Man ... what a drag

OK ... I show up with 20 copies of the textbook ... and at the counting ... I've got 16 of each...

which means four of you characters grabbed your textbooks and didn't bring them back.

Man, that's a drag...

Character sketches

Ok ... no just click and paste here...

Fortinbras Character Sketch
Fortinbras is the current prince of Norway who is very power hungry and one who acts in violence before thinking. He is compared to Hamlet in the fact that he lost his father (who was king of Norway) and is not given the throne. Fortinbras doesn’t react the same way Hamlet does and begins a war with everyone he can take over. At first he seems loyal to his uncle and listens when he is told to not attack Denmark, but he is also an impatient man and eventually gets tired of doing nothing over his father’s death. He takes over Denmark, becomes king and gets what he wanted from the start.

(done by Lucas, posted by Chesser

Claudius
•King of Denmark
•Murdered his brother, Hamlet Sr., in order to obtain the throne
•Married Gertrude, his brother’s widow
•Creates a plan with Laertes to kill Hamlet Jr. after discovering Hamlet’s knowledge of his role in his father’s death
•Killed by Hamlet Jr. at the end of the play

Ophelia:

- Hamlet's girlfriend
- Her father is Polonius
- She is not allowed to date Hamlet anymore.
- She goes crazy when her father is killed.
She drowns


Polonius
- He is foolish character.
- He is winded and dull
- A Danish lord
- He is the father of Laertes and Ophelia
- Stabbed in the gut by Hamlet as he hides behind a screen
- Polonius is the father of Laertes and Ophelia
- Been a government bureaucrat for many years.
- Polonius is a wealthy, elderly man.
Polonius treats his children, especially Ophelia, as property he owns, and he doesn't show loving parental feelings for them.

Gertrude

-Hamlets mother
-Married to Claudius
-Widower/newlywed
-Older, attractive, noble Queen
-No longer loves Claudius when she find out he murdered her husband, the former king
-Dies at the end of the play, poisioned

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern:
- Two slightly bumbling persons.
- Former friends of Hamlet from Wittenberg.
- work for Claudius and Gertrude to spies Hamlet.
- No longer treated as friends by Hamlet.
They were killed in England


Here is the sketch on Laertes:

Laertes
Laertes is the son of Polonuius and brother of Ophelia. He is a young man. He is a exemple of action of little thought. Laertes is also notable for his excessive "love" for Ophelia.He killed the Hamlet with a poisoned sword to avenge the deaths of his father and sister,while he was dying of the same poison.He is an emotional person (he implicates king Claudius and he forgives Hamlet).He spends most of his time abroad at college.

hmmm "stranger and stranger!" ... I live technology...

here's Hamlet:

Hamlet

-obscure,abstract,attentive,bold,careless,
passionate
-university student
-returns home to bury his father
-disgusted by his mothers quick marriage to his uncle
-fixated on proving his uncles guilt


Whoa, something else is been done in ... hmmmmm ... anyway, here's Horatio:

Horatio:
Horatio is Hamlets close friend and companion, he helps hamlet through out the play.through Horatio characters gain credibility because he trusts, believes, and understands all the other characters in the play. Horatio is the sole person on who Hamlet can rely on. Horatio serves the role of retelling how the play came to end.

Friday June 24

The nitty gritty... gotta love it. Last Friday of the course, of the school year ... and we finished Hamlet. He died. Lots of others, too.

After that we did the character sketches ... which should be on the last post as comments. The we worked on the culminating activity on our respective blogs.

S'all good. Monday looks awesomer now.

Please have a safe weekend. Come back Monday feeling strong so we can finish the course well.

just testing ... hold on .. and today

Wherefore Shakespearience from call4pchelp on Vimeo.

I posted that video to show the "embedding" idea to someone in the class. I'm also liking that they had some "digital troubleshooting skills" - something that was expressed far better than I could in an email I got the other day.

We did the part one of Hamlet's test today, and I got marking and handing back stuff, by the end of class. I did also manage to get a mark update done, too.

We went into the computer lab and worked on the Hamlet blog presentations and or the Culminating Activity. Whoa, did that also feel good in writing. Time is short.

People, people, people ... hand stuff in to be marked. Or your marks will resemble this:




Ok this is weird ... hmmm ...

Here is the sketch on Laertes:

Laertes
Laertes is the son of Polonuius and brother of Ophelia. He is a young man. He is a exemple of action of little thought. Laertes is also notable for his excessive "love" for Ophelia.He killed the Hamlet with a poisoned sword to avenge the deaths of his father and sister,while he was dying of the same poison.He is an emotional person (he implicates king Claudius and he forgives Hamlet).He spends most of his time abroad at college.

hmmm "stranger and stranger!" ... I live technology...

here's Hamlet:

Hamlet

-obscure,abstract,attentive,bold,careless,
passionate
-university student
-returns home to bury his father
-disgusted by his mothers quick marriage to his uncle
-fixated on proving his uncles guilt


Whoa, something else is been done in ... hmmmmm ... anyway, here's Horatio:

Horatio:
Horatio is Hamlets close friend and companion, he helps hamlet through out the play.through Horatio characters gain credibility because he trusts, believes, and understands all the other characters in the play. Horatio is the sole person on who Hamlet can rely on. Horatio serves the role of retelling how the play came to end.

June 21

I forgot that it was the summer solstice until just now. What is that you ask?

Hey man, here is the link that will explain it all.

Sooo... what did we do today?

We finished Act II from Hamlet, that's what. S'all good. I keep asking the question: "Is it important that you know what every word means in Hamlet? I'm hoping you are getting the message.

Or the massage. Dunno.

I assigned some questions for tomorrow ... when Part I of Hamlet is due. If you are behind in you assignments, now is the time to catch up, man.

Culminating Activity was worked on after the break, or people also worked on their Hamlet Blog presentations. I'm looking forward to them, as people are "getting into them".

This was from the Poetry Cafe. That was delicious.

Today we did Act Ii from Hamlet - things are starting to cook in that play, I tells ya... and we got 4, 15,16,17 and 18 from the question sheet for homework.

Then. ... we got introduced to the Culminating Activity for this course. It looks awesome.

OK, later. I'm off for leftover Ice Cream cake....

Thursday June 16

OK today we took a look at the first scene of Hamlet, finished off the Blog post presentations and did the rest of the 1984 blog post and the poeT presentations.

That sounds simple, but man, it was a lot of work that went going on today.

Lots of new ideas about 1984, too. Interesting stuff there, to be honest. Some interesting ideas about the book and where it took you, Thanks.

I updated the due dates for Hamlet, part one. I did assign the first three questions for homework tonight, too.

Oh, the last thing I will post here is this youtube video about presentations:

June 15 ... w00t!

Well, I guess I know what we're doing next ....

Don't worry, if there is time, we'll be able to see the film version of Titus.

Today, we finished the reading of the novel, 1984. Every time I read it, I get something new out of it. I've also been reading Part II, too. Interesting stuff - except for the 30 or so pages on my iPad of "The Book".

See the assigned questions at the right side of the page, too. Tomorrow is June 15th, hint, hint.

We also signed up for the Poetry Cafe - see me for further details. I also need to see which poet you are doing, too. Again, most have signed up, but not all.

Tomorrow is a short quiz on 1984, followed by the blog presentations and then poet presentations. Whew! That's a lot of YOU time. Let's get it done.

Man, I just found out about Google Books. Here's a screen shot:

Monday, June 13

Right, on with Monday ... oh wait, let's just look at Sunday for just one more time....



This is what my Sunday morning looked like before church ... ahhhh, man.

Back to Monday.

Lots to get read, presented and talked about today. Let's go!



I had a few questions about "stuff" today - I wrote them down, then promptly threw the piece of paper out. Sigh ... Mondays.

But, as I often repeat, stuff is due:

Poet Presentations begin on Tuesday. Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday are the days

Poetry Cafe on Friday

Blog post on Poetry, too, due by Friday.

For 1984, your Blog post presentation is tomorrow.

1984 Essay is also due Friday.

and Part 2, 1984 is due June 15.


Whoa, that's a lot. Whew!

OK, man ... let's get it done!




and one more thing:

You need to change your passcode on your iPhone. Says so right here.


Oh, here is one of the things I recall from class. I wanted to post a poem called "Pale Blue Dot"



Now, go do homework.

OK, June 10

It sounds corny, but at least we are now in double digits in June. Awesome. Getting to the end of a school year is like a soldier, showing off fresh scars ... ;)

What DID we do today? Well, we read Chapter 2 from Part III of 1984. It was a looooooooong chapter ... I forgot to assign them in class, but did announce in the computer lab that we'll do 35 and 36 for homework for Monday.

Then after the reading, we got the essay topics for 1984, too. Te essay is due June 17th - the day of the Poetry Cafe. After looking at the essay topics, we went to the computer lab and did some work on picking a poet, the blog posts and a little work on the essay, too.

Starting on Monday, we'll have the Blog Post presentations, poetry and continue work on 1984. Whoa, that's going to be a long week, but at least it'll end with a Poetry Cafe.

Ok, be safe, see you on Monday! W00t!

Thursday June 9

Today, we got the unit test completed for part one, 1984.

Stuff is due, hand it in.... ;)

Then we went to the computer lab as a group and worked on/researched/discussed the "Blended" section assignment for this novel.

Stuff is due, stuff is due.

Reading 1984 ... in 1987

You know, it is kind of weird, as I can recall trying to read this book during the actual year, 1984. Of course, I was 13 at the time, and the vocabulary was just too far ahead of me. As I’ve said on numerous occasions in class: “This is a hard book.”

The year I got through it was the Christmas Break of 1987. How do I know that? Because that was the year after a rather harrowing Christmas Break in Florida with my family. The following year, I swore to myself I was going to have something - anything - to do that would sort of give me something to do instead of the things that I’d rather not do. Like playing cards incessantly; or television or just laying on the couch bored out of my tree.

In that light, I fell upon my oldest brothers’ copy of 1984 in mid-December of 1987. I thought “Why not”? And so, I began reading it. I must admit, as a young person, I did not get just how messed up Smith was, as think back to a angst-ridden times they were, I just didn’t pay attention to him. I focussed my attention on the Thought Police and Big Brother.

The one question I kept asking the novel and anyone else who would talk to me about the book, as this: “Is Big Brother real?” I guess, in retrospect, I was asking the same question Smith was asking, that did Big Brother occupy a point in space just as I did?

Thinking back to that 17 year old mind, I think I thought BB existed. He was a real guy, probably corrupt to the bone and full of every kind of sin an early omniscient man might commit. Since then, I realize that would be a folly of the Thought Police to allow to happen. Perhaps, at some point there was some guy who was photographed and had video shot of himself as BB, but that person was gone. Anything else would be folly; what if BB’s hypocrisy was leaked to the general public? Too risky. Better to have a figurehead that is always young, orthodox and “perfect”.



Living in Canada at the time was fraught with perceived risks. To be frank, a fairly high percentage of young people at the time were convinced that we would see a nuclear war fought before we were thirty years old - which would have been in 2000. Nothing makes me more happy when I think back to the night that 1999 became 2000. I mean, as mentioned in class, I watched movies like The Day After and When the Wind Blows, and thought that was the future. As that New Year’s Eve wore on, I figured we were good and that I’d make it to 2000 without going through a nuclear holocaust. I figured that Ingsoc was a real possibility for the future.

In the end, though, I used 1984 in a final assessment project for English the following year. I packaged with The Chrysalids, Animal Farm and Brave New World. I still have the essay I wrote for it somewhere in “my papers” in my basement storage area. Basically, I explored the bad times of each novel. “Dystopias” became my “go to idea” while studying Literature at McMaster the year after that.

