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Keeping things flexible

December 4, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I like to create and implement lesson plans. I enjoy standing in front of a classroom when I am well-prepared with an outline of the learning expectations we hope to accomplish and the activities that will help us get there that day.

I also am quite willing to toss those plans out the window when an unforgettable, irreplaceable learning opportunity presents itself. And this week’s parliamentary furor, culminating in national addresses by both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and opposition leader Stephane Dion, was exactly such an opportunity.

Like most Canadians, I’ve been glued to the unfolding events in our Parliament over the last week. At school it has been on people’s minds and in their conversations. Fellow teachers have been discussing, debating, and placing friendly bets on the outcome of this Canadian political drama. (And let’s face it: how often can we put “Canadian politics” and “drama” in the same phrase?)

So even though my teaching subject is English, it was only natural for me to turn this drama into a learning opportunity for my students, many of whom will be 18 by the end of February when we could be facing another election.

Close to the end of our class period, we started an informal discussion about federal politics and how Canada is governed. The role of the Governor General was interesting in itself. We chatted about the new government (elected only 7 weeks ago) whose fate was being decided today, and the coalition that proposed to take its place. I shared with my students the idea that for the rest of their lives they would hear today’s events being referenced. This was history in the making.

We then watched the speeches by both Prime Minister Harper and Stephane Dion, thanks to a new-this-year internet connection in the classroom and an available LCD projector. Then students shared their opinions of the contents of those speeches.

The speeches themselves, along with today’s speeches following the Governor General’s decision to prorogue Parliament, will provide excellent material for media analysis. Watching how each party frames its position and uses media to its advantage (or hopelessly bungles its use of media) will be an unforgettable experience for students.

So for the next few days, lesson plans are dropped in favour of some hands-on learning that should, I hope, help students become informed and active citizens as well as literate English students.

——

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Apologizing to our students for Parliament

November 23, 2008 By 1 Comment

Every year, through Forum, Encounters, and Grade 10 Civics trips, opportunities arise to send students to Ottawa; but, is the House of Commons a place our students should be?

I remember an all-candidates meeting in a high school cafeteria eight years ago, the Canadian Alliance candidate, John Reimer was asked to comment on the ‘childish’ behaviour in the House of Commons, especially that displayed by the riding representative, Liberal MP Lynn Meyers. After Reimer’s brief comments about the need for greater civility and respect, Lynn Meyers spoke in defense of his behaviour, describing himself as an actor in the theatre of Parliament.

Well, in eight years, the theatrics in the House of Commons has certainly not become any more civil. Last week the House had the opportunity to take a step towards a more respectful Question Period in the election of a House Speaker. But, with the re-election of Peter Milliken to the Speaker’s Chair, it is unlikely that the tone on Parliament Hill will change anytime soon.

MP Barry Devolin implied in this video from Stephen Taylor that apologies need to be made to students and school groups that visit Ottawa and sit in the gallery in the House. Indeed, it is interesting that we do not allow our students to behave in our classrooms in the same manner as our elected representatives.

The Conservative Reporter’s Weblog, along with information on the role of House Speaker, had this to say about defeated Speaker candidate Barry Devolin:

He has a calmness and strength about him and has what I would be looking for as far as the physical presence in the Speaker’s Chair. He also has spent a great deal of time thinking about the role of Speaker and how he would like to see it managed and played out.

Certainly, if Milliken wants student groups in the gallery, then he would be wise to consider Devolin’s thoughts. But, if it is Parliamentary theatrics that he prefers to quiet, calm policy… Well, who could blame him? Maybe all of Parliament’s a stage after all. Or a zoo.

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Canadian Literature in the Classroom and in the News

November 18, 2008 By Leave a Comment

‘Tis the season of literary prize announcements, and most notably for me are the Giller Prize (awarded last week), the Man Booker Prize (awarded last month), and the Governor General’s Awards (to be announced today).

Perhaps because I am rarely satisfied with the judges’ decisions, I am actually much more interested in the lists of finalists than I am in the final awarding of the prize. I like that the lists of finalists give me the opportunity to take stock of which books I have yet to get my hands on, and to add titles to my ever growing ‘To Read’ list.

As an educator, I find that I also approach the prizes with the impression that it is these titles that future students will possibly be studying in our schools. But should I? Are these media and political circuses ultimately doing the novels and their respective authors a disservice? Will readers eventually notice that decisions appear to be based on the biggest potential splash, the most buzz and the biggest headlines? If so, will the short term financial gain disguise a possible long term respectability pain?

With the announcement last week in favour of Joseph Boyden’s Through Black Spruce, despite the overwhelming preference by Canadian readers for Rawi Hage’s Cockroach, one of the jurists repeated for reporters that the decision was perhaps not the most politically correct one; and yet the more he spoke, the more radio listeners surely replied, “Methinks the Honourable Member for Toronto Centre doth protest too much.” What will people say ten years from now?

