Once again, I present my top ten favorite posts of the year as a countdown. Only three of this year’s entries deal directly with the Common Core.<\/p>\n
10. The Wager<\/a> (April 28)<\/p>\n My friend Brian bet me he could pass my Shakespeare final without taking the course, and I accepted his wager. We both ended up learning more than we had expected.<\/p>\n 9. Shakespeare and the Common Core<\/a> (January 6)<\/p>\n Does the Common Core really eliminate all literature in favor of dry government manuals? Not even close. In fact, Shakespeare is actually mandated by the Common Core.<\/p>\n 8. Shakespeare Follow-Up: Circumnavigation<\/a> (November 29)<\/p>\n This year saw a new feature added to the blog: The Shakespeare Follow-Up<\/a>. I chose this one, following up from A Midsummer Night’s Dream<\/em>, as a representative sample.<\/p>\n 7. Cleopatra\u2019s Facebook<\/a> (April 17)<\/p>\n This project actually happened two years ago, but I worked with a class of 6th grade students who created a Facebook page for the Egyptian queen, reflecting the events of Antony and Cleopatra<\/em>. <\/p>\n 6. Don\u2019t Be Rotten to the Core<\/a> (October 2)<\/p>\n While I do have some specific concerns about the Common Core, fixating on distortions and distractions prevents us from having the real conversations we need to have about education.<\/p>\n 5. Shakespeare Clickbait<\/a> (December 25)<\/p>\n What if we used the same tactics to get people to read Shakespeare that websites like Buzzfeed and Upworthy use to get readers to click on their stories? I present: Shakespeare Clickbait.<\/p>\n 4. Danny and the Death Ray<\/a> (January 9)<\/p>\n This is a nice little story about a small town, and one boy who dared to speak out in order to save it. Some people read into it as an allegory for something else, but I just don’t see it. <\/p>\n 3. In the Zone<\/a> (March 6)<\/p>\n Wouldn’t it be a shame if the Common Core really were a better way to structure education, but nobody ever knew it because the implementation had been botched so badly?<\/p>\n 2. Shakespeare Song Parody: We Love the Plays of Shakespeare<\/a> (June 28)<\/p>\n