We continue to share your emails, which so thoughtfully capture what’s happening in your classrooms, your minds, and your communities these days. Thanks for sharing, and keep on doing what you do. From Tia in West Virginia: Though our friends at the Folger assure me I am anything but powerless, it certainly seems that way… Continue Reading »
Posts Categorized: Tales-from-the-classroom
Last week we posted some of what you brilliant teaching colleagues have been sharing with us about teaching in today’s world. Today, as promised, we’re posting more of your comments and stories. From Chasidy in Tennessee I spend so much time with my students on how literature reflects our own flaws and reveals truth. As… Continue Reading »
Earlier this month our Director of Education, Peggy O’Brien, asked you, our teaching colleagues across the country, to send us your stories about teaching in these changing, challenging times. “We are always carrying you and your work and your students in our hearts and minds,” Peggy wrote, “but maybe no more so than right now…. Continue Reading »
The longer I teach English, the more interested I become in etymology. I find that learning and then teaching the roots of English words has a way of illuminating texts both for myself, as a lifelong learner, and for the students that I am lucky to encounter. For instance, I think something about reading Hamlet… Continue Reading »
At the start of our Romeo and Juliet unit, I had my students begin a Digital Shakespeare Portfolio: a blog account that would house all of their annotations, as well as a place to discuss their thoughts on the interactive approach we’ve been trying out in class. So far, engagement has been high and responses… Continue Reading »
The anticipation and excitement of beginning a new text always invigorates me in my classroom. It feels like a fresh start, a chance to really create some magic in my classroom. I always think, is this going to be the text that they remember 10 years from now? My students do not always share my… Continue Reading »
Today we’re re-posting one of our favorite throwbacks: an incredibly thoughtful and intelligent meditation on language, identity, difference, and community—and a teaching idea getting at those big ideas, too. Thank you to Folger family member and high school English teacher Amber Phelps for sharing this powerful blog post with the world. “I don’t have to… Continue Reading »
The juniors and seniors in my Shakespeare elective are exploring the flawed characters and twisted plot of Measure for Measure. By the end of Act 4, Angelo has offered an indecent proposal to Isabella, the Duke has countered by orchestrating the bed trick with Isabella and Mariana, the Provost has received orders to behead Claudio… Continue Reading »
I consistently feel like an incredibly lucky teacher for many reasons: the incredible young people I work with, the supportive and progressive district which employs me, the opportunity to engage with material I love every day, and so many more. One quality of my job that makes me feel particularly fortunate at the beginning of… Continue Reading »
I had taught English 9 for eight years straight when my teaching assignment changed and there followed a five-year hiatus in which I didn’t teach it at all until this year. Fortunately for my students this year, in the intervening years I attended the Folger Teaching Shakespeare Institute. Our English 9 curriculum includes the classic… Continue Reading »
