id
stringlengths 40
265
| text
stringlengths 209
2.18M
| source
stringclasses 1
value | added
stringdate 2025-03-22 05:08:50
2025-03-22 06:09:39
| created
stringclasses 651
values | metadata
dict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/chapter/captivated-i-listen/#chapter-286-section-23
|
4 Captivated, I Listen
Constance Hodder
Sheltered Beneath the Pines
Sheltered beneath the pines,
I hear a voice calling.
First the sound of breath,
becoming a moan,
to a cry,
to a sigh,
to silence.
Captivated, I listen
again to the breath,
the moan,
the cry,
the sigh,
silence.
Is that the wind I hear
or the song of the trees?
A song of sorrow or joy,
of loss or ecstasy,
wind stroking branches
carrying seed aloft.
I am answered with silence,
my body embraced by wind.
One exists only
in the arms of the other
like wind in tree’s song.
Stepping Outside
Stepping outside, escaping
the chaos of day,
I cross into the dark
sanctum of the night.
Enclosed within its black veil
the whirlwind stills,
agitation falls away
leaving only peace.
Certainly not quiet,
in the flashlight beam bugs dance
to the love song of the toads
trilling and croaking.
A bear lumbers through the brush,
coyotes howl in the distance,
this is their territory,
we are but interlopers.
An oak branch bumps my head,
I trip over its root,
a June bug collides with me
crossing its path.
Oh, to be one with the night,
at home within this realm,
instead of a trespasser
in my own domain.
We are but visitors
of darkness as with the light,
our footprints left behind,
wash away with rain.
One day we will be welcomed
into darkness, at home
growing roots with the oak,
flying with the June bugs.
After a Storm
After a storm, air swims of worms
struggling from wet earth to breathe.
Amphibious fragrance fills ones
nostrils raised like a dog catching
a whiff of what passed before.
Awakening connections
to the primitive soul that danced
in the rain with head raised high
catching drops on a parched tongue,
tasting life’s sweet nectar.
Heeding the siren’s call to
return to the sea to swim amidst
creatures who shy from the stranger
that raises its head from the surf
to breathe the scent of moist earth.
Scraps of Paper
Scraps of paper
blown on the wind,
land to drift on
the glassy pond.
They are rescued
from the water
like sacred scrolls
treasure maps.
Birch bark layers
curl in my hands,
white to tan skins
vented to breathe.
Without words,
secret messages,
or directions,
they tell a tale.
Of a canoe,
skimming across
a glassy pond to
the pull of paddles.
A living poem,
breathing through bark,
a Paper Birch’s
legacy.
Mothers Rise at Night
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
listening for their with a gleam of light
children’s calls. on the dark horizon.
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
hearing the cries painting the land
of the hungry. with a lambent glow.
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
to hold their hungry in dazzling brilliance
ones to their breast. setting the sky ablaze.
Mothers rise at night
to the moon’s call
cradling their babies.
Mothers rise at night
to bathe their souls in
the moon’s radiance.
Mothers rest their babies The moon rests at dawn
back down as they rise in the glow of the rising
in the morning light. sun on the horizon.
Two Trees
Two trees stand afield as fog
on a golden wave rolls in.
Twilight enlivens the glow
until darkness fades to grey.
When did the hummingbirds leave?
Summer gives way to winter.
Days grow short. The light dims
swallowed by eternal nights.
I so hunger for color.
Will the hummingbirds return?
Oh, to be a whirling maple
casting crimson leaves to the
wind, releasing my spirit
from its earthly restraints.
Walking Toward Home
Walking toward home at sunset
I pass beneath a birch
on a brilliant carpet
of amber leaves who
once danced with the wind.
Now lay spent where time
once was and is no more.
A place apart where
flesh and blood fall away,
breath becomes spirit.
Enveloped in a golden glow
I awaken within
a sacred realm of light
filled with joy beyond
my understanding.
Surrounded with peace,
I wait in awed silence
as night closes the veil.
I walk home in darkness,
light still within me.
Enraptured
Enraptured
wooded paths entry
to worlds set apart
revealing secret
inner wonders.
Enveloped
evergreens enshrine
cavern carpeted
with amber needled
radiance.
Encased
milkweed pods enclose
silken parachuted
seeds awaiting flight
on the wind.
Enchanted
mushrooms encircle
fairy ring of lore.
Stumble inside to
dance with elves.
Entangled
grass thimble en-laced
nest of hummingbird
skillfully woven
to vanish.
Enlightened
quest to encounter
divine mysteries
simply revealed on
nature’s path.
Three Olive Finches
On a grey December dawn
three olive finches sit frozen
on the feeder facing east
in solemn silence.
Watching out the window
I too am caught under the spell
of a quiet moment of
prayer without words.
The crisp morning softens as
first rays of sunlight reach over
the horizon caressing
the frigid birds.
They turn now in unison
to feast together on seed
having witnessed the divine
in warmth and light.
Wind Buffets the Trees
Wind buffets the trees,
tossing branches wildly,
flailing leaves strain their
slender connections.
I’m blinded by its force,
tangled hair whips my face,
upset by an argument,
unable to move ahead.
Dry yellow leaves fly out,
expelled amid hardy ones.
Fall’s long shadow cast over,
what remains of summer.
Solstice has passed, days grow short,
darkness lengthens into night.
Consequence of a long life,
is knowing what comes next.
I steady myself against
a swaying tree, praying
it has been made stronger,
by wind that buffets it.
Tiny Nuthatch
Tiny nuthatch picks a seed,
flies to the power pole,
perching upside down
places it in a hole.
It’s acrobatic skills
captivate this watcher.
His instinctual need
to prepare for winter.
Nearby is a downy
who sees the cache
flies to the power pole
boldly plucks out the seed.
Every season has its time
to reap, to feast, to starve.
Survival for those who
look ahead and those who watch.
As Night Falls
As night falls, darkness
moves in around me.
Standing alone, breath held,
listening……..waiting.
How does one explain
the presence of owls?
Flying on silent wings,
so quiet, they have
been mistaken for
spirits of the dead.
How does one explain
the presence of the dead?
Their voice as a dream,
a glimpse out of sight,
an improbable
answer to prayer.
How does one explain
the presence of prayer?
An owl calling out,
silhouetted in the
moonlight to his love,
stars circling above.
Tales in Snow
Trudging through snow
on a winter morning
recounts a story of those
who have gone before
leaving messages behind.
Squirrel tracks
pattern the frozen snow
like inverse braille
directing the mice below to
where feeder seeds lie.
Rabbit tracks
cluster under low branches
along with grouse and pheasant
paused in sheltered grottoes
to scan the horizon.
Deer hooves
make deep impressions
along with trailing foot
like exclamation marks
declaring caution.
Coyote prints
tracking their prey
thicken the plot
follow the narrative left
behind by the vulnerable.
Darkening clouds
promise fresh snow
starting a new chapter
of tales of those in print
who passed before.
A Curl of Brown Leaf
A curl of brown leaf
spins into the air,
released from its bond
by a gust of wind.
It twists and turns in
jubilant dance before
falling back down to
return to the soil.
No one notes its passage
except for dreamers,
who yearn to fly free
untethered from earth.
Soaring through clouds,
spun in a whirlwind,
letting go of matter,
sun, rain, and being.
Before tumbling back,
into arms of the wind,
set down to rest in
the field of leaves.
Unless the wind
desires once more,
to dance with leaves in
a swirl of ecstasy.
Diving Into the Lake
Diving into the lake
she emerges to float
weightlessly drifting
taking in the vast sky.
Within that blue expanse
an eagle circles high
flaps its wings then glides
on the air looking down.
Captured in that moment
a transcendence of self
gliding weightless along
the two become one.
Like the water and sky
they share the horizon,
communion of spirits
together soaring free.
Dark Comes Early
Dark comes early
Snow coats land
Trees stand stark
Trunks hold up
Starry sky.
Sharp cold air
Breath forms clouds
Wading through
Deep snow drifts
Steps muffled.
Moonlit field
Stag stands still
Watching me
Watching him
Sees beyond.
Looking Into the Darkness
Looking into the darkness,
she lifts her head, ears erect,
listening to sounds that
arouse her primal instincts.
Catching a scent in the air,
her nose drops to the ground,
follows it through the brush,
snaking through the tall grass.
Suddenly, she drops and rolls,
twisting back and forth,
disguising her odor with
a wild animal essence.
Leaping to her feet, the wolf
emerges from noble ancestry,
who stalked its prey, killed,
and howled with the pack.
Gazing up, the predator
sees in me the first woman,
who threw meat scraps to the pack,
from the fire, as they drew near.
Wagging her tail, she turns,
remembers the way home,
her bowl of kibble, soft bed,
and fireplace to dream beside.
In the Dead of Winter
In the dead of winter,
sun recedes behind bare trees,
temperatures plummet. Bundled,
Tara and I head out.
Thick snow blankets the brush.
Shelter for field mice,
Hide and Seek for Tara,
whose nose probes the mounds.
Leaping off the suet,
a fat squirrel escapes
in a powdery spray.
Tara strains at her leash.
In the grey dying light,
darkness replaces beauty,
stealing my attention,
invading my thoughts.
Last night, unable to sleep,
I slipped into your room,
laid my hand on your cheek,
listened to your breath.
I looked into the abyss,
felt its icy slope.
While you slept soundly,
my world started to slide.
In the dead of winter,
field mice lay hidden,
squirrels watch from afar.
Tara and I turn back.
Bitter Winter
Bitter winter.
Below zero
engine stalls.
Emotions
hibernate.
Cold takes hostage.
Tightly
bound by
parka, and wrapped scarf
mummified.
Perspective narrows,
senses
grow numb.
Deaf, blind, and mute,
darkness descends.
Deeply cocooned.
Sunlight
slips in,
melting despair,
awakening hope.
It’s All Was Talked About
It’s all was talked about,
how winter stole spring away,
those April showers bringing
only snow and dashed hopes.
Not a pretty subject for poems,
the long cold winter of
desolation and despair,
so bleak, it hurt to live.
To cope, emotions were
secreted in dark dens
like black bears deep in sleep,
their hearts barely beating.
Each day had to be faced
with grim resolution,
even the day spring came
my parka worn like a shroud.
Sun filtered through bare trees
drawing me like a moth to flame.
Turning toward the warmth with
eyes closed, red light streamed in.
Ice melted from my heart,
my frozen spirit thawed,
feelings stumbled out
of their gloomy cave.
May showers brought new growth,
hummingbirds returned along
with enough hope to store
until life’s next winter.
Drawn into the Forest
Drawn into the forest,
troubled with loss and grief,
drought, disease, destruction.
Trees respond, ‘Our roots run deep’.
Swept high into branches,
a shared communion of
breath and expiration,
life’s fragility.
When the soul departs from flesh
will it be lost in a void,
falling into an abyss
of nothingness nowhere?
‘Death brings transformation.
Our ashes sift deep in soil
to be fed by sweet rain,
nurtured by warm sunshine’.
‘We are seedlings of spirit
resurrected, reaching
to the light on new limbs
raised in praise toward heaven’.
At sunrise, feel the warmth.
As rain falls, taste its sweetness.
Reach out toward heaven,
pray roots run deep.
Quietly the Snow Falls
Quietly the snow falls.
Its feathery flight hushed
as it blankets the ground.
I stop and listen to
the music of silence.
With eyes closed, I raise my
face to the sky. Flakes coat
my cheeks, my nose, my lashes,
melt down my neck in a
frozen baptism.
I am aware of my
heart beating in my ears,
my breathing in and out,
my smallness within this
greatness, apart and a part.
Paradise may be far off, but
there is peace in this place
where distance disappears
as snow fills the silence
between heaven and earth.
Sandhill Cranes Returned
Sandhill cranes returned.
Their haunting calls echo
through the still bare trees
and frozen swamp of time.
We shout, “Welcome back,”
as spring breaks winter’s
strangle hold on us,
our bones begin to dance.
Grief no longer runs
like blood from my pen.
New birth and hope sprout
on the blank page.
The predator still lurks,
snow and cold remain
a certain threat but
death has loosed its grip.
Cranes fly above us,
giving their immortal cry
heard since time’s beginning,
“I am…I am…I am”.
Across the Linen Cloth
Across the linen cloth,
petals from the bouquet
lay scattered, red as blood,
dripping from wilted stems.
Snow continues to fall,
spring disguised as winter,
leaving life standing bare,
stealing what days remain.
Heard through worn carpet,
seen through frosted pane,
memories burnt for warmth,
leave in wisps of smoke.
Across the sky before dawn,
the waning crescent rises,
fades away to nothing,
then becomes new once more.
Wind Sings Through Trees
Wind sings through trees
swinging branches,
thunder rumbles,
in harmony.
Clouds swirl above
turning inky grey,
temperature drops,
as sky ignites.
Rain splashes down
soaking this poem,
washing the words,
clean off the page.
Wind sings on as
in the beginning,
words become flesh,
living with us.
Crying our tears,
singing our songs,
dancing with us,
out in the rain.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:17.603513
|
04-9-2023
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/chapter/captivated-i-listen/#chapter-286-section-23",
"book_url": "https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/front-matter/foreward/",
"title": "What Time is Left",
"author": "Constance Hodder",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Poetry, Poetry by individual poets"
}
|
https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/chapter/captivated-i-listen/#chapter-286-section-24
|
4 Captivated, I Listen
Constance Hodder
Sheltered Beneath the Pines
Sheltered beneath the pines,
I hear a voice calling.
First the sound of breath,
becoming a moan,
to a cry,
to a sigh,
to silence.
Captivated, I listen
again to the breath,
the moan,
the cry,
the sigh,
silence.
Is that the wind I hear
or the song of the trees?
A song of sorrow or joy,
of loss or ecstasy,
wind stroking branches
carrying seed aloft.
I am answered with silence,
my body embraced by wind.
One exists only
in the arms of the other
like wind in tree’s song.
Stepping Outside
Stepping outside, escaping
the chaos of day,
I cross into the dark
sanctum of the night.
Enclosed within its black veil
the whirlwind stills,
agitation falls away
leaving only peace.
Certainly not quiet,
in the flashlight beam bugs dance
to the love song of the toads
trilling and croaking.
A bear lumbers through the brush,
coyotes howl in the distance,
this is their territory,
we are but interlopers.
An oak branch bumps my head,
I trip over its root,
a June bug collides with me
crossing its path.
Oh, to be one with the night,
at home within this realm,
instead of a trespasser
in my own domain.
We are but visitors
of darkness as with the light,
our footprints left behind,
wash away with rain.
One day we will be welcomed
into darkness, at home
growing roots with the oak,
flying with the June bugs.
After a Storm
After a storm, air swims of worms
struggling from wet earth to breathe.
Amphibious fragrance fills ones
nostrils raised like a dog catching
a whiff of what passed before.
Awakening connections
to the primitive soul that danced
in the rain with head raised high
catching drops on a parched tongue,
tasting life’s sweet nectar.
Heeding the siren’s call to
return to the sea to swim amidst
creatures who shy from the stranger
that raises its head from the surf
to breathe the scent of moist earth.
Scraps of Paper
Scraps of paper
blown on the wind,
land to drift on
the glassy pond.
They are rescued
from the water
like sacred scrolls
treasure maps.
Birch bark layers
curl in my hands,
white to tan skins
vented to breathe.
Without words,
secret messages,
or directions,
they tell a tale.
Of a canoe,
skimming across
a glassy pond to
the pull of paddles.
A living poem,
breathing through bark,
a Paper Birch’s
legacy.
Mothers Rise at Night
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
listening for their with a gleam of light
children’s calls. on the dark horizon.
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
hearing the cries painting the land
of the hungry. with a lambent glow.
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
to hold their hungry in dazzling brilliance
ones to their breast. setting the sky ablaze.
Mothers rise at night
to the moon’s call
cradling their babies.
Mothers rise at night
to bathe their souls in
the moon’s radiance.
Mothers rest their babies The moon rests at dawn
back down as they rise in the glow of the rising
in the morning light. sun on the horizon.
Two Trees
Two trees stand afield as fog
on a golden wave rolls in.
Twilight enlivens the glow
until darkness fades to grey.
When did the hummingbirds leave?
Summer gives way to winter.
Days grow short. The light dims
swallowed by eternal nights.
I so hunger for color.
Will the hummingbirds return?
Oh, to be a whirling maple
casting crimson leaves to the
wind, releasing my spirit
from its earthly restraints.
Walking Toward Home
Walking toward home at sunset
I pass beneath a birch
on a brilliant carpet
of amber leaves who
once danced with the wind.
Now lay spent where time
once was and is no more.
A place apart where
flesh and blood fall away,
breath becomes spirit.
Enveloped in a golden glow
I awaken within
a sacred realm of light
filled with joy beyond
my understanding.
Surrounded with peace,
I wait in awed silence
as night closes the veil.
I walk home in darkness,
light still within me.
Enraptured
Enraptured
wooded paths entry
to worlds set apart
revealing secret
inner wonders.
Enveloped
evergreens enshrine
cavern carpeted
with amber needled
radiance.
Encased
milkweed pods enclose
silken parachuted
seeds awaiting flight
on the wind.
Enchanted
mushrooms encircle
fairy ring of lore.
Stumble inside to
dance with elves.
Entangled
grass thimble en-laced
nest of hummingbird
skillfully woven
to vanish.
Enlightened
quest to encounter
divine mysteries
simply revealed on
nature’s path.
Three Olive Finches
On a grey December dawn
three olive finches sit frozen
on the feeder facing east
in solemn silence.
Watching out the window
I too am caught under the spell
of a quiet moment of
prayer without words.
The crisp morning softens as
first rays of sunlight reach over
the horizon caressing
the frigid birds.
They turn now in unison
to feast together on seed
having witnessed the divine
in warmth and light.
Wind Buffets the Trees
Wind buffets the trees,
tossing branches wildly,
flailing leaves strain their
slender connections.
I’m blinded by its force,
tangled hair whips my face,
upset by an argument,
unable to move ahead.
Dry yellow leaves fly out,
expelled amid hardy ones.
Fall’s long shadow cast over,
what remains of summer.
Solstice has passed, days grow short,
darkness lengthens into night.
Consequence of a long life,
is knowing what comes next.
I steady myself against
a swaying tree, praying
it has been made stronger,
by wind that buffets it.
Tiny Nuthatch
Tiny nuthatch picks a seed,
flies to the power pole,
perching upside down
places it in a hole.
It’s acrobatic skills
captivate this watcher.
His instinctual need
to prepare for winter.
Nearby is a downy
who sees the cache
flies to the power pole
boldly plucks out the seed.
Every season has its time
to reap, to feast, to starve.
Survival for those who
look ahead and those who watch.
As Night Falls
As night falls, darkness
moves in around me.
Standing alone, breath held,
listening……..waiting.
How does one explain
the presence of owls?
Flying on silent wings,
so quiet, they have
been mistaken for
spirits of the dead.
How does one explain
the presence of the dead?
Their voice as a dream,
a glimpse out of sight,
an improbable
answer to prayer.
How does one explain
the presence of prayer?
An owl calling out,
silhouetted in the
moonlight to his love,
stars circling above.
Tales in Snow
Trudging through snow
on a winter morning
recounts a story of those
who have gone before
leaving messages behind.
Squirrel tracks
pattern the frozen snow
like inverse braille
directing the mice below to
where feeder seeds lie.
Rabbit tracks
cluster under low branches
along with grouse and pheasant
paused in sheltered grottoes
to scan the horizon.
Deer hooves
make deep impressions
along with trailing foot
like exclamation marks
declaring caution.
Coyote prints
tracking their prey
thicken the plot
follow the narrative left
behind by the vulnerable.
Darkening clouds
promise fresh snow
starting a new chapter
of tales of those in print
who passed before.
A Curl of Brown Leaf
A curl of brown leaf
spins into the air,
released from its bond
by a gust of wind.
It twists and turns in
jubilant dance before
falling back down to
return to the soil.
No one notes its passage
except for dreamers,
who yearn to fly free
untethered from earth.
Soaring through clouds,
spun in a whirlwind,
letting go of matter,
sun, rain, and being.
Before tumbling back,
into arms of the wind,
set down to rest in
the field of leaves.
Unless the wind
desires once more,
to dance with leaves in
a swirl of ecstasy.
Diving Into the Lake
Diving into the lake
she emerges to float
weightlessly drifting
taking in the vast sky.
Within that blue expanse
an eagle circles high
flaps its wings then glides
on the air looking down.
Captured in that moment
a transcendence of self
gliding weightless along
the two become one.
Like the water and sky
they share the horizon,
communion of spirits
together soaring free.
Dark Comes Early
Dark comes early
Snow coats land
Trees stand stark
Trunks hold up
Starry sky.
Sharp cold air
Breath forms clouds
Wading through
Deep snow drifts
Steps muffled.
Moonlit field
Stag stands still
Watching me
Watching him
Sees beyond.
Looking Into the Darkness
Looking into the darkness,
she lifts her head, ears erect,
listening to sounds that
arouse her primal instincts.
Catching a scent in the air,
her nose drops to the ground,
follows it through the brush,
snaking through the tall grass.
Suddenly, she drops and rolls,
twisting back and forth,
disguising her odor with
a wild animal essence.
Leaping to her feet, the wolf
emerges from noble ancestry,
who stalked its prey, killed,
and howled with the pack.
Gazing up, the predator
sees in me the first woman,
who threw meat scraps to the pack,
from the fire, as they drew near.
Wagging her tail, she turns,
remembers the way home,
her bowl of kibble, soft bed,
and fireplace to dream beside.
In the Dead of Winter
In the dead of winter,
sun recedes behind bare trees,
temperatures plummet. Bundled,
Tara and I head out.
Thick snow blankets the brush.
Shelter for field mice,
Hide and Seek for Tara,
whose nose probes the mounds.
Leaping off the suet,
a fat squirrel escapes
in a powdery spray.
Tara strains at her leash.
In the grey dying light,
darkness replaces beauty,
stealing my attention,
invading my thoughts.
Last night, unable to sleep,
I slipped into your room,
laid my hand on your cheek,
listened to your breath.
I looked into the abyss,
felt its icy slope.
While you slept soundly,
my world started to slide.
In the dead of winter,
field mice lay hidden,
squirrels watch from afar.
Tara and I turn back.
Bitter Winter
Bitter winter.
Below zero
engine stalls.
Emotions
hibernate.
Cold takes hostage.
Tightly
bound by
parka, and wrapped scarf
mummified.
Perspective narrows,
senses
grow numb.
Deaf, blind, and mute,
darkness descends.
Deeply cocooned.
Sunlight
slips in,
melting despair,
awakening hope.
It’s All Was Talked About
It’s all was talked about,
how winter stole spring away,
those April showers bringing
only snow and dashed hopes.
Not a pretty subject for poems,
the long cold winter of
desolation and despair,
so bleak, it hurt to live.
To cope, emotions were
secreted in dark dens
like black bears deep in sleep,
their hearts barely beating.
Each day had to be faced
with grim resolution,
even the day spring came
my parka worn like a shroud.
Sun filtered through bare trees
drawing me like a moth to flame.
Turning toward the warmth with
eyes closed, red light streamed in.
Ice melted from my heart,
my frozen spirit thawed,
feelings stumbled out
of their gloomy cave.
May showers brought new growth,
hummingbirds returned along
with enough hope to store
until life’s next winter.
Drawn into the Forest
Drawn into the forest,
troubled with loss and grief,
drought, disease, destruction.
Trees respond, ‘Our roots run deep’.
Swept high into branches,
a shared communion of
breath and expiration,
life’s fragility.
When the soul departs from flesh
will it be lost in a void,
falling into an abyss
of nothingness nowhere?
‘Death brings transformation.
Our ashes sift deep in soil
to be fed by sweet rain,
nurtured by warm sunshine’.
‘We are seedlings of spirit
resurrected, reaching
to the light on new limbs
raised in praise toward heaven’.
At sunrise, feel the warmth.
As rain falls, taste its sweetness.
Reach out toward heaven,
pray roots run deep.
Quietly the Snow Falls
Quietly the snow falls.
Its feathery flight hushed
as it blankets the ground.
I stop and listen to
the music of silence.
With eyes closed, I raise my
face to the sky. Flakes coat
my cheeks, my nose, my lashes,
melt down my neck in a
frozen baptism.
I am aware of my
heart beating in my ears,
my breathing in and out,
my smallness within this
greatness, apart and a part.
Paradise may be far off, but
there is peace in this place
where distance disappears
as snow fills the silence
between heaven and earth.
Sandhill Cranes Returned
Sandhill cranes returned.
Their haunting calls echo
through the still bare trees
and frozen swamp of time.
We shout, “Welcome back,”
as spring breaks winter’s
strangle hold on us,
our bones begin to dance.
Grief no longer runs
like blood from my pen.
New birth and hope sprout
on the blank page.
The predator still lurks,
snow and cold remain
a certain threat but
death has loosed its grip.
Cranes fly above us,
giving their immortal cry
heard since time’s beginning,
“I am…I am…I am”.
Across the Linen Cloth
Across the linen cloth,
petals from the bouquet
lay scattered, red as blood,
dripping from wilted stems.
Snow continues to fall,
spring disguised as winter,
leaving life standing bare,
stealing what days remain.
Heard through worn carpet,
seen through frosted pane,
memories burnt for warmth,
leave in wisps of smoke.
Across the sky before dawn,
the waning crescent rises,
fades away to nothing,
then becomes new once more.
Wind Sings Through Trees
Wind sings through trees
swinging branches,
thunder rumbles,
in harmony.
Clouds swirl above
turning inky grey,
temperature drops,
as sky ignites.
Rain splashes down
soaking this poem,
washing the words,
clean off the page.
Wind sings on as
in the beginning,
words become flesh,
living with us.
Crying our tears,
singing our songs,
dancing with us,
out in the rain.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:17.679443
|
04-9-2023
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/chapter/captivated-i-listen/#chapter-286-section-24",
"book_url": "https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/front-matter/foreward/",
"title": "What Time is Left",
"author": "Constance Hodder",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Poetry, Poetry by individual poets"
}
|
https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/chapter/captivated-i-listen/#chapter-286-section-25
|
4 Captivated, I Listen
Constance Hodder
Sheltered Beneath the Pines
Sheltered beneath the pines,
I hear a voice calling.
First the sound of breath,
becoming a moan,
to a cry,
to a sigh,
to silence.
Captivated, I listen
again to the breath,
the moan,
the cry,
the sigh,
silence.
Is that the wind I hear
or the song of the trees?
A song of sorrow or joy,
of loss or ecstasy,
wind stroking branches
carrying seed aloft.
I am answered with silence,
my body embraced by wind.
One exists only
in the arms of the other
like wind in tree’s song.
Stepping Outside
Stepping outside, escaping
the chaos of day,
I cross into the dark
sanctum of the night.
Enclosed within its black veil
the whirlwind stills,
agitation falls away
leaving only peace.
Certainly not quiet,
in the flashlight beam bugs dance
to the love song of the toads
trilling and croaking.
A bear lumbers through the brush,
coyotes howl in the distance,
this is their territory,
we are but interlopers.
An oak branch bumps my head,
I trip over its root,
a June bug collides with me
crossing its path.
Oh, to be one with the night,
at home within this realm,
instead of a trespasser
in my own domain.
We are but visitors
of darkness as with the light,
our footprints left behind,
wash away with rain.
One day we will be welcomed
into darkness, at home
growing roots with the oak,
flying with the June bugs.
After a Storm
After a storm, air swims of worms
struggling from wet earth to breathe.
Amphibious fragrance fills ones
nostrils raised like a dog catching
a whiff of what passed before.
Awakening connections
to the primitive soul that danced
in the rain with head raised high
catching drops on a parched tongue,
tasting life’s sweet nectar.
Heeding the siren’s call to
return to the sea to swim amidst
creatures who shy from the stranger
that raises its head from the surf
to breathe the scent of moist earth.
Scraps of Paper
Scraps of paper
blown on the wind,
land to drift on
the glassy pond.
They are rescued
from the water
like sacred scrolls
treasure maps.
Birch bark layers
curl in my hands,
white to tan skins
vented to breathe.
Without words,
secret messages,
or directions,
they tell a tale.
Of a canoe,
skimming across
a glassy pond to
the pull of paddles.
A living poem,
breathing through bark,
a Paper Birch’s
legacy.
Mothers Rise at Night
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
listening for their with a gleam of light
children’s calls. on the dark horizon.
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
hearing the cries painting the land
of the hungry. with a lambent glow.
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
to hold their hungry in dazzling brilliance
ones to their breast. setting the sky ablaze.
Mothers rise at night
to the moon’s call
cradling their babies.
Mothers rise at night
to bathe their souls in
the moon’s radiance.
Mothers rest their babies The moon rests at dawn
back down as they rise in the glow of the rising
in the morning light. sun on the horizon.
Two Trees
Two trees stand afield as fog
on a golden wave rolls in.
Twilight enlivens the glow
until darkness fades to grey.
When did the hummingbirds leave?
Summer gives way to winter.
Days grow short. The light dims
swallowed by eternal nights.
I so hunger for color.
Will the hummingbirds return?
Oh, to be a whirling maple
casting crimson leaves to the
wind, releasing my spirit
from its earthly restraints.
Walking Toward Home
Walking toward home at sunset
I pass beneath a birch
on a brilliant carpet
of amber leaves who
once danced with the wind.
Now lay spent where time
once was and is no more.
A place apart where
flesh and blood fall away,
breath becomes spirit.
Enveloped in a golden glow
I awaken within
a sacred realm of light
filled with joy beyond
my understanding.
Surrounded with peace,
I wait in awed silence
as night closes the veil.
I walk home in darkness,
light still within me.
Enraptured
Enraptured
wooded paths entry
to worlds set apart
revealing secret
inner wonders.
Enveloped
evergreens enshrine
cavern carpeted
with amber needled
radiance.
Encased
milkweed pods enclose
silken parachuted
seeds awaiting flight
on the wind.
Enchanted
mushrooms encircle
fairy ring of lore.
Stumble inside to
dance with elves.
Entangled
grass thimble en-laced
nest of hummingbird
skillfully woven
to vanish.
Enlightened
quest to encounter
divine mysteries
simply revealed on
nature’s path.
Three Olive Finches
On a grey December dawn
three olive finches sit frozen
on the feeder facing east
in solemn silence.
Watching out the window
I too am caught under the spell
of a quiet moment of
prayer without words.
The crisp morning softens as
first rays of sunlight reach over
the horizon caressing
the frigid birds.
They turn now in unison
to feast together on seed
having witnessed the divine
in warmth and light.
Wind Buffets the Trees
Wind buffets the trees,
tossing branches wildly,
flailing leaves strain their
slender connections.
I’m blinded by its force,
tangled hair whips my face,
upset by an argument,
unable to move ahead.
Dry yellow leaves fly out,
expelled amid hardy ones.
Fall’s long shadow cast over,
what remains of summer.
Solstice has passed, days grow short,
darkness lengthens into night.
Consequence of a long life,
is knowing what comes next.
I steady myself against
a swaying tree, praying
it has been made stronger,
by wind that buffets it.
Tiny Nuthatch
Tiny nuthatch picks a seed,
flies to the power pole,
perching upside down
places it in a hole.
It’s acrobatic skills
captivate this watcher.
His instinctual need
to prepare for winter.
Nearby is a downy
who sees the cache
flies to the power pole
boldly plucks out the seed.
Every season has its time
to reap, to feast, to starve.
Survival for those who
look ahead and those who watch.
As Night Falls
As night falls, darkness
moves in around me.
Standing alone, breath held,
listening……..waiting.
