Week 14
Brother Bear assignments:
In indigenous culture totems represent a spirit being and are viewed as sacred symbols. Your totem is thought to be the animal spirit that stays with you and guides you for life. You are connected to the animal by a natural interest in them, similar characteristics that you both share, or some type of significant interaction. What animal would be assigned as your totem? How are you and your animal connected? What characteristics of leadership can be acquired by studying your animal? I feel my animal would be the sturgeon. In Native American culture the sturgeon have the ability of survival and strength and water is the element of emotions. It is a sturgeons life goal to control their emotions and from previous journals the constant fight I have with myself is my fight with my emotions. My goal is to always truly swim freely through my life just like the sturgeon.
Have you ever encountered someone like Koda in your life, and taken them under your wing as a mentor? If you did meet someone like Koda, but didn’t choose to form a mentoring relationship, why not? Do you regret that decision? If you did, why, and did you enjoy that mentorship role? I feel my mentorship role actually comes from my actual little brother, Caden. I feel unwillingly I was thrown into this mentorship role but I don’t regret it at all because it showed me that I needed Caden more than he needed me. I feel he makes me a better person because he makes me watch what I do because he is always watching me.
Have you ever faced an experience such as Kenai’s, when you suddenly became the Other in society, and learned about these Others by being part of them? If so, what was that experience like? What did you learn from it? Personally I never have experienced anything like Kenai but I feel I would learn more about the other’s to make myself more relatable.
Can you recall any mentor figures in your life, like Sitka or the village elder-woman, Tanana? What did you learn from, or, how did they affect your evolution as a leader and a mentor? Yes I have a mentor who has been in my life since I was in 7th grade. He was my math teacher and he has always been supportive and has become a member of my family in the long run because of how he cares about me and my success.
Would you make the same decision Kenai made, and choose to remain a bear in order to care for Koda? Why or why not? If not, what steps would you take to ensure Koda’s safety, or would you simply go your separate ways? I would not have stayed a bear but I think I would have gone back for Koda and brought him with me to live with me forever or I would move to the forest with him and all the other bears.
HOW DO THE PEOPLE IN MILES’ LIFE AFFECT HOW HE SEES HIMSELF? HOW DO THE PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE INFLUENCE AND AFFECT HOW YOU SEE YOURSELF? I feel the people in Miles’ life affect how he sees himself is especially his father. His father being a police officer affects him because he feels that being spiderman may be a bad thing. He is also implemented with a different sense of justice. I feel the same way with my mother being a teacher she has implemented a thought in me that education is my strongest weapon and while it is true it has affected my life and way of thinking.
HOW DOES THE DYNAMIC OF MULTIPLE SPIDER-MANS AFFECT HIS ABILITY TO ACTUALIZE HIMSELF AS SPIDER-MAN? It creates a view that his spiderman can be unique to himself. With the idea of multiple spidermans he never truly is alone and he does not have to follow someone elses definition of spiderman.
IN THE MOVIE WE SEE MULTIPLE LEADERS ATTEMPT TO BE LEADER. HOW DO YOU LEAD A GROUP OF LEADERS? You take multiple ideas and converge them into a singular plan because everyone in the room should have collective ideas to bring to the table. I feel this is why the spiders worked good together because of their abilities to contribute to each other and each teach Miles a little bit of what it means to a spider person.
WE COME TO UNDERSTAND THAT MILES FELT LIKE AN OUTSIDER UNTIL HE MET THE OTHER SPIDERMEN. REFLECT UPON A TIME WHERE YOU FELT YOU WERE AN OUTSIDER. DID YOU FIND YOUR SENSE OF BELONGING WITHIN A PARTICULAR COMMUNITY? HOW DID THE PEOPLE IN THAT COMMUNITY AFFECT YOUR LEADERSHIP? HOW WAS IT SIMILAR TO MILES MORALES AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OTHER SPIDERMEN? HOW WAS IT DIFFERENT? I feel like I felt this with the black community for the longest time. I felt like I never truly fit in with my people but as I grew older I found my niche and dove deeper into my culture and my people. This led me to go from being an outsider to an insider. It helped flourish my leadership because I felt more at home with my people. I feel Miles had never found his niche like me and this is relative not only to this version of Miles but every single one but when they become spiderman it is kinda like a piece of them they never knew they were missing comes into effect. That is how it was for me.
