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Condescending Wonka

Unhelpful High School Teacher

Success Kid

Scumbag Steve

Chuck Norris

Bad Luck Brian

First World Problems

Interrupting Kanye

Hey Girl

Ain't Nobody Got Time for That

Why most Students do not like Shakespeare.

I, like many other students, can see how studying Shakespeare in English class can be beneficial to learning, and it is easy to draw many different perspectives from his works. However, I think that the reason most students don't like (or downright hate) Shakespeare is the writing style. Elizabethan English is a very old fashioned way of speaking our language, with different mannerisms and grammar. Shakespearian language is extremely metaphorical. It draws comparisons to things that would seem normal in 16th century Europe. Students find the language hard to understand, with many words they know and use in modern English, utilised in such a way that the word has a completely different meaning. Students think that essentially learning a whole new language is convoluted and has no relevance to English. In a way, I agree, why do we have to learn a different form of the language we already know? Wouldn't it make more sense to study the language we know perfectly fine and then improve upon it? The answer is in the text itself. I think the main reason we study Shakespeare in its original text is so we can use our brains to interpret more. With so many unknowns, you can come up with many different lenses that a modern English version would not be able to give. With a modern version, the plot would be easy to follow, and every student would have pretty much the same conclusions to topics. With the original, answers to certain questions or opinions can be much more diverse, because we have to find the comparisons the writer is using, and figure out how it applies to both a 16th century Europe, and a 21st century Canada as well.

Babies Thesis Chart

https://docs.google.com/a/ugcloud.ca/document/d/1X5307PDDalg-YtBtLpDx2xluge9TqSgi-onXmSc5kxM/edit
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Macbeth Act III, Scene ii and iii

Independently read Act III, scenes ii and iii.  Questions to consider: How are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth sleeping?  How has their relationship changed?  How successful are the murderers?  Who do you think the third murderer is?

Boston Bombing Reaction

I'm sure most of you have heard about the bombings in Boston by now. If you haven't, just flip on your tv to the nearest news station or look it up online, it's getting a lot of media attention. I know this doesn't relate to Macbeth or anything we've discussed in class, but I need a fourth post and this recent event has caught my attention. The way I see it is that there are two types of reactions by the public to this atrocity. The first type and more commonly seen among teenagers is shock and sympathy. My Twitter newsfeed is filled with tweets saying #prayforboston because obviously people are in shock with the recent events that have transpired today. Not only that, but you can't help but feel sorry for the victims of this horrific event, and people living in the area. I completely support this trending topic on Twitter because I hate to learn news of such sadness, and I only want the best for those who have been affected. Moving on to the next type of reaction, and that's disgust or annoyance. Believe it or not, there are many people who get irritated by those who tweet things like #prayforboston because they personally think that it's unfair to acknowledge tragedies in North America but not other countries. To an extent I can understand where these people are coming from, because it's true that society will react more to news that is widely publicized, opposed to events that happen in countries where the events are not always reported. Like the first type of reaction, I support this type as well because I feel as though people can be completely oblivious to the world around them. I'm definitely on the fence about this one, because a part of me feels sorrow for the people affected by the Boston Bombing, but another part of me is reminding me that acts of terrorism like this occur ALL the time in other countries, they just don't get the same recognition as Canada and the U.S. Anyways, I'm not trying to label people by how they reacted to this devastation, I just want to know where you guys stand. These two "types" of reactions are simply examples of a majority of teenagers' responses.


What ran through your head when you heard about the Boston Bombings?

Thoughts on Macbeth

When we first started reading Macbeth I thought that Macbeth was a kind but confused person that was bad under pressure. I believed this because of how Lady Macbeth seemed to put a lot of pressure on him to commit the murder. I thought that he was not actually evil and that their love was so strong that he would do anything she told him to. Although this still might be true, it is not all that Macbeth is. As we kept reading and found out that now Macbeth wanted to commit two more murders without the influence of Lady Macbeth you realize that he is actually very evil but to everyone else he seems innocent. This works in his favor as it allows him to commit another crime without being a possible criminal in anyone else's eyes.

What are your views on Macbeth?

The Importance of Shakespeare

In my opinion Shakespeare should be taught in high school English classes because I strongly believe that by reading Shakespeare our English skills are improving. The reason I think this is because Shakespeare`s writing force students to reread, analyze and decipher the text in order to understand the events that are taking place. By getting in the habit of looking for the deeper meaning, analyzing characters or determining how the plot is advancing, it forces us to read between the lines rather than see the text as simply words on a page that tell a story. (For example: The Book Theif- we can read this book without having to analyze every line – the words simply tell a story as opposed to Shakespeare where the words force you to think and analyze). Therefore Shakespeare`s writing teaches students how to analyze text and look for the deeper meaning in situations which are important skills that can be transferred into other aspects of life (not just English class).

What is your opinion about learning Shakespeare?