How does one explain
the presence of owls?
Flying on silent wings,
so quiet, they have
been mistaken for
spirits of the dead.
How does one explain
the presence of the dead?
Their voice as a dream,
a glimpse out of sight,
an improbable
answer to prayer.
How does one explain
the presence of prayer?
An owl calling out,
silhouetted in the
moonlight to his love,
stars circling above.
Tales in Snow
Trudging through snow
on a winter morning
recounts a story of those
who have gone before
leaving messages behind.
Squirrel tracks
pattern the frozen snow
like inverse braille
directing the mice below to
where feeder seeds lie.
Rabbit tracks
cluster under low branches
along with grouse and pheasant
paused in sheltered grottoes
to scan the horizon.
Deer hooves
make deep impressions
along with trailing foot
like exclamation marks
declaring caution.
Coyote prints
tracking their prey
thicken the plot
follow the narrative left
behind by the vulnerable.
Darkening clouds
promise fresh snow
starting a new chapter
of tales of those in print
who passed before.
A Curl of Brown Leaf
A curl of brown leaf
spins into the air,
released from its bond
by a gust of wind.
It twists and turns in
jubilant dance before
falling back down to
return to the soil.
No one notes its passage
except for dreamers,
who yearn to fly free
untethered from earth.
Soaring through clouds,
spun in a whirlwind,
letting go of matter,
sun, rain, and being.
Before tumbling back,
into arms of the wind,
set down to rest in
the field of leaves.
Unless the wind
desires once more,
to dance with leaves in
a swirl of ecstasy.
Diving Into the Lake
Diving into the lake
she emerges to float
weightlessly drifting
taking in the vast sky.
Within that blue expanse
an eagle circles high
flaps its wings then glides
on the air looking down.
Captured in that moment
a transcendence of self
gliding weightless along
the two become one.
Like the water and sky
they share the horizon,
communion of spirits
together soaring free.
Dark Comes Early
Dark comes early
Snow coats land
Trees stand stark
Trunks hold up
Starry sky.
Sharp cold air
Breath forms clouds
Wading through
Deep snow drifts
Steps muffled.
Moonlit field
Stag stands still
Watching me
Watching him
Sees beyond.
Looking Into the Darkness
Looking into the darkness,
she lifts her head, ears erect,
listening to sounds that
arouse her primal instincts.
Catching a scent in the air,
her nose drops to the ground,
follows it through the brush,
snaking through the tall grass.
Suddenly, she drops and rolls,
twisting back and forth,
disguising her odor with
a wild animal essence.
Leaping to her feet, the wolf
emerges from noble ancestry,
who stalked its prey, killed,
and howled with the pack.
Gazing up, the predator
sees in me the first woman,
who threw meat scraps to the pack,
from the fire, as they drew near.
Wagging her tail, she turns,
remembers the way home,
her bowl of kibble, soft bed,
and fireplace to dream beside.
In the Dead of Winter
In the dead of winter,
sun recedes behind bare trees,
temperatures plummet. Bundled,
Tara and I head out.
Thick snow blankets the brush.
Shelter for field mice,
Hide and Seek for Tara,
whose nose probes the mounds.
Leaping off the suet,
a fat squirrel escapes
in a powdery spray.
Tara strains at her leash.
In the grey dying light,
darkness replaces beauty,
stealing my attention,
invading my thoughts.
Last night, unable to sleep,
I slipped into your room,
laid my hand on your cheek,
listened to your breath.
I looked into the abyss,
felt its icy slope.
While you slept soundly,
my world started to slide.
In the dead of winter,
field mice lay hidden,
squirrels watch from afar.
Tara and I turn back.
Bitter Winter
Bitter winter.
Below zero
engine stalls.
Emotions
hibernate.
Cold takes hostage.
Tightly
bound by
parka, and wrapped scarf
mummified.
Perspective narrows,
senses
grow numb.
Deaf, blind, and mute,
darkness descends.
Deeply cocooned.
Sunlight
slips in,
melting despair,
awakening hope.
It’s All Was Talked About
It’s all was talked about,
how winter stole spring away,
those April showers bringing
only snow and dashed hopes.
Not a pretty subject for poems,
the long cold winter of
desolation and despair,
so bleak, it hurt to live.
To cope, emotions were
secreted in dark dens
like black bears deep in sleep,
their hearts barely beating.
Each day had to be faced
with grim resolution,
even the day spring came
my parka worn like a shroud.
Sun filtered through bare trees
drawing me like a moth to flame.
Turning toward the warmth with
eyes closed, red light streamed in.
Ice melted from my heart,
my frozen spirit thawed,
feelings stumbled out
of their gloomy cave.
May showers brought new growth,
hummingbirds returned along
with enough hope to store
until life’s next winter.
Drawn into the Forest
Drawn into the forest,
troubled with loss and grief,
drought, disease, destruction.
Trees respond, ‘Our roots run deep’.
Swept high into branches,
a shared communion of
breath and expiration,
life’s fragility.
When the soul departs from flesh
will it be lost in a void,
falling into an abyss
of nothingness nowhere?
‘Death brings transformation.
Our ashes sift deep in soil
to be fed by sweet rain,
nurtured by warm sunshine’.
‘We are seedlings of spirit
resurrected, reaching
to the light on new limbs
raised in praise toward heaven’.
At sunrise, feel the warmth.
As rain falls, taste its sweetness.
Reach out toward heaven,
pray roots run deep.
Quietly the Snow Falls
Quietly the snow falls.
Its feathery flight hushed
as it blankets the ground.
I stop and listen to
the music of silence.
With eyes closed, I raise my
face to the sky. Flakes coat
my cheeks, my nose, my lashes,
melt down my neck in a
frozen baptism.
I am aware of my
heart beating in my ears,
my breathing in and out,
my smallness within this
greatness, apart and a part.
Paradise may be far off, but
there is peace in this place
where distance disappears
as snow fills the silence
between heaven and earth.
Sandhill Cranes Returned
Sandhill cranes returned.
Their haunting calls echo
through the still bare trees
and frozen swamp of time.
We shout, “Welcome back,”
as spring breaks winter’s
strangle hold on us,
our bones begin to dance.
Grief no longer runs
like blood from my pen.
New birth and hope sprout
on the blank page.
The predator still lurks,
snow and cold remain
a certain threat but
death has loosed its grip.
Cranes fly above us,
giving their immortal cry
heard since time’s beginning,
“I am…I am…I am”.
Across the Linen Cloth
Across the linen cloth,
petals from the bouquet
lay scattered, red as blood,
dripping from wilted stems.
Snow continues to fall,
spring disguised as winter,
leaving life standing bare,
stealing what days remain.
Heard through worn carpet,
seen through frosted pane,
memories burnt for warmth,
leave in wisps of smoke.
Across the sky before dawn,
the waning crescent rises,
fades away to nothing,
then becomes new once more.
Wind Sings Through Trees
Wind sings through trees
swinging branches,
thunder rumbles,
in harmony.
Clouds swirl above
turning inky grey,
temperature drops,
as sky ignites.
Rain splashes down
soaking this poem,
washing the words,
clean off the page.
Wind sings on as
in the beginning,
words become flesh,
living with us.
Crying our tears,
singing our songs,
dancing with us,
out in the rain.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:17.769203
|
04-9-2023
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/chapter/captivated-i-listen/#chapter-286-section-25",
"book_url": "https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/front-matter/foreward/",
"title": "What Time is Left",
"author": "Constance Hodder",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Poetry, Poetry by individual poets"
}
|
https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/chapter/captivated-i-listen/#chapter-286-section-26
|
4 Captivated, I Listen
Constance Hodder
Sheltered Beneath the Pines
Sheltered beneath the pines,
I hear a voice calling.
First the sound of breath,
becoming a moan,
to a cry,
to a sigh,
to silence.
Captivated, I listen
again to the breath,
the moan,
the cry,
the sigh,
silence.
Is that the wind I hear
or the song of the trees?
A song of sorrow or joy,
of loss or ecstasy,
wind stroking branches
carrying seed aloft.
I am answered with silence,
my body embraced by wind.
One exists only
in the arms of the other
like wind in tree’s song.
Stepping Outside
Stepping outside, escaping
the chaos of day,
I cross into the dark
sanctum of the night.
Enclosed within its black veil
the whirlwind stills,
agitation falls away
leaving only peace.
Certainly not quiet,
in the flashlight beam bugs dance
to the love song of the toads
trilling and croaking.
A bear lumbers through the brush,
coyotes howl in the distance,
this is their territory,
we are but interlopers.
An oak branch bumps my head,
I trip over its root,
a June bug collides with me
crossing its path.
Oh, to be one with the night,
at home within this realm,
instead of a trespasser
in my own domain.
We are but visitors
of darkness as with the light,
our footprints left behind,
wash away with rain.
One day we will be welcomed
into darkness, at home
growing roots with the oak,
flying with the June bugs.
After a Storm
After a storm, air swims of worms
struggling from wet earth to breathe.
Amphibious fragrance fills ones
nostrils raised like a dog catching
a whiff of what passed before.
Awakening connections
to the primitive soul that danced
in the rain with head raised high
catching drops on a parched tongue,
tasting life’s sweet nectar.
Heeding the siren’s call to
return to the sea to swim amidst
creatures who shy from the stranger
that raises its head from the surf
to breathe the scent of moist earth.
Scraps of Paper
Scraps of paper
blown on the wind,
land to drift on
the glassy pond.
They are rescued
from the water
like sacred scrolls
treasure maps.
Birch bark layers
curl in my hands,
white to tan skins
vented to breathe.
Without words,
secret messages,
or directions,
they tell a tale.
Of a canoe,
skimming across
a glassy pond to
the pull of paddles.
A living poem,
breathing through bark,
a Paper Birch’s
legacy.
Mothers Rise at Night
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
listening for their with a gleam of light
children’s calls. on the dark horizon.
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
hearing the cries painting the land
of the hungry. with a lambent glow.
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
to hold their hungry in dazzling brilliance
ones to their breast. setting the sky ablaze.
Mothers rise at night
to the moon’s call
cradling their babies.
Mothers rise at night
to bathe their souls in
the moon’s radiance.
Mothers rest their babies The moon rests at dawn
back down as they rise in the glow of the rising
in the morning light. sun on the horizon.
Two Trees
Two trees stand afield as fog
on a golden wave rolls in.
Twilight enlivens the glow
until darkness fades to grey.
When did the hummingbirds leave?
Summer gives way to winter.
Days grow short. The light dims
swallowed by eternal nights.
I so hunger for color.
Will the hummingbirds return?
Oh, to be a whirling maple
casting crimson leaves to the
wind, releasing my spirit
from its earthly restraints.
Walking Toward Home
Walking toward home at sunset
I pass beneath a birch
on a brilliant carpet
of amber leaves who
once danced with the wind.
Now lay spent where time
once was and is no more.
A place apart where
flesh and blood fall away,
breath becomes spirit.
Enveloped in a golden glow
I awaken within
a sacred realm of light
filled with joy beyond
my understanding.
Surrounded with peace,
I wait in awed silence
as night closes the veil.
I walk home in darkness,
light still within me.
Enraptured
Enraptured
wooded paths entry
to worlds set apart
revealing secret
inner wonders.
Enveloped
evergreens enshrine
cavern carpeted
with amber needled
radiance.
Encased
milkweed pods enclose
silken parachuted
seeds awaiting flight
on the wind.
Enchanted
mushrooms encircle
fairy ring of lore.
Stumble inside to
dance with elves.
Entangled
grass thimble en-laced
nest of hummingbird
skillfully woven
to vanish.
Enlightened
quest to encounter
divine mysteries
simply revealed on
nature’s path.
Three Olive Finches
On a grey December dawn
three olive finches sit frozen
on the feeder facing east
in solemn silence.
Watching out the window
I too am caught under the spell
of a quiet moment of
prayer without words.
The crisp morning softens as
first rays of sunlight reach over
the horizon caressing
the frigid birds.
They turn now in unison
to feast together on seed
having witnessed the divine
in warmth and light.
Wind Buffets the Trees
Wind buffets the trees,
tossing branches wildly,
flailing leaves strain their
slender connections.
I’m blinded by its force,
tangled hair whips my face,
upset by an argument,
unable to move ahead.
Dry yellow leaves fly out,
expelled amid hardy ones.
Fall’s long shadow cast over,
what remains of summer.
Solstice has passed, days grow short,
darkness lengthens into night.
Consequence of a long life,
is knowing what comes next.
I steady myself against
a swaying tree, praying
it has been made stronger,
by wind that buffets it.
Tiny Nuthatch
Tiny nuthatch picks a seed,
flies to the power pole,
perching upside down
places it in a hole.
It’s acrobatic skills
captivate this watcher.
His instinctual need
to prepare for winter.
Nearby is a downy
who sees the cache
flies to the power pole
boldly plucks out the seed.
Every season has its time
to reap, to feast, to starve.
Survival for those who
look ahead and those who watch.
As Night Falls
As night falls, darkness
moves in around me.
Standing alone, breath held,
listening……..waiting.
How does one explain
the presence of owls?
Flying on silent wings,
so quiet, they have
been mistaken for
spirits of the dead.
How does one explain
the presence of the dead?
Their voice as a dream,
a glimpse out of sight,
an improbable
answer to prayer.
How does one explain
the presence of prayer?
An owl calling out,
silhouetted in the
moonlight to his love,
stars circling above.
Tales in Snow
Trudging through snow
on a winter morning
recounts a story of those
who have gone before
leaving messages behind.
Squirrel tracks
pattern the frozen snow
like inverse braille
directing the mice below to
where feeder seeds lie.
Rabbit tracks
cluster under low branches
along with grouse and pheasant
paused in sheltered grottoes
to scan the horizon.
Deer hooves
make deep impressions
along with trailing foot
like exclamation marks
declaring caution.
Coyote prints
tracking their prey
thicken the plot
follow the narrative left
behind by the vulnerable.
Darkening clouds
promise fresh snow
starting a new chapter
of tales of those in print
who passed before.
A Curl of Brown Leaf
A curl of brown leaf
spins into the air,
released from its bond
by a gust of wind.
It twists and turns in
jubilant dance before
falling back down to
return to the soil.
No one notes its passage
except for dreamers,
who yearn to fly free
untethered from earth.
Soaring through clouds,
spun in a whirlwind,
letting go of matter,
sun, rain, and being.
Before tumbling back,
into arms of the wind,
set down to rest in
the field of leaves.
Unless the wind
desires once more,
to dance with leaves in
a swirl of ecstasy.
Diving Into the Lake
Diving into the lake
she emerges to float
weightlessly drifting
taking in the vast sky.
Within that blue expanse
an eagle circles high
flaps its wings then glides
on the air looking down.
Captured in that moment
a transcendence of self
gliding weightless along
the two become one.
Like the water and sky
they share the horizon,
communion of spirits
together soaring free.
Dark Comes Early
Dark comes early
Snow coats land
Trees stand stark
Trunks hold up
Starry sky.
Sharp cold air
Breath forms clouds
Wading through
Deep snow drifts
Steps muffled.
Moonlit field
Stag stands still
Watching me
Watching him
Sees beyond.
Looking Into the Darkness
Looking into the darkness,
she lifts her head, ears erect,
listening to sounds that
arouse her primal instincts.
Catching a scent in the air,
her nose drops to the ground,
follows it through the brush,
snaking through the tall grass.
Suddenly, she drops and rolls,
twisting back and forth,
disguising her odor with
a wild animal essence.
Leaping to her feet, the wolf
emerges from noble ancestry,
who stalked its prey, killed,
and howled with the pack.
Gazing up, the predator
sees in me the first woman,
who threw meat scraps to the pack,
from the fire, as they drew near.
Wagging her tail, she turns,
remembers the way home,
her bowl of kibble, soft bed,
and fireplace to dream beside.
In the Dead of Winter
In the dead of winter,
sun recedes behind bare trees,
temperatures plummet. Bundled,
Tara and I head out.
Thick snow blankets the brush.
Shelter for field mice,
Hide and Seek for Tara,
whose nose probes the mounds.
Leaping off the suet,
a fat squirrel escapes
in a powdery spray.
Tara strains at her leash.
In the grey dying light,
darkness replaces beauty,
stealing my attention,
invading my thoughts.
Last night, unable to sleep,
I slipped into your room,
laid my hand on your cheek,
listened to your breath.
I looked into the abyss,
felt its icy slope.
While you slept soundly,
my world started to slide.
In the dead of winter,
field mice lay hidden,
squirrels watch from afar.
Tara and I turn back.
Bitter Winter
Bitter winter.
Below zero
engine stalls.
Emotions
hibernate.
Cold takes hostage.
Tightly
bound by
parka, and wrapped scarf
mummified.
Perspective narrows,
senses
grow numb.
Deaf, blind, and mute,
darkness descends.
Deeply cocooned.
Sunlight
slips in,
melting despair,
awakening hope.
It’s All Was Talked About
It’s all was talked about,
how winter stole spring away,
those April showers bringing
only snow and dashed hopes.
Not a pretty subject for poems,
the long cold winter of
desolation and despair,
so bleak, it hurt to live.
To cope, emotions were
secreted in dark dens
like black bears deep in sleep,
their hearts barely beating.
Each day had to be faced
with grim resolution,
even the day spring came
my parka worn like a shroud.
Sun filtered through bare trees
drawing me like a moth to flame.
Turning toward the warmth with
eyes closed, red light streamed in.
Ice melted from my heart,
my frozen spirit thawed,
feelings stumbled out
of their gloomy cave.
May showers brought new growth,
hummingbirds returned along
with enough hope to store
until life’s next winter.
Drawn into the Forest
Drawn into the forest,
troubled with loss and grief,
drought, disease, destruction.
Trees respond, ‘Our roots run deep’.
Swept high into branches,
a shared communion of
breath and expiration,
life’s fragility.
When the soul departs from flesh
will it be lost in a void,
falling into an abyss
of nothingness nowhere?
‘Death brings transformation.
Our ashes sift deep in soil
to be fed by sweet rain,
nurtured by warm sunshine’.
‘We are seedlings of spirit
resurrected, reaching
to the light on new limbs
raised in praise toward heaven’.
At sunrise, feel the warmth.
As rain falls, taste its sweetness.
Reach out toward heaven,
pray roots run deep.
Quietly the Snow Falls
Quietly the snow falls.
Its feathery flight hushed
as it blankets the ground.
I stop and listen to
the music of silence.
With eyes closed, I raise my
face to the sky. Flakes coat
my cheeks, my nose, my lashes,
melt down my neck in a
frozen baptism.
I am aware of my
heart beating in my ears,
my breathing in and out,
my smallness within this
greatness, apart and a part.
Paradise may be far off, but
there is peace in this place
where distance disappears
as snow fills the silence
between heaven and earth.
Sandhill Cranes Returned
Sandhill cranes returned.
Their haunting calls echo
through the still bare trees
and frozen swamp of time.
We shout, “Welcome back,”
as spring breaks winter’s
strangle hold on us,
our bones begin to dance.
Grief no longer runs
like blood from my pen.
New birth and hope sprout
on the blank page.
The predator still lurks,
snow and cold remain
a certain threat but
death has loosed its grip.
Cranes fly above us,
giving their immortal cry
heard since time’s beginning,
“I am…I am…I am”.
Across the Linen Cloth
Across the linen cloth,
petals from the bouquet
lay scattered, red as blood,
dripping from wilted stems.
Snow continues to fall,
spring disguised as winter,
leaving life standing bare,
stealing what days remain.
Heard through worn carpet,
seen through frosted pane,
memories burnt for warmth,
leave in wisps of smoke.
Across the sky before dawn,
the waning crescent rises,
fades away to nothing,
then becomes new once more.
Wind Sings Through Trees
Wind sings through trees
swinging branches,
thunder rumbles,
in harmony.
Clouds swirl above
turning inky grey,
temperature drops,
as sky ignites.
Rain splashes down
soaking this poem,
washing the words,
clean off the page.
Wind sings on as
in the beginning,
words become flesh,
living with us.
Crying our tears,
singing our songs,
dancing with us,
out in the rain.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:17.844808
|
04-9-2023
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/chapter/captivated-i-listen/#chapter-286-section-26",
"book_url": "https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/front-matter/foreward/",
"title": "What Time is Left",
"author": "Constance Hodder",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Poetry, Poetry by individual poets"
}
|
https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/chapter/captivated-i-listen/#chapter-286-section-27
|
4 Captivated, I Listen
Constance Hodder
Sheltered Beneath the Pines
Sheltered beneath the pines,
I hear a voice calling.
First the sound of breath,
becoming a moan,
to a cry,
to a sigh,
to silence.
Captivated, I listen
again to the breath,
the moan,
the cry,
the sigh,
silence.
Is that the wind I hear
or the song of the trees?
A song of sorrow or joy,
of loss or ecstasy,
wind stroking branches
carrying seed aloft.
I am answered with silence,
my body embraced by wind.
One exists only
in the arms of the other
like wind in tree’s song.
Stepping Outside
Stepping outside, escaping
the chaos of day,
I cross into the dark
sanctum of the night.
Enclosed within its black veil
the whirlwind stills,
agitation falls away
leaving only peace.
Certainly not quiet,
in the flashlight beam bugs dance
to the love song of the toads
trilling and croaking.
A bear lumbers through the brush,
coyotes howl in the distance,
this is their territory,
we are but interlopers.
An oak branch bumps my head,
I trip over its root,
a June bug collides with me
crossing its path.
Oh, to be one with the night,
at home within this realm,
instead of a trespasser
in my own domain.
We are but visitors
of darkness as with the light,
our footprints left behind,
wash away with rain.
One day we will be welcomed
into darkness, at home
growing roots with the oak,
flying with the June bugs.
After a Storm
After a storm, air swims of worms
struggling from wet earth to breathe.
Amphibious fragrance fills ones
nostrils raised like a dog catching
a whiff of what passed before.
Awakening connections
to the primitive soul that danced
in the rain with head raised high
catching drops on a parched tongue,
tasting life’s sweet nectar.
Heeding the siren’s call to
return to the sea to swim amidst
creatures who shy from the stranger
that raises its head from the surf
to breathe the scent of moist earth.
Scraps of Paper
Scraps of paper
blown on the wind,
land to drift on
the glassy pond.
They are rescued
from the water
like sacred scrolls
treasure maps.
Birch bark layers
curl in my hands,
white to tan skins
vented to breathe.
Without words,
secret messages,
or directions,
they tell a tale.
Of a canoe,
skimming across
a glassy pond to
the pull of paddles.
A living poem,
breathing through bark,
a Paper Birch’s
legacy.
Mothers Rise at Night
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
listening for their with a gleam of light
children’s calls. on the dark horizon.
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
hearing the cries painting the land
of the hungry. with a lambent glow.
Mothers rise at night The moon rises at night
to hold their hungry in dazzling brilliance
ones to their breast. setting the sky ablaze.
Mothers rise at night
to the moon’s call
cradling their babies.
Mothers rise at night
to bathe their souls in
the moon’s radiance.
Mothers rest their babies The moon rests at dawn
back down as they rise in the glow of the rising
in the morning light. sun on the horizon.
Two Trees
Two trees stand afield as fog
on a golden wave rolls in.
Twilight enlivens the glow
until darkness fades to grey.
When did the hummingbirds leave?
Summer gives way to winter.
Days grow short. The light dims
swallowed by eternal nights.
I so hunger for color.
Will the hummingbirds return?
Oh, to be a whirling maple
casting crimson leaves to the
wind, releasing my spirit
from its earthly restraints.
Walking Toward Home
Walking toward home at sunset
I pass beneath a birch
on a brilliant carpet
of amber leaves who
once danced with the wind.
Now lay spent where time
once was and is no more.
A place apart where
flesh and blood fall away,
breath becomes spirit.
Enveloped in a golden glow
I awaken within
a sacred realm of light
filled with joy beyond
my understanding.
Surrounded with peace,
I wait in awed silence
as night closes the veil.
I walk home in darkness,
light still within me.
Enraptured
Enraptured
wooded paths entry
to worlds set apart
revealing secret
inner wonders.
Enveloped
evergreens enshrine
cavern carpeted
with amber needled
radiance.
Encased
milkweed pods enclose
silken parachuted
seeds awaiting flight
on the wind.
Enchanted
mushrooms encircle
fairy ring of lore.
Stumble inside to
dance with elves.
Entangled
grass thimble en-laced
nest of hummingbird
skillfully woven
to vanish.
Enlightened
quest to encounter
divine mysteries
simply revealed on
nature’s path.
Three Olive Finches
On a grey December dawn
three olive finches sit frozen
on the feeder facing east
in solemn silence.
Watching out the window
I too am caught under the spell
of a quiet moment of
prayer without words.
The crisp morning softens as
first rays of sunlight reach over
the horizon caressing
the frigid birds.
They turn now in unison
to feast together on seed
having witnessed the divine
in warmth and light.
Wind Buffets the Trees
Wind buffets the trees,
tossing branches wildly,
flailing leaves strain their
slender connections.
I’m blinded by its force,
tangled hair whips my face,
upset by an argument,
unable to move ahead.
Dry yellow leaves fly out,
expelled amid hardy ones.
Fall’s long shadow cast over,
what remains of summer.
Solstice has passed, days grow short,
darkness lengthens into night.
Consequence of a long life,
is knowing what comes next.
I steady myself against
a swaying tree, praying
it has been made stronger,
by wind that buffets it.
Tiny Nuthatch
Tiny nuthatch picks a seed,
flies to the power pole,
perching upside down
places it in a hole.
It’s acrobatic skills
captivate this watcher.
His instinctual need
to prepare for winter.
Nearby is a downy
who sees the cache
flies to the power pole
boldly plucks out the seed.
Every season has its time
to reap, to feast, to starve.
Survival for those who
look ahead and those who watch.
As Night Falls
As night falls, darkness
moves in around me.
Standing alone, breath held,
listening……..waiting.
How does one explain
the presence of owls?
Flying on silent wings,
so quiet, they have
been mistaken for
spirits of the dead.
How does one explain
the presence of the dead?
Their voice as a dream,
a glimpse out of sight,
an improbable
answer to prayer.
How does one explain
the presence of prayer?
An owl calling out,
silhouetted in the
moonlight to his love,
stars circling above.
Tales in Snow
Trudging through snow
on a winter morning
recounts a story of those
who have gone before
leaving messages behind.
Squirrel tracks
pattern the frozen snow
like inverse braille
directing the mice below to
where feeder seeds lie.
Rabbit tracks
cluster under low branches
along with grouse and pheasant
paused in sheltered grottoes
to scan the horizon.
Deer hooves
make deep impressions
along with trailing foot
like exclamation marks
declaring caution.
Coyote prints
tracking their prey
thicken the plot
follow the narrative left
behind by the vulnerable.
Darkening clouds
promise fresh snow
starting a new chapter
of tales of those in print
who passed before.
A Curl of Brown Leaf
A curl of brown leaf
spins into the air,
released from its bond
by a gust of wind.
It twists and turns in
jubilant dance before
falling back down to
return to the soil.
No one notes its passage
except for dreamers,
who yearn to fly free
untethered from earth.
Soaring through clouds,
spun in a whirlwind,
letting go of matter,
sun, rain, and being.
Before tumbling back,
into arms of the wind,
set down to rest in
the field of leaves.
Unless the wind
desires once more,
to dance with leaves in
a swirl of ecstasy.
Diving Into the Lake
Diving into the lake
she emerges to float
weightlessly drifting
taking in the vast sky.
Within that blue expanse
an eagle circles high
flaps its wings then glides
on the air looking down.
Captured in that moment
a transcendence of self
gliding weightless along
the two become one.
Like the water and sky
they share the horizon,
communion of spirits
together soaring free.
Dark Comes Early
Dark comes early
Snow coats land
Trees stand stark
Trunks hold up
Starry sky.
Sharp cold air
Breath forms clouds
Wading through
Deep snow drifts
Steps muffled.
Moonlit field
Stag stands still
Watching me
Watching him
Sees beyond.
Looking Into the Darkness
Looking into the darkness,
she lifts her head, ears erect,
listening to sounds that
arouse her primal instincts.
Catching a scent in the air,
her nose drops to the ground,
follows it through the brush,
snaking through the tall grass.
Suddenly, she drops and rolls,
twisting back and forth,
disguising her odor with
a wild animal essence.
Leaping to her feet, the wolf
emerges from noble ancestry,
who stalked its prey, killed,
and howled with the pack.
Gazing up, the predator
sees in me the first woman,
who threw meat scraps to the pack,
from the fire, as they drew near.
Wagging her tail, she turns,
remembers the way home,
her bowl of kibble, soft bed,
and fireplace to dream beside.
In the Dead of Winter
In the dead of winter,
sun recedes behind bare trees,
temperatures plummet. Bundled,
Tara and I head out.
Thick snow blankets the brush.
Shelter for field mice,
Hide and Seek for Tara,
whose nose probes the mounds.
Leaping off the suet,
a fat squirrel escapes
in a powdery spray.
Tara strains at her leash.
In the grey dying light,
darkness replaces beauty,
stealing my attention,
invading my thoughts.
Last night, unable to sleep,
I slipped into your room,
laid my hand on your cheek,
listened to your breath.
I looked into the abyss,
felt its icy slope.
While you slept soundly,
my world started to slide.
In the dead of winter,
field mice lay hidden,
squirrels watch from afar.
Tara and I turn back.
Bitter Winter
Bitter winter.
Below zero
engine stalls.
Emotions
hibernate.
Cold takes hostage.
Tightly
bound by
parka, and wrapped scarf
mummified.
Perspective narrows,
senses
grow numb.
Deaf, blind, and mute,
darkness descends.
Deeply cocooned.
Sunlight
slips in,
melting despair,
awakening hope.
It’s All Was Talked About
It’s all was talked about,
how winter stole spring away,
those April showers bringing
only snow and dashed hopes.
Not a pretty subject for poems,
the long cold winter of
desolation and despair,
so bleak, it hurt to live.
To cope, emotions were
secreted in dark dens
like black bears deep in sleep,
their hearts barely beating.
Each day had to be faced
with grim resolution,
even the day spring came
my parka worn like a shroud.
Sun filtered through bare trees
drawing me like a moth to flame.
Turning toward the warmth with
eyes closed, red light streamed in.
Ice melted from my heart,
my frozen spirit thawed,
feelings stumbled out
of their gloomy cave.
May showers brought new growth,
hummingbirds returned along
with enough hope to store
until life’s next winter.
Drawn into the Forest
Drawn into the forest,
troubled with loss and grief,
drought, disease, destruction.
Trees respond, ‘Our roots run deep’.
Swept high into branches,
a shared communion of
breath and expiration,
life’s fragility.
When the soul departs from flesh
will it be lost in a void,
falling into an abyss
of nothingness nowhere?
‘Death brings transformation.
Our ashes sift deep in soil
to be fed by sweet rain,
nurtured by warm sunshine’.
‘We are seedlings of spirit
resurrected, reaching
to the light on new limbs
raised in praise toward heaven’.
At sunrise, feel the warmth.
As rain falls, taste its sweetness.
Reach out toward heaven,
pray roots run deep.
Quietly the Snow Falls
Quietly the snow falls.
Its feathery flight hushed
as it blankets the ground.
I stop and listen to
the music of silence.
With eyes closed, I raise my
face to the sky. Flakes coat
my cheeks, my nose, my lashes,
melt down my neck in a
frozen baptism.
I am aware of my
heart beating in my ears,
my breathing in and out,
my smallness within this
greatness, apart and a part.
Paradise may be far off, but
there is peace in this place
where distance disappears
as snow fills the silence
between heaven and earth.
