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 Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 12:08 am
(If you can think of a better title for this project, do tell.) Bascially, give the reader a peek into your English class from your point-of-view. This is not necessarily a criticize-the-system/my-teacher type project, though it can be. Below is what I have written. Be warned, I haven't done much editing. I mainly wanted you to see the general idea. Quote: In the way of teachrs, I often find myself preferring that one trouble-making, somewhat-crazy English teacher that was suspended last year. I used to hang on her every word, whether it be a personal story or an actual lesson. Classic literature took on a new light, and I became ambitious. She showed me Kafka and King and the purpose, the meaning of literature. Despite this, her unorthodox ways were against school policy. She was suspended, and our class was switched the next semester. Last I heard, she was having marital problems and was fired soon after. My current teacher does well enough. Each day we discuss our lesson and look at how to use tone and diction and all those other lovely English elements. Diagramming and grammar have once again been drilled into our brains. We’ve read valuable classics that would have otherwise been left untouched: Frankenstein, The Prince, The Crucible, Ethan Frome, The Allegory of the Cave, and now The Great Gatsby. Also thanks to her, William Zinsser’s On Writing Well and Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor have fallen into my hands by recommendation. She’s even thrown in free coffee on Tuesdays and Thursdays (when we remember). And like any advanced English class, we often get off topic: politics, opinions, drugs, food, books, music, squirrels—you name it, we’ve mentioned it. Those are the times when certain out-spoken individuals get their minutes of local fame, even if their banter is reduced to petty name calling and satiric japery. But despite my classmates’ antics, I am often plopping myself down into my usual desk in front of the window, and I find myself discussing the mysteries of the world with people I’ve said barely two words to in person. What does that mean? Whatever the answer, I take it as a good sign, and continue to sit quietly, happily, in my usual desk. That's not exactly what I had in mind; it may be a tad too general, but the basic idea is there. And it doesn't have to be that short. Use your own voice and style, and show us what it's like to sit in your classroom and listen to your teacher and/or classmates.
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 1:10 pm
((This sounds like fun ^^ English is one of my favourite subjects, although I don't really like the GCSE syllabus, so this year and the last haven't been great.
Warning: This will probably turn out to be very long indeed...))
English lessons... well, where do I begin? Perhaps I should start with my barely-remembered lessons with Mrs. Thorpe (or Thorp-edo as she is more commonly known) in the first year - roughly four years ago. I remember only snatches of them - highlights, if you will. I can remember on several occasions sitting staring into space, bored out of my mind. (Mrs. Thorpe's teaching style isn't the most captivating). I can remember studying The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in play form, and reading ahead in order to alleviate my boredom whilst everyone else read round v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. I can remember having one lesson a week in the library (40 minutes of just reading - bliss!) and studying a book about Russian Jews in the time of World War Two which had the word 'Steppe' in the title. I remember what was possibly the best lesson of the year, in which we went outside and looked at the trees and fruit, and later wrote poems about Autumn. I remember studying 'The Lady of Ise' and Chaucer's 'Cantebury Tales'. I remember scribbling frantically in the end-of-year exam, writing a story about dolphins, receiving full marks for it, and later having Mrs. Thorpe tell me that she could count on one hand the number of students to whom she had awarded full marks in her teaching career. (Either she's very stingy, or guilty of gross exaggeration. x3 My money is on the former. She's not an exaggerating sort of person).
Next, my second year. Mrs. Hurlock was a fun teacher to have. I remember how instead of clapping, we'd do little funny hand motions, opening and closing our fingers in order to keep quiet. I don't remember much of what we studied, except for 'A Spoonful of Jam' by Michelle Magorian and enjoying it a lot. I can recall clearly the time Mrs. Hurlock went ballistic when someone spilt a drink on a desk. (She can't abide drinks in the classroom, and so to actually spill one was an unimagineable crime). I remember having to write a story beginning with the sentence, 'The sun beat down like...' and I remember her saying that when writing a story, you should discard the first idea you come up with, since it'll be the obvious one. I still use that advice.