Finally, I want to end this post with this thought: after re-reading this novel for the upteenth time, I see more clearly what Orwell was thinking. My personal information is out there, just waiting for someone to try and commit fraud, perhaps. It’s also out there for the government to make sure that I have orthodox ideas. Of course, I also see media people using Facebook to illustrate “just how awful I am”, or share pictures with even more people, without my permission, really. It’s kind of scary how public private information has become.

Wed June 8

This is my brain on Wednesday...


Here is the video we saw in class:



We did a Google search on "Mod 6 Chesser" and that was under the Video search tab. I'm sure he's a long last relative. ;)

In any case, we did a fair amount of poetry today - I took the class through my Chapbook on my laptop; it's a collection of poems, quotes and quotes of plays, novels and sundry other pieces of stuff I've read in the last 25 years. After we looked at that, we had Student Services come in and do a short presentation about signing up for next year.

After that, we talked a bit about the Novel Blog (called "Blended" in the handout) Presentation that we've got due on June 10, 13 or 14th. I will put my example under the tab at the top of the blog on the right, under "Pages". The topics are in the 1984 handout we got at the start of the unit. For me, the topic will surround what it was like for me when I first read this book in 1987. I will walk people through it as an example tomorrow.

Incidentally, I will mention these two films I saw "back in the day" about nuclear war. The first was "The Day After":



The second is "When the Wind Blows",



Incidentally, I mentioned in class that the soundtrack for this second film was by David Bowie. I was wrong, as I learned this afternoon. It was Roger Waters, of Pink Floyd fame.


On a completely different tack, here is a poll about which play we should do next:

Create interactive meetings at Poll Everywhere

here are the links for each of the plays:

Richard III
Hamlet
Titus Andronicus
Death of a Salesman


I'm leave the poll open for a few days, we'll talk about it in class tomorrow, too. I think by Friday June 10th we'll know what's next.

Whew! Whassap!

Tuesday June 7

Oh look, a cute monkey!


Whoa, this week is going quickly. I like that out of a week.

Right, today we finished reading the material for Part one ... up to page 133 in the "Dead tree" version of the book. Yes, I know that is two chapters into Part Two of the book. Meh, we had fun reading it. Seriously. The questions assigned for Part One (The stuff due Thursday) are on the right side of the blog)

We also read Chapter Ten of Part Two, too; page 227 to 234 in the paper version of the novel. Personally, I'm liking the reading from either the laptop or the iPad. It's actually not that hard on the eyes.

We also continued our Poetry Unit. I showed this YouTube video:



Then we watched Taylor Mali's The The Importance of Proofreading. Awesome.

Finally, we watched to the end of the 1984 version of the film, 1984.

Oh yeah, Def Jam Poetry was mentioned in class today. Here's Taylor Mali's performance on the show:



I will also work on the post you need to do a short 1984 presentation on later on in the week. In the Unit Outline, it is called the "Blended" assignment. Come to school, it's important.

Monday June 6

So .. after I posted the glog, I realized that I had no put up what we had done today.





Um, yeah .... so here it goes.

We read until the end of the first chapter in Part II in the novel. Honestly, it gets way better from here. Seriously.

We assigned three questions, but since I'm at home when I am writing this, I forget which ones. We'll do them tomorrow.

Then we did some poetry... Rock Tea was my favourite...

The we did a bit more reading, then watched the film of 1984. Meh, s'ok?

OK. Be gooder.


and I saw this this morning:

Glogster!

I re-discovered Glogster tonight, and put this together for my poem tomorrow... I'm so awesome. My mom said so.

June 3 - Day 13ish ...

Whoa, really? I'm thinking I'm going to have to check that, too. Whoa, I just did, it's all good.

I will remind people of the due dates and the fact of the matter is that I need to get your work in. I'm keeping up my end of the bargain by being prepared and ready to go everyday ... you need to keep up your end of the bargain and do the work, dawgs.