Sandhill Cranes Returned
Sandhill cranes returned.
Their haunting calls echo
through the still bare trees
and frozen swamp of time.
We shout, “Welcome back,”
as spring breaks winter’s
strangle hold on us,
our bones begin to dance.
Grief no longer runs
like blood from my pen.
New birth and hope sprout
on the blank page.
The predator still lurks,
snow and cold remain
a certain threat but
death has loosed its grip.
Cranes fly above us,
giving their immortal cry
heard since time’s beginning,
“I am…I am…I am”.
Across the Linen Cloth
Across the linen cloth,
petals from the bouquet
lay scattered, red as blood,
dripping from wilted stems.
Snow continues to fall,
spring disguised as winter,
leaving life standing bare,
stealing what days remain.
Heard through worn carpet,
seen through frosted pane,
memories burnt for warmth,
leave in wisps of smoke.
Across the sky before dawn,
the waning crescent rises,
fades away to nothing,
then becomes new once more.
Wind Sings Through Trees
Wind sings through trees
swinging branches,
thunder rumbles,
in harmony.
Clouds swirl above
turning inky grey,
temperature drops,
as sky ignites.
Rain splashes down
soaking this poem,
washing the words,
clean off the page.
Wind sings on as
in the beginning,
words become flesh,
living with us.
Crying our tears,
singing our songs,
dancing with us,
out in the rain.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:17.918012
|
04-9-2023
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/chapter/captivated-i-listen/#chapter-286-section-27",
"book_url": "https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/whattimeisleft/front-matter/foreward/",
"title": "What Time is Left",
"author": "Constance Hodder",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Poetry, Poetry by individual poets"
}
|
https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-one-what-is-mythology/
|
Chapter One – What is Mythology?
Andy Gurevich
This week, we will begin to explore what myth is, no easy question to answer, and also look at some of the ways humans have developed and used their myths. We might discover as we go that the stories and mythological images of our ancestors speak to us today in more relevant and meaningful ways than we thought possible.
First we need to try to define myth. One textbook offers a simple definition at the beginning of the introduction,
“Myths symbolize human experience and embody the spiritual values of a culture.” (Rosenberg xiii)
The problem with this definition is the phrase “symbolize human experience.” Just what does that mean? It is what myths do, but it doesn’t really give us much in the way of definition.
Joseph Campbell, another somewhat famous scholar and mythologist who we’ll be using often this term, defined myth as follows,
“A whole mythology is an organization of symbolic images and narratives, metaphorical of the possibilities of human experience and the fulfillment of a given culture at a given time.”
“Metaphorical of…” Hmm. What does that mean, exactly? Onward.
Psychoanalyst Rollo May, in his book “The Cry for Myth” suggests,
“A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are the narrative patterns that give significance to our existence. Myths are like the beams in a house: not exposed to outside view, they are the structure which holds the house together so people can live in it.”
You will soon see that although most scholars of mythology agree that it is a foundational component of how any society, culture, and individual define themselves, none can agree absolutely on how to define it. But this isn’t really a problem. They may all be right, given the aspects of myth they are emphasizing in their different definitions.
That is why I encourage you to define myth for yourselves during your readings and ponderings.
From the many definitions of myth in books and on the web, we can see that myths have four basic attributes in common:
- They are cultural—they reflect the beliefs and values of a group of people.
- They are sacred—they concern the spiritual or divine aspects of existence that human beings cannot understand.
- They are didactic—they seek to explain the unexplainable, and they teach humans how to behave, live, and relate to each other and the gods.
- They are foundational—they provide basic rules, beliefs, and rituals for a culture to establish shared beliefs and practices.
Joseph Campbell adds that all living myth must serve four primary functions:
- Cosmological—Its cosmological function is to describe the “shape” of the cosmos, the universe, our total world, so that the cosmos and all contained within it become vivid and alive for us, infused with meaning and significance; every corner, every rock, hill, stone, and flower has its place and its meaning in the cosmological scheme which the myth provides.
- Mystical—Its metaphysical function is to awaken us to the mystery and wonder of creation, to open our minds and our senses to an awareness of the mystical “ground of being.” Many would say that this is the primary function of myth-to find a way to communicate whatever mystical insight has been gained on the journey: an understanding of the mysteries that underlie the universe; an appreciation of its wonders; the sense of awe or rapture experienced. Since this experience often can’t be communicated directly, myth speaks in metaphors, symbols, and symbolic narratives that aren’t always bound by objective reality.
- Sociological—Its sociological function is to pass down “the law,” the moral and ethical codes for people of that culture to follow, and which help define that culture and its social structure.
- Psychological—Its psychological (or pedagogical) function is to lead us through particular rites of passage that define the various significant stages of our lives-from dependency to maturity to old age, and finally, to our deaths, the final passage. These rites of passage bring us into harmony with the “ground of being” (a term used by Campbell to refer to an unnamed, unspecified universal mystical power) and allow us to make the journey from one stage to another with a sense of comfort and purpose.
Today, in our culture, we often dismiss myth as a falsehood, or fanciful, untrue stories, like urban myths or “false news.”. This is not the definition of myth we will concern ourselves with. For each of the myths we read, the culture from which they arose believed them to be true and foundational to their individual and collective identities. It was how they understood the great mysteries of the universe and our place in it—How did the earth come to be? How was mankind created? What is my purpose? Can I know god? Is there a life after death?
Today, we are still asking the same questions, and for many people, the answers are in their religious beliefs, many of which have their roots in the myths. Campbell once said, “a mythology is another person’s religion, and a religion is your own personal mythology.”
This first group of myths (Lessons 1 through 4) are Creation myths. They seek to explain “how it all started.” There are 8 basic motifs (a recurring pattern or object) for creation myths:
- Conjunction: mingling of waters or primal elements creates a first entity or a livable surface
- Divine emission: blood or other body fluids create man or beings or other gods
- Sacrifice: a god sacrifices himself or is sacrificed to achieve creation of the earth or humans
- Division/Consumption: marriage of earth and sky or separation of earth and sky creates livable space for humans
- Cosmic egg: all humans, and the earth sometimes, are contained in a great egg to be opened when the god wills it
- Emergence: first “people” emerge from an original cramped or hostile world into a new world or a series of worlds
- Deus Faber: the god consciously crafts the world and humans out of a substance necessary for the survival of mankind (like clay, mud, stone, corn)
- Ex Nihilo-out of nothing: creation by thought, breath, dream or word
These eight methods are creation are easy to see in the myths we read. What might each method say to the people about their importance to the gods? Think about this question as your read the myths.
As you read, you will see that myths are narratives; they tell a story. It is the culture’s way of trying to explain the creation of the universe and mankind in a way everyone could understand. These stories (myths) were passed down through generations orally because they existed long before humans created writing.
We don’t know for sure, but it is likely that the myths evolved over time as they were retold, perhaps to include new myths from other cultural groups, or to reflect man’s more sophisticated understanding of the world and the gods.
Often these myths were retold in celebrations of a religious nature, such as a New Year celebration or the beginning of spring, or at the harvest.
The myths, although simple as narratives, are complex in trying to explain existence and the gods. In some cases, you will find contradictions, missing pieces, and some just plain confusing ideas. Remember, these are myths, not fact-based explanations. We need to read them differently than we would a history or science book. But when we know how to read them as intended, as metaphors for the journey of the soul back to the ground of its own being, then they can reveal timeless truth to us, whether we “believe” in them or not.
So…A closer look: It’s about time!
- Legend is defined as a traditional story that may be based on historical facts, but is not easily proven to be historical (like the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table).
- Folklore is more like myth in that it is stories about traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community passed down through word of mouth. This definition is very much like myth, but as we will see, there is one attribute of myth that may be missing from folklore.
In the Indian (Hindu) creation myth, time is presented as cyclical—a constant repetition of creation, destruction and rebirth. The Mayan culture also saw time as cyclical as presented in their calendars. Most Western religions have from their beginning seen time as linear, having a clear, set beginning (On the first day, God created…) and a clear, set ending. When our world ends, there is no indication that there will be a regeneration or re-creation as there is the Hindu myth.
Yet, everything about our world indicates that time is cyclical—the track of the sun and moon through the sky, the passing of the seasons, the celebration of recurring events like Thanksgiving and our birthdays, even our clocks are round.
Time is one of those puzzling questions that underlies many of the great questions of mankind. We are obsessed with time, and much of our language is devoted to time—we try to save time (a bizarre notion); we spend time; we think time is money; we take time; we waste time. We even upset our lives twice a year by setting clocks ahead and back.
Scientists and philosophers tell us time is an illusion, it isn’t real, and we can’t measure it. Why then does it seem so real to us? We can’t function without schedules, or knowing what time it is.
So, think about this: how might believing in time as linear or cyclical influence a culture’s attitude toward death or how we live our lives in the present time? What if we do come back for another try? What if X marks the spot and when we get there, there is no hope to return to life as we know it?
Now you are ready to read the myths (Please do not panic. Many of these are quite short and you can use open book and open notes to do your assignments.):
- The History & Functions of Myth
- The Enuma Elish: Historical Context
- The Babylonian Creation Epic: The Enuma Elish
- Click here for another version of the myth.
- The Mayan Creation: Introduction and Historical Context
- THE CREATION (Mayan)
- Click here for a video version.
- The Chinese Creation: Introduction and Historical Context
- The Creation Myths:
- Pan Gu
- Nu Kua (or Nu Wa)
- Yin and Yang
- Click here for an alternate version of all three.
- The Creation Myths:
- The Indian Creation: Introduction and Historical Context
- The Hindu Creation Myths
- Alternative video versions of the Hindu Creation:
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:17.938395
|
12-5-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-one-what-is-mythology/",
"book_url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/front-matter/attribution-and-oer-revision-statement/",
"title": "World Mythology",
"author": "Andy Gurevich",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology), Comparative literature, Comparative religion, Social and cultural anthropology"
}
|
https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-two-myth-metaphor/
|
Chapter Two – Myth & Metaphor
Andy Gurevich
The Greeks believed human thought functioned through two separate avenues, Logos and Mythos.
Logos is the analytical, logical method for dealing with the information and complexity of the world. It is governed by “rules” such as we still use in arguments and more formal logical exercises.
Then there is Mythos which follows our basic definition of myth: a collection of stories and beliefs held in common by a group of people. Unlike Logos, Mythos deals with non-logical, non-concrete, non-linear aspects of the world and our psyches. There are not rules governing how we interpret myths as they often deal with those things outside the realm of human consciousness and understanding.
The way that we can attempt to explain the unexplainable, those things beyond the world of Logos, is through metaphor. It takes a little work to wrap our heads around this concept, but it is important in helping us understand how to interpret the meaning of the myths. This idea of metaphor is not without controversy; it encourages us to view myths (and religion) in a different way. I ask you to read and consider before you judge.
Let’s start with a simple definition of metaphor: it is a comparison between two different things without using the words “like” or “as.” Simple, right? Maybe not so simple. Here is a comparison using like or as:
My love is like a red, red rose.
This clearly states a comparison, but let’s look at it as a metaphor:
My love is a red, red rose.
Makes a difference, doesn’t it? What the metaphor does is invite us to take the statement literally; we sometimes miss the idea of a comparison.
Let’s look at another metaphor:
He is such a snake in the grass.
This we know not to take literally. The metaphor suggests a comparison between the person and the qualities or attributes we associate with snakes (evil, dangerous, slimy). Furthermore, we know that not all snakes are dangerous, and they are evil only because we are using the snake as a metaphor. The snake’s association with evil is cultural. (More about snakes in the future.) So our metaphor—he is a snake—invites us to attach various ideas about the man through associating him with ideas we have about snakes, whether they are accurate or not.
We use metaphors every day to describe our feelings (I’m feeling blue) our troubles (My life is a train wreck) our happiness (I’m on cloud 9). Our dream are metaphors (dreams of flying, being chased, demons). We too often take our metaphors literally.
Myths are metaphors. The whole myth is a method of trying to convey things we don’t understand in a way that we can begin to understand. How must it have felt, before science and technology, to look up at the night sky and try to explain all those points of light? Or how do you explain the phases of the moon and its disappearance for three days? Even with a “scientific understanding” of the world, myths help us to create narrative containers for the awe we feel at the very mystery of existence itself. And metaphors are the primary vehicles of myths.
The use of metaphor helped ancient cultures understand. They created pictures with the brightest stars and named them after their gods. The moon became the goddess, dying and being reborn, just like the crops in the spring. The metaphors tied humans to the earth and the gods; they were both a part of creation, and separate from the gods.
Have a look at a illuminating encounter the late mythologist Joseph Campbell had with a radio host about the concept of metaphor by clicking here.
So, to sum up the main points:
- Metaphors suggest comparisons, although they don’t explicitly state a comparison.
- Myths are metaphors.
- Metaphors can often reveal truths that are deeper and more lasting, but harder to unpack.
- We cannot take the metaphor (or the myth) literally and expect to understand its full symbolic value.
Now you are ready to read the myths:
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:17.953079
|
12-5-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-two-myth-metaphor/",
"book_url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/front-matter/attribution-and-oer-revision-statement/",
"title": "World Mythology",
"author": "Andy Gurevich",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology), Comparative literature, Comparative religion, Social and cultural anthropology"
}
|
https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-three-myth-and-archetype/
|
Chapter Three – Myth & Archetype
Andy Gurevich
By now, you have most likely noticed that there are common ideas, themes or objects that recur in some of these myths. Take the flood, for example. If you look at myths from across the globe, almost all of them have a flood story of some sort. How can we explain this?
One way is that these myths contain a historical account of a great flood. We know there was a huge flood in the area of the eastern Mediterranean Sea into the Black Sea. Depending on the source, it happened anywhere from 11,000 BC to 3,000 BC. It is possible as the last great ice age ended, it did inundate this area. Check out this Historical Evidence for the Great Flood.
But areas that are far inland, high in elevation and otherwise not likely to be flooded have these deluge stories too. How can historical fact explain this? Archeologists are fairly certain that the entire globe was not under water.
Another explanation may be that through trade routes or conquest, these stories were shared with new populations who found them so compelling they incorporated these myths into their own. Again the same problem presents itself: were there trade routes between, say, Greece and Argentina or the southwestern United States. It is unlikely. Remember these early societies did not have Facebook or Twitter; in fact, they were unaware the rest of the globe even existed.
One explanation that fits nicely, although there is no real proof in the scientific sense, is the idea of archetypes and the collective unconscious. These ideas were put forth by the 20th century psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung. His ideas are highly speculative, but they do offer an avenue for studying these recurrent ideas we see in myth.
Basically, what Jung said is that there exists in every humans mind the collective unconscious. This is the area of our psyche where dreams and myths are stored. They contain themes and ideas that humans have had in common since the beginning of human existence. We can see these ideas and themes in the myths: the flood, the creation of man from clay (or other substance that is critical to sustain life), symbols like the world tree, or the world egg. These common symbols, themes and patterns are called archetypes. To clear up the difference:
- A symbol is an object that stands for something else or calls that something else to mind. A symbol is cultural, shared by a group of people. We do not naturally understand what a symbol means; we must learn its meaning. The alphabet and language are symbols. The logos of companies are symbols. Like the Nike swoosh, we need to learn to associate the symbol to what it is referring to (its referent).
- An archetype is a symbol that is not tied to one culture. It is shared by all cultures, across time. We can readily see, and respond to, archetypes we see in movies: the villain, the hero, the wise old man (The Lord of the Ringstrilogy is a good film to see archetypes). Archetypes can also be objects-the circle, the mandala. They can be themes-the heros journey, travel to the underworld, fighting dragons (or some such creatures). The thing that distinguishes archetype from symbol is that all humans respond and understand the archetypes in similar ways.
If we think back to myth and metaphor, it may be easier to understand the idea of the collective unconscious and archetype. Our myth and dreams are metaphors and they use the archetypes to manifest themselves to us. That accounts for the similarity of the ideas and symbols in myths and our dreams. So as an explanation for the existence of myth across the globe as well as the commonality of the ideas and symbols in myth, this explanation serves a purpose.
It’s an interesting look at the consciousness of mankind. We are really linked in our myths and dreams. Carl Jung says these symbols are never clearly defined or fully explained, as they are part of the unconscious. We can learn the meaning of archetypes, but they become understandable only on an individual basis. Again, Jung says that archetypes are, at the same time, image and emotion. When there is merely the image, then there is a word-picture with little consequence, but when charged with emotion, it becomes dynamic.
I think of the Goya picture of Cronus devouring his children. It is both an image that is symbolic, but also arouses deep emotional responses. Think also of those images we relate to evil, like snakes. Many people are afraid of snakes, spiders, bats things we fear and associate in ways with evil and danger. That’s how an archetype works. We unconsciously associate the image and emotion and respond.
(For more information on archetypes and the collective unconscious, see Man and His Symbols edited by Carl G Jung. Material on Jung is from this book.)
The myths for this week:
- History of Navajo Myth
- The Emergence, (Navajo)
- History of Aztec Myth
- The Creation Cycle, (Aztec)
- History of Maori Myth
- The Creation Cycle (Polynesia/Maori)
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:17.966206
|
12-5-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-three-myth-and-archetype/",
"book_url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/front-matter/attribution-and-oer-revision-statement/",
"title": "World Mythology",
"author": "Andy Gurevich",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology), Comparative literature, Comparative religion, Social and cultural anthropology"
}
|
https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-four-myth-meaning/
|
Chapter Four – Myth & Meaning
The collaborative construction of mythological meaning.
Andy Gurevich
Genesis is apart from other myths in that it has one god only; he is all-powerful and all-knowing, and doesn’t seem to have the usual human-like failings of gods from other myths.
In a monotheistic belief system, God is generally removed from the people and is perceived as the creator who grants us life but demands pretty strict obedience.
If we proceed with the idea that myth is metaphor, let start with “on the first day”—is this literally a day as we experience it? Since we can’t really know God, how can we know what a “god-day” is? So, is it literal or metaphor?
After God creates the world, animal and plants, he creates Adam and Eve. There are two different accounts of the creation of Adam and Eve in Genesis:
- The first, Chapter 1, lines 26 and 27, has God creating both Adam and Eve in his own image.
- Then in Chapter 2, lines 7 and 21-23, we get the more familiar story of Adam being created from the earth and Eve being created from one of Adam’s ribs. This picture of God giving life to Adam is part of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. It is a Renaissance metaphor for creation. (You can see more images of the ceiling on line.)
Bible scholars agree that there were two authors of Genesis, referred to as J-E and P:
- J-E used the name Elohim (lords) and referred to god as Yahweh.
- The P version is believed to have been compiled for use by the priestly class.
The stories merged somewhere around the 6th to 7th centuries BC:
- The older version calls to mind many of the creation myths we have read so far.
- The second version of the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib is unique. Do we take these literally? I think an important question to ask is why such a reversal here? A woman is born from man! (That’s the metaphor).
The next big metaphor is the temptation by the serpent and the loss of the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve.
Our archetypal serpent plays an interesting role here. The serpent symbolizes many things, from evil (probably best elaborated in Genesis) to rebirth (it sheds its skin).
Keeping this complex symbol in mind, what does the snake actually accomplish? It tempts Eve to eat the fruit from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” despite God’s warning that if they ate of this tree (which is in the center of the garden) they would “surely die.” If this is so, why does Eve eat it and tempt Adam? Notice it didn’t take much to get Adam to go along with this.
In the picture below, we can see the metaphor clearly. Notice that Adam and Eve here have covered themselves before they have eaten of the fruit. Genesis clearly tells us that they ate, then they became ashamed of their nakedness, and then covered themselves. This picture shows the force of the metaphor on the human imagination.
This tree is a great metaphor. Did Adam and Eve have no knowledge of good and evil before they ate? Let’s go beyond the metaphor—what does it mean to have no knowledge of good and evil? This is an important idea to think about. By eating the fruit, they became ashamed of their nakedness (another metaphor) and they hid from God. But God knows all, so, of course, they disobeyed and were served punishment and kicked out of the garden. If god is all-knowing, did he know they would disobey?
There is a theme in myth of the one forbidden thing—Pandora’s box is a good example. It is human nature to be told not to do something yet feel compelled to do it. Have you ever done something forbidden? Don’t we feel a complex of guilt and exhilaration that we did it, even though we knew we shouldn’t? The unspoken lesson we take from this is don’t disobey god, but it also explains why life is so hard. The punishment accounts for the submission of women to men and the hard work we have to do just to be alive.
But it also casts a new light on innocence (no knowledge of good and evil) and awareness of it. Why is knowledge of good and evil such a bad thing? Does it make us god-like in some way? If you remember from the Mayan myth, the gods clouded the vision and reduced the wisdom of their “perfect” creations. What does god say to Adam and Eve when he discovered their disobedience?
This myth, more than telling a story, causes us to ponder very big ideas—the role of knowledge of good and evil—does that make us god-like? It certainly suggests that the fall from the Garden was a loss of a golden or perfect age, maybe like the first yuga in the Hindu cycle. God also makes sure Adam and Eve couldn’t re-enter the garden. What reason does he give? Think about this on top of everything else!
This myth informs millions of people about their nature, our relationship to god, our relationship to each other and the world we live in. If we go beyond the metaphors, we can see the degree to which this myth has meaning for the way we live our lives.
We can do this with all the myths; it’s easier to see with Genesis because many of us are familiar with it. For an online copy of the King James version of Genesis, go to: Genesis-Chapters 1, 2, and 3.
Wanadi
Now to Wanadi. This myth is unique in a few ways. If you read the introduction in the book, you know that the Yekuhana were so isolated that they were never conquered or Christianized. This makes the myth clean of outside influence.
The myth in some ways reflects some Christian beliefs, the idea of a last judgment, the duality of good and evil, to name a few. But it has a quite unique view of reality.
Briefly, this myth is pretty clear cut—it explains the existence of evil, how living beings were created (Was Wanadi smoking just tobacco?) It outlines how man should live his life and what happens at death. It does pose an interesting view of what is real.
But what Wanadi does is answer questions. Genesis, on the other hand, perhaps raises more questions than gives answers. Myth will often do this as well. Forcing us to dig deeper into it, and into ourselves, to uncover its more precious and lasting meaning and relevance.
Readings:
- The opening chapters of Genesis (also linked above)
- History of Venezuelan Myth
- Wanadi, The Creator, Venezuela
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:17.981298
|
12-5-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-four-myth-meaning/",
"book_url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/front-matter/attribution-and-oer-revision-statement/",
"title": "World Mythology",
"author": "Andy Gurevich",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology), Comparative literature, Comparative religion, Social and cultural anthropology"
}
|
https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-five-myth-mystery/
|
Chapter Five – Myth & Ritual
Andy Gurevich
These fertility myths are metaphoric and archetypal. They involve some kind of journey into the underworld where the goddess symbolically dies.
Her death causes the desolation of the earth—crops shrivel, animals die, water disappears—and humans grow weaker. In time, all will die and there will be no one to praise the gods. These goddesses are tied to nature-they are the goddess of the earth, the crops, and all living things. Salvation of the earth occurs when the goddess somehow manages to return to the earth.
But a deal must be made; either the goddess or a representative must return to the underworld for a season.
This explains winter, the season of no growing plants, and it explains the cycle of the seasons—spring is the return of the earth goddess; summer she produces the abundance of the earth; fall celebrates the harvest and the preparations for the goddess’s return to the underworld.
These myths seek to explain the mystery of life and death and the afterlife.
These myths are also known as fertility or vegetation myths. The gods are called “chthonic” pronounced “tonic.” The term means subterranean, or below the earth, so you can see their association with growing plants.
But these myths evolved into a much deeper, much more complex meaning that goes beyond the fertility of the land. These goddesses represent life itself. If the goddess can return from death, is there hope for us?
The cycle of human life mirrors the cycle of the seasons-spring is our birth, summer, our growth to adulthood, fall our productive life when we bring forth new life, and winter, our old age when we still nurture, but will soon die. If the plants can be reborn in the spring, can we? These myths tell us that there is a life after our physical death. It is one of the great mysteries of our existence.
As rituals grew around the worship of these goddesses, they became more formal and became cults, not in our modern sense of cult. The most wide-spread cult was that of Isis. Originating in Egypt, it spread to Greece, Italy, and beyond. It persisted until the 4th century CE. The early Roman Catholic Church had an extremely difficult time suppressing it.
The next important cult was that of Demeter, in Greece. Historians from the earliest times knew little about this cult. There was an elaborate initiation ritual and certain requirements to join. Initiates had to be Greek-speakers, slaves could join at the consent of their masters. Every spring, initiates walked from Athens to Eleusis, the location of the shrine of Demeter.
The march was to honor Demeter’s search for Persephone after she was abducted to the underworld by Hades. Initiates fasted, drinking only kykeon, a mixture of barley, water and honey. Once the initiates reached Eleusis, they sacrificed a pig, cleansed themselves in the waters, and prepared to be admitted to the cult. Once in the temple, the ceremony included specific rites performed.
The important thing about these rites was that they were secret. Once initiated into the cult, members were forbidden, under penalty of death, to speak about the rites.
Over time, scholars were able to piece together what we know about the cults today. As we can see from Homer’s hymns to Demeter, part of the mystery involved a type of symbolic rebirth, giving a hope of life after death. Persephone, representing spring, is abducted by Hades, god of the Underworld. He intends to marry her (how’s that for a metaphor!) Demeter searches in vain for her daughter. In her grief, the land is rendered barren, and nothing can grow.
After Demeter’s futile search, she finally bargains with Zeus for Persephone’s return. But Persephone has already eaten a single seed of the pomegranate; she has eaten the food of the dead. So, she is allowed to return for the spring, summer and fall, the fertile seasons, but must return to Hades for the winter.
Check the following link to read about the rites of Demeter at Eleusis: Eleusinian Mysteries
Osiris, Isis, and Horus
For ritual and the message of life after death, the myth of Osiris, Isis and Horus clearly
shows the impact myths can have on a society. From the myth arose the complex burial practices of Egypt. The Egyptian Book of the Dead outlines the processes, the prayers, and the confessions one must perform in order to make the journey to the afterlife.
Isis became a cult figure for several reasons: she did bring Osiris back to life for the purpose of becoming impregnated with Horus. Here, the myth closely ties life and death—from death comes life.
As your read the myth in our text, you will see that there is a close tie between death and sex; Isis fans life into Osiris and he lives long enough to impregnate Isis with Horus. The cycle is complete, and the generations will go on. So, the message is, life comes from death. (For many centuries, people thought that every orgasm was like a little death: the French call it “la petite mort” literally the little death.)
Most religions address the issue of an afterlife in a very similar way to the Greek and Egyptian. Our funeral rites are a direct evolution of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Why would we want to preserve a body for as long as possible? But more than that, our religions have us look to a movement to a life different than that on earth, but a life nonetheless, often with rewards and comfort we do not get in our earthly lives.
It’s a great metaphor for the rebirth of the soul into the afterlife. Isis is also the goddess of crops and other growing things. She is fertility. Isis is mother, the giver and sustainer of life. Osiris takes on the role of final judge in the soul’s journey to immortality. It is he who oversees the weighing of the heart, hears the confession, and welcomes the soul into the afterlife.
Sedna
How can a culture so far removed from the fertility of the Nile and Greece have such a similar myth? The Inuit do not grow any crops, yet Sedna represents fertility. Life comes from her very body.
Unlike the other myths, Sedna does not return in the spring, but stays beneath the seas. In place of winter, the fish and sea mammals are held back from the hunters when Sedna is angered because her hair is tangled. But notice the shaman must go down into the sea (the parallel of the underworld) to appease her and comb her hair so she will return the bounty of the seas to the people.
The same metaphors are here as in the other myths. Perhaps more so than the creation myths, these myths show the archetypal pattern of the descent into the underworld, and the return of the god or goddess with hope for life after death.
Other myths with this same basic archetype are Dionysius, Orpheus, Attis, Adonis, and Innana from Sumer/Babylon. You may want to read them, and they are easily found on the internet.
Readings:
- History of Inuit Myth
- Sedna, Inuit
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:17.996711
|
12-5-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-five-myth-mystery/",
"book_url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/front-matter/attribution-and-oer-revision-statement/",
"title": "World Mythology",
"author": "Andy Gurevich",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology), Comparative literature, Comparative religion, Social and cultural anthropology"
}
|
https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-six-myth-the-hero/
|
Chapter Six – Myth & The Hero
Andy Gurevich
This week, we will be exploring the role of the hero in mythic contexts. Not all heroes look or act alike, and it will be important to explore the many ways we look to each other for help, rescue, and salvation.
We will begin at the beginning, and explore the very first hero story ever written. Or at least, the earliest surviving example of one. Gilgamesh is a great story; it has all the makings of a typical hero myth. Joseph Campbell briefly outlines the hero quest:
- The call to the quest–the hero consciously seeks the quest. In Gilgamesh, he seeks immortality. In another variation, the quest is thrust upon the hero—he or she may wander into a woods or area that is magical or strange and dangerous and have to navigate the dangers to return.
- The going out–the hero ventures out on the quest. There often are “helpers” along the way. Gilgamesh, in his first quest to kill Humbaba, has the help of Enkidu and other men, and the god Samash.
- Fulfillment of the quest–after a series of tests or challenges, the hero completes the quest.
- Return–the hero return with a great gift or boon for his people. It may be a physical item like gold or a magical object, or it may be some great knowledge that will aid his people. (Moses is a great example—his return with the Ten Commandments set up the principles for a new society.)
- The hero undergoes tests that change him, usually for the good. We can see the pattern in the lives of Buddha, Mohammed, and Jesus.
Here is a chart of the hero’s journey based on the works of Joseph Campbell:
Reading:
- Please read:
- Please watch:
I hope you enjoy it! Things to look for as you read:
- The early character of Gilgamesh—does he change in the end?
- The symbolic role of Enkidu—what does he represent in the story?
- The two quests—what is each one’s purpose and are they fulfilled?
- The second quest is nicely done up in archetypes. What are some of the archetypes?
- Is Gilgamesh a hero a modern audience can relate to? (Check out Wikipedia: Gilgamesh in Popular Culture.)
The story was one of the first written narratives, written in Cuneiform, a series of wedges pressed into wet clay. Unfortunately, these clay tablets break easily. There were also different versions; stories of Gilgamesh were found scattered throughout the region of what is now modern Iran, Iraq, and Turkey.
Scholars have pieced together the story as best they can, although we still have questions about certain events. For example, when Gilgamesh goes to find Urshanabi to take him across the Waters of Death, Gilgamesh smashes the sacred statues. We don’t know what their purpose was or why Gilgamesh smashed them.
Gilgamesh goes on two journeys. His first is a physical quest-to kill Humbaba and bring cedar back to Uruk. He succeeds at both.
His second quest is a spiritual or intellectual quest. He seeks immortality after the loss of his friend Enkidu.
Look at the two challenges he faces: he must go through the 36 mile tunnel, suggesting death. When he exits the tunnel, he is in an orchard with trees which bore jewels. He was convinced he was in the garden of the gods. Then he must cross the Waters of Death. He meets with Utanapishtim, but is told he cannot have immortality.
So Gilgamesh fails to gain immortality. He is given a consolation prize of sorts. If he can dive deep into the waters (what’s the symbolism here?) he can gather a plant which will endow him with everlasting youth. He loses his plant to a snake (more symbolism), who immediately sheds its skin. Gilgamesh has failed in his journey. Or has he? What does Gilgamesh gain? What does he take back to his people? Does the experience change him?