Oh well. Perhaps I’m simply still disappointed that André Alexis’ Asylum, surely the greatest book published in Canada this year, was overlooked by the prizes. In that case, perhaps I ought to start my own annual literary prize for fiction. …

The finalists for The Lamppost Literature Award, 2008 are:

  • Asylum, André Alexis
  • Good to a Fault, Marina Endicott
  • Cockroach, Rawi Hage
  • The Lost Highway, David Adams Richards
  • The Great Karoo, Fred Stenson

And the winner is … Asylum! Congratulations to André Alexis, and thank you for giving our nation a beautiful, intelligent and cathartic novel of refuge.

I feel better already.

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All of Parliament’s a Stage

October 27, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Listening to CBC Radio, I recently heard a debate about the Shakespearean character that would best be applied to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. While our Prime Minister mulls over his cabinet for this 40th Parliament, I thought that I would suggest some possible cabinet ministers, considered in a Shakespearean light.

Minister of Indian Affairs: Michael Chong as Orlando (from As You Like It) — upon entering Harper’s 2006 cabinet, Chong may very well have called Orlando’s words to mind, “I come but in, as others do, to try with him the strength of my youth.”

Minister of Transport: Maxime Bernier as Malvolio (from Twelfth Night) — the sharpest dresser in the House of Commons, Bernier may want to consider Malvolio’s cross-garter’d yellow stockings.

Minister of Finance: Jim Flaherty as Titus Andronicus — a politician who echoes the Roman general’s words when confronting manufacturing in his home province, “Why, there they are both, baked in that pie; Whereof their mother daintily hath fed, Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs: Peter Kent as Antonio (from The Merchant of Venice) — winning a seat in this second attempt, it would seem that his ships too have finally ‘safely come to road.’

Minister of National Defence: Peter MacKay as Nick Bottom (from A Midsummer Night’s Dream) — from this rugby-playing, potato-patch interviewing, fan of Condi, I’m always expecting a Bottom’s dream speech: “The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.”

Minister of Justice: Rona Ambrose as Katharina (from The Taming of the Shrew) — Rona strikes me as one who is tough and shrewd, and yet, if her boss wills it, capable of completely complying and admitting that, “be it moon, or sun, or what you please: An if you please to call it a rush-candle, Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.”

Minister of Agriculture: Gerry Ritz as Sir John Falstaff (from The Merry Wives of Windsor) — this seasoned politician’s realization that everyone privy to his jokes didn’t share his political stripes brings Falstaff’s epiphany to mind: “I was three or four times in the thought they were not fairies: and yet the guiltiness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my powers, drove the grossness of the foppery into a received belief, in despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reason, that they were fairies.”

Minister of Fisheries and Oceans: Josee Verner as Regan (from King Lear) — this Quebec MP, ‘far from home’, could barter with all nauticals as the second sister with her old father, “If they chanced to slack you, we could control them. If you will come to me, I entreat you to bring but five-and-twenty; to no more Will I give place or notice.”

Minister of Health: Tony Clement as Puck (Robin Goodfellow from A Midsummer Night’s Dream) — Clement looks like he’s got a trick up his sleeve, and this ‘merry wanderer of the night’ is no doubt the MP I’d choose to give the closing chorus to Parliament: “Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends.”

Minister of Canadian Heritage: Lois Brown as Portia (from The Merchant of Venice) — while voters made the mistake of sending the Stronach heiress to Ottawa (“when they do choose, they have the wisdom by their wit to lose”), Brown’s representing of Newmarket became long overdue. Now Brown could have the opportunity of playing the part of a rescuer, and one obedient to both the letter and the spirit of Ottawa’s laws

Minister of International Cooperation: Bev Oda as Beatrice (from Much Ado About Nothing) — offered another role, Oda could likely repeat Beatrice’s rejection of Don Pedro, “No, my lord, unless I might have another for working-days: your grace is too costly to wear every day.”

Minister of International Trade: Chuch Strahl as Friar Lawrence (from Romeo and Juliet) — in and out of the Reform caucus, and now entrenched in the Conservative cabinet, he may repeat the Friar’s lines to Romeo as a mantra: “For this alliance may so happy prove, To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.”

Minister of Natural Resources: Jason Kenney as Tybalt (from Romeo and Juliet) — one gets the impression that this Western MP views Central Canadian Liberals in the same light this Prince of Cats views the Montagues. I’m pretty sure that on at least one occasion, he has been heard to spit these words across the floor of the House: “What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all [Liberals], and thee: Have at thee, coward!”

Minister of Environment: John Baird as Cassio (from Othello) — while the Environment portfolio has so far proven to be something of a cup of wine to this Cassio, like Desdemona, I would entreat the general to ‘call him back’ and give him another chance.

