Reflection on the Boys and Girls Club

The final project for my FYS class was doing a service learning project with the Boy and Girls club of Westminster.  I enjoyed doing this service learning project. It wasn’t like a lot of other service learning projects were people have to go clean the town or plant bushes in parks to help keep air clean. This was different. I got to work with young children and teach them about fairytales, which I enjoyed. I learned a lot and had to adapt to situations on the spot which was sometimes challenging.

Before each visit we had to make a lesson plan and get it approved and I think that this part worked very well. This was a way to keep me thinking and on task and organized. If I wasn’t forced to make a lesson plan and actually plan out what I was going to do for an hour with the children I probably wouldn’t have thought too much about what I was going to do until Friday the day I went. Now, after going to the club and teaching the children, I know why it was important to have a plan and I’m thankful we had to make them. I think working with the Boy and Girls club was a very creative and fun way to do a finial and I think that it was efficient.

            Each time I went to the boys and girls club I learned something different. The first time my group went to the boys and girls club it didn’t really go as planned. Mary and Daniel warned us that the kids were going to have a very short attention span and they weren’t going to always pay attention but I didn’t think that it was going to be that bad.  I was wrong. The first day my group read “Snow White” and we were going to talk about symbolism used in the story. We got a picture book to read to the kids because we thought that the picture would help keep the kids entertained and more interested in the story rather than just reading from the book we use in class. We also made little things for the kids to say whenever they head the Evil witches name and Snow White like booo and yaayy. We also brought apples and caramel for the kids for after the reading because all kids love snacks.     

            The sounds that the kids would make when they heard a name really worked and helped them pay attention but a lot of the time they would scream and be way too loud and distract other groups. The kids also all wanted to read from the book, which was something that I wasn’t expecting them to want to do. The kids kept running up to the book and trying to read and that was a little disruptive. Whenever we would say that they had a treat at the end they seemed to settle down so we said that a lot. From the first visit I learned that the kids really needed more things to do than just sitting and listening to us read to them. I also learned that bribing the kids with candy or a treat at the end was a good way to keep them focuses and on task.

            The second visit went a little more smoothly. The second visit we read Cinderella and had the kids act out the story. This worked very well because the kids were interacting well with one another and loved the story “Cinderella”.  The next week we did “Hansel and Gretel” and it went pretty well also. The last week was by far the best week of all though. We made props and had the kids make up their own ending to “The Golden Key”. The kids were very well behaved and had fun.

            If I could go back I would, from the beginning, have activities that keep the kids interacted. I wouldn’t read to the kids more than five minutes at a time because their attention span isn’t that great and they zone off and talk amongst themselves. I learned that the kids love to draw so I would recommend to any other people that want to do this project to try to do drawing activities. 

            Throughout the Boys and Girls Club project I think that my team worked very well together. My group consisted of Me, Juliana Ottomano, and Mary Fabiszak. Even though Mary was not in class often she did make it to the boys and girls club every Friday and helped while we were there. If I could go back I think I would try to help Juliana more with making the crafts and snacks for the kids. Juliana is an art major she enjoyed doing all of the art and crafty stuff and I did help her but she had all the supplies and she liked doing it. Also sense she could go home easily she made some of the snacks at her house or had her mom make them, but I feel bad because she did all of that so if I could go back I would try to find more time to help her with those aspects.

            Overall I think that this was way better than a final exam. It gave us real life situations that we have to learn to adapt to. When going to the Boys and Girls Club the kids didn’t always act perfect sometimes they misbehaved and didn’t listen. Us as the teachers couldn’t just give up and walk away when we became frustrated with the kids, we had to stay and work through the problems we were facing and had to change certain things in out lesson plan to gain the kids attention and control over the group. A final exam doesn’t have this quality to it. For a final students just study material they have learned over the semester and hope they remember it; if they don’t they don’t get a good grade and if they remember it they will get a good grade.  It doesn’t have the creativity part or the quick thinking to unexpected events like this project did. This project also had a reflection, description and video part to it, so it included writing and analyzing just like a final exam would. Overall I think that as a student I got more out of this type of finial than a cumulative finial written on paper. 