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.010205
|
12-5-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-six-myth-the-hero/",
"book_url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/front-matter/attribution-and-oer-revision-statement/",
"title": "World Mythology",
"author": "Andy Gurevich",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology), Comparative literature, Comparative religion, Social and cultural anthropology"
}
|
https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-seven-myth-the-anti-hero/
|
Chapter Seven – Myth & The Anti-Hero
Andy Gurevich
The story of Jason and the Argonauts is among the most popular of hero myths. It has adventure, danger, the intervention of the gods, the great prize—the fabled Golden Fleece. But, as you will see as you read Jason and the Argonauts and Medea, there is a darker side to this hero. This version, written in the 3rd century BC by Apollonius, is the earliest, most complete version of the myth. It is edited in our book. The original is a much longer story.
What is interesting here is to see how Jason changes throughout the story. Change is a characteristic of the hero, but how he or she changes is important as well. Jason’s change is caused by a flaw in his character, what the Greeks referred to as hubris—pride. Pay attention as well to Medea. The author, Apollonius, was quite sophisticated in her character development and insight into her thought processes.
We also get a good insight into the relationship between the gods and Jason and Medea. One thing to think about as you read this is, do Jason and Medea really have a choice in what happens?
As you read, you will notice the repetition of phrases that can be annoying to modern readers. The repetition comes from the oral tradition. The phrases are like aids to the oral storyteller, kind of like the refrain of a song. Try not to let them distract you.
An anti-hero is a protagonist who lacks the characteristics we typically associate with a hero—nobility of mind and spirit, humility, compassion, things like that. Modern audiences don’t expect our heroes to be perfect; that would make them pretty predictable and boring. But there should be limits on how imperfect a hero can be before he turns into a villain. Jason perhaps walks the line. You decide.
I have given you a brief chapter by chapter overview. I ask a lot of questions in the sections. I do not expect you to answer them. They are just things to look for as you read, and maybe think about as you answer the questions.
Chapter 1
Jason does start out with good intentions. He is to avenge the theft of the kingdom of Iolcus from his father, Aeson. The bad guy is his uncle, Pelias. Jason seems a little short-sighted early on. He seems to set himself up to find the Golden Fleece, a dangerous and long trip to a faraway kingdom whose ruler has a very scary reputation. In fact, Pelias is convinced that Jason will never return. Jason sets off with the Argonauts, one of whom was Pelias’s only son.
It is important to note the role that Hera plays in the story. What are her reasons for getting so involved? What is her plan? How does this affect the way you evaluate the actions of Jason and Medea?
Chapter 2
There are a lot of messages and hidden warnings for Jason from Phineus. Do you feel he helps Jason? What is the cause of Phineus’s fate? What lessons does his life have for people? In this chapter we are introduced to Medea. How is she presented? What’s your first impression of her? How is Hera using her?
Chapter 3
Jason finally gets to Colchis, land of the Golden Fleece. On a quest, there are tests or adventures one must perform in order to move forward. What is the task here and what does is show that Jason must have? On page 182, Jason says “Why should my heart flood with fear? Heroes and cowards alike share the same fate.” What does this say about his role as hero? Do you agree with this statement? Jason also realizes he cannot perform the task set out by Aeetes, so he realizes that Medea can be a great help. “I will even rely on a woman!” he states. (I’m already not liking him.) Medea goes through mental turmoil. What are her concerns? What position is she in?
Chapter 4
After a long internal struggle, Medea decides to help Jason. She has the powerful herbs that will make him invincible and meets with him. She gives him the herbs and tells him exactly what he must do to complete the tasks. She promises she will help him get the Golden Fleece from the serpent who guards it. She is totally in love with him at this time, which plays into Hera’s plan nicely. Jason is warming up to Medea, promising her to be remembered and have her name known.
There is also a very strange ritual she performs that is a great archetype of rebirth. (This will be important when we read Medea next week.) She kills him, makes Jason stew, and brings him back to life, strong, renewed and ready for the challenge. Jason pledges his undying, everlasting love to Medea in an over the top way (see page 191). As they plan to flee after getting the fleece, Jason insists they take Medea’s little brother with them, as an insurance policy, and this will become important at the end of the myth.
Chapter 5
Of course Jason is successful in plowing the field taming the bulls and defeating the warriors. Aeetes is pretty smart and realizes the Jason must have had help to succeed, and the only person capable of this kind of help is Medea. She is now a traitor. Aeetes decides that Jason has not earned the fleece. He plots to kill not just Medea, but Jason and all the Argonauts.
Chapter 6
Jason, with a lot of help from Medea, acquires the Golden Fleece. They prepare to flee, taking the fleece and Medea’s little brother, Apsyrtus. On page 197, Medea reminds Jason of all she has done for him and begs him to save her from her father’s anger, and to take her away and not hold her in contempt. Do you find this odd? Do you think she realizes Jason may not be as he seems? He promises to take her to his home and marry her, and love her until death. They all safely escape Aeetes.
What are Jason’s first words after he gets the fleece? Does he change as a result of having the fleece?
Readings:
- Jason and the Golden Fleece (Historical Background)
- Jason and the Golden Fleece, Greece [This is a longer one!]
Mostly for next week, but it will help to dive in to this as soon as you can as well:
- Medea (Historical Background)
- Medea, Greece [This is a longer one!]
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.022634
|
12-5-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-seven-myth-the-anti-hero/",
"book_url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/front-matter/attribution-and-oer-revision-statement/",
"title": "World Mythology",
"author": "Andy Gurevich",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology), Comparative literature, Comparative religion, Social and cultural anthropology"
}
|
https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-eight-myth-revenge/
|
Chapter Eight – Myth & Revenge
Andy Gurevich
In addition to some pretty horrific events that take place in Medea, the way the characters of Jason and Medea degenerate is pretty profound. It has all the making of a Greek Tragedy.
Aristotle set out the characteristics and requirements for tragedy in The Poetics. The intention of a tragedy is to bring about a feeling of pity and fear in the audience which leads to the purging of powerful emotions.
A good tragedy causes us to place ourselves in the place of the tragic hero, and evaluate the reasons for his downfall. The hero is usually someone above the ordinary man—he is a part god, or super hero. His position and his fall remind us that no one is exempt from those great flaws in character that cause a downfall.
For the Greeks one of the great character flaws is pride, overbearing pride, hubris, the Greeks called it. It is a pride that causes the hero to think he is like the gods.
Does Jason fill this bill? If you remember Jason’s first words once the Golden Fleece was in his hands was “What a great prize I have won!” In fact, he did very little to gain the fleece. He quickly forgets about all Medea has done. She has to remind him, and he realizes he still needs her help to escape from Colchis and Aeetes.
Chapter 1
Early on, Medea realizes the truth about Jason, but she continues to help him, with horrifying results. What does Medea do as they are escaping from Aeetes and his fleet? What is the meaning of the goddess Athena’s words? It’s not in this version, but in trying to return to Greece, the Argos traveled all over, lost, for years. The return voyage bears several similarities to the places in the Odyssey. Here is a copy of a map of Jason’s travels (there are several variations).
In order to be safe, Medea must be married to Jason so the king of Phaeacia will protect her from Aeetes. A quick wedding is prepared and Hera blesses their union.
Chapter 2
When Jason is back in Iolcus, he must take revenge on Pelias. This is all part of Hera’s scheme to punish Pelias. Again, Medea takes the lead. In an ironic and cruel plot, Medea uses her powers on Pelias the same way she did on Jason. If Medea is aware of Jason’s falseness and self-centeredness, why does she continue to help him? Hera is pleased with the outcome; she has her revenge on Pelias. Take note of what Hera does now that her plot has come to fruition.
Chapter 3
The son of Pelias, Acastus, is now the king of Iolcus. He was also one of the Argonauts and friend to Jason. He is another person between a rock and a hard place. The law gives him leave to kill Jason and Medea, but he can’t, so he banishes them. They have no home, but come to Corinth where they are accepted by King Creon. For ten years they live happily, having two sons.
We are told by the Apollonius that Medea wore the crown of modesty on her head. So what causes this happiness to come unraveled? Medea’s only flaw here is that she grew old. Jason is disgusted by Medea and seeks out the beautiful young daughter of King Creon, Glauce. What is his motivation?
What “loophole” does Creon find in Jason and Medea’s marriage that would allow Jason to freely marry Glauce? Why does Medea’s being a barbarian become an issue after ten years of marriage?
At the end of Chapter 3, Medea makes a remarkably modern speech about the status of women in the society and her own status in particular. It gives a good insight into the position of women in ancient Greece.
Chapter 4
Medea and Jason argue at the beginning of this chapter. It’s almost like we are eavesdropping because the conversation is so realistic and modern in many of the points each one makes. Who do you think is more justified in their anger? Does this conversation reflect the character and personalities of Jason and Medea?
Chapter 5
While Medea ponders her fate, King Aegeus from Athens comes. Medea knows the king and greets him. She tells him that Jason has abandoned her. In this scene, one can feel sympathy for Medea through Aegeus’s words. He says, “For those who dishonored you are inviting the gods to judge them.” Medea begs Aegeus to take her to Athens and he agrees. Maybe because she knows she will have a safe haven, she plots some terrible revenge on Creon and especially Glauce. For Jason, she has another plan—to deprive him of everything he loves, including his sons.
Chapter 6
Medea anguishes over her plan to kill her own sons. She considers taking them into exile with her, but realizes she must not spare them. Pay attention to the reasons she gives early in the chapter for killing her sons. What do they say about her? Did you expect her to offer reasons like this? One thing to note is that the Greeks very often would leave unwanted children on hillsides to die, so there may not have been the same respect and reverence we have for children today. From the ancient Greek perspective, this act may not have been as profoundly horrid as it is to us.
A messenger arrives to tell the story of the death of Glauce and Creon. In Greek drama, graphic deaths took place off stage and were reported by a messenger. The death is pretty ghastly. Afterward, Medea puts all love, passion and tears aside and gives her sons herbs to put them in a deep sleep and kills them.
Jason arrives soon after, and Medea presents his dead sons to him. How does Jason react? Read his response carefully as it provides great insight into his character. Some versions show how Jason wandered, homeless and unhappy, and sought shelter on the Argos. One day, while he was sleeping under the stern of the boat it collapsed and killed him.
The ending of this story is a bit ambiguous. Medea has killed her own brother, King Pelias, Glauce, Creon, her two sons. The most difficult to imagine is her killing her sons. Wouldn’t the gods punish her? How come Jason didn’t try to kill her, after all he has just lost everything. Helios, Medea’s grandfather, arrives from the heavens and takes her and her sons away to Athens (some versions say she went to Mt Olympus). Is the author, Appolonius, trying to justify her behavior to us?
Finally, there is Jason’s final words about man’s suffering. It is a remarkable statement Jason makes—“…the deathless gods are not to blame. For there are no gods!” Jason, the first atheist? Why does he say this? Does this provide a clear insight into Jason’s character?
With all of this to consider, let’s turn to Jason as a hero. Does he fit the hero’s journey? He does get the Golden Fleece. He has help, maybe too much, from Medea. He returns with the prize. Everything is good. What, then, causes the tragic events of this story? How much is Medea to blame? So, do Jason’s character flaws make him less of a hero, even an anti-hero? More importantly, what lessons do we learn from this story?
Readings:
Make sure to revisit the “History and Culture” materials for this myth in the previous chapter.
- Jason and the Golden Fleece, Greece, [This is a longer one!]
- Medea, Greece, [This is a longer one!]
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.036105
|
12-5-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-eight-myth-revenge/",
"book_url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/front-matter/attribution-and-oer-revision-statement/",
"title": "World Mythology",
"author": "Andy Gurevich",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology), Comparative literature, Comparative religion, Social and cultural anthropology"
}
|
https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-nine-final-thoughts-instructions/
|
Chapter Nine – Final Thoughts
Andy Gurevich
“A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are the narrative patterns that give significance to our existence. Myths are like the beams in a house: not exposed to outside view, they are the structure which holds the house together so people can live in it.”
-Psychoanalyst Rollo May, The Cry for Myth
“The person who thinks they can live without myth, or outside it, like one uprooted, has no true link either with the past, or with the ancestral life which continues within them, or yet with contemporary human society. This plaything of their reason never grips their vitals.”
-C.G. Jung
Please remember that our journey with these transformative narratives continues as long as we are alive, perhaps longer. Through myths, we are able to engage with the consciousness that is the ground of being itself. Thank you for spending time on this journey with me and with each other, and thank you for bringing your full selves to the experience as well.
I hope you will continue to engage with the folktales, myths, stories, and cultures of the living world of our ancestors. These rich narratives provide a vivid, experiential context of understanding that both honors the uniqueness of each individual and culture while simultaneously uncovering a deep human connection at the basis of all of them. The myths of our ancestors tell the stories of our shared becoming. The stories we tell today, of our struggles, our hopes, our fears, and our triumphs, will be the myths of future generations who look to us, their ancestors, for the eternal hope and spiritual grounding that only myths can provide. I pray you have enjoyed the course and our time together. I look forward to engaging you final projects.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.045269
|
12-5-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/chapter/chapter-nine-final-thoughts-instructions/",
"book_url": "https://mhcc.pressbooks.pub/worldmythology/front-matter/attribution-and-oer-revision-statement/",
"title": "World Mythology",
"author": "Andy Gurevich",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology), Comparative literature, Comparative religion, Social and cultural anthropology"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/chapter-1/
|
1 Reframing the “problem” of teaching online
Moving your teaching to the internet is not a technology problem. That is, unless you make it one.
Becoming comfortable with teaching online is more of a conceptual challenge than it a technological one. There are things you can do face-to-face that can be super difficult online. There are other things you can do online that don’t work as well face-to-face. Concentrate on how the internet is different, and work from there.
The technology is something you will figure out with repeated use. Don’t worry about it. Just set aside enough time over successive days to use your online technology and it will come to you. If you choose to use too many platforms or try to be too fancy though, your technology could become a problem. So start thinking conceptually and keep the technology simple.
Action:
While you are working on the important conceptual work in the course, pick away at getting used to the technology. Create a schedule for yourself. Commit to going into the technology platform you’re going to use at least 10-15 minutes a day for a few weeks. The only way to get used to the technology is to practice. Ask a friend/student to come with you. Practice using it.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.053745
|
08-30-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/chapter-1/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online",
"author": "Dave Cormier, Ashlyne O'Neil",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/information-abdundance/
|
2 The impact of information abundance on teaching and learning
Moving your teaching to the internet is about understanding information abundance.
One of the critical conceptual parts about teaching online is adjusting to the idea that your students already have access to all of the precious information you were planning to give them in class.
For the purposes of mere humans, the information available on the internet is limitless. There is more information (good or bad) on any subject than you will ever be able to read. There is an abundance, if you will.
Our classrooms typically create a ‘cone of artificial scarcity’. We remove the abundance by telling students not to use their laptops and phones in class. That allows us to be ‘in charge’ of what information they get access to. (often for good reason)
When your students are learning online, that artificial scarcity disappears.
If you’ve asked a yes or no question, your students can easily Google the answer. If you’ve asked what may be a ‘complicated’ question, but has an answer that is fairly recognised in your discipline, your students are going to Google the answer.
As they should.
Those of us with access to the internet (through literacy, technological and financial means) can reach out for any piece of information we need by simply searching for it. Our learning experiences need to reflect that, and we need to help students develop the ability to sort through that information in a meaningful way. We need to use that abundance to our advantage.
Action:
Information abundance impacts all of our fields. Think of an activity for your learners that uses that abundance to your own advantage. You could get them to source a youtube video to help them learn a concept or find divergent opinions on a controversial topic. Circle back and help them evaluate the quality of their choices.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.063051
|
08-30-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/information-abdundance/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online",
"author": "Dave Cormier, Ashlyne O'Neil",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/complicated-vs-complex/
|
3 Complicated vs. Complex Challenges
Moving your teaching to the internet probably means a greater emphasis on complexity.
A complicated challenge often corresponds with step-by-step responses. For example, it’s something you could copy and paste. It’s something ‘most’ people in your field would agree is the correct answer. Think of building an airplane. That’s a complicated process, with potentially millions of steps. But it doesn’t require, and indeed would probably suffer from, creativity. There are specific steps to take, and those steps should be agreed upon by various folks in the airplane-building industry.
But, asking these ‘complicated’ questions only really works in the zone of artificial scarcity that is our face-to-face classes, where students don’t have a world of information at their fingertips (see chapter on abundance). In a classroom, the students would have to think hard to remember what step to take when. If this piece fails, what do I check first? What’s the formula for that? Online, they can just copy and paste the answer from any number of websites.
Complex challenges don’t have a single answer. They are difficult or impossible to measure. How much do you love cookies? What’s the most ethical way to eat? Only one part of the challenge can be addressed at a time. Focusing on and assessing students’ learning of complex challenges will necessarily engage students with the content and promote their autonomy as learners. If you are looking to evaluate students’ work online, add some complexity; something that brings their perspective to bear. Instead of asking “what is…” or “how does…” ask “what does that mean?” or “why do you think that?”.
We’re not saying not to teach basic or complicated that learners need to remember; just make them part of other things that include complexity if you want to do an assessment.
ACTION:
Categorize some of your assignments into complicated and complex. Take a complicated question from your existing curriculum, ask yourself “how can I transform this question so that it can no longer be answered by copy/paste?” “How can I add complexity to this question?”
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.071839
|
08-30-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/complicated-vs-complex/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online",
"author": "Dave Cormier, Ashlyne O'Neil",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/information-literacy/
|
4 Information Literacy and Learning on the Web
Learning to evaluate information on the internet is a core skill in any field, especially on the internet.
One of the big objections to embracing that giant, complex abundance of information is that students won’t know what is good information and what is bad information(for lack of a better distinction). This is true. But learning to find, evaluate, and synthesize information in any field is a critical skill right now. We can’t protect them from misinformation they might get on the Internet. They need to learn how to deal with it.
Our students are going to need more than information to address the challenges they are facing. They need to be creative problem solvers, and strategic thinkers. Try to situate your course in the abundance of the web as much as possible and include lots of time for guiding learners through the professional and ethical process of evaluating the things they come across.
ACTION:
Think about how you tell the difference between good and bad information in your field. Who are the trusted sources? How can you build your own information literacies into your assignments so that you can teach them to your students? Consider looking at https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/chapter/four-strategies/ as a way to get started.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.080185
|
08-30-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/information-literacy/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online",
"author": "Dave Cormier, Ashlyne O'Neil",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/pedagogies-of-care/
|
5 Teaching with Care
Moving your teaching to the internet really requires pedagogies of care. For your students, and for yourself.
One of the challenges of moving online is that we need to think more consciously about how we are going to ‘care’ for our students. A smile in the classroom can mean a great deal. As do the informal chats with students before or after class, or in the halls, or when you pass each other by on campus. There’s also a deeper sense of caring that involves thinking about different learner needs and how you can design your course to be as equitable as possible. How are you going to incorporate that ‘caring’ in your messages? In your videos? In how you design your assignments?
At the same time, our face-to-face classes, and our face-to-face routines wrap some sanity around how much work we do as educators. It’s easier to stop working when you leave the office and go home. It’s harder to stop working when your home is your office. We need to balance the care we want to show to our students, and the care we are giving to ourselves.
Think about the first five minutes of class. You smile, you check-in with people, you chat with some students, etc. We need effective ways of doing this online.
ACTION:
Build yourself a communication schedule to connect with your students. Come up with ways to regularly connect with your students so that they know you care about their success. Build this into your syllabus as part of your social contract with the students.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.088838
|
08-30-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/pedagogies-of-care/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online",
"author": "Dave Cormier, Ashlyne O'Neil",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/think-of-content-as-teacher-presence/
|
6 Content and Teacher Presence
Moving your teaching to the internet really complicates the relationship between “content” and “teacher presence”.
One of the most useful ways of thinking about content for online teaching is framing it as teacher presence. The distinction between your lectures, and the course textbook, and your comment in the discussion board, and the course assignment, was more obvious when teaching face-to-face. However, when we’re online, all of these things kind of blend together. Now your curation of the materials is part of your presence. The assignment you post is part of your presence. Everything you do (or don’t do) indicates something about your presence.
There is usually a direct relationship between perceived presence and student engagement. We say ‘perceived’ because your students need to know you’re there. Simply reading their comments in a discussion forum and not doesn’t indicate your presence. You could spend two hours going through the whole discussion, but if you say nothing (or don’t otherwise indicate that you have seen them), they won’t know that. And then it seems like you’re not around. You need to ‘be present’ in the same way you need to ‘pay attention’. It’s an action.
You can easily write one post, or create one quick video, responding to all the posts on a given subjects, highlighting themes, and correcting misconceptions. Less duplication for you, and it still shows students that you’re involved.
Action:
Record an introductory video for your course. Let students know who you are as a member of your field so that they can ‘hear your voice’ when you are writing them responses.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.097359
|
08-30-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/think-of-content-as-teacher-presence/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online",
"author": "Dave Cormier, Ashlyne O'Neil",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/keep-it-simple/
|
7 Keep it Simple
When moving your teaching to the internet, keep it simple. The tech and the content!
Our fields all contain an abundance of information, and I get that its tempting to want to “cover all the content”. But you don’t need to. Seriously. It’s your course. You can teach fewer concepts, but work to make those concepts stick at a deeper level. It’s all too easy to fall into the traditional way of thinking: must. cover. content. Resist. Keep it simple.
This is a chance to rethink the structure of the concepts in your course. How many major concepts are necessary? What’s most important? Do away with the rest. Better yet, make them optional for students who want more (there are always a few).
Same goes for the tools you use. No need to get all fancy and have 5 applications going to run a 1-hour session, or record a 5-minute video. Keep it simple. Your students, and your future self will thank you.
ACTION:
Take a look at your goals/objectives and ask yourself if you really need that many of them. Review the different technologies/platforms you are going to use – will they cause confusion? Simple is usually better.
Optional Resources
- Simple, Equitable and Engaging– one hour video introduction
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.105975
|
08-30-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/keep-it-simple/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online",
"author": "Dave Cormier, Ashlyne O'Neil",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/keep-it-equitable-and-accessible/
|
8 Keep it Equitable and Accessible
Moving your teaching to the internet, especially during a global crisis, brings about new concerns for equity and accessibility.
Part access. Part care. FULLY about your context. Equity and accessibility issues can’t be addressed in a couple of paragraphs, they are about committing yourself to understanding all of your students, and meeting them where they are.
The accessibility issues that your students have are not going away because they are working from home. In fact, for some, they have been compounded.
Online learning, for instance, often increases the impact of economic disparity on the classroom. If a learner doesn’t have a dedicated computer in their house, they are going to struggle to participate in synchronous activities. If you only have a phone or tablet, you are going to struggle with multitasking. If you don’t have a strong wifi connection, your experience with many online learning things will be worse. Think about alternatives for students who cannot attend your synchronous sessions. Think about different ways you can design your assignments to allow for students to complete them in multiple ways.
Equity is a commitment, we’ve included some links below to get you started. Engage with your students, get to know them. Examine yourself, understand how your own privilege.
ACTION:
Take an existing assignment and imagine how it will impact students in different situations. Will they be able to do it with a weak internet connection? What about students who have difficulty hearing? Imagine alternate submission approaches that could benefit those learners.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.114684
|
08-30-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/keep-it-equitable-and-accessible/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online",
"author": "Dave Cormier, Ashlyne O'Neil",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/keep-it-engaging/
|
9 Keep it Engaging
Moving your teaching to the internet necessitates more intentionality behind your student engagement.
You need to be interesting. Be realistic about what you’re expecting students to do. “But I have a lot of content to cover” is not an excuse for not putting the effort in. If you’ve recorded a super long video to send to students, force yourself to watch it first. When you get bored and want to turn it off… cut your video and send that. ANY content/concept ‘can’ be engaging.
One of the biggest concerns from instructors moving online is that they struggle to get students to do the work in the regular face-to-face context, how are they going to get students to do the work online? Part of helping students be engaged is to create the scaffolding they need, to understand HOW to be ready to do the work. HOW can they be successful online learners?
If you’re assigning readings before class, give them a 200-word reflection to hand in the day before. Scaffolding doesn’t mean you oversimplify the material, it means you structure the workload to make it more manageable.
Action:
Watch one of your recordings or read one of your readings, imagining you’re a student. Put on your critical eye. Think about how you could make it more compelling for students.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.123667
|
08-30-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/keep-it-engaging/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online",
"author": "Dave Cormier, Ashlyne O'Neil",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/design-activities-for-the-web/
|
10 Design Activities and Assessments for the Web
This concept seems to be helpful to people thinking about the advantages of teaching online. If you’re going to have an essay or a project or any kind of long term work with students, think of those projects as an iterative process. If you were doing this face 2 face, you might have them submit something halfway through the term. You might even get them to journal in a workbook that they hand in to you and that you hand back. It’s an organizational nightmare. Online you can create any number of spaces where learners can check in and post their progress. The web is very good at keeping track of student work for you. It also makes it very easy for students to share with each other.
For this to work, you can’t think of grading EVERYTHING. Setting up discussion for students and having them submit ‘their five favourite posts’ can be a great way to keep discussion open and also introduce curation.
Action:
Design one week of activities for your class. Start from the beginning and ask yourself how each step will be done by students working from inside their homes. Are there ways you can use the abundance of the internet to improve it? Are there challenges to any of the activities that are about how the web works?
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.132450
|
08-30-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/design-activities-for-the-web/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online",
"author": "Dave Cormier, Ashlyne O'Neil",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/work-together/
|
11 Work Together
Please don’t try and do this alone. You are not the only person trying to do this. It is not a competition. Don’t try to create all your resources alone. Don’t try and learn alone. Don’t try to find your resources alone. Make a team. At your school or with others.
There are tons of Open Education Resources (OER) out there you can use. It takes a while. And some deep searching… searching with a team will make it much faster.
Action:
Find yourself a few partners. You could also find some people to follow and work with on Twitter. Reach out to colleagues that you have met at a conference and ask them what they are doing. Start forming community. Share. Work together.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.141173
|
08-30-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/work-together/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online",
"author": "Dave Cormier, Ashlyne O'Neil",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/the-community-is-the-curriculum/
|
12 The Community is the Curriculum
Moving to teaching online could mean thinking of the community as the curriculum. Encouraging the participation of learners with other professionals in their field as (part of) the curriculum in your course. This could mean that learners are engaging with ongoing research in the field, or reading new research as it develops. The goal is to develop the literacies of your field.
Action
Find the online presence of a number of experts in your field. Incorporate their social presence into your course.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.148999
|
08-30-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/chapter/the-community-is-the-curriculum/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/onlineteaching/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online",
"author": "Dave Cormier, Ashlyne O'Neil",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/chapter-1/
|
Historically, the most vital and noticeable construction through the Reading area has been railroads. As part of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (P&R), incorporated in 1833, much of the town has been covered with railroads until the P&R railroad filed for bankruptcy protection in 1971. The railroad in the Northwest Reading neighborhood runs along the Schuylkill River, which leads to the neighboring cities of Pottsville, Pottstown and Philadelphia. This railroad was also located directly next to Parish Steel (later Dana Corp.), becoming vital to the neighborhood’s industry. (ReadingPa.gov, n.d.)
This railroad has been an important part of the neighborhood, as it was used by the Reading Iron Company and Carpenter Technology in the transport of iron and steel, and Reading Anthracite Company in transportation of anthracite from the northern Coal Region counties to Reading and the southern states. A passenger line to and from Philadelphia in 1833 made the neighborhood a hotbed for railroad use (ReadingPa.gov, n.d.).
This usage continued well into the 20th century, even after the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company was renamed the Reading Company in 1923. The reason for the name change was to streamline the company’s corporate structure after World War I, when the railroads were no longer under government control and lines were becoming electrified. This period right after World War I was the company’s best years. However, industrial railroad use decreased significantly after World War II when the demand for anthracite fell sharply (ReadingPa.gov, n.d.).
For the next two decades, this decline slowly ate away at the Reading Company’s profits, until the Reading Company finally filed for bankruptcy in 1971, and sold all its railway lines to Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), and subsequently the Reading lines were sold to Virginia-based freighter Norfolk Southern in 1997, including the rails in Northwest Reading (Alecknavage II, 2003).
In or before the first decade of the twentieth century, much of the railways in the area were abandoned. One can see remnants of these former lines running through neighborhood streets, such as Buttonwood Street. Since then, many of the other abandoned lines have been paved over, while others that have not are largely grown over with brush. According to former Reading mayor Tom McMahon, mayor of Reading from 2004-2012, the Norfolk Southern rail is still active and used a few times a week (T. McMahon, personal communication, March 13, 2017).
Another major infrastructure fixture in northwest Reading is the Schuylkill River Trail, a 140-mile trail that extends from Pottsville to Philadelphia. One mile of the trail runs through Northwest Reading along River Road, with its entrance behind Baer Park. On this section, one can see remnants of the former Schuylkill Canal, a historic canal that was in operation from 1825 to 1931. The beautiful Kissinger’s Lock (Lock 45), which officially ceased boat traffic in 1945 (Wenrich, 2009; Youker, 2009), also is preserved along the river.
Roads
There are two bridges in the neighborhood: the Schuylkill Avenue Bridge which interchanges with the Warren Street Bypass and into Glenside, and the Buttonwood Bridge from Reading to West Reading. The Schuylkill Avenue Bridge was a large undertaking as part of the Warren Street Bypass extension. The bridge had been around since the 1910s as a river crossing, but had not been connected to any major road. Before 1950 when the extension’s construction began, Schuylkill Avenue was a dead end from Warren Street. The bridge’s construction was met with opposition, as it cut through a residential area (Glenside), whose residents did not want housing values to drop because of heavy traffic. Despite the opposition, the extension was completed in 1957 (Go Reading Berks, 2013).
The Buttonwood Street Bridge was opened in the early 1930s, but was largely neglected in its history. According to the Reading Eagle, no major work had been done on the bridge since the 1970s until recently. In fact, both bridges had major deterioration problems. As of this writing, both bridges have been under renovation to repair the structural damage, forcing the Buttonwood Street Bridge to close temporarily for repairs (Migdail-Smith, 2015).
We have observed that many roads in the neighborhood have largely been neglected as well, as they are worn and rough to drive over. Aside from the major roads like Buttonwood Street and River Road, many of the roads are extremely narrow and were widened in order to simply make room for the two bridges.
Parks
The largest park in Northwest Reading is Baer Park, located on Clinton Street directly in front of Northwest Elementary School. According to the Berks History Center, the park was built in 1938, and the fieldhouse was built from the remains of the Berks County Prison at Penn’s Common after its closure in 1932 and its subsequent teardown in 1936 (“Berks County Prison in Penn’s Common (City Park Annals – Part III)”, n.d.).
The other main park in Northwest Reading is Lauer’s Park, built by Frederick Lauer largely as a place of worship for him and his fellow German residents in the neighborhood, and one section has a recreational area for the community as a whole. After his death in 1883, the park was converted into a baseball stadium where semi-professional teams practiced and played into the 20th century (Kuhn, 1992). This baseball park predates all of the professional baseball stadiums nationally, including Baker Bowl (built in 1895) and Forbes Field (built in 1909), two fields commonly referred to as the earliest official baseball fields built (Go Reading Berks, 2012).
