Me and Bill

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May 8, 2011 by readlisaread

And of course by “Bill”, I mean William Shakespeare. In continuing with my trend of a Month of Geek, I was reminded the other day of my roots as a Theatre Geek, before I became an IT geek.  I signed up for a workshop called “Acting Shakespeare”, clearly described as a workshop for teachers to help them improve their Shakespeare instruction.  While I am a teacher, I don’t teach English or Drama, and have very little occasion to mention WS in my Info Tech or Social Studies classes.  However, aside from the dearth of other pro-d offerings, I just kind of felt like doing something different, and reconnecting with my Theatrical side sounded like just the ticket.

Our first activity was to introduce ourselves, with specific mention of our connection to Shakespeare.  My first thought was that I really didn’t remember when I heard of Shakespeare the first time–his sort of seemed to be one of those names you just grew up hearing, like Santa or Elvis or God.  I never really understood the language all that well, but as I said in my intro “I like the way it felt on the tongue”.

The facilitator (the very engaging Keith Edie of CWU)  had us do a number of activities, all designed to help us a) better understand/decode the text and 2) not be so bloody stuffy and serious about Shakespeare and just enjoy it.

I noticed I was not able to read Shakespeare cold very well– I kept trying to put eMOtion into it–like I was ACTing. It was a fun day, though, and served to remind me how precious it is to have a wide variety of interests as well as talents. I most strongly identify as a “Tech Teacher”, but I wonder if anyone recognizes that penchant for the dramatic I carry inside, that Elizabethan turn of phrase, that heart that beats in Iambic Pentameter…… Goodnight….Your very assured loving friend


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