'Richard II' on Wordle

No 30 in our Shakespeare Wordles series : Richard II.

Wordles are created by Jonathan Feinberg's online tool here; the more times the word appears in the text, the larger the word. In our Shakespeare Wordles, the entire text, including the name indicators of the characters before they speak, is included. Thus you can see how relatively dominant a character is in each play, as well as spot recurring ideas and themes. Our Wordles use different numbers of 'maximum words'. Click on the image for a closer view.

First Library Staff selection

Mr McConville has started off an interesting development in the Library, which is to ask members of staff to select books which have particularly influenced them in the past, and which they would like to recommend and, briefly, write about. These books will then be displayed in the Library, together with the teacher's comments. SCC English has always been keen on sharing book enthusiasms by both pupils and staff, and this is an excellent project.

First up is Mr Peter Jackson (not unrelated to our amphibian friends), whose selection is primarily scientific, and which you can read here (pictured, the display itself).

Among the non-scientific books he has chosen are two books set in Africa - Joyce Cary's Mr Johnson and Alan Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country - and, rather closer to home, The Crock of Gold, by James Stephens, about which Peter writes :-

I have always enjoyed 'Fairy Stories' and this is an essential one. I first read it when I was about 17 (a long, long time ago) and was enthralled by the descriptive charm of author. It is based on the life of Fionn McCool who lived here on Kilmashogue Mountain. Little did I dream as I read, and re-read it, that this is where I would spend the majority of my life. Fairy tales do come true!

Next stop, our Classical and Business Studies colleague, Mr Peter McCarthy. We'll be reporting on all these staff selections as they're displayed.

Kavanagh: our poet for the recession?

In today's Irish Times, Alan O'Riordan has a feature which is worth reading on Patrick Kavanagh (on the Leaving Cert course for both 2010 and 2011), called 'Kavanagh's Lessons for Simple Living'. He writes:-

Denied his travel and his products, the cosmopolitan thinks life has stopped, when perhaps what is needed is to develop a talent for simplicity and for staying put, either out of necessity or because of a realisation that we have all “tasted and tested too much”. That quote is no accident – for Patrick Kavanagh could be the poet laureate of the post-Celtic Tiger age.

O'Riordan also mentions poems on the LC course such as 'Epic', 'Advent', 'Canal Bank Walk' and 'The Hospital. Full article here.

English Teaching 3

Our pupils start exams this week, so an appropriate post as the third of an occasional series for English teachers... We'll post some more English teachers' recommendations over the next few days.

Teachit, the British-based resource for English teaching online, has an excellent clock/timer for class tests/exams for display via projector (it can be used from the site, or downloaded to your computer). It can also be used for a sequence of timings within a lesson. You can set it in a variety of ways, and have options too for alerts and alarms (including a whistle, gong, woof and baa!). It's well-designed, being clear and big, and will keep your pupils on schedule... They've got an advice sheet here on how it can be used.

So set that sheep alarm and get going...

'Timon of Athens' on Wordle

No 29 in our Shakespeare Wordles series : Timon of Athens

Wordles are created by Jonathan Feinberg's online tool here; the more times the word appears in the text, the larger the word. In our Shakespeare Wordles, the entire text, including the name indicators of the characters before they speak, is included. Thus you can see how relatively dominant a character is in each play, as well as spot recurring ideas and themes. Our Wordles use different numbers of 'maximum words'. Click on the image for a closer view.

Short Story Competition 2

The second of the Junior Cert form stories, started on Saturday, is by Julian Coquet-Benka, and is called 'Yes, or No?' Again, it starts with the set opening : From the other side of the wall, I could hear their footsteps getting closer. It was definitely now or never! I ran down the hall, using the shadows for cover.

Read Julian's full story here.

SCC English on Twitter

Our Twitter page is here (and in the sidebar); we'll be using it mostly for posting interesting links to all things English.

Short Story Competition 1

Recently, we launched a short story competition for World Book Day 2010. Winners will be chosen early next year by the Librarian, Mr McConville, and given book-tokens and published in the March edition of The Submarine. In the next few days, we'll post some from II form entrants (Junior Cert pupils).

First is Kaine de la Haye's story set during the 1916 Easter Rising, which starts with the set first sentence:-

From the other side of the wall, I can hear their footsteps getting closer. It's now or never. The doorway stands before me, casting its dull light onto the silent street. I step out and tuck my rifle tighter to my body, and then another step and I am running. My legs are cold and tired but my heart is pounding my ribs. My eyes scour the rooftops for the glint of a rifle scope off the moonlight that might cut short my life, but none comes. The streets of Dublin are empty but for the bodies of the unlucky, the air silent but for the occasional crack of a rifle or the scream of a dying man.

Read the full story here.

'Cymbeline' on Wordle

No 28 in our Shakespeare Wordles series : Cymbeline.