One long-standing fixture in the neighborhood is the Clinton Street swimming pool. The original pool was built by the men and boys of the Olivet Boys Club in 1921. The Olivet Clinton Street pool was the first desegregated pool in the city. (Hunsicker and Hoffman, 2016) Originally, girls were not allowed to be members of the club or to swim in the pool, although there are many photos showing girls in the pool. The pool became an extremely popular site for many athletic events such as swimming, diving, and water polo (Unruh, 2016). Today, the Clinton Street pool is one of the only pools in Reading.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.159409
|
02-25-2025
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/chapter-1/",
"book_url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "A Portrait of Life in Northwest Reading",
"author": "mah629",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biography: philosophy and social sciences"
}
|
https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/patterns-of-settlement/
|
According to the Berks History Center, foreign settlement into the area began during the late 1700s with an influx of Germans emigrating directly from Germany, either due to family already here or because of the rise in industry into the city. This was a trend that began slowly at the turn of the 19th century and continued well into the Industrial Age. The Reading Railroad and the establishment of many manufacturing companies such as Thomas A. Willson & Co., better known as Willson Goggles, and Carpenter Steel Co., now formally known as Carpenter Technology, were among the factors leading to this migration (Albright, 1948).
The Rehr family was among the first German families that settled in Reading. Coming from Germany in the 1850s, William Rehr, I and his son Lambert (who became much more well known in the city as President of Penn National Bank, which later became National Penn Bank) were housing contractors who became known for building most of the homes in what is now Northeast Reading, and subsequently, many homes in the Northwest section as well (Reading Eagle, 1925; W. Rehr III, personal communication, March 8, 2017). Much of the land on both the Northeast and Northwest areas of Reading had gone undeveloped until the 1800s, mainly because there were many hills with steep inclines that made it difficult to build homes at the time (W. Rehr III, personal communication, March 8, 2017).
Retired fire chief William Rehr III noted that before the influx of Latinos beginning in the 1950s and continuing to this day, most of the residents in Northwest Reading remained German, while Northeast Reading was being populated more by Polish and Irish immigrants by the turn of the 19th century. The early Latino settlers were coming directly from Puerto Rico and Mexico (W. Rehr III, personal communication, March 8, 2017).
Since the 1980s, the Latino migration into the city and the neighborhood appeared to come from New York. As Reading Classic Bike Club Vice President and frequent community organizer Rich Rodriguez states, he moved to Reading from the Bronx in 1986 upon word from relatives already residing in the city that there was more gainful employment and affordable housing (R. Rodriguez, personal communication, April 3, 2017). The downfall of the Dana Corp. (Miller, 2010) and Hershey sites (Levy, 2007), in addition to the decline of historic small brick-and-mortar businesses, would partly explain how Northwest Reading started to become a more transient community. This resulted in employment shifting outside the neighborhood and ultimately outside of Reading. As William Rehr III states, much of the neighborhood was primarily populated by older individuals above the age of 60 who were retired when the housing market in Reading was primarily homeownership. It began to change when the trend shifted towards tenancy, which has shaped the neighborhood into a working class community (W. Rehr III, personal communication, March 8, 2017).
Tom McMahon notes that many homeowners and landlords do not live in the city, and many not even in the state. In his research conducted with Our City Reading, a local nonprofit organization focused on renovating homes in Reading, McMahon found that some homeowners and landlords live as close as Wyomissing or Leesport, while others live as far away as Florida. This presents an economic disconnect that has led to many problems, including homes that are poorly maintained being sold above market value. McMahon recalled a trend in the 2000s where “slumlords” would skirt around legal housing requirements and rent a single house to multiple families, taking advantage of the Hispanic community as many of these houses were rented to undocumented immigrants who were left with little choice. While parents worked and children went to school in the daytime, few (if any) were present in the household during the day when housing inspectors would come around, and in the night, these families would sleep on temporary bedding. This process was violating the ordinance that was put in place to minimize casualties and deaths in the event of a disaster, such as a fire. During this period, there were a number of fires in the neighborhood where multiple families died in the same house because of the overcrowding (T. McMahon, personal communication, March 13, 2017).
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.167886
|
02-25-2025
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/patterns-of-settlement/",
"book_url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "A Portrait of Life in Northwest Reading",
"author": "mah629",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biography: philosophy and social sciences"
}
|
https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/commerce-and-industry/
|
Historical Commerce and Industry
According to Theresa Guiles, a longtime resident of the Northwest section, Reading as a whole was an industrial and manufacturing town throughout its history. Northwest Reading was no exception, as evidenced by the GoggleWorks (former site of T.A. Willson Spectacle Works), the former Dana Corp site, the Lauer and Barbey breweries, and, by far the largest business in Northwest Reading historic or present, Carpenter Technology. Guiles’ own family had owned Mike’s Tavern on Exeter St. from its beginning in 1920 as a grocery store before the end of Prohibition until its sale to Pete Cammarano in 2010, who continues to operate the tavern (T. Guiles, personal communication, March 8, 2017).
Throughout its history, Carpenter Technology purchased large portions of land within the neighborhood as it expanded. Just one block away from Mike’s Tavern is the Carpenter Employee Relations building, which Guiles recalls used to be residential homes. Across the street from the tavern and her house is the Carpenter Laboratory, which used to be the Riverside Fire House (T. Guiles, personal communication, March 8, 2017). One of the first purchases Carpenter made in its expansion was the House of Good Shepherd, a Catholic school for “wayward” young women, and was famous (or infamous, depending who was asked) for its architectural design reminiscent of a French gothic cathedral. The land was bought in 1970, and the cathedral was demolished three years later (Go Reading Berks, 2014).
Much of the Carpenter facility was built by the famed Reading architecture and engineering firm Muhlenberg Brothers, as was the Berks History Center and parts of the T.A. Wilson building (H.H. Robertson Company, 1921; Splain, 2006).
Current Commerce and Industry
When looking at the neighborhood from a satellite view, the most prominent feature within the Northwest Reading neighborhood is Dana Memorial Park (as labeled by Google Maps) along Clinton Street. This was the site of Dana Corp., and was demolished after Dana closed the plant in 2010. This area was more recently under construction as a water treatment facility before the builders went bankrupt and were forced to abandon the property. (T. McMahon, personal communication, March 13, 2017) One can still see the incomplete girders for the foundation of this proposed building construction right next to the Olivet Boys and Girls Club’s swimming pool. However, much of the area is completely barren otherwise. Satellite views of this acreage show a large patch of sand and gravel in the midst of natural greenspace.
As of this writing, the City of Reading has proposed a number of projects in order for businesses to open in this area, such as the Schuylkill Avenue interchange, which would make the area more accessible from roads. There is currently no way of entering the area except through a detour on the Schuylkill River Trail, as it is fenced off from the rest of the neighborhood (Go Reading Berks, 2013).
When Dana Corp. left Reading in 2010, much of the land in the Northwest section of Reading now belongs to Carpenter Technology, the fourth largest employer in the city as a whole. With employment of about 2,300, Carpenter Technology is currently the leading employer and industry within the Northwest Reading neighborhood (Greater Reading Economic Partnership, 2016).
Most of the major employers are located outside of the Northwest Reading boundaries. In fact, the Northwest neighborhood mostly has small family owned shops. Sofrito’s Gastropub and Mike’s Tavern are well-known to both neighborhood residents and nonresidents. Sofrito’s, a small pub situated on the street corner of a residential neighborhood, has 80 reviews on Yelp, the most out of any other business located in Northwest Reading (Yelp, n.d.).
There are a number of “bodegas,” or Hispanic convenience stores, in the area, including Olivares Grocery and Tavaies Grocery Store on N. Front St., Dominican Grocery on Greenwich St., La Antilla and Janina (pictured) on W. Douglass, Ralph’s Food Market and La Macorisana on Oley St., Misael Deli on W. Oley St, among them. Almost all of them are family-owned, and employees are often family and friends in the area. (A. Garcia, personal communication, March 13, 2017)
There are also a number of hair salons in the Northwest Reading area that contribute to the local economy. These are also Latino family-owned and run, usually by women. Examples include Maggie’s Dominican Hair Salon located on W. Greenwich St. and D’Clase Unisex Salon on Schuylkill Ave, both founded and operated by Dominican women Maggie Buros and Angela Sosa, respectively. (A. Sosa, Personal communication, May 5, 2017; M. Buros, Personal communication, May 5, 2017).
Sun Rich Fresh Fruit, a fruit processing facility, and Hydrojet, an industrial machining and prototyping company, have been recent industrial additions to Northwest Reading, having both initiated manufacturing facility construction in 2007 (“Resolution 17 – 2007,” 2007; “Resolution 74 – 2007,” 2007). Our City Reading credits Al Boscov and their organization as the main entity responsible for bringing them to the Northwest Reading neighborhood (Our City Reading, n.d.).
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.178006
|
02-25-2025
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/commerce-and-industry/",
"book_url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "A Portrait of Life in Northwest Reading",
"author": "mah629",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biography: philosophy and social sciences"
}
|
https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/current-demographics/
|
Compiling demographic data specifically for Northwest Reading was difficult. We were unable to find census data that targeted only Northwest, so the information below refers to Reading as a whole. In 2000, the population in Reading, Pennsylvania as a whole was 81,291. According to the Census Bureau, the majority of Reading was non-Hispanic white at 48.27% of the population. The Hispanic population was 37.3%, and the Black/African American population was 12.2%. About 2.23% of the population identified themselves as a different racial group (CensusViewer, n.d.).
In 2010, the population in Reading increased to 88,082. The Hispanic percentage of the population increased to 58.2%, thereby becoming the majority population of the city. The non-Hispanic white population decreased significantly to 28.7%, while the black/African American population stayed relatively the same at 13.2% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). According to District Six City Council member John Slifko, the populace in the Northwest section of Reading is estimated to be around 5,000 residents (J. Slifko, personal communication, March 18, 2017). However, census data doesn’t collect population numbers within specific city regions.
The American Community Survey, which calculates estimated populations over a period of five years, reported a population in Reading of 88,057 in 2015. In 2015, the Hispanic population continued to increase with a total 61.2% within the city, while the non-Hispanic white population decreased to 25.9%. According to the American Community Survey, the black/African American population has also decreased over the past five years to 9.3%. About 2.4% of the population identify themselves as a combination of different races (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015).
In 2015, a little over a third of the population (34.4%) were 19 years old or younger, about 35.4% were between the ages of 20 and 44, 20.6% were between 45 and 64, and 9.6% were 65 years old or older (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015).
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.185789
|
02-25-2025
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/current-demographics/",
"book_url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "A Portrait of Life in Northwest Reading",
"author": "mah629",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biography: philosophy and social sciences"
}
|
https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/formal-community-groups-and-organizations/
|
The Northwest Reading neighborhood comprises a few formal community organizations. Both Opportunity House and the Children’s Home of Reading are considered health and human service organizations. They provide individuals who face difficult life circumstances with a chance to improve the quality of their lives. Our City Reading is a nonprofit advocacy organization whose mission is to provide first time home buyers with stability, bring high quality job opportunities to the area, and enhance the overall quality of life in Reading.
Opportunity House
Opportunity House started in November 1984 as an outreach of local churches that used church basements to house homeless people. The organization then bought a permanent location on 430 North 2nd street in 1986. Since then, Opportunity House has added additional services which include the Second Street Learning Center, the Children’s Alliance Center, and the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (Opportunity House, n.d.).
By the mid 1990’s, Opportunity House began teaching independence skills to low-income adults by providing lessons on life skills, money management, and case management. Around the same time, Second Street Learning Center was established as a daytime program, and by 2000 it had become the only 24/7 community childcare center in Pennsylvania. In 2004, the Children’s Alliance Center was created to partner with other organizations so that children would always have a safe place to live. In 2012, the Supportive Services for Veteran Families was established to assist veterans who were at risk of homelessness (Opportunity House, n.d.).
Children’s Home of Reading
Children’s Home of Reading (CHOR) was founded in 1884 when the City of Reading opened a daytime nursery to help single mothers. It began on Franklin Street (outside of Northwest Reading), but expanded to the “Home for Friendless Children” on Centre Ave in 1888 when the nursery began caring for parentless children (The Children’s Home of Reading, n.d.).
The Home for Friendless Children was renamed the Children’s Home of Reading in 1947, as its services through the Depression and the World Wars broadened, including mental health counseling, temporary housing, education, and more recently, drug counseling. A number of community-based organizations branch out from the Children’s Home, including the Berks Parents Services Collaborative Program, a committee established in 1991 to assist mothers with alcohol and drug issues (The Children’s Home of Reading, n.d.).
Our City Reading
Our City Reading (OCR) was founded in 1999 by Al Boscov. The nonprofit was started to combat the problem of abandoned properties throughout various parts of the city. In Northwest Reading, a number of developments have taken place under OCR. The organization primarily purchases properties that are abandoned or unfit, refurbishes them, and sells them to first-time homebuyers who live and work in Reading. According to their website, OCR’s projects in the area include the GoggleWorks Apartments, an expansion of the GoggleWorks, and (according to Tom McMahon) a playground for Northwest Elementary School. Our City Reading has also been instrumental in bringing a number of businesses to the Northwest Reading area, such as Sun Rich Fresh Fruit and Hydrojet, as well as the surrounding area including KVP Falcon and Quaker Maid Meat in the Shillington area (Our City Reading, Inc., n.d.).
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.194441
|
02-25-2025
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/formal-community-groups-and-organizations/",
"book_url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "A Portrait of Life in Northwest Reading",
"author": "mah629",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biography: philosophy and social sciences"
}
|
https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/informal-community-groups-and-organizations/
|
The Reading Schwinn Classic Bike Club is a local organization focused on collecting and riding vintage Schwinn bicycles. It has been a fixture in the Northwest Community since 1995, according to Rich Rodriguez. However, it was a largely insular collective for many years until Pancho Rosa became President of the club in 2008, with Rodriguez being his Vice President. Both Peña and Rodriguez were active in the local Northwest Reading community before joining the Bike Club, including organizing Little League games at Lauer’s Park and local basketball games. As executives of the Bike Club, they began to push the Classic Bike Club to participate in more community efforts, such as joint events with the Reading Bike Hub, a nonprofit bike shop in downtown Reading, and in the Northwest Reading area, becoming involved with the Friends of the Schuylkill River Trail, a community group formed in November 2016 to pursue the revitalization of the Schuylikill River Trail section in NW Reading (R. Rodriguez, personal communication, April 3, 2017).
Kelley Coates, the former community outreach director at Neighborhood Housing Services, provided a list of local community groups that existed during 2006. Organizations in Northwest Reading included the Outlet Area Neighborhood Organization, Centre Park Historic District Neighborhood Organization, Center City Community Organization, Northwest Neighborhood Association, Bethany Area Neighborhood Organization, 15-1 Neighborhood Organization, Dare 2 Care, Greenwich Seed Neighborhood Organization, Community Hope of the 6th Ward, and the Reading Elderly Housing Crime Watch. However, currently only three of these organizations still exist. These groups are spearheaded by community leaders and are formed to allow residents to take control of their neighborhood and provide the community with support.
Recently, many residents choose not to participate in local community groups anymore. Peggy Harter, a Northwest Reading resident since 1966, noted the drastic change of community involvement within Reading. Community groups, most notably the Baer Park Association, would host events and fundraisers benefitting their neighborhoods. However, many of these community leaders moved out to the suburbs. Since then, to her knowledge, few residents have maintained or created those types of informal groups (P. Harter, personal communication, March 17, 2017). We were unable to locate any other groups.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.202056
|
02-25-2025
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/informal-community-groups-and-organizations/",
"book_url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "A Portrait of Life in Northwest Reading",
"author": "mah629",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biography: philosophy and social sciences"
}
|
https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/formal-community-institutions/
|
The largest and most ubiquitous community organizations are related to the religious congregations situated within the Northwest Reading section (J. Slifko, personal communication, March 18, 2017; T. McMahon, personal communication, March 13, 2017). According to Father Garcia of St. Margaret’s Catholic Church, many informal groups, such as youth groups and charity groups, have been directly and indirectly operated by churches, while others utilize the church as a networking hub in order to mobilize the community. Garcia spoke of his church’s current efforts to have an official youth group, but they are having trouble, as most of the people interested in running it are adults. (A. Garcia, personal communication, March 13, 2017).
Similarly, former city mayor Tom McMahon states that City Council and the local city government are increasingly working with churches to mobilize various communities, as they are valuable resources in efforts to reach out to local residents (Personal communication, March 13, 2017).
Historically, a major institution in the neighborhood had been the Reading Railroad YMCA on 6th Street, which had been a staple of the community from 1896 until its closing in 1969, moving to Washington Street in downtown Reading. The former YMCA building is now the Hope Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter (Kelly, 2016).
Here are some notable examples of current formal institutions:
Berks History Center
The Berks History Center was founded in December 1869 when local Reading residents and community leaders saw a need to collect historical documents and objects for reminiscence and education. Meetings were held on 6th street outside of the neighborhood, and the Historical Society did not have a dedicated building until 1904 at 519 Court Street in downtown Reading. With all the objects and documents being collected by the Historical Society, they grew out of their building. Construction for a new Berks History Center building began in 1928 on Centre Ave, and was completed in October 1929, where the Center stands to this day. Requiring more space in 2008, the Historical Society purchased and renovated the former M&T bank building located directly behind the Center, turning it into the Henry Janssen Library (“About Us”, n.d.).
GoggleWorks Center for the Arts
The GoggleWorks is located in the building that was once Thomas A. Willson and Co., the world’s first manufacturing facility for optical glasses. The business became famous for patenting the process for creating shatterproof glass in 1876. Keeping with their reputation for having impeccable safety standards, T.A. Willson and Co. began making safety glasses, and through the 1900s, a variety of safety equipment, such as ear protectors and gas masks. By 1939, T.A. Willson and Co. became Willson Products, and was developing aviator goggles and oxygen masks for fighter pilots during World War II.
When the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was passed in 1970, which required employers to provide safe working conditions for workers, Willson Products increased their manufacturing of safety eyewear products (Park, 2010). In 1989, Christian Dalloz bought the company. However, they closed in 2002, when the company restructured its industrial base to consolidate its worldwide production, with products in 75 countries.
Three years later, under the direction of local philanthropist Al Boscov, with the assistance of retired industrialist Marlin Miller and then-Mayor Tom McMahon, the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts opened in the former Willson Products building. GoggleWorks is a nonprofit facility that holds classes, exhibitions, and camps for adults and children of all ages involving art, music, glasswork, woodwork, and sculpting (“History”, n.d.).
GoggleWorks has been instrumental in generating tourism within the Northwest Reading neighborhood specifically, as it draws many visitors from outside the city to observe the exhibits and participate in workshops. Al Boscov also credited the GoggleWorks as the stepping stone that played a key role in the passage of other developments in the city, such as the R/C IMAX Theatre, the Doubletree Hilton, and later the GoggleWorks Apartments. Ellen Horan, former President of the Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce & Industry, stated during the building’s tenth anniversary celebration that it made Reading as a whole stand out amongst other cities in Pennsylvania, as, “The arena is a big attraction, but a lot of cities have arenas. Not many have a GoggleWorks” (Devlin, 2015).
In addition, GoggleWorks has also played a role in improving the reputation of the neighborhood, both within and abroad, as art centers in other cities such as Schuylkill Haven, PA and Alexandria, VA have looked to the GoggleWorks with interest (Devlin, 2015).
Olivet Boys & Girls Club
William “Mac” McCormack, an altruistic businessman who wanted to help working-class boys from Reading to become good citizens, founded the Olivet Boys and Girls Club in 1898. There were five Olivet Boys Clubs located around the City of Reading, which McCormack ran and financed until his death in 1923 at the age of 57 from pneumonia. The first, stand-alone club was built at the corner of Clinton and West Oley Streets in Northwest Reading in 1910 by McCormick, then editor of the Reading Herald Newspaper. The Clinton Street Club housed two bowling alleys, billiards, game, and meeting rooms, shower baths, a shooting gallery, and a gymnasium with a stage. Later, the club added an outdoor swimming pool, and Reading’s second playground, called Outdoor Fields. (Boulanger, 2016)
Today, McCormick’s vision carries on. The Olivet Club has seven locations in the city serving both boys and girls. In 1990, the name changed to Olivet Boys and Girls Club and girls were able to join the club as official members. (Yatron, 2016)The club’s primary goal is to provide the children of Reading with mental, physical, and social support. There are several programs offered within the clubs, which include technology programs, sports fitness and recreation, good character and citizenship, specialized initiatives, academic success, healthy lifestyles, and the arts. Each program provides children with different opportunities to indulge in their passions and foster creative thinking. The club also participates in many community initiatives and encourages their members to get involved. The club is used as a positive reinforcement for the youth and to keep them busy with productive options (“About Us”, n.d.).
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.212764
|
02-25-2025
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/formal-community-institutions/",
"book_url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "A Portrait of Life in Northwest Reading",
"author": "mah629",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biography: philosophy and social sciences"
}
|
https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/community-leaders/
|
This section proved to be the most difficult to research. Formal community leaders are generally well-established and known within the community; however, in finding informal community leaders, it was largely based on subjective data from our interviews. In addition, there were a number of community leaders we could not include in-depth simply because we were unable to conduct official interviews with them, such as Deja Harris, Unit Director for Olivet Boys & Girls Club, Jeffrey Palmer, former CEO and President of Olivet Boys & Girls Club, and Pastor Mary Wolfe of Hope Lutheran Church.
Formal Community Leaders:
Donna Reed
Originally from Muhlenberg Township, Donna Reed has served four terms as District 5’s City Councilperson; among her roles were chair of the Public Works Committee, chair of the now-dissolved Marketing and Economic Development Committee, and member on the Administrative Oversight Committee. In addition, she has also been a member of Reading Beautification, Inc., Reading Planning Commission, and a board member of Crime Alert Berks County and the Centre Park Historic District (D. Reed, personal communication, February 22, 2017).
Much of Donna’s efforts focus on rebuilding the neighborhood economically. One project in which she is involved is the extension of River Road, which would improve commercial and industrial traffic from Route 183. This project has been in development since 2011, and in 2016, the project entered its design phase (D. Reed, personal communication, February 22, 2017).
John Slifko
John Slifko was originally born and raised in La Plata, Maryland before moving to Reading at the age of 36. He was a construction worker before discovering a talent for law and a love of public service. Beginning first as a legal advisor to City Hall, he worked his way up to become City Councilperson for District 6 (J. Slifko, personal communication, March 18, 2017).
Although Slifko’s district is not only Northwest Reading, he has contributed to revitalizing the Northwest neighborhood. As councilmember, he’s partnered with Donna Reed to plant trees all throughout the neighborhood to improve the landscape of the community. He’s also worked closely with the Reading Shade Tree Commission on several projects, including the widening of the Schuylkill River Trail. He’s also very much involved in the Friends of the Schuylkill River Trail committee, and tries to further the group’s initiatives within council (J. Slifko, personal communication, April 25, 2017).
Joel Brigel
Joel Brigel was born and raised in the Mt. Penn area of Reading, and has held a number of positions in the Reading School District. He has been principal at Northwest Middle School since 2012, having previously been Vice Principal at Southern Middle School and Northeast Middle School. He has played a role in the education and discipline of middle school students in Northwest Reading, encouraging academic excellence as well as parental engagement with students (J. Brigel, personal communication, February 24, 2017).
As principal, he has established relationships with community organizations to provide his students with great opportunities and a safe educational environment. He works closely with the Olivet Boys and Girls Club and the Reading Recreation Commission to provide sports activities, cooking clubs, and a Girls Leadership Club. He’s also worked with The Place Church, which sponsors holiday events, and the Reading Shade Tree Commission, which has helped plant trees around the school facilities to improve the landscape around the school (J. Brigel, personal communication, April 25, 2017).
Informal Community Leaders:
Brad Waples
Bradford Waples Jr. is an up-and-coming entrepreneur who has lived in Northwest Reading for most of his life. He currently owns three businesses: a clothing store, a printing shop, and a marketing firm, under the name Custom It. At the time of this writing, he is currently running for the District 5 seat in City Council, as Donna Reed has chosen not to run for re-election. His father was the longtime director at the Police Athletic League of Greater Reading (P.A.L.), and inspired him to be involved and engaged in the community (B. Waples, personal communication, February 15, 2017).
For the past few years, Waples has tried to produce events in the Northwest Reading community. Many of the events are creative and art-based and encourage attendees to appreciate visual, audio, and theatrical art. The purpose of his events are both to provide a good time to local residents, and to give hope to the rising youth and foster their creative knowledge (B. Waples, personal communication, February 15, 2017).
Father Angel Garcia
Father Angel Garcia is the current pastor at St. Margaret’s Roman Catholic Church on Centre Ave. Originally born in Puerto Rico and raised in Bethlehem, Fr. Garcia was a priest at St. Peter’s Church from 2003 to 2009, and has been at St. Margaret’s since 2014. Having grown up about an hour away, Father Garcia has become familiar with Reading’s fixtures and also its reputation across county lines. As the figurehead of St. Margaret’s, the largest Latino congregation in the neighborhood, he has had his hand in helping the community by giving the neighborhood hope and wisdom in their daily struggles, as well as providing resources such as food and money when available (A. Garcia, personal communication, March 13, 2017).
Tom McMahon
As City Mayor from 2004 to 2012, Tom McMahon had been Northwest Reading’s longest serving formal community leader, and even after retiring, continues to be a key figure within the community, particularly with its infrastructure developments. During his tenure as Mayor, he had his hand in the creation of the GoggleWorks and the implementation of Our City Reading. One of his most memorable contributions to Northwest Reading was establishing a home for the Boxing Club. The boxing program was created to encourage the youth to get involved in something positive instead of gang or illegal activities (T. McMahon, personal communication, March 13, 2017).
Since his retirement, he’s contributed to many different projects within the Northwest neighborhood. He had assisted the principal of Northwest Elementary in fundraising for a new playground and was able to bring the Gilmore Henne team, an organization dedicated to revitalizing communities, to visit the site of the playground. He also continues to attend meetings for the Reading Redevelopment Authority to find uses for the Dana Memorial 50-acre site. He hopes to be able to provide jobs to local residents after renovations. He also regularly attends meetings in all different sectors of the local government to help in the progression of the city (T. McMahon, personal communication, April 27, 2017).
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.224080
|
02-25-2025
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/community-leaders/",
"book_url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "A Portrait of Life in Northwest Reading",
"author": "mah629",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biography: philosophy and social sciences"
}
|
https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/community/
|
Community Traditions and Practices
Formal traditions and practices in the Northwest Reading community primarily take place around religion. Fr. Garcia noted that a significant portion of the Northwest Reading population attends church regularly, and in turn, churches often become a center for community gathering rather than secularly organized events. (A. Garcia, personal communication, March 13, 2017).
Churches such as St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, St. Margaret’s Roman Catholic Church, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Hope Lutheran Church organize many community events.
Community Attitudes
The community outlook, we have found, changes drastically in relation to both positions of power and, in part, socioeconomic status. Many of the individuals interviewed who have a positive optimistic outlook of the community hold positions of power within the neighborhood, while other residents hold more skeptical views of the community as a whole.
One aspect of this disconnect is cross-cultural. For example, Peggy Harter finds that sometimes it is very difficult to communicate with Latinos, partly because of the language barrier, but more so in terms of what she termed cultural outlook (P. Harter, personal communication, March 17, 2017).
Some of those we interviewed note that many individuals in the Northwest Reading neighborhood are pessimistic in their outlook of the community. This can be tied directly to the rise of poverty, the departure of industry, and the national trend of middle class shrinkage. It may also explain the transitory nature of the neighborhood: with people feeling their economic situation and quality of life changing very little, and with having to often times take jobs outside of the neighborhood and the city, it would seem natural that the people living in the area would look to move elsewhere. Pete Cammarano also notes that how people feel about their community is tied directly to the availability of gainful employment close-by, especially as more of the community turns to public transportation (Personal communication, March 8, 2017)
This negativity extends to the community’s outlook on the local government. The city’s high Latino population is not reflected in City Council or local government. Reading in general has had a long history of representatives who have not come from the community, in terms of being born and raised in Reading, and in terms of community involvement (B. Waples, personal communication, February 15, 2017). For example, many of the residents and local community leaders have stated that the current Mayor Wally Scott lacks presence in the local neighborhood and has not pushed for development here (R. Rodriguez, personal communication, April 3, 2017). Compounding this lack of development and the seemingly slow progression of the city out of poverty, there has also been a number of scandals in the local government. Just two years ago, then City Council President Francis Acosta resigned from his position in light of a guilty plea to conspiracy and bribery (Hughes, 2015). Four years earlier, in 2011, Auditor General Jack Wagner recommended state charges against Reading School District officials after a special investigation revealed that over the course of three and a half years, they had improperly used the food service and outside caterers for $76,000 in lavish meals for school board meetings and administrative meetings (Wagner, 2011).
These scandals shattered the trust many residents had in their elected officials, leaving them distrustful of the political system at the local level, and pessimistic on their outlook on life in general. As Coates describes, people began to adapt more, and in turn, started becoming more complacent with the way things were. Residents began to think more individualistically rather than collectively, and from this came a sense of complacency. (K. Coates, personal communication, March 17, 2017).
These attitudes also led to the decline or outright demise of some community organizations in the neighborhood, such as the Baer Park Association, which historically organized and fundraised many community events in the neighborhood. Coates attributes the decline of community organizations to an overall individualistic and negative view of the city, combined with the economic need to work more hours. She noted that the community wants change, but having been burned in the past at the national, state, and local levels by people in power and feeling as though they are deemed as an afterthought in all three, they are weary of taking part in such change when other priorities require attention (K. Coates, personal communication, March 17, 2017).
Other individuals, however, view Northwest Reading as a work in progress that will take determination and effort to improve, as they do much of Reading and Berks County in general. Rich Rodriguez, for example, notices that there are plenty of people in the neighborhood who are more focused on themselves than their community, but he continues to organize community events around the city, as he has done for many years before becoming Vice President of the Classic Bike Club (R. Rodriguez, personal communication, April 3, 2017). Father Angel Garcia states that while he believes many adults in the city have all but given up, many of the children still see hope and prosperity, and notes that while many people come and go through the St. Margaret’s parish, many choose to stay (A. Garcia, personal communication, March 13, 2017).
For these people, the city stands as a testament of survival and overcoming struggle, and they find inspiration to keep going and devote plenty of energy into shaping the community into one that flourishes. Perhaps the beauty and historical nature of the city, with its 18th and 19th century architecture, plays a part in inspiring these individuals’ desire to preserve it. (J. Slifko, personal communication, March 18, 2017).
Community Values
With all of our interviews, the consensus is that what the Northwest Reading community values more than anything is family. (J. Slifko, personal communication, March 18, 2017). In addition, quality of life, both for one’s self and for family, is another aspect that is valued highly in the community. This ties into the individualistic attitudes many share, as it is comprised of the two most basic elements of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: physiological needs and safety. (J. Slifko, personal communication, March 18, 2017). It also ties into the middle class flight phenomenon: if one has achieved on some level a routine of meeting physiological needs (e.g. food, clothing, shelter), then safety needs follow. With Reading’s reputation for poverty and crime, it is logical for many to leave if available resources allow, whether for job security, housing security, or simply personal security (B. Waples, personal communication, February 15, 2017).
This desire for a better quality of life has given rise to the value of work. As employment is the most basic and direct method of sustaining life, and as it is dwindling within the city, the ability to work and maintain it for years to come is extremely valuable and necessary. (P. Cammarano, personal communication, March 8, 2017).
We have found that the community also values education for the children and the future generations. As Joel Brigel, principal of Northwest Middle School states, because much of the city is in poverty and many adults do not hold high school diplomas, parents are more likely to push their children to pursue education as a means of escaping it and obtaining gainful employment in adulthood, perhaps even a way out of the city through college (personal communication, February 24, 2017).
In addition, many of our subjects note that there is currently a pseudo-renaissance among the younger generation to become more active in the local community, attend community events, and choosing to stay rather than look to major cities for a better quality of life.
