Great day

The Canteruby Tales . . .

What a ride in my Lit and Language 12 class! Yesterday they read the prologue to Chaucer’s work. Now today I was set to lead them in a lengthy note taking session of all that led up to the Canterbury Tales - Beckett’s murder and Henry’s attempts to attone for it, what makes Chauncer’s work so great, the change in language, and the great characters (namely Alice, the Wife of Bath, and the Friar). However, they led me in directions I never thought. We talked about the war in Iraq (talking about how many of the Medieval Britians rebelled against King Henry after Beckett’s murder - like Americans rebelling against the Bush administration because of the war - hey, they brought it up), about foolish traditions we follow (mainly about weddings and hunting), about how men and women try to manipulate each other, how each successive generation blames the previous ones for mistakes or thinks the following generation is going to ruin everything, how the word ‘gay’ has changed three different times in my life (to illustrate how language is fluid and changes - it used to mean happy - the old Flinstone’s jingle “We’ll have a gay old time” - even Tony Kornheiser used it that way on Monday night football. After a team scored he said, “Look at all those gay football players.” Then it meant a sexual preference. Now, as most of these kids know, gay means “sucks.” “This test is gay!” someone might say - that doesn’t mean the test likes other tests, it means it stinks, is rotten, is . . . gay!). So instead of taking notes on Beckett's murder, I just wrote "The pilgrims are heading to Canterbury - instert long story about Beckett's murder and canonization here." The students didn't mind that one.

Before it was all over it was lunch time. Good stuff.

*****

Well, the high from third block only lasted a few minutes or as long as it took - despite letting my class out 10 minutes early - to get to the cafeteria. There was next to no food left. There was what appeared to be carrot soup. Carrot soup? I know. Good old mashed potatos, but to go with what? Dark meat chicken with some form of BBQ slauce slathered on there. It's like beating a dead horse, which would be preferable to what was served today. It is a good appetite suppressent to say the least. I ate breakfast there early and had a great biscuit, but what students pay good money for second lunch is a crock. I know a small fraction of the students actually eat it, but time and again, either the selection is horrible or there is simply nothing left.

Skip lunch and go back to work.

*****

I just got an email from the one of the directors of the MNHS. She wants me to present my lesson from this summer (creating imovies for Civil War literature) to the fall classes here in town and Bemidji. Now if that isn’t ironic - for as much as I hated the readings, my lesson plan is the one selected. Ha. For $200 a session, I’ll gladly present. Now I just have to create the imovies. There is no way I’ll have used the lesson plan (there’s not much for Civil War lit in our texts and we’re swamped with all the new other trinkets anyway) by the time I’m supposed to present. So I’ll come up with a demo one some time in the next few weeks.