E3H:
That's what they call the final part of a horse race, right? And that's what we are most definitely in right now: the home stretch of our year together. For the next several weeks, we enjoy (?) a run of five-day school weeks such as we have not had since the year was very young, and then we have exams and we're done. Even a late finish does not dampen that.
Meanwhile...
E3H: Posting is still on Shakespeare. Tpics for ESC due by Friday. Drafts or partial drafts due any time.
E2H: Posting on Catcher. Focus on the girls and women in Holden's life.
Drama: Work on remaking those monologues using Stanislavski.
Strangest thing I've found today:
j: sigh of relief
music: when one door closes--carrie newcomer
--kt
I know...that is not what TS Eliot said in the beginning of his epic poem "The Wasteland." What he said was:
| APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding | |
| Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing | |
| Memory and desire, stirring | |
| Dull roots with spring rain. |
Do you know where your portfolio is?That and whatever random Catcher posting might get done make up your weekend assignment...
A good weekend for the Bulls and the Hawks...
:-)
More tonight???
E3H: Great t-shirts! Tomorrow we'll discuss the PSEA and then some more Shakespeare.
E2H: One more WW tomorrow!!!
Drama: A little more Stan the man and then a(nother) five-day break...
I can't embed this one, but here are The Best Earth Day Jokes.
--kt
I need to finish this and get outside!
E3H: Monday and Tuesday will be very important days for our Shakespeare unit. On Monday, of course, it is T-Shirt Day! Wear your Shakespeare t-shirt all day long as your outermost garment and come to class with a short presentation ready about what you have done to interpret your quotation. (You might write your quotation down; you'd be amazed how many people forget theirs...and the fact that they cannot see it while wearing it!) Tuesday we will briefly discuss the PSAE and then do more of our ongoing Shakespeare-mania.
Bring goodies on Monday! Post this weekend! Don't forget G23! Look for updates...
E2H: Monday and Tuesday we will be in Writing Workshop for the penultimate and ultimate times this year. This weekend you should post as much as you can on Catcher. Work with the topics already posted there... Don't forget G23!
Drama: Monday and Tuesday will be pretty important as we try to cover most of the remainder of Stanislavski's System. Thus far we have encountered two elements: Given Circumstances and The Magic If. I'm going to take this opportunity now to introduce you to two more.
We already understand the concept of Objectives. Stanislavski said that, as important as it is to understand our objectives from moment to moment, it is equally important to understand the overall objective we are trying to achieve in the entire course of the play. That overall objective he called the Super Objective. The playwright does not usually come out and tell you what the super objective is; you need to figure it out for yourself. But it is the character's major focus in the play. For example, one could argue that Willy Loman's super objective in Death of a Salesman is to see his son Biff get started again and his world vision vindicated. If the actor playing Willy believes that, every smaller objective is played toward this goal.
This leads directly to the fourth element, the Throughline of Actions. Over a play, patterns of action recur as a character runs into various obstacles. Sometimes the character changes objectives, sometimes he fights; sometimes he alters tactics; sometimes he bulls ahead. This pattern, taken together, becomes his ithroughline. Every action he makes (no matter how small) contributes to it.
These throughlines extend to any aspect of the play that creates sequences of actions, whether it is toward the superobjective or a smaller internal objective. If you need to start your car, there is a very clear sequence (or throughline) of actions you must go through in order to do so, and you must accomplish each of these actions successfully in order to get to the next. Robert Barton, a theatre professor from the University of Oregon, calls these "Tiny Triumphs." If you are performing a complicated role, don't try to deal with the vast complexity of it all at once; rather, break the thing down into tiny bits and play each in sequence. Succeed one tiny bit at a time, and with each tiny triumph you'll be that much closer to achieving your objective.
Over the weekend, do this exercise to develop an understanding of this concept:
Break down (and record on paper) at least three different experiences into the tiniest bits possible. Examples of eligible experiences include brushing your teeth, tying your shoes, preparing to go to bed, etc. Remember that no action is too small to consider. So "put toothpaste on brush" might itself be comprised of 20 or more discrete actions including things like "Angle the tube at 45 degrees overe the brush."