We have found in the overwhelming majority of our interviews, from politicians Donna Reed and John Slifko, to local business owners like Brad Waples and Pete Cammarano, that by far, the aspect of life the community values least is political involvement. This is not to say that the community is unaware of the political landscape, but rather that many feel jaded and unhappy with it as they feel their lives are not significantly impacted by their involvement, and in turn, choose not to. Many residents have had to accept and adapt to whatever life throws at them. For the residents of Northwest Reading, it can be draining, and has directly caused to some degree or another the shift to individualistic and materialistic thinking. The residents do so, not so much as a means of looking to a brighter day, but more as a way of carrying on (K. Coates, personal communication, March 17, 2017).
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.235177
|
02-25-2025
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/community/",
"book_url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "A Portrait of Life in Northwest Reading",
"author": "mah629",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biography: philosophy and social sciences"
}
|
https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/chapter-10-conclusion/
|
What sets Northwest Reading apart today is the Latino community, which continues to grow at a rapid rate. Many of our interview subjects have noted that the Latino community has changed attitudes and influenced opinions in the neighborhood. John Slifko, for example, says that the importance and structure of family within the area was directly inspired by the inclusion of Hispanic and Latino culture. (J. Slifko, personal communication, March 18, 2017). In addition, they also note that the culture in Northwest Reading will continue to change as the community grows, even as residents come and go (A. Garcia, personal communication, March 13, 2017; J. Brigel, personal communication, February 24, 2017).
What we ourselves have observed is that in Northwest Reading, while individuals share many cultural and personal similarities, they can differ greatly in terms of perception. Some view the neighborhood overall as a tightly knit community, while others believe that residents generally think more individualistically.
However, one theme we found repeated through our interviews was that this section of Reading, as well as in part Reading as a whole, was misunderstood by many people outside of it, and many felt that the city garnered a reputation that was largely unwarranted (A. Garcia, personal communication, March 13, 2017). Many individuals are hopeful in the idea that the city’s best days are not behind them (D. Reed, personal communication, February 22, 2017).
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.242985
|
02-25-2025
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/chapter/chapter-10-conclusion/",
"book_url": "https://psu.pb.unizin.org/lifeinnwreading/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "A Portrait of Life in Northwest Reading",
"author": "mah629",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biography: philosophy and social sciences"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/start-here/
|
Getting Started
Talking with faculty…
Scenario 1
A faculty member has approached you and is curious about some aspect of the Affordable Instructional Materials (AIM) initiative…or maybe s/he just wants your support in choosing their course materials.
*Perhaps they heard about “First Day” in a campus presentation, or a colleague told them about a free resource they were using.
Scenario 2
You found a(n) free or open resource that aligns with one of your faculty member’s area of expertise, so you want to reach out and share this resource.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.256295
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/start-here/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/documentation/
|
Getting Started
Building a baseline…
Before diving into repositories or contacting the library, it is a good idea to first gauge the faculty member’s working knowledge in the area of affordability.
This page is, therefore, designed to touch on AIM at a high-level, while supplying enough detail to answer any preliminary faculty inquiries.
UCF Stats
- 68% of students have chosen not to purchase a textbook at least once due to cost
- 86% of students have delayed the purchase of a textbook at least once due to cost
- 22% of students decided not to take a specific course section because the materials were too expensive
These results usually get faculty’s attention. As librarian Rich Gause says, “You can’t learn from materials you don’t have.” Not having access to course materials from day one can negatively impact course performance. In addition, a large-scale research study has shown that students using no-cost course materials in a semester enroll in significantly more credits the next semester, even when controlling for other factors. You can see that both faculty and the university would have something to gain by adopting low-cost/no-cost materials.
You Have Their Attention, Now What?
Hopefully, they are starting to understand that lowering the cost of course materials is one way that they can personally help students to more optimally perform in their course, as well as complete their degree. Now they need to understand the options at a higher level.
Now would be a good time to show them the four pillars and give a high-level overview of each. (Access the printable version of this page: Building a baseline…)
First Day (Barnes and Noble)
First Day is a program out of Barnes and Noble, which is UCF’s official bookstore provider. UCF’s contract with Barnes and Noble states that B&N is the exclusive seller of course materials at UCF; however, there is some wording that indicates that other options can be explored in the name of affordability.
First Day is an example of an ‘inclusive access’ model, which means that students can opt-in to purchase course materials at a discounted rate until the add/drop date. Opting in quickens their access to the course materials. If they do not opt in, they are responsible to purchase the materials on their own.
Faculty should contact the UCF bookstore or their publisher representative if they’d like more information about this program.
- Advantages: Immediate access to course materials; discount on price.
- Considerations: Sometimes the discount is not terribly significant; faculty are not encouraged to explore alternative course materials which may save more money.
Open Educational Resources
Open educational sources (OER) are materials that are free and openly licensed, giving users the legal permission to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute the material. The material can be different types such as text, images, videos, test banks, simulations, and other digital assets that are useful for teaching and learning. They can come in various file formats, but the most common are ePub, html, and .doc(x).
One common misconception is that as long as it’s online and it’s free to access, then it’s an open educational resource. That is not true; OERs are openly licensed. By applying a license for the work, the creator of the resource can choose what kinds of permissions to give others who are using the resource.
Open licenses are created through Creative Commons. The most permissive one is CC-BY, which lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the original work, even commercially, as long as they credit the creator for the original creation. The most restricted one is CC BY-NC-ND, which only others to download the works and share them with others as long as they credit the creator, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially. To review the six different licenses, visit About the Licenses. This is a helpful page when you need to decipher what a particular license means.
Is your head spinning? Creative Commons has an awesomely simple License Chooser, which guides the creator to choose the license that makes sense for them.
- Advantages: Absolutely free for student. Faculty can use existing content or adapt existing content to fit the personalized needs of students. Faculty can create brand new materials and share widely, receiving attribution through the open license.
- Considerations: There are so many resources to explore online. How to find the right one? Choosing an open resource as a textbook replacement can prompt a whole redesign of a course, which the faculty may not be inclined to do. Usually there are few created ancillary materials, so faculty has to take the time to create assessments.
(Just a few) Examples of OER
- American National Government – Openly licensed book from OpenStax which has been adapted for UCF professors and is available through Pressbooks
- An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers – Located in the Open Textbook Library
- OER Commons working groups – Working groups are organized in OER Commons, where faculty can share supporting material they have created for the OpenStax textbooks, such as test banks.
Library Resources
The UCF Library has an amazing wealth of resources which are free to the student (yes, some of the tuition costs factor in there, but in students’ eyes, library resources are ‘free’).
Note there are two librarians very helpful in the affordability arena: Katy Miller, Textbook Affordability librarian, and Sarah Norris, copyright expert.
The library does not carry publisher textbooks, but they do have a print textbook reserve collection. Faculty are encouraged to donate a print copy of their textbook so students can check it out for a limited time.
We have seen many instances in which the books faculty require are already digitally available in the library. Each eBook in the library has specific digital rights – for instance, sometimes only one user can ‘check it out’ at a time, which isn’t helpful for a whole class. It’s encouraged to consult with the subject librarian in order to see if permissions can be altered, in that case.
Librarians do not create brand new content, but they are adept at exploring library resources and making recommendations. Perhaps a publisher textbook is not available in the library, but there is an alternative book that fits the bill. Subject librarians can help with that.
- Advantages: We have a close relationship with librarians and a common goal to support faculty and students; the library has many resources.
- Considerations: They do not carry many publisher textbooks. They do not create resources.
Affordability Counts
Affordability Counts (AC) is a recognition program, which was originally developed by Florida International University. Quite simply, a faculty member submits their course information on the AC website, and if the course materials cost $20 or less per credit hour (e.g., less than $60 for a 3 credit course) for each student, then their course is designated ‘affordable’, and they receive the AC digital medallion, which they can then display within their course. Their course will also be featured on the AC website, making it easy for other faculty to adopt the same or similar low-cost materials. UCF, as well as other state universities and colleges in Florida, have partnered with FIU to achieve larger reach, scale, and exposure through this program.
Note: You are not forced to choose just one of these avenues. These have simply been provided to establish a firm base for the interactions and materials you will encounter as you progress through the AIM experience.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.275429
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/documentation/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/current-material-used/
|
Getting Started
Course Materials Check
Before jumping into something new, it’s good to get a firm understanding on what materials are currently being used by the faculty member.
It is possible that the materials are strong but the price is high, or perhaps the materials are inadequate altogether independent of the cost.
Five Questions to Ask Faculty
Question 1
What materials do you require students to purchase in your course?
Purpose: This may be a mix of items, such as a print textbook, courseware (such as McGraw-Hill Connect), or homework systems (such as WebAssign).
Question 2
If you add up the cost of the course materials, about how much do student spend in your course?
Question 3
What are the strengths of each resource?
Purpose: Perhaps it does a great job at communicating with students at the undergraduate level. Maybe it gives some great examples that students can relate to. Maybe it comes with awesome media.
Question 4
What are the weaknesses of each resource?
Purpose: Perhaps it’s a book that isn’t organized in the way the faculty member would like. Perhaps it doesn’t cover the topic the way the faculty member would have covered it.
Question 5
Do you ever get the sense that students are not purchasing the materials?
Follow-up: If ‘yes’, you can ask: “Why do you think that is?”
Note: Hearing the answers to these questions can help determine whether the existing resource should continue to be considered.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.288404
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/current-material-used/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/are-course-goals-being-met-with-existing-materials/
|
Getting Started
Are course goals being met with existing materials?
Now is the time to work your instructional designer magic skills: Let’s explore the relationship between the course materials and the overall goals for the course.
Review the Syllabus
First, ask if you can review the syllabus. If this can happen before a consultation, that is preferred. Are there objectives or goals listed in the syllabus? If so, note them. If not, you may want to stress the importance of having those in the syllabus (cf. Required Elements of the Course Syllabus).
Questions to Ask Faculty
- What should students be able to do upon completing this course?
- What key takeaways and/or big ideas should students be walking away with?
- How are the existing course materials helping students meet the goals and/or develop the big ideas you want them to?
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.300427
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/are-course-goals-being-met-with-existing-materials/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/which-areas-are-lacking/
|
Getting Started
Which areas are lacking?
You indicated that course goals are not being met with existing materials. Sorry to hear that, but thankfully, there are a number of options to help fill any such void(s) in the curriculum.
A Question for Faculty
If you had to choose which area was more lacking, would it be the content (i.e., what you’d find in a textbook) or the assessment (i.e., materials that test students’ knowledge)?
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.310144
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/which-areas-are-lacking/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/is-cost-a-concern/
|
Getting Started
Is cost a concern?
You indicated that course goals are being met with existing materials. Great!
Going back then to the question previously asked about cost of course materials…Is the faculty member concerned about the course materials cost?
This can be a tricky question, as your faculty may not be concerned with their course materials costs (or it may have never crossed their mind).
Consider the following:
- Make sure faculty understand how much their assigned materials actually cost.
- Share those stats (again), which state that the majority of UCF students haven’t purchased textbooks because of cost.
If they still aren’t concerned, that’s okay! Saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ below will eventually lead you down the most appropriate path in terms of what affordability option(s) we can offer (if any).
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.321889
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/is-cost-a-concern/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/zero-cost-pathways/
|
Getting Started
Zero-Cost Pathways
Time to start exploring! Which avenue would you like to explore first?
Explore UCF Libraries if your faculty are using a book that they want to continue using, or they are interested in using a collection of journal articles.
Explore OER if your faculty are ready to move away from their existing material/s, or they are teaching a course that is well-supported by open resources. (GEP and STEM courses often fall into this category.)
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.331211
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/zero-cost-pathways/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/are-the-materials-eligible-for-first-day/
|
First Day
Are the materials eligible for First Day?
You’ve arrived on this page for a couple of reasons:
- Cost is not a principal concern
- You’ve explored all other content alternatives and have not found a reasonable option (as of yet).
Therefore, you must now address a critical question as to whether accommodations can be made with the current content or if some deeper thought about which content (provided by the publisher or otherwise) is appropriate for their course(s).
If both of the above are true (and you haven’t come up with a way to work through the ‘alternative content’ issue, yet), you may still find value in offering a non-invasive (i.e. little to no work involved) cost-savings mechanism to your faculty.
If you’d like to pursue this item a bit further, take a moment to determine if your faculty member’s materials are eligible for First Day and consider some of the benefits:
How can faculty participate?
If a faculty member wants to participate in First Day, they should contact their local publisher representative or the UCF bookstore to determine the eligibility of the course materials. Most of the major publishers (i.e., McGraw Hill, Pearson, Wiley, and Cengage) already have contracts in place with Barnes & Noble. However, even if the publisher does not have a contract in place, you can inquire with Melissa Yopack (Asst. GM at B&N) to get the ball rolling.
How might faculty benefit?
- Reduced amount of student emails (especially in the first week) about learning materials and access codes, as First Day eligible courses almost always provide ‘codeless’ access to the learning content.
- Students are more apt to participate in the first week activities because they have access to the content.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.342372
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/are-the-materials-eligible-for-first-day/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/publisher-integration-support/
|
First Day
Publisher Integration and Support
With First Day, faculty continue to deliver their course(s) in the same way they always have (unless they decide to change their materials or the type of integration they have).
Therefore, under most circumstances, there is very little to do besides make sure everyone (i.e. publisher, faculty, bookstore, and maybe even the ID) is communicating clearly with one another.
This may sound like a ‘given’, but it is not, and a lack of communication the first time through with can result in undesirable consequences for everyone involved, including the students.
How the publisher supports faculty…
Have your faculty member reach out directly to his/her publisher representative for questions related to content eligibility and delivery.
How the UCF bookstore supports faculty…
Have your faculty member reach out to Melissa Yopack (Melissa.Yopack@ucf.edu) for questions about the First Day program (e.g., ISBN submission deadline), the student purchasing experience (e.g., attaining a print/looseleaf copy of the book) or billing.
How DDL supports faculty…
Have your faculty member reach out to iLab@ucf.edu for any questions that cannot be answered by the publisher or the bookstore.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.352697
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/publisher-integration-support/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/continue-as-is/
|
First Day
The end of the road, for now…
If your faculty member’s course materials do not quality for First Day at the moment or they wish to pursue other areas of interest, wish them well and offer your support (should they need it at any point in the future) related to their course content and delivery.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.361439
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/continue-as-is/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/explore-existing-open-content/
|
Zero-Cost Content
Explore Existing Open Content
Exploring existing open content can take time, as it’s spread widely across the internet. However, we’ve aggregated a number of resources (below) to facilitate your search.NB. While all open content may be free to use, the license type can vary anywhere along the Creative commons license spectrum between public domain (top) and all rights reserved (bottom), so you would likely do well to get familiar with the various license types before proceeding.
Open Content Resources
Full Textbooks & General (GEP) Resources
Partial/Add-on (Open) Solutions
- Open Education Consortium (hit or miss insofar as quality/reliability)
- OER Commons (K-12 + Higher Ed)
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.387305
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/explore-existing-open-content/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/do-you-want-to-adapt-or-adopt-the-content/
|
Zero-Cost Content
Do you want to adapt or adopt the content?
You indicated that the faculty did in fact find existing content. That is excellent news!
Now consider: Does your faculty member want to adopt or adapt the resource?
Adopt means faculty will use the resource outright, with little or no changes to the content. This may be the way to go if they are truly happy with the resource or if they are just getting their feet wet. They can always try it out and make changes in later semesters if they want.
Adapt means they will be using the resource, but also adapting it. Perhaps they will add in an extra section of their own writing (to make it more relevant to their student demographic), or they will take out significant parts of an existing chapter. Either of these (and more) are excellent reasons to adapt a resource, rather than simply adopting it.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.397101
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/do-you-want-to-adapt-or-adopt-the-content/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/open-adapt/
|
Zero-Cost Content
Adapt Content
You have indicated that the faculty member is interested in adapting some OER content. This is excellent news!
Below are some considerations to make when adapting open content.
When Adapting Content…
- Talk faculty through what needs to be adapted and why.
- If your faculty have big ideas, ask them to consider adapting one chapter or section before doing the entire resource.
- Are your faculty going to create new content to add to an existing resource?
- Are your faculty going to try and find other OER to use in addition to this resource? What licenses do those resources have?
- The more restrictive the license, the more considerations will have to be given when adapting the content. (cf. Creative Commons licenses)
- Public Domain = You can do anything you’d like with the content.
- Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) = You can do anything, but have to attribute original work (like citing a paper).
- Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike = You can do anything, but have to release it under same CC license.
- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial = You can modify, but can not sell it (i.e., print copies can not be sold by the bookstore).
- Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives = You can not modify; have to use as is. (Adapting is NOT an option here.)
- …or any mixture of the above.
- Make sure the appropriate licensing and attributions are applied to this new, adapted resource.
- Determine the format of these resources to plan appropriately for adapting them. (Some common file types are listed below.)
- HTML
- Word
- Images
- ePub
Adapting PDFs
PDFs are the most difficult file format to adapt. They can be either image-based or created from other products such as HTML or Microsoft Word.
- For the latter, you can copy the text and paste it into Word, Pressbooks, a plain text editor, et al.
- For image-based documents (i.e., you are unable to select the text), use Adobe Acrobat Pro’s OCR (Optical Character Recognition) feature to turn the image into text. This process is not 100% effective depending on the quality of the image. OCR likes to switch b’s and d’s, and i’s for ! marks.
Adapting other file formats
With the exception of PDF documents, all other file formats (listed below) can be imported and modified directly in Pressbooks (https://guide.pressbooks.com/chapter/tools/#importtool or https://networkmanagerguide.pressbooks.com/chapter/getting-content-into-pressbooks/).
- Log in to Pressbooks to use the above functionality. (All users who accessed this book through Webcourses had a user account automatically created.)
The clearest advantage of using Pressbooks to edit and compile content is that the platform is internally supported by the Techrangers and UCF’s Pressbooks Network Manager (Jim), so any technical issues that arise or formatting issues you’d like take care of can be managed through a TBD submission (or by contacting Jim directly).
Learn more about these ‘other’ file formats
HTML
HTML provides the most flexibility in 1) styling via CSS, 2) including other artifacts (images, links, etc), 3) editing, 4) printing, and it’s the easiest to make accessible for users of assistive technology. HTML files that can be linked and/or created in Webcourses@UCF, Webcourses@UCF Pages, or services like Pressbooks. HTML documents can also be easily transformed into accessible PDFs and be imported into an ePUB editor such as Sigil.
Word
Many of the advantages of HTML can be found in Word. The major drawback is the lack of customized styling available in HTML. For example, specialized layouts and customized line numbering. Accessibility resource for Word documents. Any Word document, however, can be easily imported and styled in Pressbooks (https://guide.pressbooks.com/chapter/import-from-word-docx/).
ePub
Another option is to create an ePub file. Think of it like a specially formatted zip file containing the materials and a table of contents. It is intended to be read on a tablet and sometimes on a laptop. Pressbooks and Sigil are both great open source ePub editors. Depending on your use case, you might choose one over the other.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.411208
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/open-adapt/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/oer/
|
Zero-Cost Content
Adopt Content
You indicated that the faculty member wants to adopt the content. All right!
Let’s make sure the students will be able to access it simply.
Resource Format
First, what is the format of the resource in question? It might be a textbook offered in PDF, ePub, HTML, through Canvas Commons, or offered online in some other way.
If the resource is in Pressbooks, there is an LTI integration that places the content into direct view in Webcourses (so it appears just like a Webcourses Page would):
If the person wants to use a resource external to Pressbooks, it’s usually pretty easy to point the students toward it. For instance, if a faculty member wanted to adopt this Engineering textbook offered through Open SUNY, they could simply link to that webpage and ask students to download the PDF from there.
The faculty member may want to download the PDF from the site and upload it into their course as well. If you’re really nifty like John Raible with this AMH2020 course, a big PDF could be broken into separate chapter PDFs and linked within each module. IDs aren’t expected to do this work, but you can point faculty to resources that might help them (e.g., https://oir.ucf.edu/fmc/).
Note: If the resource also comes in a print version, this will be helpful in the Communication Plan section below.
Communication Plan
Next is to discuss how to communicate with students about access to the resource. It’s recommended in the syllabus to clearly say that the resource is online and freely available. A direct link to the resource can be placed there.
If there is a print option, it should be mentioned in the syllabus (for instance, students could buy a print version of the Psychology OpenStax book if they really wanted to). In the case of print, list the ISBN number. When putting in an order to the bookstore, this ISBN can be listed but make sure that “come to class before buying book” is noted by the faculty member.
Here is the language used in the AMH2020 course which uses an OpenStax book: “U.S. History by OpenStax ISBN: 978-1-938168-36-9. The textbook is free and available online. Textbook download instructions. You can choose to print out the pages – free through Student Government – or if you insist, the book is for sale in the bookstore.”
Pro Tip: Encourage the faculty member to make their syllabus visible within PeopleSoft by using the Course Preview Feature before students register for the course, so students can see that the materials are free. Also consider sending out an email to the class roster before class starts so that students understand they don’t have to buy a copy.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.422477
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/oer/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/do-you-want-to-look-into-creating-your-own-3/
|
Zero-Cost Content
Do you want to look into creating your own?
The faculty member has explored existing open and library-sourced content, but they have not located the perfect resource. Time for the faculty member to consider showcasing their own knowledge and expertise by creating their own OER. Note: This doesn’t have to be a whole textbook; perhaps it’s one chapter about one topic, or maybe it’s just one assignment.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.431739
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/do-you-want-to-look-into-creating-your-own-3/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/oer-create/
|
Zero-Cost Content
Create Content
Pre-creation considerations
Creating affordable content can be accomplished in a variety of ways.
Some faculty will embrace the idea of open-licensing and the 5Rs, so for those faculty you’d do well to share information about Creative Commons licenses.
In other circumstances, you will have faculty who want to save their students money and/or author their own materials, but don’t necessarily want to openly-license their intellectual content. In such cases, faculty may decide to put an All Rights Reserved or NonDerivative license on their work, yet still offer it at zero ($0) cost to their students.
All of these choices are important and relevant in the affordable materials conversation.
Most of us have authored a document using Microsoft Word, and some of us have taken one step further to author content on a website or some other sort of web-based program like Canvas/Webcourses@UCF or even Pressbooks.
Talking with faculty about authoring content can be as hands-off or involved as you’d like, depending on the type of resource the faculty member wants to create.
Allow me to provide a few faculty scenarios:
- Some faculty appreciate the familiarity and tightness of third-party integrations (e.g., Lynda) they have with Webcourses@UCF.
- Some faculty prefer using Microsoft Word or Google docs for their collaborative qualities and robust reviewing tools.
- Some faculty want to create content in a more flexible, web-based environment that provides tools to make their text more interactive (via annotations or inline formative assessments), such as Pressbooks.
There is no wrong answer when it comes to content creation, only different answers depending on the need.
Open Content Examples
- MAN4720 Strategic Management (authored in Webcourses@UCF)
- 88 Open Essays: A Reader for Students of Composition and Rhetoric (authored in Google Docs)
- University Physics Volume I (authored by OpenStax, imported .XML into UCF Pressbooks)
- Thermodynamics (authored in Pressbooks, cloned and adapted in UCF Pressbooks)
- Chicana Art (authored directly in UCF Pressbooks)
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.444284
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/oer-create/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/library-sourced/
|
Zero-Cost Content
Can you get the resource(s) through the library?
Does the Library have the resource(s) in their reserves? This means that a student can at least check them out for a limited time.
Does the Library have the required resource(s) in a manner that suits the class (unlimited simultaneous users, etc.)? You can take a look yourself, but we recommend also contacting the library to make sure. It’s even possible that a book or other resource can be purchased by the library in order to facilitate savings for students.
Who Ya Gonna Call?
Contact Katy Miller (UCF’s Textbook Affordability librarian). Let her know the faculty’s name, course, and required materials at a minimum. We’d recommend giving her as much detail as possible about the required materials, such as ISBN and edition number. Katy will either research it herself or consult with the person’s subject librarian. She will get back to you with next steps. If the exact resource is not available, there may be alternatives to consider.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.454349
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/library-sourced/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/the-library-has-it-can-get-it/
|
Zero-Cost Content
The library has it!
Congratulations! You now have access to the library-sourced content. Make sure ‘how to’ access this material is clearly stated to students via the syllabus and/or some other means of communication and that the faculty member understands any licensing terms and knows who to contact for resource support (i.e., the library) and pedagogical support (i.e., the ID).
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.463091
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/the-library-has-it-can-get-it/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/explore-existing-open-ancillaries/
|
Zero Cost Assessment
Explore Existing Open Ancillaries
The infrastructure and funding for open textbook creation has been years in the making, as is evidenced by the numerous open repositories and referatories that ‘reference’ them (e.g., Open Textbook Library, OASIS, and MOM).
Ancillaries, on the other hand, have been a bit slower to gain steam. This gap is lessening, though. Projects like The Ohio State University Content Camp and OpenStax Creator Fest have begun to pull together funding to host events that receive faculty from a wide-range of universities with the main goal of creating openly-licensed supplementary materials.
The resources below should hopefully provide you with a good basis to get your faculty moving in the right direction in terms of exploring, finding, and possibly creating their own supplemental content.
Open Acillary Resources
Homework and Labs
- Galileo Open Learning Materials (Ancillaries)
- LibreTexts (Homework Exercises and Ancillaries)
- OpenStax OER Hub
- MyOpenMath
- Ximera (Calculus I, II, III)
- American Institute of Mathematics (Problem Sets)
- WeBWorK (Mathematical Association of America)
- PhET Interactive Simulations
- ChemCollective
- OpenIntro Statistics (Labs, Videos, Forum)
Multimedia Assets
- Pexels (Free Images)
- Unsplash (Free Images)
- Images of Empowerment
- OpenStax College (YouTube Channel)
Other Assets
- NotaBene (Annotation Project at MIT)
- OpenOregon (Mix of eBooks, Video Lectures, et al.)
- Smarthistory (Photo, Video, and Essay Supplements)
- Intellus Learning (Video, Slides, Text)
- OpenSimon (Software and Codebase)
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.476513
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/explore-existing-open-ancillaries/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/do-you-want-to-adapt-or-adopt-the-ancillaries/
|
Zero Cost Assessment
License
Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook Copyright © 2019 by James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.485840
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/do-you-want-to-adapt-or-adopt-the-ancillaries/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/adapt-new-ancillaries/
|
Zero Cost Assessment
Adapt Ancillaries
PhET (level of difficulty to adapt: Hard)
A PhET simulation is somewhat flexible with a variety of pedagogical (how to…) support mechanisms built in to the hosted platform, but faculty may not want to delve too deeply into the HTML configuration of this simulation to try to adapt it.
H5P (level of difficulty to adapt: Medium)
An openly-licensed activity created in H5P, might be within reach insofar as picking up the tool and exercising some creative control over the content:
When adapting resources in H5P, your faculty have access to an array of tools and a straightforward authoring interface to create and/or adapt what they may have found elsewhere. The platform supports LaTeX authoring (often used in STEM disciplines) as well. Create a free account.
Canvas Commons (level of difficulty to adapt: Easy)
Assessment items and learning activities shared through the Canvas Commons can be brought into faculty members courses and modified to their liking in a somewhat familiar platform:
Microsoft Office (level of difficulty: Easy)
Documents created in Word can be converted into QTI files (via Respondus) and imported directly into Webcourses as a Quiz. Other file types in the Microsoft suite can be used as is and linked to or embedded into the course however faculty might see fit.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.496618
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/adapt-new-ancillaries/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/adopt-existing-ancillaries/
|
Zero Cost Assessment
Adopt Ancillaries
You indicated that the faculty member wants to adopt the ancillaries. All right!
Let’s make sure the students will be able to access it simply.
Resource Format
First, what is the format of the resource in question? It might be a video, an image, a PowerPoint, a software tool (e.g., annotation tool), a mathematical question set hosted through a 3rd party server, an item available in the Canvas Commons, or some other resource.
Communication Plan
Next is to discuss how to communicate with students about access to the resource. It’s recommended in the syllabus to clearly say that the resource is online and freely available. A direct link to the resource can also be placed there.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.506337
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/adopt-existing-ancillaries/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/do-you-want-to-look-into-creating-your-own-2/
|
Zero Cost Assessment
License
Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook Copyright © 2019 by James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.515491
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/do-you-want-to-look-into-creating-your-own-2/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/do-you-want-to-look-into-creating-your-own/
|
Zero Cost Assessment
Create Ancillaries
Don’t Start from Scratch
Ancillaries do not have to be new inventions. Publishing current ancillaries (presentations, videos, quizzes, assignments) under an open license is a valid option!
If the faculty want to start from scratch, select an OER textbook and build ancillaries that align with the text. Contribute the material back to the original textbook’s repository.
Choose an Appropriate License
Refer to Creative Commons licenses.
A suggested license would be a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial license (CC-BY-NC). This would prohibit commercial companies from using the materials in their assessment platforms or trying to sell it back to students.
Consider the File Format
Presentations: .pptx (Microsoft) or .odp (Open Office)
Video: .mp4 If the video is in another format, Handbrake is a good tool to make an .mp4. If you have questions, ask the video team or FMC.
Images: .jpg or .png. Photoshop or even Microsoft Paint can be used to change the extension
Documents: .docx (Word), .odt (Open Office)
Quizzes: .txt in the Respondus format. Refer to the Quiz Formatting Guidelines. Another option would be to create the Quiz in Webcourses and export it as an .qti file
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.525890
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/do-you-want-to-look-into-creating-your-own/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/continue-as-is-2/
|
Zero Cost Assessment
The end of the road, for now…
It’s unfortunate that you could neither locate nor determine a way to create ancillaries with your faculty. This does not have to be the end of the line entirely, though. There are also low-cost commercial homework platforms (which often come bundled with or mapped to existing eTexts) that might meet their needs.
Low-Cost (Commercial) Homework Platforms
If the aforementioned resources still don’t seem to fit, please wish them well and carry on….
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.535497
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/continue-as-is-2/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/what-is-affordability-counts/
|
Affordability Counts
Are the materials eligible for Affordability Counts?
Affordability Counts is a principal reporting arm for UCF’s Affordable Instructional Materials (AIM) initiative, Affordability Counts serves as the mechanism by which faculty can earn recognition for their efforts to make learning more affordable.
To get started, faculty submit a course to have its required instructional material(s) reviewed. If the total cost of the instructional material(s) is less than or equal to $20 per credit hour (per course), the Affordability Counts medallion will be given to the faculty to place on their course home page, syllabus, or wherever they prefer, and their course will be added to the list of low-cost courses on the Affordability Counts website.
The Review Process
Faculty will either be contacted by a member of the AIM team or decide to submit their course(s) / course material(s) independently for consideration into the Affordability Counts program.
The submissions(s) will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- The total cost of required course material(s) must not exceed $20 per credit hour (per course).
- “Required” material(s) represent any item(s) classified as such in the UCF Bookstore catalog (e.g., textbooks, courseware/technology, lab materials, et al.).
- “Total cost” represents the full market value for the required material(s) at the bookstore (or externally if the bookstore does not carry the item).
- Therefore, if faculty submit the ISBN for an eTextbook and that is the only option for students to purchase, the value of the eTextbook will be used in the calculation. However, if faculty use the ISBN for a new print textbook, that will be the cost associated with the materials.
Additional notes:
- If the required course materials are made freely available to students through the UCF Libraries, no dollar amount will be attributed to the materials.
