Myth

I loved this section of the class. I truly enjoyed reading about the different myths. I also liked the presentations that helped create an overview of everything. I focused more on the Trickster Myth. Browsing over all the different myths in the book, I was most impressed and interested in the Trickster Myth. Some of these myths had strong sexual content or crude humor. This to me was a bit of a shock. I remember my group was trying to decide what myth to present on and we were trying to pick the cleanest one! Our final pick was my favorite myth overall, “Why We Tell Stories about Spider.” This was a great story that showed the concept of being a Trickster. Annanu, the spider, tricks three characters. He doesn’t use force, but rather his cleverness. He finds a way to trick each one by using their weakness against them. Having enjoyed the Trickster Myth this much, made me want to write one of my own. It wasn’t hard to pick the characters in my story because I started with my favorite animal, the polar bear. Having this idea made me pick the animals that lived in close proximity with the polar bear in the wild. The hard part was coming up with a story that flowed, and had the characteristics of a Trickster Myth. I think this is a great way to gain even further understanding on the myth. Since your writing about it, you want to emulate the myths that you read about. From there, you can become creative and change things up a bit. I definitely want to do this with my future students. Not only will they gain a world view of different myths, but also have the opportunity to become creative and imitate the stories. This assignment has many elements to it. First one must read myth, present about myth, write your own myth, and publish a website. Through these steps, one increases their understanding and appreciation of the readings.

Poetry

I can honestly say that writing poetry was much easier for me. For some reason I have a hard time analyzing poetry. It does not come natural to me so I sometimes get frustrated. You have to read between the lines and figure out what the author is trying to say. I liked having the power to write whatever I wanted and have other people figure it out. It was hard at first to open my mind up. Once it was opened, I found myself writing creatively. I liked the rules that Professor Clark provided in class about certain poems we went over. Having a set of rules made it easy for me to follow them and use them as a crutch. For instance, the Wrecking the First Person poem had three sections we had to follow, a true even, a fictional one, and then becoming another person. Having this map made it easier for me to navigate through the writing process. I wanted to create as much visualization as I could in my poetry. I like this in the poetry we read in class. Using the five senses to describe something gives the poetry more substance. The reader is emerged in the poem and the message is felt. Writing poetry made me appreciate the poetry we read in class that much more. I definitely want to provide my future students with this experience. I could not believe the great poetry that came out of our class. Everyone had unique ideas that flourished in their poems. It is going to be fun reading the poetry from my students. I will definitely have them do the Wrecking the First Person poem and the Found poem. These were new poems I hadn’t heard of before. It was a fun way to get started with poetry writing.