A Tool that Might Help Everyone

Hey everybody,

There's been a lot of posts about difficulty this week, so I thought I could maybe lend a hand.

I don't know how many of you have ever heard of Disqus, but it's kind of a community for communities on the internet--they try and collect all the discussions on the internet into one place, and let you talk on all these discussions with one profile. They have a new tool called Gooqus that lets you search for discussions happening on the internet. Just put anything in the search box and make sure you click that "Disqus (discussion enabled sites)."

This will obviously help you find forums for your topics, but also might help spur new ideas about what you're thinking about.

Hope it helps! Good luck, team!

Paul

Life lessons from A Midsummer Night's Dream....?

YES I anticipate using all that free time in class to discuss PLACES I have found good info, get FEEDBACK on my argument ideas, and find ways to HELP my classmates.

What can I research for YOU? Please THINK about it and you can either POST HERE or let me know in our next lovely FREE TIME in class. J

Thanks to discussion with my group today, I have boiled my thesis plan down from three to two to ONE great idea. WHY TEACH SHAKESPEARE TO TEENAGERS: FIVE LIFE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. I have been trying to think of good life lessons to fill in these five slots. Any suggestions? Here are some ideas I’ve already got. Let me know if you support/disapprove/can add to them/think I should alter them. Thanks!

1. Don’t do drugs.
2. Get married.
3. Watch out for obsession about romance.
4. Law of chastity  (good job for not cuddling up in the forest)
5. Be loyal to your friends.
6. Be careful about rebelling against your father (they were running away from him when all this crazy stuff happened)
7. Be careful about listening to your crazy father’s advice (he wanted Hermia to marry Demetrius! No bueno!)
8.   ?
9.   ?
10.   ?

Oh, didn't think of that...

I was really interested in Mallory's writing process. I was struck by her story of her paper (here) mainly because she addressed teaching with high school students and the idea of Shakespeare as a psychologist seems really intriguing. I also think it is very important to think about your audience's needs when writing anything really, and the way she addressed that idea with her students in mind struck a chord with me.

I read through the rest of her posts and saw that she asked her sister in high school for help, which is something I hadn't thought to do. In accordance with my previous post, I think that would be beneficial to me. I really enjoyed just seeing the thought process of another student and realizing there are A LOT of things I don't tend to think through or even think about in the first place. It was really helpful and has helped my own thought process get a running start.