It’s time once again to check in on what searches people have done to find themselves at Shakespeare Teacher, and to respond in the name of fun and public service. All of the following searches brought people to this site in the past week.

descendants of king george iii

Now we’re getting a little closer to the present. King George III was king during the American Revolution; he was the King George we were revolting against. His reign was long – over 59 years! In fact, only his granddaughter Victoria reigned longer, though Elizabeth II is likely to pass him as well on May 12, 2011. But I digress.

George III is a direct ancestor of all subsequent monarchs of England. He was succeeded by two sons, a granddaughter, a great grandson, etc. So I’d imagine he’d be a direct ancestor of pretty much everyone who we consider to be of English royal birth today, though someone with a better grasp of how all of that works may correct me. I’d also imagine that he has many descendants who are not considered English royalty, their connection to the crown being too distant. Again, I am not beyond correction on this point.

what age group is tudors for?

The Tudors is for adults.

anagrams with the word teacher

Cheater!

what historically happened when shakespeare was living

Many important historical events occurred during the 52 years of Shakespeare’s life, both in the world and in England in particular. Shakespeare was born in 1564, just two months after Galileo, and died on his birthday in 1616 on the same day as Cervantes (actually ten days later).

That’s a lot of history to cover here, but I’ll give you a sampling of five of the more significant English, but non-Shakespearean, events that took place during Shakespeare’s lifetime and how they may have affected Shakespeare. I invite readers to quibble with my choices:

1588 – The English navy defeats the Spanish Armada. This sparked a new era of English patriotism which coincided with the beginning of Shakespeare’s writing career. It’s why a lot of his early plays are Histories, as that was a popular trend at the time.

1603 – Elizabeth I dies without an heir, and is eventually replaced by King James I. James became a patron of Shakespeare’s company, now “The King’s Men,” and Shakespeare will write Macbeth in honor of the new king.

1605 – Catholic conspirators attempt to murder James in the Gunpowder Plot. It is believed that there are references to the Gunpowder Plot in Macbeth.

1607 – Establishment of Jamestown colony in Virginia. The Tempest may have been inspired by the wreck of a ship that was headed for the colony.

1611 – Publication of the King James Bible. Rumors that Shakespeare worked on the project are mere speculation. Stories about Psalm 46 containing hidden messages should be taken with a grain of salt.

shakespeare julius caesar slings and arrows

The expression “slings and arrows” is from Hamlet, but I assume you’re talking about the Canadian television series. There were three seasons, each revolving around a different Shakespearean tragedy. Julius Caesar was not one of them. The plays were, in order, Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear.

if henry the 8th was alive today what would he look like

He would look like a 517-year-old man holding a giant drumstick.

I leave the task of responding to the remaining search terms to my readers:

at what point should you feel bad for iachimo

who were shakespeare’s teacher

shakespeare time machine professor

funny alternate endings for king lear

music for a powerpoint shakespeare music

shakespeare was not good at math

I’m a step up in pitch; or a drop that is sheer;
I’m a cheddar with bite; or a merciless jeer;
I’m a mind that is lucid; a picture that’s clear;
I’m the blade of the sword; I’m the tip of the spear.

Who am I?

UPDATE: Riddle solved by Brian. See comments for answer.

Yesterday, I gave a workshop for teachers on using data to improve student achievement. This is something that is going to become an increasing part of my work, so I may be blogging about it from time to time. The idea is to cull information about students from a variety of sources, systematically analyze that information in order to identify areas of improvement, and then create an action plan for targeting those areas.

In some cases, the results of careful data analysis can be surprising. So often we jump to conclusions about why students aren’t achieving, or we depend on underlying assumptions that may be based on our own pre-conceived notions. Consider for a moment this piece of student work:

Laugh if you must, but it’s easy to get the wrong idea from only a cursory examination. Further investigation revealed that the child’s mother works at Home Depot, and is here depicted selling snow shovels. And if you only relied on your initial observations and didn’t investigate further, you could be lead astray.

Hopefully, the systematic use of data will allow us to avoid such snap judgements and take a more scientific approach to improving student achievement.

If I could only do one…

Twitter or Facebook?

This is the fifth in a five-part series of Shakespeare Lipograms. For my final lipogram, I have chosen to summarize a Dark Comedy (or Problem play), Measure for Measure, using “U” as the only vowel.

Enjoy!

Just, but Unjust

Full Dutch must run, but puts up Curt Sub. Curt Sub (plus Humdrum Guru) must run Full Dutch’s turf. Curt Sub shuns lust, thus Curst Slut must shut up smut hut. Lustful Stud plucks un-nupt Cub Mum. Curt Sub busts Lustful Stud plus Cub Mum, but must snuff just Lustful Stud. Such junk luck! Numbskull Cutup hunts trump club: Trustful Nun. Full Dutch trusts Curt Sub, but must cull turf hubbub. Thus, Full Dutch turns Untruthful Church Guy, lurks hushful.