- If the students are asked to purchase the required course material directly from a vendor other than the UCF Bookstore, a link to that material (and its cost) should be provided on the “Submit a Course” form.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.547530
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/what-is-affordability-counts/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/the-end-of-the-road-for-now/
|
Affordability Counts
The end of the road, for now…
If the course materials do not meet the required standards for the Affordability Counts medallion, an email will be sent in reply to the submission to request more information.
The faculty member can then 1) reevaluate their course materials and resubmit or 2) take no further action.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.556867
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/the-end-of-the-road-for-now/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/make-it-count/
|
Affordability Counts
Make it count!
Congratulations!
Your course qualifies for Affordability Counts! A congratulatory email similar to the one below will arrive in your faculty’s Inbox upon approval:
Approved
Dear __________,
Your Affordability Counts submission for __________ has been approved!
Your Affordability Counts medallion can be downloaded here, you can display the medallion on your syllabus and in your Canvas course shell. In addition, your course will be featured on the Affordability Counts website, confirming your commitment to this important initiative.
Once again, thank you for your efforts!
—
Affordability Counts Committee
support@affordabilitycounts.org
http://affordabilitycounts.org
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.566925
|
09-24-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/chapter/make-it-count/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/aimidworkflows/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Affordable Instructional Materials – ID Handbook",
"author": "James Paradiso, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible, Denise Lowe, Debra Luken",
"institution": "University of Central Florida",
"subject": "Educational strategies and policy, Higher education, tertiary education, Open learning, distance education,"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/chapter/values/
|
Belief Statement
As a Registered Practical Nurse bridging to a Registered Nurse, I believe that accountability, autonomy, professionalism, and curiosity are the values I want to ensure I continue to provide to my patients to provide a safe, therapeutic, and individualized experience.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.574009
|
11-19-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/chapter/values/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/front-matter/an-intro-to-my-journey/",
"title": "Aimee's Learning Journey",
"author": "aimeelamont",
"institution": "Trent University",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/chapter/beliefs/
|
Values of Nursing
- Accountability
- Accountability is an important aspect of nursing practice. It encompasses many aspects of nursing. Ultimately, being accountable to me means that the nursing care we provide is safe, efficient, and sensitive to patients. This also means that as a nurse, we hold accountability for our mistakes to ensure we do not make them again.
- Autonomy
- Autonomy is an important value to me as a nurse as I realize that when patients are in hospitals, their sense of autonomy is affected due to experiencing medical issues. Providing autonomy to patients allows patients to be in some control of what happens next to their bodies and their plan of care to help ensure it makes a more individualized, therapeutic experience.
- Professionalism
- Professionalism is a vital value in nursing practice. It incorporates effectively collaborating with the interdisciplinary team, caring for patients ethically and safely, and maintaining a positive attitude in the healthcare environment and among patients.
- Curiosity
- The healthcare field and nursing as a whole are continually changing with modernization. The CNO Practice Standard outlines that nurses undertake continuous education in many areas to provide safe practice conditions. Being curious is a value I believe is important as there is always an opportunity to learn a new skill, obtain a new certificate, and teach others to provide up-to-date and effective medical care to patients.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.582081
|
11-19-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/chapter/beliefs/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/front-matter/an-intro-to-my-journey/",
"title": "Aimee's Learning Journey",
"author": "aimeelamont",
"institution": "Trent University",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/chapter/my-goals/
|
My Goals for Nursing School
Goal 1:
I will understand and be able to apply qualitative research methodologies by the end of April 2025.
Goal 2:
I will develop a better understanding of human physiology and be able to receive an 80+ grade on my first midterm before the middle of the term in February 2025.
Goal 3:
I will achieve 80+ in all NURS courses to maintain my scholarship by the end of April 2025.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.589416
|
11-19-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/chapter/my-goals/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/front-matter/an-intro-to-my-journey/",
"title": "Aimee's Learning Journey",
"author": "aimeelamont",
"institution": "Trent University",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/chapter/a-reflection/
|
Reflection
I have always had a passion for healthcare. When I was in elementary school I watched health care shows: Private Practice, House, TLC’s “Bringing Home Baby” and more. I took health classes in high school to get the high-skills major designation. It was in my second-year health class that my teacher brought in two Durham College nursing students to speak about their experience in the nursing program. I remember listening to them describe their placements and sitting in the back of the class having what I remember as an epiphany moment. I went home that night and told my parents I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up: a nurse. My mom hugged me and from then on I met with my guidance counselor to make sure my academic stream got me there. Through this reflection, you’ll see it has been a long and winding road for this goal of mine. I struggled with the sciences, just never fully grasping at these concepts; and statistics? Forget about it. Anyone knows that getting into university nursing programs is HARD (rightly so). I was accepted to Trent in 2015 for honours science in hopes of transitioning into the nursing program, however, self-doubt kicked in (remember, I wasn’t grasping science in high school). I came up with plan B.
Plan B: I started my schooling journey in September 2015 when I began my bachelor’s degree at Wilfrid Laurier Univeristy for Health Administration. Moving two hours away to complete this degree came with a load of firsts. It was my first time living by myself, my first time cooking, my first time making friends in years, and my first time doing university-level essays. I thrived socially, making friends on the first day that are still in my life nine years later. However, what I did not necessarily thrive in was my education. Going to university for the first time while balancing all of these things is a struggle for many. Why sit around and study when there are parties and friends to hang out with? I also struggled with some aspects of the course. In my second year, I was on the verge of dropping out. I was making grades, however, my interest was at an all-time low. I was struggling with the lack of hands-on learning material and the courses were (in my opinion) boring. Regardless, I powered through knowing that my final goal was to be in the healthcare field and make lots of money. Boy was I wrong. I graduated still having that urge to be a nurse and also realized on my job hunt that it’s not as simple as graduating and making lots of money. Master’s degrees and entry-level jobs are indeed a thing.
I worked for a year before applying to Durham College’s pre-health sciences, determined to do this so I could enter into the PN program. I completed this program online, during the COVID-19 outbreak. Hey, at least it gave me something to do. I managed to attain stellar grades and applied to the program. Finally, I was in. Nursing school during a pandemic is an interesting environment to be in. Online classes, which honestly I did not mind, placements cut short or not happening at all. Conducting head-to-toe assessments on peers while both were fully covered in PPE did cause some hardships. Regardless, I learned a lot and had a great time in labs. During my time at Durham College, I started a job on a memory-care floor in a retirement home where I learned medication administration, leadership duties, and providing personal care… Oh, and lots of patience. After a few months of this, I received a job offer with Lakeridge Health as a clinical extern where I worked on a geriatric rehab unit. I developed a lot of time management, became efficient at taking vital signs, and practiced hands-on skills. I eventually moved to the emergency department where I further developed my knowledge. I was practicing EKGs, attempting to read telemetry strips, and practicing more head-to-toes.
Upon completion of school, I landed my first job as an RPN on the medical-surgical floor. I have been working as an RPN for almost two years now. In this job, I have been constantly learning new things. This has been great because it helps meet the quality assurance program with the CNO as I am continuing competence and quality improvement in both knowledge and skill (CNO, 2023). While working as an RPN, I have realized that there is advocacy needed for both patient care, as well as nurses. Going back to school to transition to RN is a decision I have not made lightly. Ultimately my goal is to apply both my Health Administration degree and my Nursing education to help advocate, influence policy making, and provide leadership to nursing to better care for patients in a safe, inclusive environment. According to the RNAO (2013), nursing leadership is a vital component in the delivery of patient care as it helps shape the profession, helps navigate change in challenging times, and facilitates learning and mentoring on evidence-based practice.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.598398
|
11-19-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/chapter/a-reflection/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/front-matter/an-intro-to-my-journey/",
"title": "Aimee's Learning Journey",
"author": "aimeelamont",
"institution": "Trent University",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/chapter/my-evidence-of-learning/
|
Evidence of Learning
1. Coronary Care Course
Completing my coronary care course is important because it allows me to specialize in my care as a nurse even more. Taking this course has now allowed me to care for cardiac patients, including those who come in with NSTEMIs and need a procedure done at the cardiac catheterization lab. This course allows me to adequately care for more “unstable” patients, due to the increase of “knowledge, skill and judgment”.
2. Honour Roll Acknowledgement
This is a letter I received from the Dean of Durham College for making the honour roll while I was in my final year of the practical nursing program. This means a lot to me because it proves that I was interested in the program and wanted to do the best I could, which resulted in me making the honour roll for all semesters in the 2.5-year program. Putting the time and effort into school has allowed me to be a more competent care provider and also allowed me to apply to Trent’s Compressed Nursing program.
3. Degree from Wilfrid Laurier University
This is my Degree from Wilfrid Laurier University. This is a representation of how I overcame many firsts in my life and how I was able to complete my first degree. It will apply to my future BScN degree and allow me to obtain a job in a leadership role to help advocate for others in a non-bedside career.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.607334
|
11-19-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/chapter/my-evidence-of-learning/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/aimeelearningjourney/front-matter/an-intro-to-my-journey/",
"title": "Aimee's Learning Journey",
"author": "aimeelamont",
"institution": "Trent University",
"subject": "Education"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/chapter/nursing-beliefs/
|
NURSING BELIEFS
As a nurse, I believe it’s important to promote evidence-based practice, practice empathy, and integrity in while caring for patients. Nursing is more thanjust a job; it’s a profession dedicated to promoting people’s physical, mental, and social health while upholding their dignity and autonomy.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.614418
|
11-20-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/chapter/nursing-beliefs/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/front-matter/an-intro-to-my-journey/",
"title": "An e-Book of my nursing journey",
"author": "Stephine Mba",
"institution": "Trent University",
"subject": "Medicine and Nursing"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/chapter/values/
|
VALUES
Compassion: My relationships with patients and their families are based on compassion. Even in difficult circumstances, it entails being aware of, sensitive to, and sympathetic to their needs, anxieties, and feelings. I work hard to give proper care that goes beyond addressing just the physical ailments, I also try to develop an emotional bond and foster a feeling of security and comfort. Patients who get compassionate care are more likely to feel appreciated and respected, which can aid in their recovery.
Relevance: It has been demonstrated that compassionate treatment increases patient happiness, fosters trust, and speeds up healing. Additionally, it fosters an environment that is encouraging and helpful for both patients, families of patients and medical professionals.
Recognizing Diversity in care: I acknowledge and respect the unique experiences, perspectives, and cultural background of each individual. By recognizing and embracing individual differences, i am able to provide care that aligns with each patients beliefs and values.This kind of care entails listening to patients without passing judgment, making an effort to comprehend their requirements, and modifying my care approach to honour their individuality. Being aware of the social determinants of health that could affect their treatment and results is another aspect of respecting diversity.
Relevance: Patients are guaranteed equitable treatment, inclusive, and culturally sensitive care when their diversity is respected. This strategy lessens health inequities, in addition to fostering confidence and cooperation between the nurse and the patient.
Accountability: Accountability is an essential component of my nursing practice. I think it’s important to accept complete accountability for my choices, actions, and the care I give. This entails being honest about errors, asking for advice when uncertain, and always trying to get better. Accountability keeps me committed to providing safe, excellent care while upholding ethical standards. It also calls for me to communicate openly and honestly with patients, their families, and the medical staff.
Relevance: Accountability fosters trust among coworkers and patients, which lays the groundwork for productive collaboration and secure healthcare delivery. It guarantees that the care is dependable, consistent, and compliant with the standards of the industry.
Growth:I am deeply committed to my personal and professional growth. I see every experience as a chance to grow and learn, regardless of how good or bad it is. To guarantee I can deliver the finest care possible, I must keep up with the latest findings, medical procedures, and technological advancements. It also entails asking for criticism, thinking back on my past experiences, and establishing objectives for growth. I can improve my skills and adjust to the changing demands of the nursing profession by putting growth first.
Relevance: My dedication to development enables me to maintain my competence in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry. It enables me to deliver care that is up to date, supported by evidence, and compliant with the strict standards for best practices.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.622925
|
11-20-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/chapter/values/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/front-matter/an-intro-to-my-journey/",
"title": "An e-Book of my nursing journey",
"author": "Stephine Mba",
"institution": "Trent University",
"subject": "Medicine and Nursing"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/chapter/reflection-on-entry-to-nursing/
|
REFLECTION ON ENTRY TO NURSING
When I reflect on my journey into nursing, I see it as one that was molded by growth, self-discovery, and a willingness to accept change. First as a lawyer and then as a social worker, my early career goals were centered on advocacy and changing people’s lives. But after a bit of reflection and life experience, I came to the conclusion that those paths did not entirely fit my long-term objectives or desires.
Making the move from social work to nursing meant stepping outside of my comfort zone and moving from a field with an arts foundation to one that is more centered on science. While it was difficult, going over high school classes like biology and chemistry again in order to get ready for university-level studies marked a turning point. The desire to pursue a career that felt more in line with what I wanted was reaffirmed and it put my resilience to the test.
What particularly appeals to me now is how nursing skillfully incorporates the attributes I appreciated in my earlier goals. It enables me to help families, speak out for patients, and give direct care through actions that embody the advocacy, justice, and compassion I’ve always wished to bring to my job. It feels like the logical extension of my interests and experiences, and nursing has turned out to be more than just a career transition.
This viewpoint is supported by Watson’s Theory of Human Caring, which highlights the significance of providing patients with meaningful and compassionate care. This is consistent with my choice to become a nurse because I made the decision primarily to care for people. As I go on with my nursing education, Watson’s framework serves as a guide, reminding me to prioritize empathy and care in my practice.
Similarly, the Code of Ethics of the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) emphasizes the need of nurses to act ethically, advocate for patients, and respect each person’s dignity. Whether I want to practice law, social work, or nursing, advocacy has always been at the heart of my goals. Even if my professional route has changed, I have stayed constant in my commitment to advocating for others. By ensuring that patients receive fair and compassionate care, nursing enables me to pursue my interest in an intriguing and meaningful way.
This transition has taught me the value of perseverance and adaptability. Despite the fact that my path into nursing wasn’t a straight-line, it has given me greater confidence in my capacity to overcome obstacles and it contribute significantly in unexpected ways. It serves as a reminder that sometimes our initial route isn’t the one we’re supposed to take, and that’s okay. It’s important to select a career that genuinely fulfills us and enables us to make the difference we want to.
Now, as I begin my nursing studies, I bring with me the teachings of self-reflection, tenacity, and a greater comprehension of the effect I wish to create in my later career as a nurse. Up till now, my path has confirmed that nursing is more than simply a job to me; it’s a calling that fits with my values and identity.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.631139
|
11-20-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/chapter/reflection-on-entry-to-nursing/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/front-matter/an-intro-to-my-journey/",
"title": "An e-Book of my nursing journey",
"author": "Stephine Mba",
"institution": "Trent University",
"subject": "Medicine and Nursing"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/chapter/smart-goals/
|
SMART GOALS
Goal 1:
- Specific: Enhance patient care skills during clinical practice in a residential setting by focusing on effective communication, accurate documentation, and assisting with daily activities.
- Measurable: Successfully complete all assigned tasks during clinical rotations with positive feedback from supervisors at least 90% of the time.
- Achievable: Attend all clinical practice sessions, actively engage with patients and staff, and review assigned learning materials.
- Relevant: Developing strong foundational skills in residential care is essential for building competency as a future nurse.
- Time-bound: Achieve this goal by the end of the semester in April 2025.
Goal 2:
- Specific: Develop effective time management skills for balancing academic, clinical, and personal commitments.
- Measurable: Use a planner to schedule tasks and meet deadlines for 95% of assignments and responsibilities.
- Achievable: Implement a structured daily routine with allocated study and rest times.
- Relevant: Effective time management reduces stress and enhances performance.
- Time-bound: Demonstrate improved time management by the end of the 2025 Academic year.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.639185
|
11-20-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/chapter/smart-goals/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/front-matter/an-intro-to-my-journey/",
"title": "An e-Book of my nursing journey",
"author": "Stephine Mba",
"institution": "Trent University",
"subject": "Medicine and Nursing"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/chapter/collection-of-artifacts/
|
COLLECTION OF ARTIFACTS
1. Clinical Evaluation Reports
- Relevance: These reports aim to provide a thorough documentation of my development and proficiency in various nursing skills during my placements. They would provide thorough feedback regarding my clinical performance, documenting my capacity to put theoretical understanding to use in practical situations. These reports, which would document my areas of strength and growth, aim to offer important insights into my development as a nursing student and my preparedness for entry into the workforce. They would also show if I can work well in interdisciplinary teams, guarantee patient safety, and provide excellent care while being closely monitored.
2. Certificates of Training (e.g., CPR certification)
- Relevance: Credentials like my CPR certification attest to my preparation for emergencies and conform to professional nursing standards. In addition to being necessary, these credentials demonstrate my dedication to patient safety and wellbeing. They provide as evidence of my proficiency in vital patient care areas, especially life-saving methods.
3. Academic Papers on Nursing Theories
- Relevance: Academic papers on nursing theories demonstrate my ability to critically engage with, analyze, and in due timenintegrate theoretical knowledge into practical nursing care. These publications demonstrate how well I grasp important nursing principles like ethical decision-making, cultural competency, and patient-centered care. They give me a solid understanding of the fundamental ideas that guide nursing interventions and patient care models, which serves as a basis for my clinical work.
4. Reflection Journal Entries
- Relevance: My reflection journal entries would provide an array of information on my development, difficulties, and educational experiences during the course of my nursing program. My growing knowledge of nursing, the formation of my professional identity, and my reactions to different clinical situations will all be documented in these postings. I can assess my behavior, pinpoint areas for development, and reaffirm my dedication to lifelong learning by reading through my experiences. The notebook is a useful instrument for self-evaluation, assisting me in cultivating and documenting the critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and resilience required for successful nursing practice.
5. Volunteer Work Documentation
- Relevance: Recording my volunteer activities demonstrates my continued dedication to helping the community and obtaining practical experience in medical environments. By volunteering, I have had the opportunity to engage with a variety of demographics, observe and take part in patient care, and learn about the difficulties that people in the healthcare system experience. Through this experience, I have improved my empathy, cultural sensitivity, and interpersonal skills, all of which are critical for delivering patient-centered, compassionate care.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.648431
|
11-20-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/chapter/collection-of-artifacts/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/front-matter/an-intro-to-my-journey/",
"title": "An e-Book of my nursing journey",
"author": "Stephine Mba",
"institution": "Trent University",
"subject": "Medicine and Nursing"
}
|
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/chapter/references/
|
REFERENCES
Bagheri, S., Zarshenas, L., Rakhshan, M., Sharif, F., Sarani, E. M., Shirazi, Z. H., & Sitzman, K. (2023). Impact of Watson’s human caring-based health promotion program on caregivers of individuals with schizophrenia. http://BMC health services research, 23(1), 711. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09725-9
Zelyck, K. (2020, June 26). Nursing ethics provides guidance during the pandemic crisis. Canadian Nurse Association. https://community.cna-aiic.ca/blogs/cn-content/2020/06/26/nursing-ethics-provides-guidance-during-the-pandem
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.655704
|
11-20-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/chapter/references/",
"book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/stephinelearningjourney/front-matter/an-intro-to-my-journey/",
"title": "An e-Book of my nursing journey",
"author": "Stephine Mba",
"institution": "Trent University",
"subject": "Medicine and Nursing"
}
|
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/basic-operations-of-single-phase-transformers/
|
Main Body
Basic Operations of Single Phase Transformers
A transformer is an AC device used to transfer energy from one circuit to another:
-
without a change of frequency
-
with a change in voltage, if required
-
without an electrical connection (with the exception of auto-transformers)
Mutual Induction
Transformers operate on the principle of mutual induction, which is the process of inducing a voltage in a coil by changing the current in another coil.
We learned previously that changing the current value in a coil causes the flux lines surrounding the coil to change. This change in flux induces a voltage in the coil called counter-electromotive force (CEMF).
If a second coil is placed next to the first coil, the lines of flux induce a voltage in the second coil without there being any electrical connection.
In a DC circuit, how long will we see an induced voltage in the second coil? For 5τ after the switch is opened or closed. Only when the value of the current is changing will the magnetic flux lines be cutting the second coil.
In an AC circuit, the value of current is constantly changing so the flux lines are constantly cutting through the coil, inducing a voltage.
Other Characteristics
Transformers are designed to either:
- Step up voltage and step down current.
- Step down voltage and step up current.
Transformers are very efficient, ranging from 96% to 99% efficient. They require very little maintenance, as there are no moving parts.
Classification
Transformers are classified by:
- Cooling method
-
Air or oil
-
Natural convection or forced
-
-
Application
-
Power supply (over 500 KVA)
-
Distribution (500 KVA and under, pole mounts)
-
Control
-
Instrument (CTs and PTs)
-
- Phases
-
Single-phase
-
Polyphase
Video Alert! (A Blast from the Past)
This video from the U.S. Department of Defense gives a fantastic description of how transformers work.
Attribution
Transformers video by PublicResourceOrg is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
-
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.670760
|
04-26-2022
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/basic-operations-of-single-phase-transformers/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "An Electrician's Guide to Single Phase Transformers",
"author": "Chad Flinn",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Building skills and trades"
}
|
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/construction-of-a-transformer/
|
Main Body
Construction of a Transformer
Three Main Parts of a Transformer
High-voltage winding (many turns of small gauge wire, thicker insulation)
The high-voltage winding is made up of many turns of relatively thin, insulated wire wound around the core. This winding is thinner than the low-voltage winding because it is designed to handle lower currents. The insulation on this winding must be able to withstand the stress of the higher voltage applied across it.
Low-voltage winding (fewer turns of larger gauge wire, thinner insulation)
The low-voltage winding has fewer turns of thicker, insulated wire around the core. This thicker winding is designed to handle higher currents. However, the insulation on this winding does not have to withstand the same high stress as the high-voltage winding.
Core (laminated sheet steel)
The purpose of the core is to concentrate the flux lines so that as much of the flux as possible links with both the primary and secondary coils. Ideally, the material used in the core should have high permeability, low retentivity, and high electrical resistance:
- This core is a conductor and having magnetic lines of flux constantly cutting through it will result in an induced voltage. One way we can reduce this effect is with laminations. We take the solid iron core and chop it into thin slices and layer them with a thin plastic barrier between them, which does not hinder the flow of the flux lines, but does prevent electrical currents from circulating.
- It is varnished to insulate laminations against eddy currents and to prevent oxidization.
- The higher the permeability, the greater the number of flux lines created for a given level of current in the windings.
- The lower the retentivity, the less energy is lost in the form of heat due to hysteresis losses. As the magnetic field expands and contracts, it causes the magnetic domains to constantly be realigned, resulting in friction. Hysteresis loss is caused by molecular friction in ferromagnetic materials that results in heat, a form of wasted energy, which forces the material to take its energy from the circuit.
- The higher the resistance, the less energy is lost in the form of heat due to circulating (eddy) currents in the core. We often use ferromagnetic cores to reduce the magnetic reluctance of a coil.
Hotspot image
Click on the “+” symbols on the image to learn more about the parts of the transformers.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.681723
|
04-26-2022
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/construction-of-a-transformer/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "An Electrician's Guide to Single Phase Transformers",
"author": "Chad Flinn",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Building skills and trades"
}
|
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/operation-how-the-heck-do-they-work/
|
Main Body
Operation (How the heck do they work?)
It’s Time for Some Truth
-
The input side is always the primary winding. This is the side that is always hooked up to the source of voltage.
-
The output side is always the secondary winding. This is the side that is always hooked up to the load.
-
Leads are identified:
-
H leads are high-voltage leads. They have a lower gauge wire with larger insulation.
-
X leads are low-voltage leads. They have a thicker gauge wire with smaller insulation.
Key Takeaways
A lot of examples are step-down transformers, but this is not always the case. Keep this in mind. Your H leads are not always your primary!
X1 and H1 will always have the same polarity.
-
Voltage
When the primary is energized from an AC supply with no load on the secondary, it acts as an inductor.
Self-inductance creates a CEMF to limit the current to 2%–5% of the primary full-load current. This small amount of current is called exciting current (also known as magnetizing current).
The secondary voltage depends on primary voltage and turns, and the secondary turns. The ratio between primary and secondary voltage is the same as the ratio between primary and secondary turns.
Which means:
Primary volts per turn = secondary volts per turn
Example #1
What are the volts per turn of a transformer with a voltage rating of
600V–20V if the high-voltage winding contains 240 turns?
=
= 2.5 volts per turn
Example #2
How many turns would there be in the low-voltage winding of the transformer in question 1?
NS = 48 turns
When it comes to using volts/turn, it’s good to remember that volts/turn on the primary is equal to the volts/turn on the secondary but it can sometimes be confusing to use this in calculations. An easier method is to use the turns ratio method.
If you take the higher number of turns and divide it by the lower number of turns, you get a ratio. For example:
A transformer with 100 turns on the primary and 50 turns on the secondary will have a turns ratio of 2:1. Therefore if 120 volts is on the primary, then 60 volts will be impressed on the secondary.
Video Alert!
This video walks through and explains how to use the turns ratio to calculate the voltage on the primary or the secondary.
Current
The easiest way to calculate current is to use the turns ratio as well.
The only difference is that higher turns means lower current, so you will be using the turns ratio backwards.
Example #3
A transformer has 600 turns on the primary and 120 turns on the secondary. 300 volts is impressed on the primary and a current of 40 amps circulates on the secondary. Calculate:
- Turns ratio
- Secondary voltage
- Primary current
600/120 = 5:1 turns ratio
300 V/5 (Ratio) = 60 volts on the secondary
4 amps/5(Ratio) = 8 amps on the primary
Video Alert!
This video walks through how to use the turns ratio to calculate current. It also shows another method that many find easier. In a transformer, the power input is always equal to the power output.
Rated vs. Actual
Transformer windings are designed to be able to handle a certain amount of voltage and a certain amount of current.
This is where its VA rating comes from.
A transformer is rated 1000 VA, 100V/10V, and is connected for step-down operation. Therefore:
Rated Ip= 10 A
Rated Is= 100 A
Rated VP= 100 V
Rated VS= 10 V
This is what the transformer is designed to handle—this is its maximum. Anything over this will burn out the windings.
If we add a 5 Ω resistor load to the secondary, we can calculate Ip and Is.
Actual Ip= 0.2 A
Actual Is= 2 A
This transformer is delivering 20 VA, not 1000 VA.
The same holds true for the voltage.
If we put 50 V on the primary, we would get a secondary voltage of 5 V.
Remember that the rated values are the maximum values that the windings can see. We are given the VA and the V, and we use these values to determine the maximum current.
As long as those values are not exceeded, we can use the transformer for our purposes.
Attributions
How to use turns ratio to calculate voltage video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
How to calculate the winding current of a transformer using turns ratio video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.702340
|
04-26-2022
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/operation-how-the-heck-do-they-work/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "An Electrician's Guide to Single Phase Transformers",
"author": "Chad Flinn",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Building skills and trades"
}
|
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/additive-and-subtractive-polarity/
|
Main Body
Additive and Subtractive Polarity
It’s All about the Instantaneous Polarity!
Polarity in an AC circuit is constantly changing direction and magnitude. When we talk about the polarity of a transformer, we mean an instantaneous polarity.
The high-voltage windings are always referred to as H1 and H2. The low-voltage windings are always referred to as X1 and X2. If we take an instantaneous polarity, H1 and X1 will always have the same polarity.
Transformers are referred to as having either additive polarity or subtractive polarity. What this refers to is the relative position of high-voltage terminals with respect to the low-voltage terminals as they are brought out of the transformer case. Observing the transformer from the side where the low voltage terminals are brought out, H1 is always located on the left-hand side of the transformer, as shown in Figure 4. Then:
- If the X1 terminal is directly across from the H1 terminal, the transformer has subtractive polarity.
- If the X1 terminal sits diagonally across from the H1 terminal, the transformer has additive polarity.
Sometimes we must determine the polarity of a transformer (the markings have worn off, for example).
- Identify which leads are H leads and which are X leads. This can be done from the gauge and insulation of the windings. High voltage (H), thinner wire, thicker insulation. Low voltage (X), thicker wire, thinner insulation.
- Pick one terminal of the H windings and mark it as H1. The other terminal will be H2 (Thanks to Captain Obvious!).
- Place a jumper between H1 and the adjacent X terminal.
- Apply a voltage to the high side of the transformer. To be safe, keep the value relatively low.
- Place a voltmeter between H2 and the other X terminal. If the voltmeter has a subtractive polarity, the voltmeter will read the difference between the high-side voltage and low-side voltage. If the transformer has an additive polarity, the voltmeter will read the sum of the high-side voltage and low-side voltage.
In summary:
- Using the turns ratio, we can put a lower voltage than rated on the primary.
- Place a jumper from one H lead to an X lead.
- Read the voltage across the two leads not jumped.
- If the voltage is the sum of the primary and secondary, then the transformer is additive.
- If the voltage is the difference of the primary and secondary, then the transformer is subtractive.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.713807
|
04-26-2022
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/additive-and-subtractive-polarity/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "An Electrician's Guide to Single Phase Transformers",
"author": "Chad Flinn",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Building skills and trades"
}
|
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/multi-winding-transformers/
|
Main Body
Multi-Winding Transformers
Many transformers contain more than one primary winding, more than one secondary winding, or both:
- Each winding on the high-voltage side has a maximum voltage of the lower of the two voltages.
-
Each winding on the low-voltage side has a maximum voltage of the lower of the two secondary voltages.
- Any voltage higher than these ratings could damage the insulation.
-
Each winding can handle half the rated kVA that the transformer is rated for.
-
We can connect either side in series or parallel to get the voltage we want.
Multi-Coil Distribution Transformer
-
The transformer below is rated 50 kVA, 2400/4800 V – 120/240 V. This means that each winding of the high-voltage side is rated for a maximum voltage of 2400 V (always the lower of the two voltages). Each winding of the low-voltage side is rated for a maximum voltage of 120 V. Remember that any voltage higher than these ratings could damage the insulation.
-
To connect the high-voltage side of this transformer to a 4800 V bus, the two windings are connected in series so that the bus voltage is divided equally (2400 V and 2400 V) across each of the two windings.
-
To connect the high-voltage side of this transformer to a 2400 V bus, the two windings are connected in parallel so that each winding sees 2400 V.
-
To connect the low-voltage side of this transformer to a 240 V bus, the two windings must be connected in series so that the bus voltage is divided equally (120 V and 120 V) across each of the two windings.
-
To connect the low-voltage side of the transformer to a 120 V bus, the two windings must be connected in parallel so that each winding sees 120 V.
Series and Parallel Low-Voltage Connections
Each coil of this transformer can handle only half of the total kVA. So each of the high-voltage windings and each of the low-voltage windings are rated at 25 kVA.
To find the maximum current rating of each winding in the above drawing, simply divide the volt-amperes by the rated voltage:
25 KVA/2400 = 10.4 Amps (Primary)
25 KVA/120 = 208.3 Amps (Secondary)
Notice that we get the same value for current whether we use a single coil and half the VA or both coils and the full VA:
50 KVA/4800 = 10.4 Amps (Primary)
50 KVA/ 240 = 208.3 Amps (Secondary)
Observing Proper Polarity on the Supply Side
The video below goes into detail as to how and why it is important to connect your multi-winding transformers properly. At best, if a transformer is connected incorrectly you will see zero volts on the secondary. At worse, you will experience kablazalflam (Dutch for melt your face off) or a dead short.
Video Alert!
The video below discusses how to properly connect a multi-winding transformer without blowing yourself up.
Three-Wire Connections
-
By tapping off the center connection, we can get 120 V, or by tapping off both lines we can get the full 240 V.
