Happy 446th Birthday Will!!

William Shakespeare's birthday is Friday, April 23. In recognition, the city of Chicago has named April 23 "Talk like Shakespeare" day. Click the website link in this post's title.

And for a little Shakespearean fun, see the following website for a plethora of Shakespearean insults http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html
I'm going to click through a few times to see if I can find one from the exchange between Kent and Oswald in Act II, scene ii of King Lear. Insults galore!!

Essay contest for an iPad

Our friends at Shmoop have an essay contest going where the winner receives a FREE Apple iPad!!! How cool is that? Click on the title of this post for more details.

Bonjour!! I guess there's never been a better time to read a book with so much French in it.

I do have a question though... who the heck are " the lovers." They seem to be referred to very often, but I don't understand who they are. Maybe I missed some sort of explanation at the beginning, but I don't know.

Don't be afraid of what you've learned...

This is a song, Blitzen Trapper: Furr, and I was listening to it on my way to Minnesota (!!!) when I started thinking about the Apollonian and Dionysian ways that people live.

The man joins a wolf pack and describes how he turned to the wild and let the Dionysian traits take hold:

"And I lost the taste for judging right from wrong

For my flesh had turned to fur
Yeah, and my thoughts they surely were

Turned to instinct and obedience to God"

Oh the ways that we can relate literature to our everyday lives...

So, as Blitzen Trapper says in the song,

If you're gonna get made

Don't be afraid of what you've learned...

Shmoop

I believe Shmoop came up in Thursday's class. Mr. Noll informed me last fall of Shmoop's literature guides and teacher resources, but like most things, it slipped under the radar. This is my favourite description from the "Why You Should Care" opener for The Awakening

Nowadays, Edna would be an artist – you know, paint always under her fingernails. She’d dig smocked dresses and the skinny jeans trend. Not to mention sexual liberation. But in The Awakening, Edna drowns. And that, more than anything else, tells you why you should care.

Even if you didn't have to read this book, wouldn't the mention of skinny jeans and sexual liberation get you to pick it up? Ok, maybe not...

If you are waiting out the rain and wind like I am (or just being plain lazy on Day 2 of Spring Break 2010) check out Shmoop.

The painting featured in this post is titled The Awakening Conscience by William Holman Hunt

It was painted fifty years before Chopin wrote her novel, but could easily serve as a representation of Edna Pontellier.

Prestwick Pictures

On the way down to Florida I started reading The Awakening. A couple chapters in, I noticed that the picture at the beginning of each chapter wasn't the same, which caused great excitement. As the book progresses, the girl's eyes in the picture begin to open. The pupils and the iris begin to become more defined. Finally the picture isn't the same!

Letting Students Choose Their Own Books?

The Canadian Newspaper The Globe and Mail features a story about how letting students choose the books they want to read makes them better readers. Your thoughts?

Fool by Christopher Moore

This is the book Charlie was talking about in class today. It is written from the perspective of Pocket, Lear's fool, and sounds downright hysterical. Thanks for sharing, Charlie! Click on the post title to access a link to the Barnes and Noble review.

I've got a B&N gift card burning a hole in my pocket. I might just have to pick this one up over break.

Harvard bashes AP courses

Interesting article on a recent book published by Harvard Education Press. There are some interesting views on the value of AP courses and the dangers of "teaching to the test"

It presents some good insights. I'm intersted in your thoughts as "near" alums of the first AP class at BHS.