Final Project- It may not be perfect, but pretty dang good for me!

For my project, I decided to make my own film adaptation of the famous balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. This scene is much longer in the original script, but I cut it down considerably (my original take was over 8 minutes). This is very much a project that I could see assigning to students- in fact my students could probably do a much better job than me (someone that is very technologically deprived). I think students would love to be able to pick a scene and use their creativity to portray that scene in a short clip (probably 2-6 minutes).

Some things that don't show up very well once converted to a tiny blogger file: the title screen says, Romeo and Juliet: A scene on a balcony. Then the end title says my name and acknowledges the help of my dear friend Chris Baker (thanks again for your excellent reading skills and the use of your equipment). Also, I forgot to cut the music at the end, so even the actual video is only a couple of minutes, but the music keeps playing to the end of the song. I guess I still have some learning to do when it comes to editing...

For what it is worth, Romeo and Juliet: A scene on a balcony. Enjoy.

Also, here are some links for you to enjoy.

My 9th grade honors class wiki (the year we study R&J)
My 12 grade wiki

Teaching with media in a Perfect World

Frankly I would love to incorporate more media if I were to have access to good computers and up-to-date technology, but as it stands right now, I work in a public high school where this will not be the scenerio any time in the near future. So, for the time being, I think that making full use of film is the way to go. I currently show both the Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann versions of Romeo and Juliet as well as three versions of Hamlet. My students really seem to respond to the more modern adaptations of these two plays and often have great discussions on whether these newer versions are any good. We start out with a combination of reading the play and watching the scenes that they are studing with a more tradtionional version of the film (this version usually involves either Kenneth Branagh or Franco Zeffirelli). This allows us to understand the plot and discuss how directors make choices when staging a play. I also have them act out at least one scene in groups before watching the movie to let them be creative and imagine how the scene would look before seeing another perspective. Then, once we have a grasp on the text and some traditional ways of viewing that text, I will introduce the modern adaptations. In the cases of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, modern adaptations came out in the 90's, both involving modern settings and weaponry, but keeping the original language. This juxtoposition often causes a disconnect and many students comment on the way this feels.
I think that a great goal for a more ideal classroom would be to have students choose a scene and come up with their own video adaptation, but right now I just don't have the time, equiptment or sway in my school to make this happen, so for now I will have to keep that project in the back of my mind and make due with doing live presentations (which some would argue is the way to watch a play!).

Musical tastes?

I absolutely hate the question, "What type of music do you like?" I feel so indecisive or fickle or just not confident when I reply with, "I really like all music. Really." I am sure that I could find some songs that aren't pleasing to my ear, but in general I really do like all different genres from rock to pop to country to folk to rap to reggae. I grew up playing and enjoying many types of music, but my middle school years were probably the start of my biggest musical tastes, as those years are probably important to most people as they figure out who they are- and I believe music has a huge impact on the formation of a kid's identity. My formative years were filled with Nirvana, Green Day, Weezer, Led Zepplin, and They Might be Giants. These are the big ones, but I was really listening to so much variety, Jimmy Hendrix with my dad and The Offspring with my friends and big band with my grandpa and Sheryl Crow with Rick Dees, so my tastes are really all over the place.