I have learned a lot this semester in my Grimm to Disney class. I have always loved fairy tales ever since I was a child and finding out where they came from was very interesting. I learned a lot about the Grimm brothers for one. Growing up I had heard of them but I never knew much about them. I didn’t know that they wrote so many fairy tales or anything about their life story. It was very interesting finding out about how tough of a childhood they had and how they grew up.  I knew that Disney had based their fairy tales off of older fairy tales that were already written but I didn’t know that they changed them a lot. Throughout this class we read the original fairy tales by the Grimm Brothers and compared them to the Disney versions. This was one of the most interesting parts of the class for me. I know every fairy tale by heart because I watched them all the time when I was little and I still watch them today. When I read the Grimm versions I was surprised to see how different they were from the Disney versions. For example Cinderella was very very different than the Grimm version. There was no pumpkin or horse and carriage like the Disney version. In the end of the Grimm version the two evil stepsisters get their eyes plucked out by birds on the way to Cinderella’s wedding. That was very shocking to me because I feel like a Disney movie would never have that in it.

                Another thing I liked this semester in this class was looking at the hidden meaning behind fairy tales. This was fascinating to me. I had never heard of Bruno Bettelheim or any of the other people we studied this semester. It was fascinating to see different theories on the symbolism and meaning behind fairy tales. My favorite was the psychoanalytic view of fairy tales and how they represent woman growing up sexually and the oedipal conflict. Bruno Bettelheim thinks that “Snow White” is about a girl overcoming the oedipal conflict and struggling with becoming sexually mature before she is mentally ready. This was so weird and foreign to me when I first took this class because I never in a million years would have thought that that is what a fairy tale was about.

                After this semester I learned a lot about fairy tales and I found it very interesting. I learned things I never knew and never even thought of about fairy tales.  I would recommend this class to everyone! 

Rapunzel

http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/Rapunzel_61977

This is a cartoon called Rapunzel by Ian Baker. This cartoon is meant to be funny. This is because in this cartoon Rapunzel is at the top of her tower but she doesn't have any hair. The prince is at the bottom and he is saying that the alopecia specialist is here. An alopecia specialist is someone to studies the loss of hair. This is amusing to the viewer because Rapunzel is known for having long, luscious, gold hair. In Disney and in the Grimm version Rapunzels hair is the only way to make it to the top of the tower. Without her hair the prince can not get to her and therefore the whole story is off and can't be told. So the cartoonist makes it ironic that Rapunzel doesn't have the one thing that she is known for, her hair. 

Blue Beard

The three stories that we had to read this week were Blue Beard, The Robber Bridegroom, and The Fitchers Bird. All three are similar and unique because they all start out with marriage. In other fairy tales they almost all end with marriage and happiness. This is because in other stories it is portrayed that marriage is a gift to woman and that is how they truly find happiness. In these stories it is the opposite. Not all women were excited for marriage; some view it as the end of their life and their independence.  These three stories confirm woman’s fear.  They get into a relationship with a scary man who is a killer.

 

                Blue Beard and Fitchers Bird are more closely related to each other than with The Robber Bridegroom. In both Blue Beard and Fitchers Bird the women are tempted by their husbands to not go into a room and in both stories the women disobey their husband and go into the room. This is where they find the misdeeds of their husbands.  The husbands can tell that their wives have disobeyed them though because of the blood on the key/egg. The husband’s view this as punishment by death and try to kill their wives. This can relate back to the sexual fantasy’s women used to have when their husbands went away to war. Man men would have their wives but in chastity belt. This was to help prevent their wives from having sex with other men while they were gone.

                In all three of these stories the women are active and are saved. The women are all smart and use their wits to help get them out of their situations. In Blue Beard the woman asks for more time to pray so her brothers can get there in time to save her, in Fitchers Bird she dresses up as a bird and tells her husband to take gold back to her parents but it is really her sisters, and in The Robber Bridegroom the woman works with the old lady that lives in the house and then tell the story about her husband killing another girl at dinner. In other stories these traits aren’t always seen, the women are more passive.

 

                I liked these fairy tales. I think that they were very interesting and different. I think that they were all very creative and different from other fairy tales that I have ever read.  I liked that the womenre creative and got out of their relationships. It was a nice switch up.

The Frog King

The Frog King or Iron Heinrich is about a young princess, who is so beautiful that the sun itself is jealous of her. She drops her favorite golden ball down a well and the only way she can get it back is through a frog. She makes a promise to the frog that if he gets her golden ball he can be her companion and playmate, but she attempts to go against her promise and doesn't want him to be her companion.  The father of the girl says that she must honor her promise but she doesn’t. She throws the frog against her wall and he turn into a prince. Once she realized he is a prince she The Frog King or Iron Heinrich is about a young princess, who is so beautiful that the sun itself is jealous of her. She drops her favorite golden ball down a well and the only way she can get it back is through a frog. She makes a promise to the frog that if he gets her golden ball he can be her companion and playmate, but she attempts to go against her promise and doesn’t want him to be her companion.  The father of the girl says that she must honor her promise but she doesn’t. She throws the frog against her wall and he turn into a prince. Once she realized he is a prince she obeys her promise and marries the prince who was put under a spell by a witch.

                Cupid and Psych is a story of another beautiful princess, who also has so much beauty that people are jealous of her. In this story instead of the prince being jealous of her the goddess Venus is jealous of her. She sends her son Cupid to make her fall in love with a monster and make her life miserable. Instead cupid makes Psych destined to fall in love with himself. Psych never marries and goes to live with what everyone thinks is a monster. When she gets there her husband gives her everything she wants and she is very happy, the only condition is she can’t see him. She visits with her sisters and they convince her that she need to see her husband she see if he is a monster and if he is she must kill him. When she sneaks in to see her husband she finds that he is beautiful but she accidentally wakes him up and he leaves her. Psych then goes to Venus and Venus makes her does chores that are seemingly impossible. Each times she gets help from the gods though and she does them. The last task though Psych looks into a box that she wasn’t supposed to look in and falls asleep.  Cupid comes and saves her and they become husband and wife forever.  

These two stories both deal with a princess who was the youngest and the most beautiful girl ever. They also both deal with loving a “beast” though. In both stores the princess wouldn’t accept love from a “monster” or frog. Psych was going to kill Cupid if he wasn’t cupid even though he was very nice to her and the princess in The Frog King threw the frog against the wall to kill him. It is showing how a beautiful girl needs someone pretty, and that monsters aren’t good enough for them. In the end of each story they find their prince or Cupid and get married and love each other dearly, only knowing that they are both handsome. obeys her promise and marries the prince who was put under a spell by a witch.

                Cupid and Psych is a story of another beautiful princess, who also has so much beauty that people are jealous of her. In this story instead of the prince being jealous of her the goddess Venus is jealous of her. She sends her son Cupid to make her fall in love with a monster and make her life miserable. Instead cupid makes Psych destined to fall in love with himself. Psych never marries and goes to live with what everyone thinks is a monster. When she gets there her husband gives her everything she wants and she is very happy, the only condition is she can’t see him. She visits with her sisters and they convince her that she need to see her husband she see if he is a monster and if he is she must kill him. When she sneaks in to see her husband she finds that he is beautiful but she accidentally wakes him up and he leaves her. Psych then goes to Venus and Venus makes her does chores that are seemingly impossible. Each times she gets help from the gods though and she does them. The last task though Psych looks into a box that she wasn’t supposed to look in and falls asleep.  Cupid comes and saves her and they become husband and wife forever.  

These two stories both deal with a princess who was the youngest and the most beautiful girl ever. They also both deal with loving a “beast” though. In both stores the princess wouldn’t accept love from a “monster” or frog. Psych was going to kill Cupid if he wasn’t cupid even though he was very nice to her and the princess in The Frog King threw the frog against the wall to kill him. It is showing how a beautiful girl needs someone pretty, and that monsters aren’t good enough for them. In the end of each story they find their prince or Cupid and get married and love each other dearly, only knowing that they are both handsome.

Little Red Riding Hood

Little red riding hood by John Darkow

This cartoon is playing off of the little red riding hood fairy tale. I think that it is a cleaver cartoon. It shows the wolf holding a gun that is smoking and little red riding hood dead on the ground. The police officers say that “he claims she was skipping around in a threatening way carrying a suspicious package and wearing a hoodie”. This is amusing somewhat to the viewer because everyone knows the tale of little red riding hood, and she is portrayed as an innocent little girl. Little red riding hood is delivering food to her sick grandmother and is very young. The wolf eats her grandmother and tried to eat the little girl as well but in the end the little girl out smarts the wolf and defeats him. In this cartoon little red riding hood is said to be intimidating and the wolf is implying he felt threatened by her and that’s why he killed her. That is absurd. Little red riding hood is an innocent little girl. The wolf is saying that the most innocent girl looks suspicious for doing normal things, like skipping and wearing a hoodie. This is a political cartoon because it is showing how someone is claiming little red riding hood is dangerous on nonsense accusations. Because someone is wearing a hoodie it doesn’t make them a gangster or dangerous… hoodies are worne by many people and just because she was carrying a “package” it doesn’t make her dangerous either. I liked this cartoon and I think that it was very clever.

http://theweek.com/section/cartoon/52/226292/social-issues

Anne Sexton v. Grimm Brothers

The Grimm version of Snow White and Anne Sextons version of Snow White have some similarities and differences. In both the plot of the story is essentially the same, the evil queen tries to have Snow White killed, Snow White survives, she lives with dwarfs, falls asleep, and is awakened by a prince. Anne Sexton’s version is very blunt and direct with her interpretation of Snow White, as where the Grimm brothers weren't as direct and left things more for interpretation.

                Right from the begging Anne Sexton refers to Snow White as a virgin, and unsoiled. Anne Sexton from the beginning is saying that Snow White is pure because she is a virgin. In the Grimm version the reader has to interpret that on their own. Anne Sexton also says that the stepmother is “eaten by age”. She then describes the stepmother as having brown spots on her hands and whisker on her lip. She is making the stepmother sound like an old woman and adds some amusement in it as well by making the stepmother animal like. There is no guessing as to why the stepmother is jealous of Snow White.. it’s because Snow White is prettier than she is and she doesn't like that so she wants Snow White dead. Anne Sexton also refers to Snow White as a “dumb bunny”. Once again this shows how blunt Anne Sexton is. Everyone who reads the take thinks that is dumb that Snow White falls for the evil queens tricks three times but Anne Sexton clearly writes it in her poem and makes it amusing for the reader.

Anne Sexton also adds pop culture into her poem… that was the big thing when she wrote this. Anne Sexton writes things like “she was full of life like soda pop” and “red-hot roller skates”. Descriptions like this were simply the norm when she wrote this poem so it made sense for her to write them. The Grimm version does not have any hints of pop culture in it whatsoever. The pop culture part of the story is part of the zeitgeist in Anne Sextons version.

The key difference I would say between the two versions is the ending of Snow White. In the Grimm version the evil stepmother died and Snow White and the prince lived happily ever after. Anne Sexton however ends her poem with Snow White “referring to her mirror as women do”. This ending is different because Anne Sexton is saying that Snow White is going to be just like her stepmother. Meaning she is going to get jealous when she ages and try to have her daughter killed so she stays the prettiest girl. Grimm would never have that ending because that’s now how typical fairy tales end, the princess stays fair and good and lives happily with the prince.

I liked reading Anne Sextons version of Snow White. I thought it was very amusing and interesting to see how she interpreted Snow White. I thought it was funny how blunt she was and I liked her twist at the end, it was different. It gave me a different view on Snow White and I think other people should read her version too.  

Snow White

The original version of Snow White by the brothers Grimm is very different from the Disney Version of Snow White. In the Disney version Snow White doesn’t have a father, the prince falls in love with her in the beginning of the movie and the dwarfs all have names and personalities. Disney did this for many reasons. The main reason was to make it more appealing to children and the general public.

