Sunday, February 19, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Petrarch and Powerpoints
Since the beginning of the second semester I have only had two real classes to keep me busy: Third block is AP Literature and Composition, and fourth block is my internship in the Elementary School with a group of eighteen fourth graders. We are explicating poetry in the AP Lit, which I enjoy immensely when I can work with Roland and select poems for us to interpret. Last week we read through "The World is Too Much With Us" by William Wordsworth and researched the Petrarchan Sonnet, which is comprised of an octave (the first eight lines) that states a thesis or question which the sestet (the last six lines) qualifies or answers. After I made this powerpoint I began finding Petrarchan Sonnets every time I read poetry. I would recommend "God's Grandeur" by Gerard Manley Hopkins and "How do I Love Thee? Let me Count the Ways" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning to anyone interested in reading this type of poem. Also, any Wordsworth is always worth reading. Which reminds me, when I first read through "The World is Too Much With Us," I thought I recognized the line, "we lay waste our powers," from Shakespeare or another famous work, but then I realized that R. Dudlius had quoted it when writing a poem to me:
"...But as much as these two dread waste of their powers
Their split situations, thought equally sour,
Were not the same thing, for the piece you forgot
Is that the older gets paid while the younger does not."
I suppose the misunderstanding was simply a credit to R's ability to write memorable rhymes.
My internship has been a blast! Everyday I leave the gloom and despair surrounding the high school and walk into the warm, welcoming, and friendly Elementary school where everyone is happy to see me and no one is ever tired. After the first ten minutes of my first day, all of the kids in the class were comfortable and garrulous with me, and I was disappointed to leave after an hour and a half. I have only been walking over for three weeks now, but I feel as though I have been there all year. The teacher has even allowed me to teach a 40 minute vocabulary lesson, which I felt went rather well. Fouth graders make one feel extremely sociable and eloquent, because they fill in the awkward gaps in conversation and always have something to share on whatever one happens to be talking about. This is the powerpoint I made to help keep me on track during my lesson. The class was especially impressed with my hi-tech transitions and animations.
I am looking forward to spending the rest of my last year in high school reading poetry and teaching in the Elementary School, but unfortunately I still have morning gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Blah.
"...But as much as these two dread waste of their powers
Their split situations, thought equally sour,
Were not the same thing, for the piece you forgot
Is that the older gets paid while the younger does not."
I suppose the misunderstanding was simply a credit to R's ability to write memorable rhymes.
My internship has been a blast! Everyday I leave the gloom and despair surrounding the high school and walk into the warm, welcoming, and friendly Elementary school where everyone is happy to see me and no one is ever tired. After the first ten minutes of my first day, all of the kids in the class were comfortable and garrulous with me, and I was disappointed to leave after an hour and a half. I have only been walking over for three weeks now, but I feel as though I have been there all year. The teacher has even allowed me to teach a 40 minute vocabulary lesson, which I felt went rather well. Fouth graders make one feel extremely sociable and eloquent, because they fill in the awkward gaps in conversation and always have something to share on whatever one happens to be talking about. This is the powerpoint I made to help keep me on track during my lesson. The class was especially impressed with my hi-tech transitions and animations.
I am looking forward to spending the rest of my last year in high school reading poetry and teaching in the Elementary School, but unfortunately I still have morning gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Blah.
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