Punchdrunk Fuzz busts Pub Bum plus Dumbstruck Chum, but Humdrum Guru chucks such dumb busts. Numbskull Cutup drums up Trustful Nun. Trustful Nun must churn up Curt Sub’s ruth, but just churns up Curt Sub’s lust! Curt Sub puts crux thus: Trustful Nun succumbs, Lustful Stud’s sprung; Trustful Nun puts up fuss, Lustful Stud’s hurt. Such scum! Trustful Nun burns up, must burst truthful lungs, but Curt Sub shuts such bluffs up. Turf bunch trusts Curt Sub such, Trustful Nun’s slurs must rust. Nuts!

Untruthful Church Guy (Full Dutch) lulls jug-thrust Lustful Stud. Trustful Nun unfurls Curt Sub’s crux. Lustful Stud puts up spurn, but blurts much flux, succumbs, puts thumbs up. Trustful Nun burns up. Untruthful Church Guy lulls Trustful Nun, curbs Lustful Stud’s pluck. Punchdrunk Fuzz busts Pub Bum. Numbskull Cutup busts up jug-thrust Pub Bum. Numbskull Cutup murmurs untruthful Full Dutch slurs, stuns Untruthful Church Guy. But Humdrum Guru tuts Curt Sub, must gush Full Dutch’s surplus.

Untruthful Church Guy drums up Curt Sub’s Ur-Crush. Ur-Crush turns Untruthful Trustful Nun, humps Curt Sub. Dusk plus untruthful duds tuck up bluff. Curt Sub buys hump bluff, but burns Trustful Nun, puts up bull: Jug Grunt must snuff Lustful Stud, Curt Sub must clutch Lustful Stud’s skull. Ugh!

Gruff Thug duns Pub Bum cut Lustful Stud’s scruff plus Drunk Grump’s. Untruthful Church Guy turns Jug Grunt; Lustful Stud puffs. Drunk Grump puts up much fuss. Flu-Struck Mug punts. Such luck! Thus, Jug Grunt blurs truth, puts up Lustful Stud snuff, but trucks Curt Sub untruthful skull (Flu-Struck Mug’s). Numbskull Cutup bugs Untruthful Church Guy. Curt Sub buys skull bluff.

Full Dutch turns up. Trustful Nun sums up Curt Sub tumult. Full Dutch murmurs Curt Sub’s just, thus Trustful Nun must trump up slurs, busts Trustful Nun. Truthful Church Guy plus Ur-Crush pump up Trustful Nun’s crux, but Full Dutch trusts Curt Sub. Full Dutch must run. Untruthful Church Guy turns up. Numbskull Cutup slurs Untruthful Church Guy. Humdrum Guru busts Untruthful Church Guy. Numbskull Cutup tugs Untruthful Church Guy’s duds, thus unfurls… Full Dutch! Curt Sub must blush. Numbskull Cutup must skulk.

Full Dutch busts Curt Sub. Curt Sub must nup Ur-Crush. Curt Sub nups Ur-Crush, but Full Dutch must snuff Curt Sub: “Pull Lustful Stud’s plug, pull Curt Sub’s plug. Snuff plus snuff. Rust crusts up rust, plus trust burns such trust. Lust churns up lust, but just turns much unjust. Thus, trust us, truth must snuff Curt Sub. Rush!” Ur-Crush sulks, duns Trustful Nun murmur ruth. Trustful Nun succumbs, murmurs much ruth.

Trustful Nun stuns Full Dutch, but Full Dutch must snuff Curt Sub. Full Dutch hurls Jug Grunt bum’s rush. Jug Grunt must blush, but drums up Drunk Grump, plus… Lustful Stud! Trustful Nun jumps. Curt Sub puffs. Ur-Crush bursts. Full Dutch bumps Humdrum Guru plus Jug Grunt up turf rungs. Lustful Stud must nup Cub Mum. Drunk Grump’s sprung. Numbskull Cutup’s sunk, must suck up just lumps, must nup Smut Punk. Trustful Nun’s up, up, up!

But nun-lust struck Full Dutch. Full Dutch sums up crux. Um…

Bonus Lipogram: The Tempest

From Julius Caesar:

Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself
Are much condemn’d to have an itching palm;
To sell and mart your offices for gold
To undeservers.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Once a scandal fully surrounds some Democratic governor, the other side could smugly flaunt it every time one of them plays as foul.