Yes, I used the informal "Dawgs" to try and further our student-teacher relationship. Hope it worked.

So ... today. We read until the end of Chapter 7 in Part One of the novel. We're going to do 21,22 and 24 of the questions for Monday.

Speaking of Monday, we also will start our Poetry Unit on Monday, finishing it on June 17th. That ought to be good, man. See the due dates on the right side of the blog.

We also watched some of the film for 1984. The IMDB.com link is here.

Have a great weekend - find some poems for next week, please!

Oh, I went and found the 1954 version of the film on Youtube, link is in the "Links to use to pass the course" on the below the due dates.

Oh, and one last thing:

June 2

I got this emailed to me today:



So ... I love the imaginative titles, right? ;)

So, we read to the end of Chapter 6 today in the text - about page 65. I got a chance to read from my iPad, costing me .99 cents, but well worth it. I did look for the Kindle version, but I ended up buying the iBook version.

There is no real difference, in my humble opinion. Except the cost.

I assigned questions 8,10, 12, 14 and 16 from the list of questions. At this rate, we're looking really good in terms of getting the book done on time. Brownie points for everyone.

In discussions with students, I told them I would mention a comic strip known as The Far Side, by Gary Larson. Simply hilarious.




Oh, and this is funny too:



Clean up your own mess, man.... I mean who does this? Seriously!

June 1

Oh, let's say that again.... it's the first day of June. I so love being able to write that. Awesome.

So ... we saw this:



Not that it matters that I am writing this on a Macbook, or that I use an iPhone. I showed it to show just how Winston Smith might have lived - grey and treated like he's less than human. When we get to Part Three, you'll bear witness to his pain. We read to the end of Chapter Two and were assigned questions 1-4 from the Unit package.

Due dates for 1984, Part One are on the right. I also put the linnk for the ebook for 1984 on the right as well. Save trees!

We also watched a bit of Wonders of the Solar System with Professor Brian Cox as he looked at Aliens. Interesting, no?


Finally, I did look at the Halton Catholic DSB website about Friday, June 10. I regret that I have to tell you that for us, a Secondary school, it is a normal day of school. To repeat.... we are at school on Friday June 10th - it is a PD Day for Elementary schools only.

Tuesday May 31

Had a good chuckle early this morning, thanks to a returning student. Seems she kept up to date with what we were doing in class thanks to the blog. The funny bit was the promised to mention the blog to my boss and make us both look good!



(this is an actual photo of me...;))

In any case, we finished off Animal Farm today, went through the characters for the novella, and added at least one link to the Links you can Use to Pass the Class on the right. And I just got the email from the library telling me that they finally got the film version for it in for me. Awesome timing....NOT

I did let everyone take some time to get their homework ready for me tomorrow. (Tomorrow is June 1... let's say that again ... tomorrow is the start of June...

that is just such an awesomely incredible thing to be able to type ... it only happens once a year... tomorrow is the start of June...

In any case, we got it done. Updated the questions that are due, too. See pic at right. Tomorrow, we'll start 1984, which will be way cool. My mom said so.

And we'll be taking a look at this, too...

Monday May 30

OK, whoa, today. Whoosh! Went by in a flash! I proofread a few essays that are due on Wednesday (see DUE DATES on the right...

We read till the end of Chapter 9 in Animal Farm, and assigned some of the questions, too. See the which ones were assigned, check the pic at right, too.

Right, building our discussions, we mentioned a few books that were banned, I also mentioned Tony Robbins:



Isn't he awesome?

Anyway, we also mentioned Jello Biafra very, very briefly... as someone who getting banned for his music all the time.

Finally, there were a few people awed by the idea of the presentation about Dragon Dictation. The iTunes link is here, the BlackBerry link is here ... and the youtube video on how to use it is here:

Thursday May 26

So yesterday ... we looked at this:


which is the basic way to think about essay writing... ;)

We also really got into Animal Farm, finishing up to Chapter Four. Then we got to do some of the presentations in class. That was good.

Wed May 25

So .. what did we do today.

