Making Myths Ironically Requires Facts. Also Every Myth Has Some Kind Of Lesson To Learn From It.

    For this month I and my peers have been primarily focused on myths. From the types of myths there are to their tropes and themes. We even had two projects on them, a group project focusing on making a presentation on a specific myth of our choice, and a solo project where we created our own myth about the origins of something. Both were very fun and insightful, but one thing that I understood was very important regarding the studying of myth and creating myths is facts! As ironic and much of an oxymoron as it sounds, facts are very important when it comes to myth, primarily historical facts regarding myths in general. Myths, whether their actual content in them be real or not, are ultimately literature of a cultural and religious variety and are therefore also history. When my team did our presentation on the norse god Loki and his myth I was assigned the role of providing the historical context on the god. I had to do a bit of research on Loki, his history with the people who followed him. Primarily his relationship to Lucifer from the abrahamic religions and how missionaries compared Loki to Lucifer to help the pagans who followed the norse religion more easily convert. This actually helped and enhanced my individual myth project where I had to create my own myth, because I also chose to utilize historical facts to make my own myth. My myth was about how the origin of the computer came from the ancient king of Judah, King Solomon, and how the circuitry of computers was actually powered by sealed demons. This is because according to the historical myths surrounding King Solomon that I researched about, he supposedly found a way to seal demons and make them do his bidding. While creating a myth requires some originality on your part given you are making it yourself, and making a presentation about a myth requires studying it, both greatly benefit from the use of some historical facts regarding myths. For making your own myth it is useful as a source to draw inspiration from, I have seen many of my peers myths parallel real ones throughout history so I am not the only one who utilized the factual history of other myths for my own. And for making a presentation on a myth it's basically required because how are you going to do a study and presentation on a myth without studying the historical facts about it? Point is the history behind the myth is important to!

    On another note, what I learned from this experience regarding myths is that myths all have an important moral or philosophical lesson in them. The lesson may be about bravery, kindness, how to outwit someone, or even more complex things like feminism and breaking gender norms (as was the case with the myths surrounding the Hindu goddess Kali). Learning about myths is a good reason for you to broaden your perspectives on life, their lessons might help you or inspire you. There is also the beauty of interpreting the myth and its lessons in your own way that may have never been considered before! The same can be said when it comes to teaching myths to students, as learning about these myths might affect them in a positive way with the lessons they are trying to teach, and provide them with an interest in history or mythology, giving them a possible career choice they might want to consider later on in life. To end it off, overall the myths portion of our class was really fun!

Writing and Dissecting: The Similarities and Differences of Making and Arguing About Poetry

    When I was writing about the poem "Ozymandias" and making an argument about it I obviously had to deeply analyze the meaning in each word and line. So when I was making my own poem "Surfing Bonaparte" I also considered the meaning behind the poem's words. My argument was that the meaning of the poem was about the inevitable fall of all civilizations led by tyrants that was a reflection of the author's views regarding tyranny. So I had to do some research on the author and use sources that talked about and referenced his viewpoints in association to the text. I also looked into the history behind the poem as it was talking about Pharaoh Ramses II and learned about why Shelley chose the name Ozymandias instead of Ramses due to directly quoting from an ancient Greek historian. So when I wrote my poem about Napoleon, I wanted to make it a bizarre reference and retell how lost the Naval war to the British and soon after lost the entire war, being banished to St. Helena. His surfing can be considered an allegory for Napoleon riding the high of his war as he conquered much of Europe only to wipe out after getting too close to the sun, or more correctly eclipse. But making a poem yourself definitely does not require anywhere near as much research or analysis as writing about a poem does, as you are the one making a poem and are the author so you mainly follow your gut. The only major thing to take into account is respecting the poetic format you choose to apply to your poem, other than that it is much more freestyle and liberative than writing about poetry. Those were all similarities and differences I noticed regarding both. Writing about poetry regarding "Ozymandias" did inform me about some potential topics and symbolism I could use regarding historical characters in poems that I used for "Surfing Bonaparte" as mentioned previously but I really cannot say the same vice versa. What I learned from the experience overall is that poetry is much more than just literature that sounds nice and rhythms. There is so much more to it in expression and storytelling, the complex formats of them and symbolism behind it, as well as the symbolism and meaning behind the rhythms and whatever story they are trying to tell. While I am not someone who is aspiring to be an English teacher I can definitely recommend teachers to encourage students to try and interpret the poems they are assigned to learn and read about and express their opinions to the class. I also recommend English teachers to encourage or assign their students to write their own poetry at least once per school year and have them all share and read their poems to the class in a poetry slam as it is a fun experience that can improve their writing while also being a way to express and bond with their classmates. Last class's poetry slam made me realize how fun and eye opening they were, as I listened to my peers pour their hearts out and share deep and personal experiences with the class in the form of expressive poetry. Overall I enjoyed the five weeks focused on poetry a lot more than I ever thought I would because if I may be honest, I was never super fond of poetry. It is not that I hate it or even dislike it, it's just that it is my least favorite form of literature. But that doesn't mean I dont enjoy, appreciate it, or recognize its importance. Poetry is an important part of English Literature and always will be in my opinion.

Who I Am And My Thoughts On Media Tech In The Classroom

    Hello folks, my name is Artashes Bezjian and I'm majoring in English Literature. While I am not aspiring to be a teacher I do have some thoughts regarding what I feel is the best role media technology should play in teaching. Media technology has made teaching easier in some places but also difficult in others. The main boon of media technology is being able to show students educational videos from the internet via a projector, which is most effective with History and English classes. The use of powerpoint slides is also very effective as opposed to the teacher writing everything on the board as it both saves time, is much more eye catching, and allows the teacher to go through the important topics of the class faster. I believe all of this because that's how a lot of my classes were taught during high school. Every classroom had a built-in projector that could link up with the teachers laptop, and the teachers would primarily teach using powerpoint presentations that they made for the class and only used the writing board when needed. And for many history and english classes, the teachers would even show us videos about the topic to help us better understand it and would ask us to write short summaries of what we just watched to make sure we paid attention. I personally found this teaching method using media technology to be a lot of fun and effective in regards to teaching me. It made the teachers job easier without subtracting from the teaching quality. 

    But on the other side, another thing I noticed when I was in highschool regarding media technology is how much other students used their smartphones, even during class time. Some students would barely even pay attention and just use their IPhones to pass the time. This is a common problem with the advent of the Information Age and isn't a new dilemma as it is almost a decade old. The most ideal solution would be for teachers to have their students put their smartphones in a bin or some table in the corner of the classroom when class starts and pick them up when class ends. That way the students aren't being distracted by their phones but their phones are still nearby for them to be able to contact their parents or receive phone calls from them. This is already what is done whenever we take our finals or midterms during highschool so I don't see why it couldn't be done for every class. 

    These are my general thoughts on how media technology should be best managed and utilized in a school environment and what its overall role should be. I implore readers to give their opinions on my perspective, do you agree? Disagree? Are there things you would change with how I think media technology’s role should be in a classroom? I’d love to hear your thoughts!