Leader of the Government in the House of Commons: Jim Prentice as Horatio (from Hamlet) — this steady MP seems to fit the Danish Prince’s description of his friend: “as one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing; A man that fortune’s buffets and rewards Hast ta’en with equal thanks; and blest are those Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled, That they are not a pipe for fortune’s finger To sound what stop she please … that man That is not passion’s slave.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Prospero (from The Tempest) — with his demand for silence from his own ministers, perhaps he quotes Prospero’s words to his followers: “If thou more murmur’st, I will rend an oak, And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till Thou’st howl’d away twelve winters.” Or now that the tempestuous campaign, of Harper’s devise, is over, perhaps his message to the voters repeats Prospero’s close: “Let me not, Since I have my dukedom got, And pardon’d the deceiver, dwell in this bare island by your spell; But release me from my bands With the help of your good hands.” Another minority, another government with limitations, for this political wizard.

_____

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Hamlet's inertia mirrored in Fortinbras

October 19, 2008 By 2 Comments

Usually for the first Act of Hamlet, I dock my iPod at the front of the class and play an audio version while the students follow along in their texts. Hearing the actors speak the lines helps the students get accustomed to the poetry of Shakespeare’s language.

However, this past week, my misplaced iPod remained somewhere at home, and the first Act required a different approach.

I recalled my own English teacher, Mr. X. Lee, who, almost oblivious of the 30 students before him, held a shut copy of Hamlet and, eyes on the back wall, recited the play while we followed along in our texts.

I cannot recite the play. Not yet. But someday…

I chose instead to read Act 1 aloud with my students following along.

While I won’t burden my students with these thoughts, this latest re-reading has led me to ponder the character of Fortinbras for a change. I have been told, in the past, that Fortinbras is a character with whom the audience should contrast Hamlet (much like Laertes). But after reading Act I aloud to my Grade 12 class, Fortinbras and Hamlet seem almost identical. As shadows or reflections of each other.

Obviously there is the similarity in their circumstances: each the son of a dead king and still without any throne. In Act I Scene ii, lines 32,37, Claudius himself makes it clear that Fortinbras’ uncle, Old Norway, has slipped onto the throne ahead of his nephew. But I think too that there is a similarity in the nature of the Princes’ characters.

Rather than being the man of action that I had been previously led to believe of him, it is apparent that Fortinbras has been waiting 30 years to get the revenge he seeks (see the Grave-digger’s calculation in V,i,164). (Thirty years! Hamlet would actually appear positively speedy by comparison!) Of course, Claudius scoffs at the idea that Fortinbras has waited until Denmark is “disjoint and out of frame” (I,ii,20), but the king is wrong and both Hamlet and Fortinbras accurately recognize that there is “some strange eruption to the state” (I,i,80), that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I,iv,99), and that “the time is out of joint” (I,v,206).

I believe the Prince of Norway is as wildly popular there as Hamlet is in Denmark. We are told of Hamlet about “the great love the general gender bear him” (IV,vii,20) and about Fortinbras that he is able to, in secret and illegally, raise an army of outlaws, “a list of lawless resolutes” (I,i,109). However, Fortinbras is easily distracted. When Claudius writes a letter to Old Norway, Fortinbras recycles his Danish scheme as a Polish expedition.

Ultimately, of course, it is Hamlet’s actions that litter the stage with corpses and allow Fortinbras to slide onto a vacant throne. Still, Hamlet has recognized in Fortinbras a kindred spirit, and ‘gives him his dying voice’ (V,ii,375), approving of Fortinbras ruling in Denmark. For his part, Fortinbras requites Hamlet’s praise and says of the dead Danish prince, “For he was likely, had he been put on, / To have proved most royally” (V,ii,421).

Indeed that should be Fortinbras’ hope: for he is incapable of governing in any manner different from Hamlet; they are simply too identical, and Fortinbras should hope that it is a royal disposition he himself possesses.

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Paul Gross, Hamlet Forever

October 4, 2008 By Leave a Comment

In our eight years of marriage, my wife and I haven’t even considered bringing a TV set into our home. Where would we put it? And now, why even bother? The Internet keeps us informed, and I can catch the odd Bruins game at my father-in-law’s.

I’m happy that I’ve missed the whole reality TV craze. My conscience isn’t a bit bothered that I haven’t seen an episode of Survivor.

However, there have apparently been a few TV gems over the last few years. Recently my department head handed me the DVDs of the first two seasons of Slings and Arrows. She thought that I might want to watch it before I start my next Hamlet unit.

She was absolutely right. The show was wonderfully done – sharply scripted and intelligently acted. I’ve watched the six episodes of the first season, all of which relate in some way to Hamlet. (Season 2 is about Macbeth; Season 3, King Lear.)