Well, first the good news: the date for the essay has changed to June 1.

The bad news is that the Journal is due today. And we had a unit test today. We also did some of the presentations. (link to Oakville Toastmasters is here, by the way) And we started Animal Farm.

The twisted part is that during the unit test, I realized I didn't have enough copies of the text, so I downloaded the iBook version to read and also found the Project Gutenberg version (.99 cents and free, respectively) The link on right is to the PG free version online.

I also said that I would post the rubric for the essay. Here it is:

Marking Rubric


Introduction           
General Sentence                    /5
               
2-3 elaboration sentences
               
thesis statements               



Organized paragraphs       
strong topic sentences                    /10
       
smooth transitions
               
strong concluding sentences
 
              


Arguments/Ideas/content
logical development           
evidence to support thesis                /10
   
           
restate thesis                        /5
               
offer final insight



And so ... I started to write the "Thinking on Paper" that I think you should do, too. I got this done in front of you, and will make better notes (and may post them tomorrow).



Finally, I took this really cool pic while you characters were writing the test:

Tuesday May 24

Web Quest Shut up and Sing and Fahrenheit 451

1)Go to the Wikipedia pages for the films. After reading the descriptions of these two pieces of literature, can you give your opinion on whether the Wikipedia entries are accurate. Check three of the links in blue at the bottom of the page to “make sure”...

(FYI - make sure you read the “Reception” part of the F451 entry about the job the dual role actor did while filming)

2) Speculate as to why we would be including these two pieces of literature in a course when we also study 1984. You should go and check the Wikipedia entry for this novel as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

3) What does the term “dystopia” mean, anyway? Can you give me another example, say
one from real life?

4)“Mindless entertainment would replace recreational free thinking.” With reference to the film Fahrenheit 451, and maybe SUAS, can you provide evidence for this statement?

5)Create a chart with the titles of the films on the top, and “Film’s opinion of free speech”, “Government’s opinion of free speech” and “How the lead characters resisted” on the left side. Complete the chart.

Day 4

So ... "what did we do today..."

Man, that is so irritating. ;)

In any case, we finished off Digital Nation - the link is still on the other blog post below. We took up the questions for "Did you know" and read a bit of Frankenstein.

Man, I love that book. There is also quite a few apps for that, too. Like this one...

We finished off today with using a bit of the SmartBoard: we used it to check out some of the links on the list for the presentation (Task 2) for this unit, which start May 26th. See the links, as well as the due dates, on the right of the screen.

Finally, we got to see a bit of a preview of Tuesday's work: a film called Fahrenheit 451...



Have a safe and wonderful weekend...

Welcome to day 3!

OK, yesterday we did two stories, "Shut up and Sing" with the Dixie Chicks, and "Flying Machine" by Ray Bradbury.

Both were pretty gosh darn cool. Questions and terms for both are due May 25th, man. Due dates are right next to this one.

Today, though, we are looking at two videos, just to confuse and irritate people. (You are welcome for that, by the way ... ;)) The first one is a YouTube video by Karl Fisch:



and the other is a video from FrontLine, called "Digital Nation"

May 17

So today was the first day of class ... and we did talked about some pretty cool stuff.

We read the story "The Fun they Had", by Iassac Assimov and we read the speech "Perils of Indifference" by Eli Wiesel.

Pretty interesting, no?

In any case, during the Speech, I mentioned a few things, one of which was this scene in Band of Brothers, a television series on HBO a few years ago:



Pretty interesting, no?

Right, we had some discussion about how to care, how to not be indifferent in our culture after that.

Hope it was as cool for you, man - things are off to a great start.

Finally, check out the due dates for the first unit, they are on the right side of the screen!

See you Wednesday!

Right. Let's start

If you are reading this in class, well ... you really should pay attention to waht the teacher is sayin'.

Just sayin'.

It would be in your own best interest to bookmark this blog and make sure you know what is here, as there will be material on here to help you get through this 4C English course..

Just sayin'....