Hedgetoad Teaching

Someone asked what I learned at the Shakespeare inservice I attended a couple of weeks ago... it was fun, but I also got some good things out it. Somethings that Shakespeare's audiences would recognize immediately are jokes and playing around with the social hierarchy that he does. To help convey this to students there are couple of games that can be played in class to really drive home how this hierarchy works. There are two options. Social Rank Game Option One - get about 6 to 10 students to volunteer. Explain to students that they will select a card from a deck of playing cards. The card they choose (between Ace to King) will denote their social status. Aces are the lowest of the low - Kings are the highest. Have each student pick a card from deck and place card (facing out) on forehead. Students should not see their own card! Ask one student to "host" the party and greet other guests (students) as they pretend to arrive to the party. Students should treat those with ...

How appropriate that my last post should be centered on my dred of using substitutes. It's 12.30 pm and I'm sitting at the computer in my pjs... on a school day no less! I have my huge supply of kleenex, odwalla wellness , and huge stack of stories to grade. Let the healing begin. I went in yesterday, and was told that I looked horrible, sounded horrible and was disgusting because I had to blow my nose every 10 minutes. Working with teen-agers is such a joy. At least you'll always know where you stand on attractiveness scale. However, it did seem like I would be loosing my voice today, so I asked for a substitute to be called. I'm really hoping that by getting the call in early, a competant sub was reached. Getting a subsitute teacher to cover my classes is never a relaxing thing. The few times I've done it in the past meant a day was lost - and my classes got the reputation of being hellions. Luckily, another teacher has already scored that reputation this year. I...

I was tagged... Here are the instructions: 1) Go into your archives. 2) Find your 23rd post. 3) Find your 5th sentence (or closest to it). 4) Post the text of your sentence in your blog along with these rules. 5) Tag five other people. Here it is... Since I was to be in a meeting all day, the district hired a substitute for my classes. And thus my aversion to having subs in my class was born. Or rather the unknown factor of them - the planner in me cringes at the thought of being off schedule. Of course, I could be flexible, but flexible is much harder.

While reading the Odyssey to a class, one of the students actually said they were really enjoying the story - now... meaning, with me reading, stopping every stanza to summarize, dramatizing the action, etc. The question for today is, how do you get students to do that on their own?

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We're going to a Shakespeare play! One with real paid actors who think Shakespeare was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Enthusiasm and a desire to do it well - these are not things the average high school teacher sees on a daily basis. As part of our Shakspeare experience, we had an inservice on teaching the bard in class. I would rank this inservice as one of the top two I've ever attended! No powerpoint or overheads! It was all movement based andgot me thinking seriously of how to use the theater for the classroom more. We learned (and participated in) a couple of games to illustrate status in elizabethan society, understand imabic pentameter and how to interpret text and deliver a line. We also learned how to dance - which I love doing with the freshman. I have instituted a "almost, but no touching" rule in the past (which is hysterical to watch as they compete to see who can get the closest without touching or having "nurse" drag the girl way yel...

The other day, I walked through the office and forgot that it was only October... it feels like there never was a summer, just an unending school year. Reason #927 to live in a region with 4 definite seasons. My sophomore class started reading Fahrenheit 451 this week. Apparently, they all really like it. Kind of shocking, but an introduction to the author through a short story seemed to get them into the novel. Even my future criminal elements are reading it with gusto. Go figure. The Freshmen started reading the Odyssey - number of "don't turn in this 'this is a stupid story' crap for your assignments" = 2. So far, one student has expressed a positive thought... it's going to be a fabulous month in these classes.

I had a group of students reading a short story by Ray Bradbury. We're going to start reading Fahrenheit 451 next week, so this seemed like a good story to introduce the author without actually introducing him. Also, the story has really good examples of irony and the main character is the setting... lots of literary things to discuss! After reading the story, the students were to answer a bunch of questions in the book because it's a good way to make sure they actually read it and will remember it tomorrow. A student raises his hand to ask a question... which is quite normal. However, in the ensuing conversation, I realize that said student has no idea how the people in this story die - they're basically reverse shadows on a wall, nuclear bomb having exploded sometime before the story begins. The student cannot figure this out because he has never what happens when a nuclear bomb is dropped on a population center. He is familiar with the effects of a "dirty bomb,...