Third year: my favourite year. Perhaps I'm remembering it through 'rose-tinted glasses', as it were, but Mrs. Wray was a truly excellent teacher. Instead of studying the same books as everyone else, I read more advanced novels - 'To Kill a Mockingbird', Daphne Du Maurier's 'Rebecca', and 'Jane Eyre'. Two out of three times it was simply because there weren't enough copies of the book we were meant to be studying (and the other time was because I read the book we were meant to be studying on the day we were given it XD), but it made me feel special. I remember studying 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', and going into the Memorial Hall to act out scenes on the stage - something that Mrs. Hurlock promised to do but never actually did, whereas Mrs. Wray did. I remember studying 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and just sitting, listening to Mrs. Wray reading it rather than follow the text. I remember sitting between Amy and Fleur, and getting to be pretty good friends with them. I remember studying love poetry - I generally dislike the topic, and yet I enjoyed it with Mrs. Wray. We did one about an onion, and one about a box. I remember having class discussions too, and almost getting into an argument at one point, though fortunately the other girl shut up before I let loose on her.
For my fourth and fifth years, I have been back with Mrs. Hurlock. There's no such thing as 'advanced classes' in my school - or indeed in the whole country as far as I'm aware - and we're not normally put into sets for English, but mercifully they decided to experiment with our year and created one top set, and made the rest of the classes equal. I ended up in the top set, and I like it that way. I can't claim to find the GCSE material fascinating - most of the time it's downright dull, and I despise picking short stories to bits and finding hidden meanings in every single line of poetry to the point of excess. However, Mrs. Hurlock lets us listen to our Ipods or MP3 players (or Zen Micros, in Sally's case) when we're working on an essay, and I do like essays.
My favourite essay to write was one comparing Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'Turned' and 'The Yellow Wallpaper' (which only those who had been in Mrs. Wray's class the previous year had studied). I was the only one who did that combination of stories - and since they were by the same author, it cut down a lot on background research! The other two essays I have written were one on love poetry (again! :XP smile and the other on Shakespeare's 'Othello'.
Yes, we fought our way through 'Othello' during the course of our fifth year, and we have also managed 'Death of a Salesman' as well. I have to say that having Mrs. Hurlock in the fourth and fifth years isn't as good as our second year (though the study material is much to blame for that) - she sometimes contradicts herself, and is very fond of nagging us to do more things for ourselves - take initiative, be proactive - and insisting that she's 'not our secretary'. Several people have pointed out - not to her, but to each other - that during our fourth year her excuse for taking ages to mark our work was that her fifth years took priority - and yet now we're fifth years, she still takes forever!
My favourite part was when we had to write a short story entitled 'Through the Keyhole'. Creative writing is my forte, and I spent several enjoyable lessons just letting my mind wander through possibilities for the story. When I got it back from her, I panicked at the sight of a fluorescent Post-It note stuck to it - what had I done wrong? - only to find that it was a note telling me to please use a bigger font next time!
We don't do much by way of class discussion - sure, we say stuff, but we never stray as far from the topic as it would appear Serieve's class do (I'm jealous surprised ). The best class discussion we had was when we spent an entire lesson talking about dreams (half the class were away) in preparation for studying a poem related to that topic. I also enjoyed the discussions about other personalities and doppelgangers which ensued from studying Sylvia Plath's 'Mirror' (one of the better poems on the syllabus).
So, there's all that I can say about English at my school. (Hope you're still awake and reading!) I intend to take the subject at both AS and A level (i.e. for the next two years) and although I'm very sad that there is no creative writing on the syllabus whatsoever, I reckon I'll enjoy it.
((As I predicted, this is very long gonk If you like, I can shorten it? The last bit - fourth and fifth year - is really only what you were looking for, I know, but I did enjoy this trip down Memory Lane. ^_^))
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:43 pm
^^ Thank you.
That brings our total to 3, I believe.
I guess that'll make do.
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Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:32 pm
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