myth. This assignment gave me the opportunity to be creative in a way that I have not gotten to do in a long time because of school assignments. Hopefully, you will be able to pass on an experience as fun as this one was to your future students. I think one of the best parts of the assignment was the time right before we started writing where we had to sit and think about the story we wanted to create. You mention this in your blog post, and I am happy to know that was a shared experience. I am willing to bet that most of us had fun with the aspects of creative writing. The assignment was an important one, but did not feel too high stakes. I think students can benefit from that feeling when it comes to their work sometimes. Using their imaginations in different ways to create a way to explain some of the hard parts of life or to work out pieces of the world around them.
-Katanie