-
With three-wire secondary connections (120/240 V), the transformer is capable of supplying the full kVA only if the load is perfectly balanced.
-
If the full kVA is supplied with an unbalanced load, one of the windings will be overloaded. (That is, its current rating will be exceeded.)
-
Each winding would only be able to handle half the rated kVA.
Video Alert!
This video describes the danger of overloading one of the windings and how to avoid it. Transformers are practically not going to be fully balanced so care needs to be taken on how they are loaded.
Video Alert!
This video explains how a transformer can still work if one of the primary windings has burned out. This is the concept of flux linkage. The main point to take away is that if you lose a winding then you have only half of the KVA (Power) available.
Attribution
How to connect a transformer properly video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
How to determine the minimum KVA in a transformer video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
Flux linkage video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.730662
|
04-26-2022
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/multi-winding-transformers/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "An Electrician's Guide to Single Phase Transformers",
"author": "Chad Flinn",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Building skills and trades"
}
|
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/paralleling-transformers/
|
Main Body
Paralleling Transformers
When One Transformer Just Won’t Do
There may come a time when your transformer gets close to full load. At this point you have two options.
-
Replace the transformer with one that has a larger kVA.
-
Parallel in a new transformer.
It is sometimes more practical to parallel in a new transformer as there is minimal downtime to the operation.
Three Rules and the Truth (for Paralleling)
Three conditions must be met before you can connect transformers in parallel.
1. The transformers must have the same primary and secondary voltage ratings.
If the voltage ratings of the transformers are not the same, large circulating currents will flow in both the primary and secondary windings. Circulating currents are currents that flow between the two transformers but not through the loads. The smaller transformer will act as a load on the larger transformer. Due to the low resistance of the transformer winding, the currents that circulate can end up being quite large and dangerous.
Even though the voltages induced in the secondaries of the transformers are AC, the same circulating currents flow in each of the secondary windings. Any current flowing in the secondary of the transformer must be matched by a current in the primary so that the proper CEMF is produced in the primary windings. The current in the primary is equal to the secondary current divided by the turns ratio. This means that circulating currents proportional to those in the secondaries will also flow in the primaries.
2. When making the connections, you must observe the terminal polarity of the transformers.
This still allows you to parallel a subtractive-polarity transformer with an additive-polarity transformer if you ensure that the connection terminals have the same instantaneous polarity.
-
It is possible to replace the secondary windings of the transformer with batteries to analyze what would happen if the proper polarities were not observed. Figure 11 shows two batteries with equal voltages connected improperly in parallel. The batteries act as though they are in series with one another and only the resistance of the windings themselves will limit the current.
-
This current will be quite large and will most likely exceed the ratings of the windings and burn out the transformer.
Again, any current flowing in the secondary of the transformer has to be matched by a current in the primary so that the proper CEMF is produced in the primary windings. The current in the primary is equal to the secondary current divided by the turns ratio.
You must ensure the instantaneous polarities of all the terminals connected together are always the same.
3. All the transformers must have the same percent impedance.
This is something we will cover in greater detail later. Using the same percent impedance is important to ensure that the transformers share the load according to their ability. For example, provided they have the same percent impedance, a 100 kVA and a 25 kVA transformer can be paralleled together so that the 100 kVA transformer always carries four times as much of the load as the 25 kVA transformer.
As a transformer is loaded, its terminal voltage changes due to the IZ (line loss) drop in the windings. Percent impedance is simply an expression of the impedance of the transformer as a percentage of the rated, full-load load impedance of the transformer. If transformers have the same percent impedances, then their terminal voltages are equal whenever the transformers carry an equal percentage of their full-load currents. This ensures that the transformers share the load according to their individual abilities.
Consider the 100 kVA and 25 kVA transformers mentioned earlier. If these two transformers have the same percent impedance, then together they are capable of supplying a 125 kVA load without exceeding the rating of either transformer.
However, if the two transformers have different percent impedances, the one with the lower percent impedance will be overloaded before they reach 125 kVA.
Observing Proper Polarity when Connecting Transformers in Parallel
It is possible to connect transformers that have different polarities in parallel. You need to remember that you match up the polarities. Earlier we learned that H1 and X1 are always the same polarities, which is why it is important that you pay very close attention to the polarity of the transformers.
There is a sequence to follow when working out the drawings of a transformer:
- You determine the supply line polarity.
- The supply line polarity determines the primary polarity of the transformer.
- The primary polarity determines the secondary polarity of the transformer.
- When you connect, you make sure that the negatives are connected together and the positives are connected together.
Video Alert!
The video below walks through how to properly connect parallel windings.
Testing Closure Voltage
-
Before making the final secondary connection, you must do a simple voltmeter test.
-
This test determines whether or not proper polarity has been observed.
-
Use the windings as batteries again to determine the instantaneous polarity. Start on one side of the voltmeter and work your way around to the other side.
- If proper polarity has been observed, then the voltmeter should read zero volts.
- If the circuit is improperly connected, you will see the two voltages added together. This will cause large circulating currents and kablazalflam!
In Figure 12, two batteries are connected in parallel with the proper polarities observed, and with a voltmeter installed in place of the last connection. The closing voltage measured by the voltmeter should be zero volts.
If you follow the circuit around, you can see that when the batteries are properly connected, they are in series, opposing. (That is, the two voltages oppose each other.)
In Figure 6, the two batteries are connected in parallel with improper polarities, and with the voltmeter installed in place of the last connection, as before. It now measures the closing voltage as two times the battery voltage. If you follow the circuit around, you can see that when the batteries are improperly connected they are in series, aiding. (That is, the two voltages add together.)
Figure 13 shows a voltmeter being used to test the closure voltage on two transformers paralleled together. The instantaneous polarity of the primary bus is drawn as two batteries so we can better visualize the relationship between the two windings. By starting at one side of the meter and travelling to the other side, we can calculate that the meter will read zero volts and is safe for connection.
Video Alert!
The video below explains how to properly use the voltage closure test.
Attribution
Paralleling transformers (polarity) video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
Voltmeter closure test video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.750221
|
04-26-2022
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/paralleling-transformers/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "An Electrician's Guide to Single Phase Transformers",
"author": "Chad Flinn",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Building skills and trades"
}
|
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/transformer-efficiency/
|
Main Body
Transformer Efficiency
While we say that transformers are very efficient, we know that they aren’t 100% efficient.
There are two main ways that transformers lose power: core losses and copper losses. Core losses are the eddy current losses and hysteresis losses of the core. They are measured using the open-circuit test. Copper losses are the I 2R losses of the primary and secondary windings. Copper losses may be measured using the short-circuit test.
Open-Circuit Test for Core Losses
- Connect the transformer and the wattmeter, ammeter, and voltmeter as shown.
- With the primary at the rated primary voltage and the secondary open, the current running in the secondary is zero. The current in the primary will be at a minimum (roughly 2%-5% of the full-rated load).
- The current from the primary causes small circulating currents in the core. These are called eddy currents. The wattmeter is reading the heat loss in the core.
The Short-Circuit Test for Copper Losses
- Copper losses consist of the I 2R losses in the high-voltage winding and the I 2R losses in the low-voltage winding.
- For the short-circuit test, connect the transformer as shown.
- Slowly increase the voltage until the rated current flows in the primary. Once the rated current is flowing in the primary, the rated current will flow in the secondary. The current flowing will cause heat in the windings. The wattmeter will read the winding heat losses.
- The voltmeter shows what is called the short-circuit voltage. This is the voltage that allows the rated current to flow in a short-circuit calculation. This number is used later to help determine the percent impedance of the transformer.
Transformer Efficiency
Efficiency is always equal to the power out (Pout ) divided by the power in (Pin). Percentage efficiency (h) is:
η = x100
The power in is always equal to the power out plus the power losses (Plosses).
Power-in = Power(out)+Power(losses)
η =
Example #1
A 150 kVA transformer is tested and found to have core losses of 800 W. It also has copper losses of 1800 W in the primary coil and 2000 W in the secondary coil.
η =
η = 97%
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.762639
|
04-26-2022
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/transformer-efficiency/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "An Electrician's Guide to Single Phase Transformers",
"author": "Chad Flinn",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Building skills and trades"
}
|
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/percent-impedance/
|
Main Body
Percent Impedance
The percent impedance (%Z) is the percent of the rated load impedance possessed by a transformer. The percent impedance is important in that it allows us to:
- Calculate available fault currents (both individual and bank).
- Determine whether two transformers are suitable for paralleling.
In the last chapter, we learned how to determine the short-circuit voltage of a transformer. We now can use that voltage to determine the percent impedance:
Eshort circuit/ERated = %Z
Video Alert!
Fault-Current Calculations
To calculate the fault current available from a transformer if a dead short occurs across the secondary terminals, use the formula:
Irated (Secondary)/%Z = Fault current
Remember to use the percentage as a decimal not the full number. For example, 2.5% is actually .025.
Video Alert!
How to calculate fault current using %Z:
Example #1
What is the available fault current of a step-down transformer rated at 50 kVA, 1200 V – 120 V and 2.75% percent impedance?
I(full load) =
I(full load) = 417 Amps
I(short circuit) =
I(short circuit) = 15,151 Amps
Exampe #2
A transformer is rated 20KVA, 4800 V – 240 V. With the secondary short-circuited, it takes 96 volts to reach the rated primary current (4.2 amps). Determine the %Z and the available fault current.
%Z =
%Z = 2
I(rated secondary) =
I(rated secondary) = 83 Amps
I(Short circuit) =
I(Short circuit) = 4150 Amps
Attributions
How to determine the percent impedance of a transformer video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
How to calculate fault current using percent impedance video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.774970
|
04-26-2022
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/percent-impedance/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "An Electrician's Guide to Single Phase Transformers",
"author": "Chad Flinn",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Building skills and trades"
}
|
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/multi-tap-transformers/
|
Main Body
Multi-Tap Transformers
Some transformers compensate for line drop and percent voltage regulation by having multiple taps by which the volts/turn ratio can be adjusted.
In the image below, we have a transformer whose secondary is open. For all intents and purposes, there is very little current flowing in the primary (in this case we will say it is negligible). The .25Ω resistance in the primary is the resistance of the winding. In this example, the supply voltage and the terminal voltage will be the same value. There is a potential secondary voltage of 120 volts but there is no current flowing in the secondary.
When current flows in the secondary circuit, things start to change. Total line drop in the primary circuit is 150 V due to the volt drop across the resistance of the primary circuit (75 V+ 75 V). This means that the terminal voltage applied to the primary of the transformer is only 1050 V. With the 10:1 turns ratio on the transformer, the secondary voltage is 105 V. This is 15 V lower than is desired.
To compensate for the line drop, it would be lovely if we could reduce the turns ratio of the transformer to 9.5:1. Some transformers provide taps to do that.
- Any increase in the number of turns in the primary will reduce the volts per turn ratio, thus lowering the secondary voltage.
- Any decrease in the number of turns in the primary will increase the volts per turn ratio, thus increasing the secondary voltage.
- The tap percentages indicate the percentage of the full turns that are effective when the tap is used.
- When the taps are in the primary winding, the new turns ratio can be calculated by multiplying this percentage by the full turns ratio:
Example:
- Consider a 360 kVA 1200V – 120V transformer.
- It has a turns ratio of 10:1 on the 100% tap.
|
Tap percentage
|
Equation
|
New ratio
|
New secondary voltage (at 1200V)
|
|
95%
|
10 x 0.95 =
|
9.5:1
|
126.3 V
|
|
97.5%
|
10 x 0.975 =
|
9.75:1
|
123 V
|
|
100%
|
10 x 1 =
|
10:1
|
120 V
|
|
102.5%
|
10 x 1.025 =
|
10.25:1
|
117 V
|
Video Alert!
This video shows how to use a multi-tap transformer to boost secondary voltage.
Attributions
Multi-tap transformer video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.791251
|
04-26-2022
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/multi-tap-transformers/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "An Electrician's Guide to Single Phase Transformers",
"author": "Chad Flinn",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Building skills and trades"
}
|
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/auto-transformers/
|
Main Body
Auto-Transformers
Auto-transformers definition: a single winding transformer with the primary and secondary windings magnetically and electrically connected.
So far, we have dealt with transformers that have no electrical connection between the primary and secondary winding. The only connection has been magnetic. Auto-transformers, on the other hand, do have an electrically conductive link between the primary and secondary windings.
There is only one winding in an auto-transformer. The common winding is the portion shared by the primary and secondary.
All the rules for dual- and multi-winding transformers apply to auto-transformers.
Step-Down Auto-Transformers
You will notice that there is only one winding for the entire transformer. The portion of the winding before the load is referred to as the primary, and the portion of the winding that is in parallel to the load is referred to as the secondary or common winding.
Video Alert!
This video provides an explanation of how step-down transformers work. In it, you will be shown how to calculate for winding currents, voltages, and power.
Step-Up Auto-Transformers
A step-up auto-transformer works on the exact same principles as a step-down transformer. The only difference is that the voltage across the load will be larger than the source voltage. All the same rules apply as a step-down auto-transformer.
Video Alert!
This video provides an explanation of how step-up transformers work. In it, you will be shown how to calculate for winding currents, voltages, and power.
Steps for Solving Auto-Transformer Calculations
Follow these steps when doing auto-transformer calculations:
- Assign polarities – load polarity is determined by which terminal is most positive with respect to the other terminal.
- Calculate max high and low voltage winding ampacity.
- Plot current flow through the load and the series load winding.
- Calculate max load VA.
- Calculate line amps based on load VA.
- Plot current flow according to Kirchhoff’s current law.
Buck/Boost Auto-Transformers
One of the defining principles of an auto-transformer is that it shares a common magnetic and electrical circuit. It is possible to connect a standard two-winding transformer as an auto-transformer. I know that this sounds like magic but it is very real. It is much like how we tested for the polarity of an additive or subtractive transformer.
How the polarities are connected will determine whether or not the transformer is a buck or boost. In a buck configuration, the two winding voltages will subtract from one another to provide the load voltage. In a boost configuration, the two winding voltages will add to one another to provide the load voltage.
Video Alert!
This video will walk through how a buck/boost auto-transformer operates and how to determine the calculations.
Attributions
Step down auto transformer walk through video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
Step up Autotransformer video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
Buck boost Autotransformers video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.803604
|
04-26-2022
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/auto-transformers/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "An Electrician's Guide to Single Phase Transformers",
"author": "Chad Flinn",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Building skills and trades"
}
|
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/instrument-transformers/
|
Main Body
Instrument Transformers
Measuring and controlling circuits where very high currents or voltages are present cannot be done with standard multi-meters. The pressure on the meters would be too great and cause damage to both the meter and the person operating it. We use instrument transformers to step the values down to values that are safer to measure. Instrument transformers are designed to step down large voltages and currents at a fixed, known proportion.
The two most common types of instrument transformers are:
-
Current transformers (CTs)
-
Potential transformers (PTs)
Polarity of instrument transformers is commonly denoted with dots showing like polarity.
Current Transformers
A current transformer (CT) usually has its ratio fixed. For example, a CT has a ratio of 50:5. This is still a 10:1 transformer, but the ratio is given at something to 5.
It is dangerous to open the secondary of a CT. Since there is no load on the secondary of a CT, the current in the secondary is determined by the current on the primary. With the secondary open, there is no CEMF to hold back the primary core flux, and therefore the secondary must be short-circuited to prevent very large voltages from being a danger.
The core is driven to saturation very quickly.
As the max number of flux lines collapses 120 times per second, a very high voltage is induced on the secondary terminals. This can be VERY dangerous. Never work on a CT that has its secondary open as there can be a very high voltage present.
Potential Transformers
A potential transformer (PT) is usually constructed to have a secondary voltage of 120 V for standardization purposes. Much like a CT, a PT will have its ratio stated as something to 120 volts. For example, it may have a ratio of 12KV:120. This would mean the mathematical ratio is 100:1.
A PT acts in the same fashion as a step-down transformer.
Multiplier Ratio
The reading of a wattmeter connected to the secondary circuits of a PT and a CT would need to be multiplied by the ratio of both transformers.
For example: 50:1 x 20:1 = 1000
This is known as its multiplier.
Example
- If the voltmeter reads 117 volts, what is the primary voltage? (6000:120 = 50:1. 115 x 50 = 5750 V)
- If the ammeter reads 4.6 A, what is the primary current? (50:5 = 10:1 4.6 A x 10 = 46 A)
- What is the multiplier for the wattmeter? (50:1 x 10:1 = 500:1)
- What is the true power delivered to the load? (46 A x 5750 V = 264,500 watts)
- What is the reading of the wattmeter? (264,500/500 = 529 W)
Video Alert!
This video will walk through the concepts of instrument transformers and how to perform the calculations necessary.
Attributions
Instrument transformers video by The Electric Academy is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.816302
|
04-26-2022
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/chapter/instrument-transformers/",
"book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/singlephasetransformers/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "An Electrician's Guide to Single Phase Transformers",
"author": "Chad Flinn",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Building skills and trades"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/homeostasis/
|
Homeostasis
Overview
Homeostasis is the body’s ability to maintain internal stability despite external changes. One key mechanism that helps achieve this balance is through feedback loops. There are two main types of feedback loops: negative feedback and positive feedback. Negative feedback loops work to maintain a stable state by reversing any deviations from the set point. On the other hand, positive feedback loops amplify and reinforce changes, often leading to an increase in the deviation from the set point. Understanding these feedback loops is crucial in comprehending how our bodies regulate and maintain balance to ensure optimal functioning.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- identify the four components of a homeostatic feedback control loop.
- explain how a negative feedback loop works and give specific examples.
- explain how a positive feedback loop works and give specific examples.
Video Review
Watch the video: Positive And Negative Feedback Loops – Negative Feedback Loops – Positive Feedback Loops (2 minutes)
Activities
These infographics will be helpful as you work through the activities.
Flash Cards
Question Sets
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
Positive And Negative Feedback Loops – Negative Feedback Loops – Positive Feedback Loops by Whats Up Dude is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology by University of Southern Queensland, and are licensed under a CC BY SA 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.832076
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/homeostasis/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/epithelial-and-connective-tissue/
|
Epithelial and Connective Tissue
Overview
There are four main types of animal tissue: epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous tissue. The focus in this chapter is epithelial and connective tissue. Epithelial tissue forms linings, both inner and outer, and includes the outer layer of skin, organ linings, and glands. Connective tissue supports, connects, and separates tissues.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- describe the characteristics of epithelial tissue and connective tissue including its special features, functions, and where in the body it is located.
Video Review
Watch the video: Epithelial and connective tissue | Cells | MCAT | Khan Academy (7 minutes)
Activities
Flash Cards
Question Sets
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
Epithelial and connective tissue | Cells | MCAT | Khan Academy by kahnacademymedicine is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Interactive Activities for Human Anatomy and Physiology by Open Education Lab, Ontario Tech University, and are licensed under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.844706
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/epithelial-and-connective-tissue/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/integumentary-system-overview/
|
Integumentary System: Overview
Overview
The integumentary system is the body’s outermost system, composed of the skin along with its derivatives such as glands, hair, and nails. The skin consists of the epidermis and dermis, with the epidermis made up of epithelial tissue while the dermis is tough fibrous connective tissue. Within the epidermis are various layers such as the stratum basale, spinosum, granulosum, lucidum, and corneum, each playing a vital role in protecting and regenerating the skin.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- describe the two layers of the skin (epidermis and dermis) and the subcutaneous tissue
- explain the importance of each of the epidermal layers to the maintenance of healthy skin
- describe the skin appendages (hair, nails, and glands) and their functions
Video Review
Watch the video: The Integumentary System (15 minutes)
Activities
Flash Cards
Components of the Epidermis
General Terms
Question Sets
Integumentary System
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
The Integumentary System by Professor Dave Explains is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Interactive Activities for Human Anatomy and Physiology by Open Education Lab, Ontario Tech University, and are licensed under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.857351
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/integumentary-system-overview/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/integumentary-system-skin-aging/
|
Integumentary System: Skin and Aging
Overview
As people age, their skin goes through a natural aging process that leads to visible changes such as wrinkles, reduced elasticity, and slower healing. This is primarily due to a decrease in the number and activity of stem cells in the skin. Additionally, collagen and elastic fibers in the deeper layers of the skin decrease in quantity and lose their elasticity. Years of facial expressions also contribute to the formation of wrinkles. Exposure to harmful UV rays can further accelerate skin aging by damaging the DNA in epidermal cells and the collagen fibers in the dermal layer.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- describe the internal factors (those that occur within the body) that contribute to the aging process of the skin.
- describe some external factors that contribute to the aging process of the skin.
Video Review
Watch the video: How Does The Skin Age – Skin Aging Process – Why Do We Get Wrinkles (2 minutes)
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
How Does The Skin Age – Skin Aging Process – Why Do We Get Wrinkles by Whats Up Dude is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Interactive Activities for Human Anatomy and Physiology by Open Education Lab, Ontario Tech University, and are licensed under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.868029
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/integumentary-system-skin-aging/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/inflammation/
|
Inflammation
Overview
Inflammation is a complex immune response involving pain, redness, swelling, heat, and loss of function, essential for containing infections and repairing tissue. It involves vascular, respiratory, and cellular components, with immune cells interacting with endothelial cells to enter tissues, followed by a resolution phase crucial for healing and preventing chronic inflammation.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- name the five signs of inflammation.
- explain the difference between acute inflammation and chronic inflammation.
- describe the process of acute inflammation.
- name the types of chemicals released during inflammation.
Video Review
Watch the video: Inflammatory Response, Animation (5 minutes)
Activities
Question Set
The Inflammatory Process
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
Inflammatory Response, Animation by Alila Medical Media is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Interactive Activities for Human Anatomy and Physiology by Open Education Lab, Ontario Tech University, and are licensed under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.879560
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/inflammation/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/integumentary-wound-healing/
|
Integumentary System: Wound Healing
Overview
The skin is the largest organ in the human body and forms the barrier between the individual and the external environment. When the skin sustains a deep cut or wound, the regenerative process of skin healing involves four overlapping stages: hemostasis (blood clotting), inflammation (fighting pathogens), proliferation (collagen production), and remodeling (tissue maturation).
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- describe the stages of wound healing (hemostasis, inflammatory phase, proliferative phase, and remodeling phase)
- Explain the role that macrophages and fibroblasts play in wound healing.
Video Review
Watch the video: How a wound heals itself – Sarthak Sinha (4 minutes)
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
How a wound heals itself – Sarthak Sinha by TED-Ed is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Interactive Activities for Human Anatomy and Physiology by Open Education Lab, Ontario Tech University, and are licensed under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.889756
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/integumentary-wound-healing/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/skin-cancer/
|
Cancer: Tumor Types and ABCDE’s of Melanoma
Overview
There are important, key differences between benign and cancerous tumors. Benign tumors have well-defined borders, divide less rapidly, and have more regular tissue compared to cancerous tumors which have irregular borders, divide rapidly, and have undifferentiated tissue. Benign tumors are named after the tissue from which they develop. Cancerous tumors are characterized by rapid abnormal cell division and the ability to metastasize or spread to other tissues. A Patient with a pigmented skin lesion can be evaluated for melanoma, a type of skin cancer, by utilizing the “ABCDE” criteria as follows: Asymmetry, Borders (irregular), Color (varying), Diameter (larger than 6mm), and Evolution (changing shape, size, or color).
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- explain the differences between a benign and malignant tumor.
- utilize the ABCDE guideline to evaluate a pigmented skin lesion.
Video Review
Watch the 2 playlist videos: Pathophysiology: Benign and Cancerous Tumors and ABCDE Rule for early detection of Melanoma Skin Cancer (6 minutes total)
Activities
Question Sets
Normal skin anatomy & histology
Metastatic melanoma
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
Pathophysiology: Benign and Cancerous Tumors by DrBruce Forciea is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
ABCDE Rule for early detection of Melanoma Skin Cancer #cancer – Dr. Rajdeep Mysore| Doctors’ Circle by Doctors’ Circle is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Pathology by Jennifer Kong; Helen Dyck; and Zoë Soon, and are licensed under a CC BY NC 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.903227
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/skin-cancer/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/autonomic-nervous-system-2/
|
Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
Overview
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) controls automatic bodily functions that we are not consciously aware of. It is divided into the sympathetic division, which triggers fight-or-flight responses during exercise or in emergencies, and the parasympathetic division, which promotes “rest and digest” activities during relaxation. These two divisions work together to maintain bodily functions such as heart rate, digestion, and metabolism.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- explain the two general divisions of the nervous system.
- describe the differences between the neurons in the somatic motor system and those found in the ANS.
- explain the types of bodily processes that are controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system.
- explain the types of bodily processes that are controlled by the sympathetic nervous system.
Video Review
Watch the video: The Autonomic Nervous System: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Divisions (7 minutes)
Activities
Flash Cards
Specific Terms
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
The Autonomic Nervous System: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Divisions by Professor Dave Explains is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Interactive Activities for Human Anatomy and Physiology by Open Education Lab, Ontario Tech University, licensed under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license, and Pathology by Jennifer Kong; Helen Dyck; and Zoë Soon, licensed under a CC BY NC 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.915846
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/autonomic-nervous-system-2/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/endocrine-glands-hormones/
|
Endocrine System: Glands and Hormones
Overview
The endocrine system is a vital part of the body that regulates various functions through the production and release of hormones. These hormones travel through the bloodstream to target organs and tissues, where they help control important processes such as metabolism, growth, and reproduction. Understanding how these hormones work together to maintain balance and harmony in the body is crucial for overall health and well-being.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- name the various hormones secreted from the body’s endocrine glands.
- explain the functions of hormones secreted by the: Hypothalamus, Anterior Pituitary Gland, Thyroid, Pancreas, Adrenal gland, Testis, and Ovary.
Video Review
Watch the video: Endocrine System: Glands and Hormones (9 minutes)
Activities
Flash Cards
General Terms 1
General Terms 2
General Terms 3
Question Sets
Endocrine System
Anterior Pituitary
Hormones of the Neurohypophysis (Posterior Pituitary)
The Pancreas
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
Endocrine System: Glands and Hormones by Science ABC is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Interactive Activities for Human Anatomy and Physiology by Open Education Lab, Ontario Tech University, and are licensed under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.930584
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/endocrine-glands-hormones/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/endocrine-disorders-diabetes/
|
Endocrine Disorders: Diabetes
Overview
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder that affects the body’s ability to regulate blood glucose levels. People with diabetes either do not produce enough insulin (Type 1 diabetes) or are unable to use insulin effectively (Type 2 diabetes), leading to high levels of glucose in the blood and various health problems over time.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- compare and contrast the differences between Type I and Type II diabetes.
- explain the outcomes when the hormone insulin is not properly regulated in the body.
- describe how Type I and Type II diabetes are medically managed.
Video Review
Watch the video: Pathophysiology: Diabetes (Type I/Type II) (5 minutes)
Activities
Question Sets
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
Pathophysiology: Diabetes (Type I/Type II) by DrBruce Forciea is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Pathology by Jennifer Kong; Helen Dyck; and Zoë Soon, and are licensed under a CC BY NC 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.942419
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/endocrine-disorders-diabetes/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/cardiovascular-heart-blood-flow/
|
Cardiovascular System: Heart Blood Flow
Overview
Maintaining proper blood flow, direction, and pressure ensures effective blood circulation to the body’s organs and tissues. Veins carry blood to the heart, while arteries transport blood from the heart. In the lungs, the blood discards carbon dioxide and picks up oxygen, returning oxygen-rich blood to the heart to then be pumped to all the body tissues.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- describe the pathway the blood takes through the two circuits: Pulmonary and Systemic.
- name all the structures involved in the two circuits including the major blood vessels, heart chambers, and heart valves.
Video Review
Watch the video: Blood Flow through the Heart in 2 MINUTES (2 minutes)
Activities
Flash Cards
Anatomy of the Heart
General Anatomy
Labeling Activity
Question Sets
Wall of the Heart
Heart Valves During Contraction and Relaxation
Circulation Through the Heart
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
Blood Flow through the Heart in 2 MINUTES by Neural Academy is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The labeling activity Cardiovascular Beating Heat External View by DrB1000 is publicly viewable and embedded with the Sketchfab viewer.
All other interactive activities in this chapter are from Interactive Activities for Human Anatomy and Physiology by Open Education Lab, Ontario Tech University, and are licensed under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.956985
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/cardiovascular-heart-blood-flow/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/cardiovascular-cardiac-conduction-system/
|
Cardiovascular System: Cardiac Conduction System
Overview
The cardiac conduction system comprises nodes and pathways that conduct electrical impulses in the heart. The sinoatrial (SA) node acts as the pacemaker which can be influenced by the body’s needs such that occur during exercise or rest. The nervous system modulates heart rate, with the sympathetic system increasing heart rate and the parasympathetic system slowing it down. Synchronized contraction of the heart’s atria and ventricles coordinate to match the body’s demands.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- explain the basic principles of cardiac conduction,
- explain the role of the sinoatrial (SA) node, atrioventricular (AV) node, and
- describe the pathways of electrical impulses through the heart.
Video Review
Watch the video: Short Topic Video: The Cardiac Conduction System (2 minutes)
Activities
Flash Cards
Conduction Pathway
Question Sets
Conduction System of the Heart
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
Short Topic Video: The Cardiac Conduction System by DrBruce Forciea is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Interactive Activities for Human Anatomy and Physiology by Open Education Lab, Ontario Tech University, and are licensed under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.969621
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/cardiovascular-cardiac-conduction-system/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/cardiovascular-phases-cardiac-cycle/
|
Cardiovascular System: Phases of the Cardiac Cycle
Overview
The cardiac cycle is the sequence of events that occur and repeat with every heartbeat. It can be divided into 2 major phases: systole and diastole, each of which subdivides into several smaller phases.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- explain the events that occur during the cardiac cycle.
- describe the role that “pressure” plays during the cardiac cycle.
- explain how the cardiac cycle overlaps with findings on an ECG.
- name the events that produce the S1 and S2 heart sounds.
Video Review
Watch the video: The Cardiac Cycle, Animation (4 minutes)
Activities
Flash Cards
Cardiac Cycle terminology
Question Sets
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
The Cardiac Cycle, Animation by Alila Medical Media is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Interactive Activities for Human Anatomy and Physiology by Open Education Lab, Ontario Tech University, and are licensed under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.983477
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/cardiovascular-phases-cardiac-cycle/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/cardiovascular-cardiac-output/
|
Cardiovascular System: Cardiac Output
Overview
Cardiac output is the amount of blood pumped by the left ventricle per minute. Factors such as heart rate and stroke volume (influenced by the autonomic nervous system), fitness levels, and pressures on the heart, affect cardiac output.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- define the key terminology related to cardiac output including stroke volume, and heart rate, EDV, and ESV.
- calculate cardiac output.
- name the factors that influence cardiac output.
Video Review
Watch the video: Short Topic: Cardiac Output for Anatomy and Physiology (3 minutes)
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
Short Topic: Cardiac Output for Anatomy and Physiology by DrBruce Forciea is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Interactive Activities for Human Anatomy and Physiology by Open Education Lab, Ontario Tech University, and are licensed under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license.
|
pressbooks
|
2025-03-22T05:09:18.994388
|
10-11-2024
|
{
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/chapter/cardiovascular-cardiac-output/",
"book_url": "https://open.maricopa.edu/nursingap/front-matter/introduction/",
"title": "Anatomy & Physiology: Review of Select Topics for Incoming Nursing Students",
"author": "Elisabeth Kehrli, Anil Kapoor",
"institution": "",
"subject": "Biology, life sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nursing, Nursing fundamentals and skills, , ,"
}
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.