It’s time once again to check in on what searches people have done to find themselves at Shakespeare Teacher, and to respond in the name of fun and public service. All of the following searches brought people to this site in the past week.

googleplex fridaysThis feature happens to share its name with the headquarters of Google Inc., located in Mountain View, California. I have no idea what goes on there on Fridays.

how come king james didn’t like macbethI don’t grant your premise, unless you are referring to the historical figure and not the Shakespeare play. In fact, you might say that the play was actually written specifically to appeal to the new king. Witches were a fascination for James, so he’d have been intrigued from the start. Also, James was a direct descendent of both the historical Malcolm and the historical Banquo. Notice that the witches make a prophecy that doesn’t actually come true in the play, which is an odd dramatic convention. They prophecy that Banquo will not be king, but will instead be the father to a line of kings. Later, Macbeth is shown a vision of eight kings along with the ghost of Banquo who points at them for his. The eighth king is meant to be King James, as he is the eighth king in the house of Stewart. The prophecy doesn’t come true in the play; it comes true in the audience.

presidents with the letter xSo far, it’s just Nixon, but the night is young.

shakespeare film 2010You do realize you’re skipping over a whole year, right? No interest in The Tempest with Helen Mirren as Prospero? Not anxiously awaiting the new Hamlet with Screech and the Chocolate Rain guy? Okay. From what I can tell, the Shakespeare film event of 2010 will be King Lear with Anthony Hopkins in the title role and Naomi Watts, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Keira Knightley as his three extremely beautiful daughters. Also, Eddie Murphy – I kid you not – is planning to do a version of Romeo & Juliet. I imagine he will be playing both roles, but that’s pure speculation.

shakespeare king henry lambasts halI was amused to see this one because I used the phrase “lambasts Hal” in my first Shakespeare Lipogram, and I chose the verb because it only has the vowel “A” in it. But I wonder if you’re really looking for that scene from Henry IV, Part One, or if you’re actually looking for this scene from Henry IV, Part Two. It’s one of the great scenes from one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known works and was even listed as #38 on my Top 50 scenes in all of Shakespeare.

Hal finds his deathly-ill father asleep, assumes he’s dead, and takes the crown off with him. When he returns, the King’s awake, and lambasts Hal. They reconcile, and Henry gives his son advice for how to be king. The language is… there’s no adjective I could use that you wouldn’t say “Well, yeah, it’s Shakespeare” but the language is particularly rich and evocative in this scene. I did an anagram of a quote from it a while back, but I’m surprised I still haven’t done the most timely quote of them all: “Be it thy course to busy giddy minds/ With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out,/ May waste the memory of the former days.” It’s even got a “Q” in it. I’ll have to save that one for a rainy day.

is macbeth is worth readingMost definitely. I suggest gathering a group of friends together, dividing up the roles, and reading it out loud. Trust me on this one. That’s how to read Macbeth.

I leave the task of responding to the remaining search terms to my readers:

why is shakespeare is one of the founding fatherswhat did the tudors bring back to England

was shakespeare a teacher?

slings and arrows on demand time warner

which president read macbeth before he die

how did shakespeare die on youtube

 

On computers, I’m documents folders possess,
But in real life, the folder, preventing a mess;
I’m a column for soldiers, or pieces in chess;
And a tool that you’d use to remove the excess.

Who am I?

UPDATE: Riddle solved by a Glo County H.S. student. See comments for answer.

Well, I finally got the reading group started up again. A member generously offered to host in January, I got the invites out, and we’ve already got enough RSVPs to hold the reading (any less than four, and I cancel).

We’ll be reading All’s Well that Ends Well, which is a play that’s pretty far down the list of plays that I’m familiar with. I think I’ve read it only twice, but both times I had the chance to discuss the play with others: once in a graduate course, and once for a discussion group I was part of. We’ve never done a reading of it, even though my group has been doing monthly readings for over six years now. I have also never seen a production of it, though I may check out the BBC DVD before the reading.

The bottom line is that I’m pretty excited to revisit a play that I remember enjoying very much but don’t necessarily remember why. It didn’t make my Top 25 plays last year, which is not surprising given my limited recollection of the story, but somehow Helena made my list of Top 50 characters, so I guess I’m not completely out to lunch.

One of my favorite scenes (though apparently not one of my Top 50 scenes in Shakespeare) was the scene where Parolles is blindfolded and the soldiers speak in a made-up language to convince him that they are enemy soldiers speaking a foreign language.

Anyway, are there any big All’s Well fans out there? Let’s make some noise. What about this play does it for you? What do we have to look forward to?

Via One Little Fish comes a very funny, very timely video:

More information about the project here. The video has received over 1 million hits, spreading awareness about an important issue, and making a powerful statement about activism in the information age.

My organization just held an event today that had 7th grade students giving persuasive PowerPoint presentations on current events issues ranging from gun control to the death penalty. I served as emcee, and had a lot of fun riling up the students about speaking out on issues and taking an active part in their democracy.

Perhaps for the next round we should consider using video. I’m already planning a project with students to create Public Service Announcements about environmental issues. Creating current events PSAs in social studies class seems like the logical next step. I’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE: In the post, I said that the video has received over 1 million hits. Actually, the video topped 1 million views on its first day.