Wordles are created by Jonathan Feinberg's online tool here; the more times the word appears in the text, the larger the word. In our Shakespeare Wordles, the entire text, including the name indicators of the characters before they speak, is included. Thus you can see how relatively dominant a character is in each play, as well as spot recurring ideas and themes. Our Wordles use different numbers of 'maximum words'. Click on the image for a closer view.

Police Blotter Shakespeare 2

The second of our versions of Shakespeare's plots as US police reports:-

Abraham Shylock (59), with an address at Ghetto Apartments, Canarregio Road, was arrested 11/18/09, appx 1800hrs, in connection with the attempted murder of prominent city merchant Mr Antonio di Venezia (53). It is alleged that witnesses heard the suspect threaten the life Mr Di Venezia near Rialto Bridge on the afternoon of July 3rd last. Officers who called to Shylock's apartment took away a sharp knife and cooking scales. A forensic team has now sealed off the apartment and adjoining yard in a search for possible victims.

'The Two Gentlemen of Verona' on Wordle

No 27 in our Shakespeare Wordles series : The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Wordles are created by Jonathan Feinberg's online tool here; the more times the word appears in the text, the larger the word. In our Shakespeare Wordles, the entire text, including the name indicators of the characters before they speak, is included. Thus you can see how relatively dominant a character is in each play, as well as spot recurring ideas and themes. Our Wordles use different numbers of 'maximum words'. Click on the image for a closer view.

Our Issuu Shelf

We're fans of the great website Issuu, which displays publications in fabulous 'flippable' form, and have posted about 20 so far, including our own magazines, such as The Submarine and Second Bell, as well as the excellent Teaching English. Below, they're embedded on Issuu's new Shelf feature, as well as in the sidebar to the right (which will be updated when we post more). Scroll through the mags via the arrows, and click on one to open it up, and again to see it in close-in.

Farewell, Dear Sculpture

A couple of days ago we wrote about the departure of 'The Scholar and the Blackbird' from the Library. This plainly had quite an impact on an unnamed visitor or pupil, since yesterday Mr McConville found the following poem on a sheet of paper left behind in the Senior Reading Room. Since there is no pupil in the school with the exotic first name 'Charmaine', it is plainly a nom de plume. Below, the 'poem', an appropriately soulful Animoto video of pictures, accompanied by Beethoven's 'Moonlight' sonata.



Valet, Scholar and Blackbird,
by Charmaine Munch (Trelawny)

And so, it is gone.
O marvellous log
Your monk marginalia
Was a monastery blog.

The Scholar and the Blackbird.
Basta! How can that be true?
St Columba was a dove white as snow.
as you know
And a blackbird is black
Generally
And a dove its exact opposite,
Except when falling down a chimney.
Heck, and are there any
scholars left
That can spell syllabust?
Democracy—bereft!

Well anyway, old pupil pal and dove
You left your footprints on our carpet,
Pale green, like grass under a pot
Or Mr Minty’s complexion after a rugby weekend.
Marvellous trunk!
We’ll miss you a lot,
Till we won’t know you’re gone.

'Troilus and Cressida' on Wordle

No 26 in our Shakespeare Wordles series : Troilus and Cressida.

Wordles are created by Jonathan Feinberg's online tool here; the more times the word appears in the text, the larger the word. In our Shakespeare Wordles, the entire text, including the name indicators of the characters before they speak, is included. Thus you can see how relatively dominant a character is in each play, as well as spot recurring ideas and themes. Our Wordles use different numbers of 'maximum words'. Click on the image for a closer view.

'The Acharnians' album

Above, a collage of some photos from last weekend's Senior Play (and see in Animoto yesterday). Below, the album itself; click on the photo for larger views, and to scroll through the pictures.

'Sailing to Byzantium' technical analysis

Above, the 10-minute film from the National Library Yeats exhibition which closely analyses the manuscript of his late poem 'Sailing to Byzantium' and will be helpful for Leaving Cert pupils preparing for their exams, and teachers guiding them. It can also be watched within the virtual exhibition, by navigating to 'Poetry in Progress: Building the Tower'.

The fascination here is in watching the restless perfectionism with which Yeats approached the drafting of this famous poem, down to considerations of punctuation. It also shows clearly how rigorously Yeats thought through the logic of his work, and how, in the words of his poem 'Adam's Curse' :-

A line will take us hours maybe;
Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,
Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.

'The Taming of the Shrew' on Wordle

No 25 in our Shakespeare Wordles series : The Taming of the Shrew.

Wordles are created by Jonathan Feinberg's online tool here; the more times the word appears in the text, the larger the word. In our Shakespeare Wordles, the entire text, including the name indicators of the characters before they speak, is included. Thus you can see how relatively dominant a character is in each play, as well as spot recurring ideas and themes. Our Wordles use different numbers of 'maximum words'. Click on the image for a closer view.

'The Acharnians' on Animoto

Above, an Animoto video of last weekend's production of The Acharnians, starting with rehearsal photos, and then ones from the Saturday night performance, taken by our Head of Photography Peter Watts. To the strains of the Overture from The Marriage of Figaro.

Tomorrow, we'll post the album here.