Thank You Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird was never a book I appreciate or understood in high school. Hell, I'm not sure how much I truly understood it when I started to teach it for the first time. It took they eyes of children, eyes much like Scout's, to truly show me what TKAM was all about.

Harper Lee passed away today and she left us one of the most important novels in American Literature. The voice of Scout is a narration authors can only hope to capture in their novels since TKAM was released. 

To me, Atticus stands the test of time as a figure doing his best to leave a better world for his children. His words of wisdom still ring true today.

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." 

- Atticus Finch 

Harper Lee crafted a tale that spoke on race, poverty, education, societal norms, and so much more. It is a book that is powerful and has the ability to, not only remind people of the way this country used to be, but the way the country still is in many ways.

For this, I say Thank You Harper Lee. You left us a gift that will continue to matter  for years to come.

Thug Notes - A Different Approach to Literary Analysis #EngChat

I wasn't sure what to think when I saw my first Thug Notes. It was interesting, weird and accurate.

Thug Notes plays on the preconceived bias of people. When you see the narrator and hear the way he speaks, do you expect him to drop some knowledge on you? Probably not, but you will listen to see what he has to say about To Kill a Mockingbird or Of Mice and Men. That interest is what grabs the viewer and allows Thug Notes to provide an entertaining recap of a famous novel that students can enjoy and teachers could show in class or provide links to on their website. Here is one of many videos worth exploring on Thug Notes. (Warning: These are designed for high school and might contain some language not intended for younger audiences.)

I really enjoyed this video on Of Mice and Men and it even made me think about the biblical connection in the story that I had not realized before. I've taught this book for a number of years and that is something I never considered. I always love exploring literature in different ways and Thug Notes takes a fun new approach to the standard pieces of literature at the high school level.

The one word of caution I have for teachers is to make sure to watch all of the video before you show it in class. Some of the language might be bothersome in some schools, so use your best judgement when showing these, or any video, in the classroom. I think they are funny and could show them, but that might not be true for you in your building or district.

+Jacob Salamon does an awesome job putting these together and the collection of videos they have uploaded is very diverse and would be a great spice to add to the lesson plans.

Take a minute and look over the collection of videos, leave a comment and share with your friends who might want to show these in class or need a refresher course on some great pieces of literature. 

.@RealTimeGatsby - Fun with Great Literature #EngChat

I was watching the tweets coming from @TitanicRealTime and was blown away at how real everything seemed. It was just an interesting way to engage people who might not really know much about the disaster save for the movie.

My students have started reading The Great Gatsby this week and I have to say it is one of my favorite books. It is one of the most "current" books we read all year and kids tend to love it. I get excited when I tell the kids that the character of Daisy is actually based off a girl that is from our little town. Now, that might not be something to be entirely proud of, the kids get a kick out of it. There is still plenty of things kids can learn from Gatsby and I always enjoy teaching it.

This year, after seeing the Titanic tweets, I thought it might be fun to do the same with The Great Gatsby. I'm not giving this assignment as extra credit and it is not part of some larger lesson plan, I just thought it might be fun for me to do for my kids and anyone that is a fan of the book. I know that this in not a revolutionary idea. This has been done with a couple of Billy Shakespeare's plays, but I wanted to do this anyway. Here is the feed for the account.


I'm really excited to see where this fun little adventure will take me. Even though the actual story plays itself out over the course of an entire summer, I will be tweeting the story out as the students read it over the next two weeks. The kids seemed slightly intrigued about the idea, but I'm not sure how much they will buy in. You know what though, if one kid in my class loves it, it's worth the extra work.

Thanks for indulging me with this silliness. I'll keep the feed on the right had side for the duration of the Real Time Tweets and probably a bit longer. I encourage you to follow and interact with the account. Please feel free to share it with your students and just have fun with it. Really, isn't that the point of literature? Read and have fun.

If you have any suggestions for tweets, please feel free to drop me a comment or send me a tweet and I will send them out when I get to that moment in time.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Prezi Meets Gatsby Part II

Here are all of the links to my Gatsby Prezis. My kids commented that they really liked the change of pace and some even said they are going to "mess around" with Prezi for some of their future projects. Feel free to use these and edit these as you see fit. It's all about the sharing tweeps! If you use it, let me know how it goes. Thanks for your continue support.

Themes, Symbols, and Characters Prezi

http://prezi.com/yz6eldkfo3m6/

Chapter 1 Prezi

http://prezi.com/hux0jurq3iuj/

Chapters 2 and 3

http://prezi.com/7p2k7unyi6qi/

Chapters 4, 5 and 6

http://prezi.com/oq_3nhuytwd5/

Chapters 7, 8, and 9

http://prezi.com/d3rdbi_mwac1/

Have a good time teaching one of America's Greatest Novels.

-@TheNerdyTeacher

Prezi Meets Gatsby

Here is a Prezi I put together about the themes, symbols and characters of The Great Gatsby. The kids liked the presentation format and it was a nice change of pace from the standard PowerPoint and SMART Notebook software. Take a look and tell me what you think. I think I will do one for each chapter of the book.

The Great Gatsby Themes and Symbols on Prezi

Here is a Prezi for Chapter 1. This does not contain all of the information for Chapter 1, but they are great starting points for conversations.

The Great Gatsby Notes on Prezi

Try it out at Prezi.com!

- @TheNerdyTeacher