Note: Stanislavski preferred to do this as an exercise, not as a need throughout the play. But it is valuable to illustrate how an actor breaks down a role.
and for those who venture onto facebook this weekend...
j: 12 seconds
music: time taketh away--cheryl wheeler
silly 70's: i ain't got time anymore--the glass bottle
--kt
G23
Go To The Text.
That is the message of that day here at Topham's Attic. It applies not only in essays but in discussions as well, which is why in E3H and E2H right now we are stressing the idea of primary source support for in-class discussion as well as for the posts on the board.
Of course you may participate without primary source references, when you have ideas that further the discussion and the texts are not handy or the specific citation is not easy to find. But what we are trying to remember is that the text is the focus of the discussion and we should always go to the text when we can.
Another aspect of our current unit is the notion that, though we can always discuss--and should, when we do not understand--what is going on in a specific scene of a book or play, we also need to examine aspects of the bigger picture: How does the issue relate to Shakespearean tragedy? How does Holden's judgmental nature relate to his maturation? Is Shakespeare showing signs in these plays of misogyny...or feminism? Is Holden's constant falling important in understanding his inability to move on with his life? There are a million questions and no class could even begin to cover them all, but what we do cover we must cover in a scholarly fashion. And that begins with more focused conversation.
Multi-tasking: You are teenagers. My teenage daughters always tell me, when I complain about their trying to do two or three (or more) things simultaneously: "Oh, Mom, I'm a teenager. We multitask!" To have truly successful conversations, that is exactly what you must learn to do: multitask during them. You must listen, first and foremost, both to avoid the embarrassment of repeating what someone just said and to develop the topic in any kind of coherent way. But simultaneously you much be thinking about your book: where are the quotations within it that you might use to further this discussion? to support what is being said? to refute it? to shift its focus to something you have more to say about?
Of course, there is a third element of multi-tasking during discussions as well: note-taking. But that, I fear, is a problem for another day. One issue at a time. :-)
E3H: Good conversations today. Informal "scoresheet": P2 wins on breadth but P5 wins on depth. In P2 we had more people involved in the conversation, but the conversational topic (feminism in Shakespeare) dug deeper and became more scholarly in P5. A virtual tie. Post online tonight to get ready for more discussion tomorrow!
E2H: Much better today, guys! In your posts tonight, keep the discussion of the nuns and the ducks going, along with any elements connected to either of them either directly or thematically. Use the posts as a way to springboard into tomorrow's conversation!
Drama: Sorry I'm lecturing so much this week. We'll try to do some exercises tomorrow (or at least watfch a video or something to break up the monotony). Tonight: List seven (7) given circumstances (facts) that would be very important to know if someone were to play:
(I don't want to talk about it...) (But the computer lady did respond and says that she'll ship either today or tomorrow AM.)
E3H: Let's get specific! Bring your texts tomorrow if you haven't been, and tonight: go into them and find aspects and devices of Shakespearean tragedy that you can discuss online and in class with textual support.
E2H: We're in Catcher tomorrow. Big time!
drama: Bring in a brief (1-2 minute) example of a single person performing a scene or a moment that in your estimation is truly powerful or real.
Who says Lindsay Lohan doesn't have a sense of humor?
So I need a new computer. Can't afford one, but I need one. (Yikes! If you don't buy new stuff for a long time, it seems as if everything starts breaking down at once!) And I decided to buy it now rather than wait until this one is out of warranty this summer; that way I can have this one overhauled one more time and maybe sell it to recoup some of the outlay.
