Stewed-ants, too-daze lessen his a bout de weighs inn witch spiel-chequers cant bee deep-ended own.
I dedicate this to all the Y12 and Y13 students whose typed submissions I am marking at the moment. You deserve something in return for the frequent face-palms and occasional belly-laughs you are giving me …
Hay Spiel-Chequer Lessen.
You know, the Shakespeare nerd in people’s lives.
In some ways, this post feels like a partner to yesterday’s …
Survive in teaching long enough – it IS a question of survival, and of course many do not – and your students grow up, and they leave ‘the nest’ that is your classroom. Some you never hear from, or indeed see, again, and all you can hope is that the The Long Goodbye … applies.
Others stay in touch. It’s one of my chief joys this year that some of my Year 11 class from last year pop in and say hello every now and then, even though, or perhaps especially where they haven’t chosen English at A Level. Don’t tell them that. Oops.
Eventually, some become friends. And James is one of mine.
I think I might finally have achieved critical mass. One of my students (thanks, Struckers) pointed out today that I’ve got a Shakespeare quotation for every occasion. That pleased me quite a bit, in the way that only an unabashed nerd can take pleasure from their weird obsession being recognised by others (even if they are being gently mocked) …
What was this occasion?
Working in a school, of course I met several people who seemed genuinely frightened by the eerie sky that only half-illumined our collective journey to work on Monday – some, only some, of them were pupils …
Conditions really were awe-inspiring up here in the frozen North of England.
Continue reading “‘Dews of blood’: Hurricane Ophelia, 16 October 2017”
I’ve thought long and hard since I saw this article in the Guardian yesterday … and the upshot is, I’m simply not having it!
My gut reaction deserted me a little for this one, perhaps because of the subject matter, so I found myself consulting both my girlfriend and my best friend, the latter also an English teacher. Second and third opinions corroborating my initial intake of breath, and therefore I am pleased to present you my latest Crimes Against Shakespeare Award …
“What do you do, then, if you don’t watch TV?”
One of my opening gambits with new classes every year is the simple statement that I don’t do TV. ‘We might as well get it out of the way, folks.’ I loathe, truly loathe, the way it commands all my senses, to the exclusion of anything else. I usually read with mood music, I can type listening to something too (it’s Pink Floyd‘s Brick In The Wall at the moment), but I simply dislike TV as a way to spend my precious spare time. Reading, no, reading is NOT the same.
Several days’ existential angst was only ever going to be killed by one thing …
Continue reading “Sometimes, only a book can make it better …”
Slowly but surely I’m building my Shakespeare Jukebox, with a soundtrack album for each play I tick off in the Ponytail Shakespeare read-through.
Here’s my Taming Of The Shrew Soundtrack Album (and I make no apologies at all for my dubious and decidedly old taste in music: let me know what’s missing, you young whippersnappers …
Continue reading “PTS 04/026: The Taming Of The Shrew Soundtrack Album”
Alan Futerfas: because being pictured with an enormous phallic symbol sends a powerful message to the world about you …
Please, pretty please, Mr Futerfas, leave Shakespeare out of things – it doesn’t lend you any gravitas: ‘they’ will NOT, in the words of Cole Porter, “all kow-tow” …
In fact, some might be tempted to suggest you are over-compensating, and use Curtis‘ words to Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew:
‘Away, you three-inch fool” (IV.i.23)
The Boar's Head, Eastcheap 