Lost Labours of Love

as i mentioned in this post
i was very excited to go see the play
of Love's Labour's Lost

Overall I really liked the play
I thought they did a terrific job of
adapting it to the stage
and adapting it into the 40's era
(it made me wish i was in the 40's)

As for my thoughts and critique on it

the first thing was that is was way too long
i felt like it dragged on
and they made some of the scenes
unnecessarily long and boring

i thought that this was interesting and
semi related to my final project topic

the cast did a good job drawing in the audience
and making everyone engaged
but had they just shortened the play
and made thing a little more accessible
that it would have made things better

i felt like that there were a lot of
"non shakespeare folk"
that where asking their shakespearean friends
"what just happen, what is going on, etc"
and then people explaining the entirety
of the play as they were leaving the theater

this leads me to the idea that no matter
how accessible and exciting and hip
your content may be
you still cant tackle huge boring things

even as a "shakespeare folk"
i felt like they talked really fast
and sometimes it was hard to follow
one thing that made things hard to follow
was that i was unsure who some of the cast was supposed to be

some people in our class mentioned
this may just be because we were
 looking and knew the characters better

I asked my husband what he thought
and his smartypants self said,
"it was kinda racy for BYU"
(he's a BYU hater)

over all i thought it was a good production
the set was amazing
the live band was amazing
it was pretty awesome production

my sister is in town
and i almost want to go again
so she can go

Shopping Market Study

So i tried to brain storm all of the prospective audience outlets
of where we could post or present our project

I think something that could be an actual presentation would be best
but i suppose we could do a written submission

Dr Burton suggested Classroom 2.0
They have a call for submissions for their book and also for a virtual conference they are hosting

NCTE takes submissions for journal articles, this is probably a little more formal than we are looking though

UCTE/LA every year they have their conference where teachers present ideas. I attended last year and it was great. we could definitely probably present there and it would be a very appropriate situation to do it at

Central Utah Writing Project has workshops that they do through out the year as well as during the summer. they are more gear towards writing but being as the officers are all our english teacher professors, we may be able to pull something

Secondary Solutions has a blog about teaching that we may be able to submit something to

readwritethink  is a website that takes lesson plans that might be good to submit our ideas to

We also could try to get something with Folger Education  either their blog or their teachers' cite

We could maybe present to one of the BYU classes here on campus
Or there is club/interest group  that i have been trying to facilitate that we could

i think i have exasperated all my teaching ideas.

If all else fails we could just do a you tube video!

The Comedy of Errors

I am planning on and excited to go see "The Comedy of Errors"



Wednesday Mar 28, 2012 7:30PM tickets are only $3 !

Education for Everyone

I am taking a social problems class right now
and for extra credit we could watch
a documentary about education

I watched Waiting for "Superman" on Netflix

Now i am already passionate about education
but this more just supported those feelings
it was a really moving film

i strongly urge you to watch it

But one of the things i wanted to talk
about was how this is semi applicable to
my Shakespeare and what I am looking into now

One line that stood out to me was about
these charter schools --called Kipp Academies
Their big "slogan" that the man described their schools as doing is  

"closing the achievement gap and shattering
the myth that some students can't learn"

This article talks about Harriet Ball
the woman who helped to inspire these charter
schools by the way she taught
in the article it is is described as
"a 'multisensory, mnemonic, whole-body teaching technique'
designed to 'propel at-risk students toward excellence,'
 though she insists her method works for all children.
In simpler terms, she calls it Rap, Rhythm, and Rhyme."

the way i saw her approach was just
making the material accessible for students!
-breaking up the material

I want to look more into her
suggestions that she had given
and maybe work them into our "Shakespeare-ience"

but over all this film was so moving
especially the last half hour
i seriously got choked up

it is so sad to me that all of the students
want to be in these good schools
and they want to learn
but they dont get chosen for the "lottery"

i really hope to see our education
system change in my life time
and when i am a teacher

that way everyone can have an education

This film completely renewed my wants 

to be a teacher (not that they were fading).
It also helped me remember 

the importance of being a good teacher.
Half way through I was starting to question

 if i still wanted to be a teacher because

 it is such a huge responsibility and challenge, 

but by the end it just strengthened my wants.

Just thought I would share :)

and it was semi relevant 

Coming soon to theaters....

Here is my video!
definitely rough

but it wasnt too time consuming
--i only spent 5 minutes between take one and this take (5)

I kinda feel like a valley girl

i dont know how i came out so enthusiastic 

but it works!

lodge you in the field!

