Need some last minute gift ideas? Maybe you’ve got all of your presents wrapped and waiting under your beautifully decorated tree. If so, I’m impressed! Oh well – ’tis the season for crazy shopping, weekends full of parties, tons of goodies and sweets, great times with family and friends, and some quality reflection on the real reason we are celebrating a forgiven, redeemed, and blessed life.
And now for the best of the best! My top four (okay, five) favorite books to teach high school students…
If I thought preparing papers and projects and planning (alliteration unintended!) for finals last week was crazy-busy, boy was I in for a treat this week, which I spent GRADING the papers, projects, and exams previously assigned, finalizing quarter grades, and working on next quarter’s curriculum. In other words, it’s been a tough, exhausting week. Thankfully, second quarter brings about the unit study over one of my favorite pieces of literature to teach, Romeo and Juliet (#6). Before we discuss our favorite tragic, Elizabethan-era tale (unless you have another?), we’ll start with an excellent, spooky, perfect-for-fall read.
It’s first quarter finals time for this teacher, so I’ve been busy creating essay assignments, projects, exams, and reviews. Oh, and let’s not forget the time spent on the piles and piles of work to be graded (at least the tic in my eye from last year’s finals time has not made another appearance – yet!). Anyway, I haven’t had as much time to read as I usually like. Right now I’m working on Anne Fortier’s Juliet and have been really enjoying her modern-meshed-with-historical retelling of Shakespeare’s classic tale. So, in honor of the sure-to-be-classic I’m currently reading as well as my present and total immersion in all things teaching, I decided a list of my favorite books and plays to teach would be the perfect post for today.