To learn or not to learn? There is no question
Gretchen Philbrick (Norwich Free Academy - Norwich, CT) is following The Bard across Europe on her Fund for Teachers fellowship â experiencing The Globe Theatre and Stratford-Upon-Avon in England; attending the Gdansk Shakespeare Festival and European Shakespeare Research Association convention in Poland, and exploring Romeo and Julietâs Verona in Italy â to expand creative and performative approaches to Shakespeare that explore, curate and connect students with content.
Shakespeare lessons âtest my mettleâ as a teacher. For my students, who confront numerous challenges, Shakespeare makes them face their biggest fears: they struggle to understand the text, make it their own, and share it with an audience of peers.
Why do I believe Shakespeare is worth the struggle? Because reading Shakespeare in the classroom does so much more for my students than just increasing content knowledge. The embodiment of the text and the performances give students a chance to work on skills that extend beyond curriculum. They surprise themselves and inspire me each year. Shy students face their public speaking fears. Quiet students discover their voice. Outgoing and extroverted students enjoy the pride and revelry of being in their element. In their interpretations, students showcase their love of their culture, pop culture, youth culture, and gamer culture. We laugh. We celebrate. We agonize over the tragic events in the text. I always view our Shakespeare unit of study as a blank slate, as odd as that may sound. It is a place for students to project so much of themselves and their vision.
I designed my Fund for Teachers grant to pursue a path for invigorating, nurturing and strengthening how I teach Shakespeare. My pilgrimage addresses three areas:
Shakespeareâs Home
Beginning in London, I attended a live theatrical performance at Sam Wannamakerâs reconstructed Globe Theatre. While I know that this portion of the grant is somewhat predictable, I think it is important to remember that many of us have never been to these landmarks. It would be a major oversight to miss these stops. I then traveled by train to Stratford-upon-Avon to tour Shakespeareâs home and visit the Church of the Holy Trinity to view Shakespeareâs baptismal and burial place. While there, I took an afternoon tour of the Royal Shakespeare Companyâs âThe Other Placeâ which provides access to production spaces where âa play makes its way from page to stage.â I am looking for a way to use the scant resources I have to maximize the classroom stagings and I walked away with new ideas regarding costuming and props.
Shakespeareâs Inspiration
In Verona, I spent several days exploring both the imagined, and real landscapes, depicted in Romeo and Juliet and took in as much of Italian culture as possible. Italy was a great draw for Shakespeare and I previously wondered why Shakespeare was so fascinated with Italian culture. I think it is important to share this idea of âborrowingâ as it relates to Shakespeare with my students. Shakespeare felt free crossing cultural divides and appropriating and âborrowingâ from others. I think often âpuristsâ forget that many of Shakespeareâs plays were published as quartos and were drastically different from what we read today. In preparation for my fellowship, I attended the Folger Shakespeare First Folio exhibit and felt validation as I learned that adaptation was always meant to be part of the legacy of Shakespeare. I think this is something to share with students who feel Shakespeare is âstuffyâ or staid.
Shakespeareâs Legacy
My 18-day European tour is now culminating in 2017 European Shakespeare Research Association convention and Gdansk Shakespeare Festival in Poland. During the convention, I am attending two panels. The first is âShakespeare and Dramaturgical Strategies in Contemporary European Performances.â This panel focuses on the unique and novel staging and appropriation of Shakespeareâs plays. From everyday, found objects (think ketchup bottles, sponges, etc.) arranged on a table top to radical âmash-upsâ of Shakespeareâs war scenes broadcast as contemporary news footage, this panel discusses the new, innovative, and experimental approaches to staging Shakespeareâs work. The second panel is âNow Let Us Anatomize Shakespeare: Shakespeare-Inspired Ballets in European Ballet Companies.â This panel explores dance and music as points of entree for Shakespeareâs work. I use music as a way to bridge complex literary concepts and complicated texts. I look forward to being able to explore dance as another medium for interpreting the work with my students.
Enjoy photographs from Gretchenâs fellowship here.
The bottom line is this: I ask my students to persevere and pursue challenges in the classroom every day. I ask them to put themselves in situations that make them feel uncomfortable in an effort to seek personal and academic growth. This fellowship required facing a similarly daunting task and confronting my own anxieties in the name of development. I am terrified of flying and have not traveled since my twenties. I am afraid, like a student facing Shakespeare for the first time or performing a scene in front of classmates, of not being able to master my anxiety and my fear in pursuit of something important to me professionally and personally. However, to not go, to not learn, to not model growth, was not a question.
Gretchen has been happily teaching ninth grade English at Norwich Free Academy for the last four years. She came to her own education and her teaching career later in life and this non-traditional path gave her a sincere appreciation of educationâs ability to shape, enrich and change lives.
izzy806
kaledo-art
kianamaiart
origamiaround
titsay
stormborns
theartofmadeline
baratheonpilled