Survivor Macbeth!

Hello beginning teachers! Welcome! You have chosen a fantastic profession to be a part of - though it will stretch you and frustrate you some days, you will find endless rewards as you work with the students along your path.  If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask for help!

Survivor Macbeth Unit Plan

• Rules of Survivor Macbeth
• Scorecard
• Logo/graphic
• Characterization Project

Activities & Other Resources

• Penguin Teacher Guide
• Macbeth in prose
• Clan Challenge questions (sample)
• Creative Project & Rubric
• Crossword
• Vocabulary Matching
• Macbeth & The Simpsons

Break a leg!

Proof Reading & other such, you know, like stuff - Taylor Mali

Proof Reading!


Sound like you KNOW what you're talking about!

H/T to a colleague, SS.

Google for Teachers

I am very excited about a new project I'm undertaking with the English team at our high school. We are utilizing Google Docs in our classrooms for things such as essays, lit circles and more. I really the accessibility of Google Docs - anywhere, anytime. Not only do I NOT have to take a pile of marking home with me, but I can also check in to see how students are doing, track information, and access it from anywhere.

There are a few websites I am relying upon for this endeavour:
Google for Educators - powered by Google

Free Technology for Teachers - an all-time favourite site for ideas to use in my classroom. I use it constantly!

Guide to Google - again, but Free Tech... and who can turn down FREE?

Young Adult Books

At the conference I was at this past week, Dwayne Jeffery held a session about young adult books. WITHOUT NOTES he rattled off plots, characters, suggestions, ideas, etc for over 100 books. I was blown away by his memory! Thanks for the suggestions Dwayne - I look forward to reading many of these titles as well as sharing them with my students.

Dwayne Jeffery - blog

Photo by gibsonselectric

CEATCA Resources

Photo by James Jordan

Handouts, etc:

• CEATCA Handout

• Google Lit Trips Code Tips

ELAC information:

• TNET Login for your no charge membership - needs to be renewed annually however.
• ELAC Membership Application Form (Printable) - if you would prefer a "low tech" version
• Central ELAC's Webpage - RSS capability coming soon!
• Conference 2011 - Celebrating New Heights Registration - Banff, AB

Thank you for attending our session! See you soon!

With Easter on its way...

GOO!

The Other Side of the Bridge

When our school librarian says "try this!" I usually push aside what I'm currently reading to check it out. Yet again, I was not disappointed. The Other Side of the Bridge by Canadian author Mary Lawson, held me captive - I did not want to put it down for even a minute. I agree with our librarian's sentiment - this book will very likely end up on our next "Recommended Books" list.

 From Publishers Weekly (www.amazon.ca)

In this follow-up to her acclaimed Crow Lake, Lawson again explores the moral quandaries of life in the Canadian North. At the story's poles are Arthur Dunn, a stolid, salt-of-the-earth farmer, and his brother, Jake, a handsome, smooth-talking snake in the grass, whose lifelong mutual resentments and betrayals culminate in a battle over the beautiful Laura, with Arthur, it seems, the unlikely winner. Observing, and eventually intervening in their saga, is Ian, a teenager who goes to work on Arthur's farm to get close to Laura, seeing in her the antithesis of the mother who abandoned his father and him. It's a standard romantic dilemma—who to choose: the goodhearted but dull provider or the seductive but unreliable rogue?—but it gains depth by being set in Lawson's epic narrative of the Northern Ontario town of Struan as it weathers Depression, war and the coming of television. It's a world of pristine landscapes and brutal winters, where beauty and harshness are inextricably intertwined, as when Ian brings home a puppy that gambols adorably about—and then playfully kills Ian's even cuter pet bunny. Lawson's evocative writing untangles her characters' confused impulses toward city and country, love and hate, good and evil.