In the Grimm version the prince only fell in love with Snow Whites beauty after she was already asleep and in the coffin. When Snow White wakes up, after she spit up the piece of apple lodged in her throat, she saw the prince and thought he really loved her so she decided to marry him. In the Disney version the prince fell in love with Snow White in the beginning when she was signing with all of the animals at the well. He loved her even though she was just wearing raggedy old clothes. In the end the prince saved Snow White when he kisses her because it is only true love that brings Snow White back to life. The Disney version with the true love’s kiss is more appealing to children and makes a better plot.

Another difference is the father figure. In the Grimm version once Snow Whites stepmother tries to have her killed you never hear of the father looking for her or even wanting to know if she is okay. If a child were to watch that it would be disturbing and depressing to watch a young girl’s father not care about her in the least, expecially when young children look up to their parents the most. Disney took care of this problem by making Snow White an orphan in the movie and not giving her a father figure, just her evil stepmother. This puts more emphasis on how evil the stepmother is and it makes the viewer’s sympathize with Snow White more because she doesn’t have a father.

                The dwarfs are also a main attraction in the Disney version. Disney did this to help entertain the public. In the Grimm version the dwarfs were just merely little people who worked every day in a mine and that’s about it. In the Disney version they all had names, personalities and special traits. They sang, and loved Snow White very much. Kids and adults love this. The dwarfs were made into cute characters that everyone instantly falls in love with.

Disney made all these changes to make the plot more fun and interesting to people, which in return made his version more popular to the public. 

 

 

 

 

Cinderella gives children hope that your dreams can come true if you truly believe. Cinderella had a dream of not being a slave to her evil stepmother and step sisters; she also had a dream to go to the royal ball, which her stepmother was never going to allow. Through good spirits, perseverance, and a little magic Cinderella got her dream of going to the royal ball, falling in love, and becoming rich and never having to answer to her step mother or sisters again.  

             This is, in my opinion, a good message and motif. Young kids should have hope that no matter where they come from they can do good things in life and be happy. There are a lot of children that come from poor, or bad backgrounds and can relate to Cinderella. When they watch the fairy tale they see how Cinderella has an optimistic attitude on life and preservers through and the harsh punishments and chores her stepmother and sisters give her every day they think if she can do it so can I.           

            On the other hand children don’t have a fairy god mother or a prince that is rich they can marry. This is unrealistic… Cinderella essentially escaped all her problems because her godmother made her pretty, and because she married the prince. Cinderella never had to really work to become rich or escape her poor life. The prince saved her from it, because he is rich. If it wasn’t for magic and the princes riches Cinderella would probably still be a slave to her family. In real life children will have obstacles in life, and they may not get to go to the ball they really wanted to go to.. but they must know that life goes on and they can’t give up. Sometimes life is hard, but tomorrow is always another day

Hansel and Gretel Differences

                              

Hansel and Gretel is a timeless fairytale about two children, brother and sister, who get lost in the woods and get found by an evil witch in her gingerbread house. In the story the children use bread crumbs to try to find their way back to the house but animals in the woods eat their crumb path and they can’t get home, allowing the witch to lore them to her delicious home.

There are differences however between the many versions of Hansel and Gretel. In the movie their biological mother was their mother. The mother cared for her family very much but she felt very useless because she couldn’t feed her family. One day their neighbor brought them milk and eggs and she made a casserole. Hansel accidentally let the donkey in the house and the donkey spilt all the milk and ate their casserole. When their mother found out she was very angry and told them to go pick berries out in the forest for their dinner. Hansel and Gretel went into the forbidden forest, which their father and mother told them to never do, and that’s how they got lost.

In the original version their real mother had died and it was their stepmother living with them. The stepmother convinced Hansel and Gretel’s father to take them into the woods and leave them in the forest so she didn’t have to feed them anymore. Hansel and Gretel heard their stepmother telling this to her husband and Hansel went and got pebbles so he could leave a path in the forest and they could find their way back home. The second night the stepmother locked the door so they had to use bread crumbs to make a path. As in the original version animals ate the bread crumbs and they became lost in the forest.