My Grade 12 class would benefit from seeing artistic director Geoffrey Tennant (played by Paul Gross) providing background to characters:

  • His explanation of Macbeth’s emotions to an accountant.
  • His description of Ophelia’s youthful madness and its source.
  • His challenge to an actor to decide what Hamlet knows before delivering the famous Act 3, Scene 1 soliloquy.

I appreciated the reflection of Hamlet in Paul Gross’s character – conversations with a ghost, questions about his sanity, and the lingering hurt of a deep betrayal.

Instructors will want to carefully preview any clips intended for classroom use to avoid the very coarse language, sex, and drugs.

Unable to travel back in time to revisit Paul Gross’s Hamlet at the Stratford Festival (which remains the definitive Hamlet for me), the Slings and Arrows DVDs do a great job of reminding of all that I loved about that production.

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The wiki: Meeting all of my classroom's technology needs

October 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment

For my first three years of teaching, I put a lot of effort into keeping class websites up to date for the benefit of my students and myself.

This year, I have dropped those websites, and am only using a class wiki and class blog for each course.  Given the way that I use blogs (I post, students comment), I wonder if next semester I will only use a wiki.

Wikis seem capable of doing everything that I was using the blog and website for:

  • Posting assignments and due dates
  • Posting notes and handouts for downloading
  • Hosting webquests
  • Providing links that enable students to dig deeper
  • Responding to topics online

Wikis also have some advantages over my traditional websites:

  • Wikis allow secure logins, without me doing a lot of extra work
  • Wikis are interactive and students can start discussion threads of their own.

Moving to using a wiki as my central Web 2.0 tool in the classroom will enable me to use my personal domain for more teacher-directed purposes.

Now I just need to find a wiki platform that consistently works with our school server.

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There and Back Again with Bilbo

September 29, 2008 By Leave a Comment

For much of my life, when people have asked my about my favourite author, I have responded, “Do you mean other than J.R.R. Tolkien?” In my mind, I have set him apart. How can I compare him with my other favourites? So radically different, how can I juxtapose the Shire with Davies’ Salterton or Richler’s St. Urbain Street?

Bilbo Baggins was a childhood friend to me after my uncle Owen introduced us in the summer of 1984. It has been a friendship that I have been happy to share, encouraging my sisters and friends to pick up copies of The HobbitThe Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

However, since becoming a high school English teacher, I have balked at all opportunities to bring Tolkien into the classroom. I didn’t want to spoil Middle Earth by marching 30 teenagers through it. I have been protecting Bilbo from snide remarks and criticism the teens may express.

Until now. I finally relented and brought the two sides together. And I can’t believe I’ve waited so long! My Grade 9 / 10 split class is enthralled with The Hobbit. We are reading it aloud together and they do not want to stop.

It is rare that I hear students in the last class of a Friday afternoon say, “Awwwww, can we read some more?”

“Oh, all right. We’ll read until the bell.”

It was a perfect ending to the week. And, I’m just that much more inspired to return to school on Monday, because the last period of the day will be spent retracing the familiar paths of Middle Earth with an old friend.

_____

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Hockey Night at the Library

September 27, 2008 By Leave a Comment

080108 bruins canes Our school librarian runs a hockey pool every year, where staff and students predict the outcome of the final standings. Much like in Nick Hornby’s Fever PitchFever Pitch, this quintessential Canadian sport provides plenty of discussion opportunities for staff and students. I love seeing the library circulation desk turn into a water cooler of sorts, surrounded by young faces that aren’t often seen in the vicinity.

For the record, here are my predictions for the final standings of the 2008/09 regular NHL season:

I’m hoping that these selections win me the grand prize of a single Werther candy.

_____

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If I had a million dollars …

September 23, 2008 By Leave a Comment

… I still wouldn’t go back to school as a student.

I enjoy learning. I adore books. I could live on literature.

But I have no intention of pursuing further degrees.

Incongruous? I don’t think so. You see, I don’t want to return to school precisely because I am having too much fun learning, reading and researching on my own.

I do not have a lot of patience for the academics who are too busy learning about Canadian Literature to allow the indulgence of actually reading a Canadian novel, or the graduate students so buried in Dramatic Arts theory that a play at the Shaw Festival isn’t appealing.

I’ve chosen a great profession that allows and encourages me to expand my horizons. On top of the many available professional development opportunities and a department head who is a real mentor, I have a chance every day to learn something new. I can refresh units and lessons with new applications, a variety of technology and, most challenging of all, different texts. (My goal: to use every text in our English Department in some way in the classroom.)

To my colleagues who dream about going back to school and learning, I suppose I’d say that you don’t need to wait until then. Why not throw out those course binders? Start all over again. Use a different novel for that bread-and-butter class. Step out of your comfort zone into the computer lab. And enjoy learning.

Next for me? Oscar Wilde and HyperCam.

Live. Learn. Teach.

_____

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