King of Kings: Google

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In my Teaching Grammar (a wonderful class despite its less than adrenaline pumping title) we set up Google Alerts for grammar related topics, but as I subscribed to alerts on prepositional phrases, I decided alerts on Shakespeare would be interesting. For the last week I've been getting a daily email from Google with 10 or so links and abstracts of high traveled sites about, referencing or linking to Shakespeare. Some of the links aren't super helpful and some are. Did you know they have big hooplah birthday party for Shakespeare in London? Have you heard about the protests because of the Hebrew version of Merchant of Venice? Did you hear that a judge quoted Merchant of Venice in a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania? Everyday I see people referencing, planning or quoting Shakespeare packaged in one nice email from Google.

To Graduate, Or Not To Graduate...

One day I will graduate...one day. When I graduate I will finally be able to do what I've wanted to do since I was a little girl. For most of my life I have wanted to be a teacher. I feel scared for those that don't know what they want to do. When a class roll is passed around for attendance I always scan the major section and shudder in fear for any "open major" people. My only decision of what to do for my life was picking what I wanted to teach. Math? Ha! Not a chance in this world or any other world. Science? Can I pass Chemistry? Nada. Music? 7 years of piano lessons and I can play exactly one song. History? Utah History is required for the major at BYU--never mind. By default and love I will teach English...one day.

Because I will one day be teaching Shakespeare, I want to steer my paper in that direction. My over-all question for my paper is "How is Shakespeare taught in schools?" I'm sure this will change over the next week, but for now I jumped off that question. I sent out 6 emails and a tweet to current English teachers asking 5 questions about their experiences teaching Shakespeare. I have had 3 teachers reply so far to my emails, and my tweeter has returned some great results.

I started following Web English Teacher. She really is great. She has led me to several website on teaching Shakespeare that I love. I can't wait to see what else I can learn from her.

A couple of the sites she has lead me to so far:

Cliff Notes Films: A great and creative way to get a quick overview of the plays. This site is really worth looking into.

Henry V Teaching Plan: Web English Teacher's personal and well done lesson plan.

Digital Classrooms: An interesting article on modern teaching techniques and equipment. Did you know there is a whole day devoted to digital teaching? It's in 7 days!

I've got some great feedback so far from several different geographical areas, grades and if my token male teacher replies hopefully some gender differences as well!

Personal Learning Video

Be kind. I have a one time take rule, so this was the first go at it.

Sunday Musings

1) Daily Shakespeare sighting comes from Ben Wagner

B) Thank you Jake for your post about Good Will Hunting quoting Henry V. I watched the movie as I got ready this morning, and it is now one of my favorite movies. That is one of my favorite parts about these blogs. We get to learn and try new things based off what others have recommended.

3) Have you ever searched "Shakespeare" in Twitter? Well, I did, and I could literally watch the tweets pile up. People are tweeting about Shakespeare every minute. I could barely keep up with the incoming tweets on Shakespeare let alone read the past tweets. My favorite tweet was from Kennedy-Nicole about her weekend drawing a comic about Shakespeare.

D) I was researching a bit of the history from Merchant of Venice before I start reading the play, and I ran across this article from PBS. Honestly, I didn't learn so much from the article's main point as I did a passing line from the author saying, "He was also an exceptionally good business man with a keen sense of what his audience wanted." I've always thought of Shakespeare as a writer not a business man. This line threw my preconceived perception of Shakespeare out. He was a business man. His plays aren't only famous now; they were famous as they were being written! Maybe this is obvious to some, but to me it was a revelation that Shakespeare wasn't writing for us, but he was running his own business. He was observing the world around him and writing plays that would appeal and relate to his neighbors. But they relate to as well? Has society not changed at all in the last 250 or so years? Are these characteristics of envy, war and love so ingrained in a person that whether they be good or bad characteristics they will not go away?

The Fate of Jake Spoon...I Mean Bardolph

If you haven't watched Lonesome Dove I suggest you use the nearest 6 hours you have free you sit down and watch one of the best western films you will ever see. Low and behold, it helps in understanding Shakespeare!

