Friday, May 2, 2008

Another thought on Roman Gods

Another thought on Roman gods is that it would be good to know thier Greek counter parts being that they are basically the same gods with different names in most cases.
Jupiter=Zues
Juno=Hera
Mars=Ares
Minerva=Athena
Pluto=Hades
Mercury=Hermes
Vulcan=Hephestus
Venus=Aphrodite
Another important god to be aware of is Apollo the god of the sun. He plays many important roles throughout Greek mythology.

A good site to go to for information on modern Venice

This site is Venice's official site. It has everything from vacation tips to history. http://www.venetia.it/

A little bit on Roman Gods

A little bit of History is a useful thing to know. Here are a list of a few Roman gods that are important.
Jupiter the big cheese so to speak.
Juno wife of Jupiter
Mars god of war
Venus goddess of beauty
Pluto god of the underworld
Neptune god of the sea
Mercury the messenger
Diana goddess of the moon, and hunting
Ceres the goddess of harvest
Vulcan god of the forge
Minerva goddess of wisdom and craft
Bacchus god of wine and partying
Vesta goddess of hearth and home.
for more info go to http://www.roman-empire.net/children/gods.html

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Great Resources

Hey guys,
As an education major, what I want from this class and this blog are a multitude of wonderful resources to use in the future. Hopefully, a few of you are on the same page and enjoy these posts.
This Shakespearean Dictionary is amazing. Did you know that facinorous means wicked?
This site has famous quotes.
Learn some information about the history of the Globe Theater at this site.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Another Just For Kids Site

I know I have already posted a site for kids, but one more can't hurt. Have fun with coloring, word searches, mazes, crosswords, and puzzles here.

Wiredforbooks.org

I wish I would have found this site sooner. The site has audio and video readings of almost all Shakespearean plays and a few sonnets. For me, reading Shakespeare is so much easier when I follow along to someone else reading aloud. This site would be wonderful for students, especially students with lower reading levels.

Shakespeare For Kids

Here is one last site from the Folger Shakespeare Library. It's full of activities for kids. Check out Shakespearean insults, word jumbles, fun facts, coloring, puzzles, and more. I have several favorites on this site. I absolutely love the Who am I? game in which a short descriptive paragraph is given and you guess the character. Here is an example from the site. Can you guess who it is?

Two men are chasing me in the forest. They declare they love me, but yesterday they both loved my friend. I don't understand why they mock me so!

Or, take the Shakespeare challenge.
Only one of Shakespeare's comedies is set in England. Name the play.

I have one last favorite. The site provides the recipe for wassail, a beverage drank during holiday celebrations like the one in The Twelfth Night. It looks yummy!

At my practicum, I was grading some Romeo and Juliet tests the eighth graders had completed. The essay question required them to reflect on their level of understanding for reading Shakespeare. One student remarked that he/she had heard so many times that Shakespeare was difficult that he/she did not even want to try. However, after he/she had started reading, he/she discovered the reading was challenging but not impossible. Sites like this one, that put a fun spin on Shakespeare, put students at ease and encourages students to try. These engaging, interactive, and educational websites are a wonderful asset to teaching Shakespeare, especially in the younger grades.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

More Teacher's Resources Makes April Happy

Also from the Shakespeare Folger Library, this page is an educator's dream-come-true. These teacher's resources are organized by lesson plans, primary resources, study guides, audio and visual, teacher's lounge, and other sources.
The site shows five featured Shakespeare lesson plans every month, but also has allows searching through archived lesson plans.
The primary resources part of the site is really cool. The Folger Institute is home to many early modern books. The site shows excerpts of these books along with teaching ideas. Like with the lesson plans, the site features a few early modern books or manuscripts on a variety of topics, but also archives all books to allow for searching. For an interesting experience, browse this book, Coryats Crudities, written by Thomas Coryats and published in 1611. The book is about Coryats observations of Jews as he travels through Western Europe and his analysis of Jewish stereotypes, very fitting for this The Merchant of Venice blog.
The site has study guides for many of Shakespeare's plays, but not The Merchant of Venice. "Each study guide contains a plot summary, a list of characters, interactive activities, and discussion questions."
Under the audio and visual category, the site contains a podcast about Macbeth's themes, characters, and conflicts. In addition, another video shows students how to remix Shakespeare scenes to create original audio dramas. Any teacher should check out this engaging activity.
The site also has a teacher's lounge, a forum where teachers can ask questions, give answers, or just share.
The site also includes many other links in the other resources category.

Folger Shakespeare Library

This page is from the Folger Shakespeare Library website. This particular page provides a great short synopsis of the Merchant of Venice. Even better, the page contains graphics of paintings depicting scenes from this play. The watercolor of the trial scene is amazing. :)

Saturday, February 9, 2008

I Love pbs.org

As a future educator, I become really excited when I find information about my topic on pbs.org. Of course, the site is very educational yet very readable. Masterpiece Theatre, a PBS series, performed The Merchant of Venice is 2001. This website features many great links.
The "Essays and Interviews" link will be very helpful for writing our papers. This link includes "An Interview with Trevor Nunn," "Onstage at the National," "Shylock and History," and "The Shortest Shakespeare." For more information about these great essays visit this link, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/essays.html.
Click the "Who Was Shakespeare" link, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/shakespeare.html, to find a brief biography of Shakespeare that includes of all his works.
The "Drama to Film" link, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/ntof.html, is really neat. You can see how a scene transforms from Shakespeare's original vision into director Trevor Nunn's vision. Both scripts of the scene are available as well as a clip of the TV film.
The "Story Synopsis" link, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/synopsis.html, is just that, a reliable story synopsis.
"Will's Words" is my favorite link. This link, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/words.html, is an interactive game about Shakespeare and his masterful words. For example, out of the words 'aerial,' 'alibi,' and 'pandemonium,' can you spot which one is Shakespeare's?
"Who's Who", http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/whos_who.html, is a creative and helpful graphic organizer of characters showing paraental relationships, love interests, and service relationships. If you click on the picture of the person, it will give you some identifying information about both the character and the actor.
Of course, the "Teacher's Guide" link is one of my favorite features. This link,http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/tguide.html, includes various essays, project ideas, summaries, and other resources.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Exploration and Trade During the Renaissance

As the first research question of ACT 1 states, "Antonio is a business entrepreneur who spends large amounts of money buying merchandise intended for resale abroad. " This website, http://www.learner.org/interactives/renaissance/exploration.html, provides a concise summary of the exploration and trade during the Renaissance. Also, if you go to this part of the website, http://www.learner.org/interactives/renaissance/spicetrade/, you can test your trading skills in this interactive game where you become a spice trader and an owner of your very own ship. :)

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog.