Here we go again.

I've not blogged in months and this can be attributed to a many factors, the biggest, and most important one being that I've not really known what to write about. While this has still not changed for the most part, I'm trying not to give in to lethargy and write something.

Much has changed in my little world of teaching since last I posted. I have made discoveries and blunders that have altered my outlook in some regards and cemented my opinions in others.

I suppose the most pressing thing to discuss would be Shakespeare. I'm busy teaching Romeo & Juliet to my 9s and Macbeth to my 10s and I'm loving it. Let me put that more clearly: teaching these two plays has given me an energy and zest for teaching beyond anything I've experienced so far. There's something about the richness of the text, the possibilities for performance and the engagement of my students that just makes it the most marvelous thing to do in the world at the moment. I'm still figuring out how best to teach it to get the students to understand the text and to become competent at answering questions on the setworks, but this will come in time. For now I'm more concerned with getting the students to fall in love with something that I feel so passionately about, because I really do believe that Shakespeare (if used correctly ;) ) can change someone's life.

I remember how I hated the stories and dreaded studying Shakespeare with a passion when I was in primary school. That all changed in grade 9 when we did a film study of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet which was--and still is--one of the most incredible films I'd seen. Watching that film took all of my preconceptions and threw them through the nearest window. The stale, boring and pointless plays that I'd heard people complain about for years suddenly became fresh, vivid and engaging and awakened an appetite for more. I must point out that I didn't immediately launch on a quest to read everything, but I had a new way of looking at things.

As usual, I have resorted largely to talking about things which I are not terribly invaluable to anyone in particular, but let me cut through all of the melodramatic pouring out of emotion and say this: when I discovered Shakespeare, I found myself. That is pretty significant, if not to whoever's reading this, then at least to me. I teach Shakespeare not because it's in the syllabus, but I teach it to show students that it is alive, powerful and potentially life changing. If I teach for 40 years and only convert one student, it will all have been worth it.

Right. Enough guff. 'Til next time.

Getting stuff down...

So, here goes

I have on several occasions attempted to write a blog, but it never comes to fruition because of a number of different reasons, none of which are particulary important right now. What is important, is that I've begun to write at last. Perhaps, actually, I should start with what normally hinders my progress, because looking at the barriers might provide insights (or not, but at least it means I've published something onto the net)

1. Titles

Every blog must have a title and a URL to go along with the title. Now, I've tried to come up with titles, but generally they are either taken, or when I do get one that works, it's really lame. The title I've chosen for my blog now is CLERPS, which is a concept that I got from my friend and mentor Nigel Bakker. It works thus:

C = Colour
L = Laughter
E = Exaggeration
R = Rhythm
P = Pattern
S = Symbol

All of these different concepts form what helps to make lessons interesting and conducive to learning. This makes an apt title for my blog because firstly, I'm a teacher and things concerning education are of interest to me and will most likely dominate what I write about; secondly, I am currently on a bit of a journey to include more of these things in my life and this will also filter into my writing, I imagine and thirdly, it wasn't already taken.

2. Faffing

I'm quite prone to this. I tend to fixate my attention on what is not entirely important. Fixate is a good word, but obsess is even better. I will spend hours tweaking the column sizes and font colours until they are perfect and after subjecting myself to this, I become bored or too tired to write and consequently lose my motivation to write at all. With this blog I've changed the background (to a picture taken by my very talented cousin) and that's it. I'm getting down to putting words down. Granted, this will probably never be read by anyone, but it's serving as a kind of catharsis for me. That being said, if you are reading this, then be warned... there will be a lot of venting and philosophising... which leads me to my third and final barrier:

3. What do I write about?

So, I've already told you what I plan to write about, but I've always found that to be problematic, because while I find it terribly interesting, I find it unlikely that others will. Recently, however, I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to write this for me and even if no one else reads it, then it doesn't matter. When I was studying to be a teacher, we had to keep a journal during our practice sessions and I found the process to be very rewarding. After TP, though, I stopped doing it. Now that I've taught for a term, I can't help but feel that having a journal would have been tremendously beneficial. I guess I'll turn this into a journal which will compell me to keep writing and also to keeping my thoughts brief (I waffle and faff, you see).

So that's enough for now. I've put some text on a page in cyberspace. This may or may not be the start of great new things.