Anonymous

This afternoon I watched the movie Anonymous, and it is now my favorite movie tied with Midnight in Paris. The movie weaves a plot about the existence of William Shakespeare. There are many conspiracies about Shakespeare being a mere pen name for another author or multiple authors. Anonymous takes the stance that he is a pen name, but many twists require the real identity to be hidden. It was a great movie in my opinion. I don't know if I believe the plot, but seeing the plays being acted as they were in Shakespeare's time was incredible (I actually skipped back and watched that scene twice). Also, seeing the political effect the plays had was great. I know the movie is fictional, but the purpose of the plays as a political statement was beautifully acted in the movie. It's at Redbox. Go get it.

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!

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?

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...