A Shakespearean Sonnet by Catherine Tate and David Tennant

This is a really famous comic sketch.  You may have seen it before, but it’s so entertaining that its worth another look.

Problems writing essay paragraphs?

 

This site offers very specific step-by-step help for writing paragraphs.  Have a try … it can only benefit you!

http://www.paragraphpunch.com/

Romeo and Juliet – music

Romeo and Juliet, Yr 11

Make links between texts year 13!

Kiwi! is an animation about a Kiwi who spends its whole life working towards achieving his dream. The kiwi strived to create the illusion that it was flying over a forest as it soared down through the sky from the top of a cliff. Thus, the kiwi spent what must have been its whole life nailing trees to the side of a cliff. All this, to fulfil its one dream of flying, even though it was technically unable to. There are several powerful messages behind Kiwi, but mainly, it makes you think: no matter how absurd and seemingly out of reach your dreams are, what’s stopping you from achieving them?  Dony Permedi, the animator and mind behind “Kiwi!” was interviewed about his work.

Q: In your words, what is the message behind “Kiwi!”?

A: Dony: “Well, let’s see… I think you can take the wrong message away from Kiwi. Some might see it as me telling you that your dreams are worth dying for (if he did die). I don’t necessarily believe that, but I think I am showing a character who is like that. Some people can be obsessive over something that only they can understand. I suppose that’s why I ended it the way I did. I think part of the sadness, comes from people asking ‘Why would he do such a thing? What is driving him to do all of this?’

So, year 13, what links to literary texts can you make with this?

Bookworms and angry sunflowers

There’s lots of cool, fun stuff on the net – and much of it is educational too.  Here’s a link to a bookworm game that looks a little childish in the graphics, but it is every bit as challenging as the BOGGLE lexical game.  
Click here to obtain a trial version: http://www.popcap.com/games/bookwormadventures2/

I found this game at this site: http://angryflower.com/ 

This cartoon has Bob the angry flower yelling at us for using the apostrophe incorrectly so often.  Enlarge it and take a look at is, it’s really good!  Here’s a link to a bigger picture http://www.journalismcareers.com/guidetotheapostrophe.shtml

At the same site are good excercises for all sorts of things : editing, proofreading, touchtyping – have a browse around.

http://www.journalismcareers.com/training/index.shtml – for editing/proofreading

http://www.journalismcareers.com/funstuff.shtml – for hangman, crosswords, and the awesome ‘mood swings’ link

The Great Gatsby Obsession

Calvin Klein created four 30-second commercials that loosely interpreted scenes from classic novels: Ernest Hemingway’s ”The Sun Also Rises,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ”The Great Gatsby,” D.H. Lawrence’s ”Women in Love,” and Gustave Flaubert’s ”Madame Bovary.” Each advert begins with a title identifying the author, is in black and white, and the vignette is narrated using a brief passage from the book.  In an amazing coincidence, the actor who play ‘Gatsby’ in the advert should be a familiar face … who is he and where do you recognise him from?

From Twitter to Asttle

Have you been invited to join twitter?  Or are you already putting ‘tweets’ out there?  Personally,  I’m still not sure about this one … when I listen to one of the breakfast shows sharing ‘celebrity tweets’ they sound so banal.  The celebrity tweets consist of things like ” I’ve just washed my hair” or “I picked the kids up from school then took them for a milkshake.”   Maybe I just haven’t had the attraction of  this sort of communication explained to me!    An enthusiastic explanation always makes a big difference.  Today I had a colleague provide the first really clear explanation of ASTTLE I have ever had (not that I have had many explanations about this diagnostic tool!)  Finally I can see what the benefit is in using these test results.  Yay 🙂

Book Week: Week 1, Term 3

Take a look at this inspirational clip which is all about books and reading – the theme of Book Week.  After viewing the clip, try to decide which quote you will remember forever … mine is the one by Emerson!

Space Invader Spelling

Have you ever played the classic “old school” computer game called Space Invaders?  If you have, you’re sure to enjoy Silent Invaders from the BBC.  If you haven’t, you have missed one of life’s simple pleasures!This version of the old game assists students to shoot down spaceships that contain  silent letters … it’s a fun way to improve your spelling. 

Click here for a link to the game:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/spelling/soundandspell/silentletters/game.shtml