not to be
During my last post, I got sad. While Google-ing "Word Warrior" I found a picture of William Shakespeare to put at the top of the post.
It slowly dawned on me that this will be the first year in a long time that I forgot April 23rd was William Shakespeare's birthday, and that I didn't celebrate it with students.
When I started teaching in 1995, even though I had fifth graders at the time, I incorporated Shakespeare into my classroom. I remember exactly how it happened. Somehow we were talking about the Lion King, and I offhandedly said, "Well you know its kind of like a Wild Kingdom version of Hamlet." My students asked what I meant and, the Shakespeare dork that I am, I started to explain the similarities. They were genuinely interested and I jumped on that whole "teachable moment" thing. (And they jumped on that whole "get Mrs. Ryan off topic and maybe we won't have to do grammar drills" thing). I was more than happy to oblige. I think I'm a pretty good teacher but when I teach Shakespeare something different happens, I get this kind of infectious enthusiasm and I have them eating out of my hand. And, well, I'm happy. From then on I retold them other plays, talked about plays and sonnets and amazing quotes.
Beginning that year on April 23rd and every April 23rd up through last year(or thereabouts if it fell on a weekend), I would wear my totally dorky Shakespeare T-shirt to school, and I bring in Dunkin' Donuts and share them with my classes AFTER I made them sing "Happy Birthday" to the Bard. Yes, yes, I truly was that dorky.
I held summer Shakespeare classes that a lot of kids actually signed up for and seemed to dig. I would do a Shakespeare unit every spring to coincide with April 23rd. I would have the kids act out scenes (some of those kids were amazing actors) and it was just my favorite time of year. Kids would ask me to recite the "To Be or Not to Be" soliloquy in under a minute and buy me coffee mugs and bookmarks and stuff with Shakespeare quotes on them. Even when I couldn't teach English anymore and taught History and Current Events part time, I snuck in reading Julius Caesar, used Shakespeare quotes for extra credit and I still did my April 23rd celebration.
This year I have no students. I've been so busy editing content for some other teacher's students that I haven't been too sad about losing my students or my job that I loved so much. It's that kind of sadness that blindsides you. So, yeah, sad.
How do I end this post? I know:
"Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"
It slowly dawned on me that this will be the first year in a long time that I forgot April 23rd was William Shakespeare's birthday, and that I didn't celebrate it with students.
When I started teaching in 1995, even though I had fifth graders at the time, I incorporated Shakespeare into my classroom. I remember exactly how it happened. Somehow we were talking about the Lion King, and I offhandedly said, "Well you know its kind of like a Wild Kingdom version of Hamlet." My students asked what I meant and, the Shakespeare dork that I am, I started to explain the similarities. They were genuinely interested and I jumped on that whole "teachable moment" thing. (And they jumped on that whole "get Mrs. Ryan off topic and maybe we won't have to do grammar drills" thing). I was more than happy to oblige. I think I'm a pretty good teacher but when I teach Shakespeare something different happens, I get this kind of infectious enthusiasm and I have them eating out of my hand. And, well, I'm happy. From then on I retold them other plays, talked about plays and sonnets and amazing quotes.
Beginning that year on April 23rd and every April 23rd up through last year(or thereabouts if it fell on a weekend), I would wear my totally dorky Shakespeare T-shirt to school, and I bring in Dunkin' Donuts and share them with my classes AFTER I made them sing "Happy Birthday" to the Bard. Yes, yes, I truly was that dorky.
I held summer Shakespeare classes that a lot of kids actually signed up for and seemed to dig. I would do a Shakespeare unit every spring to coincide with April 23rd. I would have the kids act out scenes (some of those kids were amazing actors) and it was just my favorite time of year. Kids would ask me to recite the "To Be or Not to Be" soliloquy in under a minute and buy me coffee mugs and bookmarks and stuff with Shakespeare quotes on them. Even when I couldn't teach English anymore and taught History and Current Events part time, I snuck in reading Julius Caesar, used Shakespeare quotes for extra credit and I still did my April 23rd celebration.
This year I have no students. I've been so busy editing content for some other teacher's students that I haven't been too sad about losing my students or my job that I loved so much. It's that kind of sadness that blindsides you. So, yeah, sad.
How do I end this post? I know:
"Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"
posted by Kathleen Ryan at 11:40 PM
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