Elizabeth E Schuch 

I agree with everyone that

i am enjoying this play tremendously

i am so excited to go see it on the 24th!

which have you seen the pre production pictures?
and the video?

theres also a study guide

looks fabulous!

i found this article that discussed

the relationship between men and women

in the context of this play 

now that ive looked at this and found this

i would have loved to look into this

for a research project

its is intriguing!

i also found this activity 

that has students act out 

the "Winter's Song" poem from the play 

i love this activity because it focuses on 

what i have been looking into with my research

this idea that students should look 

more in detail at smaller chunks of the play

and this is exactly what it is doing

and it is a really hands on activity which is good too

project blue print

first off i am going to direct you to Mallory's Post about what she is thinking

we are wanting to create a two part project
in my mind i see it as a hook/ trailer with videos of students
talking about what they want and why

and then part two i see as this "Shakespeare-ience" idea
where we would come up with a "how-to" of sorts
or even i would love to create a really fun protype lesson plan
that acts as a how-to and example for teachers

yay!

Peer Reflections.

I chose to read Alicia's and Mallory's paper.

First for Alicia's
This was easy for me to think about
because i automatically connected it to my own paper
as far as reaching out to new level sources
i think it would be a great thing to work into
this idea of the importance of integrating technology
to create a Shakespeare-ience

aside from that there are a lot of teacher forums
that accept paper and thoughts and topics

i specifically looked on Edutopia for further research
they have a whole section
about Integrating Technology into the Curriculum
--why, how, what, and examples
its really a cool site!

As for Mallory's ---I had no idea this is what you were looking into!!!
i guess now that i think about it i guess i kinda knew
but when i first looked at your paper i was like WHAT!? haha

This is a really interesting idea
it reminds me of a post i put up a while back
it was mid research paper so i didnt get to look at it
but it shows this idea of all the different ways and places Shakespeare is being taught

this is a whole class taught on the transnational Shakespeare
(finding other interesting classes at all these different universities
just makes me want to transfer and be a student for life sometimes)

-oh and now i see you found something else from the same guy
still cool though

this discusses the ideas of the Shakespeare brand name
by looking at google results
-very interesting

i dont know if i am completely missing the point
but it also reminds me of an activity i saw
when i was researching for my own paper
about having Shakespeare penpals
and one student pretending to be Shakespeare
or one of the characters

just thoughts

but i love what you posed on your blog about your ideas
for where to take this paper from here
by encouraging professors to move forward
and your money analogy was awesome

i feel like there is a good connection
between the three of us
that we could blend into making this idea of a Shakespeare-ience
by combining this idea of a need for technology
an over arching global Shakespeare
and the manner by which to approach it all

i dont know if i am just pushing my wants and ideas
but it seems like a fabulous idea to me!

obsessed.

some times i feel like i can take
things that i really like to "a whole nother" level

like this shakespeare class

we have had a love hate relationship these last few weeks
because of the research paper
but things are better now

and i bought tickets to Love's Labor's Lost today

and i shouldve picked up my The Comedy of Errors too
but i didnt realize they were so close together!

so excited!!!

i also want to go to the Utah Regional Ballet-A Midsummer's Night Eve
which is a ballet based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream
but tickets are a little more spendy :/

the "final"-ish paper and post post.

I present to you the final-ish paper




I say final-ish because i knew what was wrong with it
and what needed to be done better
i knew that i had way too many things to talk about
but you also get to that point
where you are just done
you dont want to look at it again
or you are so far in that it isnt worth it to change things

it is funny
because the other girls in class were discussing how
it feels so good to be able to go in a know what the teacher is going to say
that way you dont have a huge let down when the teacher is like
this sucks.

overall i was very pleased with my paper
--even though as for content there is some lacking
i think the process went well
and i got everything done in a timely manner
---not the night before!!

Dr Burton and I discussed a lot about my topic
i feel that there is definitely discussion that needs to be made with this

We had the idea of making what he coined the "Shakespeare-ience"
this kinda goes into the idea of like the "Shakespeare in Bits"
some sort of format where you are having a Shakespeare Experience
rather than just reading the play
--something that teachers every where could use
to make learning Shakespeare awesome.

this needs a lot more brain storming of how to do it...
i envision maybe a choose you own adventure type
or i really wish it could be a whole body experience
like step into this machine.
lets go for a ride.
a shakespeare ride.

(side note. I just googled "experience learning"
--i think this may be some potential in looking into)

I am excited to do something new.
i hope that it can be very hands on
and creative...
that is sorta what i thrive on ha