I find it interesting that many students are aghast when I tell them that whilst I don’t do Facebook, I DO spend some time on Reddit.
Usually, it’s the more sensible ones who register the most shock. It’s not the horror of having someone as old as their dad (increasingly I seem to be older, actually), trying to be ‘down with the kids’ – they seem more worried that I’m entering the big cat enclosure in the zoo wearing one of those outfits that seem to be made entirely of slices of bacon …
I know this; and thus I challenge it. (Henry V)
How do you get a bunch of giddy Year 8s to do some ‘proper’ contextual research for HW, rather than just ripping stuff off Wikipedia, printing it without actually reading it?
Farewell, kinsman. I’ll talk to youWhen you are better tempered to attend.
I finished off the day with a brief, but heated, conversation with someone who I felt was not giving me an opportunity to defend or explain myself. It was all very accusatory. They asked me a few peremptory questions, barked a little, a lot actually – quite like a dog who wanted to feel they’d made their presence felt when the postman arrives – and I retreated from the situation, as it seemed pointless to hang around. Like that postman, I was irritated, but a tiresome yappy dog isn’t going to spoil the rest of my day …
Continue reading “Ever felt that someone wasn’t paying attention?”
the man might take as long as a quarter of an hour to expire
Currently reading the wonderfully cheery Hangmen of England, by Brian Bailey (WH Allen, 1989). Whilst reflecting on what fun dinner-time conversation with ‘Uncle Bill’ must have been as he researched the book, I chanced upon this little gem about Tudor executions:
“I am unfit for state and majesty”
Why do we still study Shakespeare 400 years after his death?
Our year 12 stint on Richard III is now beginning to wane – we start Act 5 next week, and will essentially be done by the end of the Autumn Term on 16 December. Then I’ll sadly take a break from teaching Shakespeare until after Easter, when I’ll be looking at Much Ado About Nothing (year 8), probably Hamlet or Julius Caesar (year 9), and Macbeth (year 10). My only ‘early modern’ fix in the Spring term is Marlowe’s Edward II. Happy Days.
As the year 12 course has unfolded, keeping pace with the final stages of the US elections, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to leave the next leader of the free world out of our discussions. With one difference: I grudgingly admire one of these larger-than-life characters, and have nothing but contempt for the other …
Continue reading “Is Donald Trump Richard III reincarnated?”
John Kelly over at Shakespeare Confidential gave me something to think about this week. Some things, actually.
‘I want to be an air hostess – what’s Shakespeare got to do with me?’
Possibly the first and most significant was about what I wanted to do with this fledgling blog, now that I seem to have some impetus and a little momentum.
The Boar's Head, Eastcheap 