This is one of the main differences between the two versions of Hansel and Gretel. With the mother being the actual birth mother it made the story more family oriented. The act wasn’t as cruel as in the original version. A child watching two kids deaths being planned out wouldn’t like the story as much as if the two children simply got lost and their mother and father both were very worried and looking for them. The relationship between the mother and children is more loving and caring in the movie version than in the original. This makes the movie more relatable and once again, more family oriented.

The similarities were kept because it keeps the message the same; children can overcome obstacles and you shouldn’t underestimate them. Hansel and Gretel had all the odds against them in the forest and when they got caught by the witches gingerbread house trap everyone thought they were goners, but they weren’t. They beat the odds, and give children hope that they too can beat the odds in life. 

Blog Number Two

A fairy tale is commonly known to have happy endings, a princess in distraught, and a charming prince that saves the day. Walt Disney is the one who has put this picture of a fairy tale into our minds.  But fairy’s tales have many elements that make them up besides the Walt Disney characteristics.       

 

                Fairy tales have elements of magic and fantasy. When reading a fairy tale we know it’s not real and we accept it. When reading Little Red Riding hood for example we don’t question when the wolf talks, we read it and accept it like it happen every day. This is one point that separates fairy tales from myths, and legends.  There are fairies, elves, witches, trolls and giants. They all have special powers and make wishes come true. It wouldn’t be interesting or a fairy tale if there weren’t these magical creatures. One of the main reasons I read fairy tales is because of the magic.

                Myths have to do with god and religions, and legends have saints and deal with real facts that are made more humanistic. Animals can talk in a legend but people question it, the characters in the story question it, it’s not just simply accepted. Some people actually believe local legends too; unlike in fairy tales where the reader, or viewer, knows it’s not real.

                Fairy tales are also a universe in miniature.  They have all the elements and they teach morals. They also have no character development.  You don’t know much about characters or who they really are unless they are the main characters. Like in little red riding hood the grandmother is simply the grandmother… there isn’t much character development.

                Fairy tales also have no sense of time. Once upon a time is how they start. There is not direct time as to when that is or where it even occurred. Age is doesn’t really exist either, when sleeping beauty falls asleep for “100 years” when she wakes up she is just as young and pretty as she was when she fell asleep at the age of 16 or 15. Fairy tales simply just ignore time, it doesn’t matter to them and that’s another element that makes them so interesting and magical.

                To me fairy tales are also a way to disconnect from the real world. When reading a fairy tale I don’t question things and I get lost in magic. It’s nice to read about once upon a time and not worry about when it actually was or the history of that era. It’s nice to read about finding true love and having a prince charming come into your life and sacrifice his own life for yours. When I was younger it gave me hope these things would actually happen, and that I would have fairies come grant all my wishes. Now that I’m older it’s a way to escape from the real world and get lost into a fantasy world.

Blog Number One

Why did you choose this course as your FYS? What are you hoping to accomplish in this seminar? What is your favorite fairy tale? Why?

Ever since I have been a little girl I have LOVED fairy tales. All types from Hunchback of Notre Dame to Cinderella. So, naturally, when I was signing up for our required first year seminars the class “From Grim to Disney” caught my eye. I thought that this class would be the most interesting and it’s on a topic I actually like and will enjoy learning about. To this day I still watch fairy tales and love every second of them.
My favorite Disney movie is The Lion King. When I was younger I was obsessed with Simba and when they came out with Lion King Two I thought it was the best day ever. I love it because I also have a soft spot for animals so when I saw lion king I loved that all the main characters were lions and other animals. I still cry when Mufasa dies in the first one. The songs in lion king also made the movie ten times greater for me because they were very catchy. In The Lion King Two I loved the love story plot and I also really like how the two packs become friends in the end, it’s really the perfect ending.
Once I started getting older I learned and heard that Disney actually took their stories from other older tales and changed them into child movies. This topic had always interested me, knowing what some of my favorite Disney stories were actually about and derived from. That is something I hope to learn this semester from this class.