I currently have a macbook. It's been a good computer, but I admit that I've been frustrated by the fact that its capacity is smaller than I need for some of the things I do (multimedia etc) and for the files I store on it. It also gets frustratingly slow due to a smallish HD. So I decided that, this time, I'd upgrade to a macbook pro. Searching the apple.com site, I decided that I might as well go top of the line--it was only a few hundred dollars more for the fastest processor. Upgrading that to 4MB of RAM, the whole thing came to about $3300. Way too much, but what can you do?
Before buying, I went on eBay. And guess what? I found the same computer, but with eight MB RAM, and got it for the same $3300! Now all I have to do is sweat the possibility that the whole thing is a scam and I've just been ripped off for $3K...
Meanwhile...
E3H: Nice discussions today; do more posting (I added some boards and sub-boards) and we'll keep them going tomorrow!
E2H: WW tomorrow! Portfolio is due in 13 days!!!
Drama: We're deep in History/Stan-land.
j: "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." --Douglas Adams
music: procrastination--amy winehouse
--kt
Cubs Home Opener, that is!
(But I'll refrain from any cockeyed optimism until they start earning it.)
E3H: We're talkin' the Bard tomorrow!
E2H: counselors tomorrow.
Drama: more monologues and history of theatre stuff tomorrow...
j: in the name of bob
music: don't think twice, it's alright--eddie from ohio
--kt
It feels very odd to be out for the weekend on a Thursday night.
After 8th period ended today I had a surprise visit from a former student who graduated in 1992! I had not heard from him since then, so it was quite a stunner when he walked into my room carrying his four-year-old son Joshua. We chatted for nearly an hour: very cool. When he graduated, we had just finished LFHS's first massive build-out, the one that added the pool and the fieldhouse along with the entire rear of the building. He remembered swimming for LFHS when our pool was located in what are now the classrooms in the library!
Anyway...
Here's some stuff for the long weekend:
E3H: work on your t-shirts, but also go online and start posting about the Shakespeare plays. Perhaps an initial focus might be how they differ from the movie versions, or you might try looking for ways in which they vary from the structure of Sophocles' tragedies...
E2H: don't forget your "beach read" reviews are due next week, and also go online to begin conversations about Catcher in the Rye. Boards are open. :-)
Drama: final performances on Monday and then: we will work on the first stage of our final project, which involves learning something about the history of theatre and a dude named Constantin Stanislavski.
Have you seen this trailer?
Well, then: enjoy this one:
The Cubs started with a win. So where was that ability in October???
E3H: Go to the Shakespeare T-Shirt page and put those thinking caps on! Due on April 20! Bring RW and Shakespeare tomorrow.
E2H: Bring RW and Catcher tomorrow.
Drama: More good stuff today. We won't be doing the rest until Thursday. Tomorrow: bring (in writing) an improvisational activity or game that you would like to play. We'll do several of them in class as time permits, but everyone should have one. Don't forget: everyone should be writing responses to the day's performances in their journals!
Here's a bit of silliness, a new take on an old song:
Breakfast at Tiffany's from Olde English Comedy on Vimeo.
j: mortified by my jeans/genes
music: no myth--michael penn
go iowa, vermont, & dc!
--kt
(I published this yesterday...but to the wrong blog!)
"I'm dreaming of a white Easter..."
I can hear the carolers outside singing Easter carols as the aromas of gingerbread and hot chocolate filter through my home. Somewhere, the Easter Bunny is getting ready for his annual journey on his magical sled pulled by eight tiny reinmice through a winter wonderland of candy-colored egg-shaped ornaments, and people who almost never go to church are preparing to attend because it seems like the right thing to do.
Haven't we been here before? Say, about 14 or 15 weeks ago?
Arrgh!
I don't know if I have ever mentioned this, but...
I HATE WINTER!!!!
E3H: Bring in your Shakespeare tomorrow; we'll either be discussing a play or we'll be doing something else connected to the Bard of Avon.
E2H: It's WW tomorrow. Bring in drafts!! Countdown to portfolio: 21/11!
Drama: Good start today; more tomorrow.
j: welcome to spring (?) quarter
music: spring is late this year--lowen and navarro
--kt