When reading the scenes about hanging Bardolph for his crimes, another scene came to mind from Lonesome Dove. The plot is the same; a friend is caught in crime, and the punishment is hanging by a piece of "cheap rope." Just as King Henry had to approve of the law, and Pistol had to accept his friend's fate, Gus and Captain Call are bound by the law to approve Jake's hanging as well...

I See Shakespeare...

I see Shakespeare everywhere! He simmers in the back of my mind, and I see or hear a reference to him at least once a day. Yesterday I was walking down the 4th floor of the JFSB towards a professor's office and it was like The Merchant of Venice was haunting me! Every door had a small flier on it. I stopped, took a picture of the time and date and continued down the Hall of Venice. Later I saw the same flier in the basement and at the bookstore. It's a sign that I need to see this production!

Today I was looking up what movies are opening this week, and I laughed as my Spearedar caught a reference to the man in question. Apparently the movie "Coriolanus" sounds like Shakespeare.

Now I am cooking Shakespeare and watching a movie that sounds like Shakespeare this weekend. Looks like there just won't be any time left to do that Grammar homework...

TaDa!

It is here! I spent a good portion of my weekend just flipping crisp page after crisp page. It is filled with all sorts of recipes from Scallop and Shrimp Soup to Rose Water Cakes. It has modernized recipes and beautiful pictures to go with certain dishes. Now if only Henry V would catch my interest as easily as this cook book as done...

Sick of reading? Try listening to research!

Ever heard of the Sea Venture? Well, apparently Shakespeare had! While researching around on Luminarium I found this great podcast on how the Sea Venture and Ferdinand's ship met a similar end. It is only a couple minutes, but it is interesting to see the obvious connections between The Tempest shipwreck and the Sea Venture.

Listen to the Podcast here!

If you are new to Podcasts you should check out Derrick Clements' blog. He does great work! Subscribe to both his Podcast channels "The Porch" and "The Pixar Podcast" on iTunes.

Tempestuous Running

Last night I broke my routine just for this class. I go to the gym most every night for several reasons:

1. My apartment doesn't have TV, so if I want to watch a program I take advantage of the gym's cable.
2. I use exercising as an excuse to further procrastinate homework.
   
3. Exercise.

Tuesday night is Cupcake Wars night. Unless you watch the Food Network channel this doesn't make sense. All evening long the Food Network plays episode after episode of Cupcake Wars. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you go watch it now! I forfeited my favorite pastry competition and reason #2 in order to read The Tempest. I have been reading the real book format of The Tempest, but I also have it on my . I opted to bring the Kindle with me instead of

the "real" book. As I was rounding the backstretch of Act III I looked over to the poor soul trying to read the fifth Harry Potter book as he ran. Running with a book that size appears to be extremely awkward, either that or he was just an awkward runner in general. I'll give him an A for effort though. I was bitterly grateful I had a lightweight, one handed, page-less format of The Tempest which allowed me to bypass the fumbling, off-balanced, flippity flipping of pages that running with real books offers.

Literature is changing. Had I wanted to, I could have bought The Tempest on audio, clipped on the iPod shuffle, stuck in tiny earbuds and ran without any interference at all. Technology has created easy access to hundreds of books online, audio an via Kindles, Nooks or eReaders.

Did you know:

• A Kindle weighs 8.5 ounces
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix weighs 2 pounds

Did you know:

• A Kindle smells like rubbery, plastic batteries.
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix smells like fresh cut grass and sugar cookies...

• 

The First Folio

-“incomparably the most important work in the English language.”

I looked into the publishing history of Shakespeare's sonnets in my post La Sonnet, so I decided to do some research on how Shakespeare's plays were published, and I surprised myself with what I found. The First Folio was made postmortem by John Heminges and Henry Condell. They compiled 36 of Shakespeare's plays as a sort of memorial to his life. I doubt they realized that had they not compiled The First Folio, 18 of Shakespeare's plays would be lost. This compilation holds the only record of Macbeth, Julius Ceasar, Twelfth Night, As You Like It and The Tempest. So thanks to Heminges and Condell, we get to read The Tempest.

Excerpt from The First Folio of Shakespeare plays in 1623 (marks added later).