Monday, August 30, 2010

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

This novel is chiefly about psychological realism and the interiority of the mind. Psychological realism precedes modernist authors like Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, whose novels deviate slightly. The novel was published in 1899 during the suffragist movement, and the concept of the "new woman" is reflected in the character of Edna Pontellier. The "new woman" smoked, voted, wore pants, worked, etc. In Edna's case, this "new woman" enjoyed men and worked for herself. The Victorian woman has evolved at this point through different forms of literature: first American, then realist, reformist, and finally feminist.

The biggest emotion expressed in the novel is desire: Edna awakes sexually and experiences longing and passion. She further desires to be independent and live selfishly. Men during this period were allowed to live selfishly, but Edna is unique in her selfish living because she is a woman. This is just one side of the novel, however. The novel could also be read politically, though Edna herself isn't political. She is too rebellious and can't assert individuality, but the novel itself is a push for the feminist movement, and it was a very controversial book when it first appeared on the shelves. Edna experiences an increase in agency, resulting in her ability to make choices for herself. Edna can't explain her emotions and passions very well, however.

The style in which Chopin tells the story is very straightforward. The novel is about selfishness and the individual, sex, and ennui. She doesn't sugar coat the hard stuff. Early on in the novel, she writes, the "Beginning of things . . . is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing" (14). This is Chopin's strength: she allows the novel to be tangled and disturbing. It ends in Edna's suicide, which is presented as both wonderful and horrible. The novel isn't meant to be clear cut even though the issues are presented in a straightforward manner.

A huge metaphor throughout is the image of the sea. Edna is reborn through the sea because she gains the power to live and the power to die through it. It also symbolizes her sexuality, which is likewise shapeless and shifting. Furthermore, the historical frame of reference for sexuality during this period is solitude and internalization. The sea represents both of these because she is all alone while she is out swimming.

The passions that Edna experiences are her vehicle to agency and individuality. Her passions reflect Victorian passions: for women, it is acceptable to embrace one's passions, but for men, it's acceptable to show great restraint.

To conclude, the Awakening could fit into three different genres that gained popularity during the 19th century: domestic (nostalgic, sentimental); local color (weird, off the wall); modernism (new beginnings). Typically the Awakening is placed in the last genre because it is all about starting over. It could also typify the first, domestic, because Edna dies in the end for love. The genre is obviously up for interpretation.

Monday, April 19, 2010

David Copperfield

Background on Dickens
  1. From the same generation as Bronte, and his pen name was "Boz"
  2. Dickens's personal history was very similar to David's: he labored as a boy, his dad was imprisoned for debt, and he was a self-made man
  3. Serialization: the book was published as three chapters a month, and the serialization resulted in lots of characters; it also allowed Dickens to respond to his readers' responses
  4. To help his readers remember the characters from month to month, Dickens created character driven "types": Micawber said "in short" often, Uriah was famous for his "umbleness," and Gummidge classified herself as a "lone lorn creature"
  5. Dickens was one of the greatest writers of realism because he encompassed the whole world. He plays off of fears and values of the time period to help readers relate. Some of these characters are larger than life, like Peggotty and her buttons. This inflation is similar to the characters in "The Office"
  6. It's a bildungsroman like Harry Potter; the protagonist is destitute, the chosen one, and is friendless in his own home

Themes
  1. Firmness=Murdstones enforce firmness of character, and david has to grow up a lot; similar to Jane Eyre because the childhood trauma affected David a lot (in this novel, David goes away to school branded with the placard denouncing his behavior, and in Jane Eyre, Jane goes to school with the fear that no one will like her because her aunt branded her as a bad child)
  2. Class=overcoming class status; doesn't matter what class you're from, you can still be very generous; men are expected to be gentlemen (educated, foppish, effortless), and for some men, like Steerforth, this comes naturally, but for Micawber it is entirely unnatural
  3. Gender=Betsey Trotwood always compares David to his imaginary sister; men are often dominated by women, and the men fulfill stereotypes (fool, ass, crazy); the women are strong but very eccentric, and they serve as vehicles for emotion
  4. Domesticity=Anges is the "angel in the house," the domestic and sensible housewife
  5. Fallen woman=very popular in Victorian period; these women wanted to increase their statuses; Emily runs off with Steerforth because he's attractive, and she is subsequently ruined; Steerforth is the rake, and Ham is the good guy stereotype
  6. Self-improvement=hard-work doesn't always mean success, and this was a radical idea for Dickens's time; David tries to improve Dora, and Murdstones try to improve David's mother
  7. Idealized love=David idealizes every woman he falls for, including Agnes; he makes her into a tool of his own self-improvement

Bodies
  1. Miss Dartle is marked by her scar, and she represents a fallen woman
  2. Dora is like a fairy (similar to Jane Eyre), and David gets rid of her body and idealizes her
  3. Miss Mowcher says David should not disregard someone for his or her physical defects
  4. Uriah Heep writhes, and he's ugly and slimy; he's trying to climb the social ladder, and perhaps Dickens is insinuating that people shouldn't try to escape their class
  5. David is a symbol of immaturity, and his young face and his nickname, Daisy, further this image
  6. Martha is connected to the river because it comes innocently from the country and becomes polluted in the city
  7. Dora's body becomes a martyr
  8. Steerforth's mother becomes just a moaning shell

Values
  1. Simplicity=Traddles, despite becoming successful, remains humble and simple
  2. Strong moral character and sincerity/frankness
  3. Character/personality vs status
  4. Family (blood ties) - domesticity (simplicity)
  5. New beginnings=Micawber goes to Australia (where criminals are sent)

Last few notes:
  1. Dickens emphasizes emotional intensity through characters. Micawber loses his senses when he accuses Uriah Heep, and his face turns purple. Miss Dartle loses her temper when Steerforth dies, and she accuses the mother. What does this say about society when self-control is so valued? When some of the upper class can't express their emotions in the same way that the lower class can, their emotions spurt out as super intense.
  2. Women faint a lot in the novel, and that's a comedic tool that Dickens uses, just like Peggotty's buttons popping off and Uriah's writhing. It's also important to note that Dickens isn't very familiar with the female perspective, and he doesn't do a great job of expressing their internal emotions.
  3. At each stage of David's life, Dickens brings in characters in situations similar to David's to provide context

ESL tips

A few ideas to take away from ESL training:
  1. American society values some things that make communication with other cultures difficult. Individualism and equality are valued in the US, and sometimes they are valued in other countries, but that isn't the case always. Closely related to these values is competition: Americans rank themselves in comparison to others all the time, and that can make multicultural experiences more difficult because we might not appreciate all the opinions or viewpoints of another culture.
  2. A bad way to teach ELLs: have them do worksheets that aren't related to each other and don't help the children develop communication skills. A good way to teach ELLs: have them discuss something like a field trip together as a class, and make notes on a flip chart with words that describe the trip. The students can then split up and write about their experience, and they can refer to the chart if they need to.
  3. ELLs and really any English learner benefits from speaking and writing. A great exercise for an ESL class or a Lit class is having the students write stories every day when they come in, and then they share the stories later in class. Or have them predict newspaper headlines, and then they can comb through the newspaper to find those headlines. When there's a new ELL, assign a buddy to them every week, someone who can help them understand what is going on in class.
  4. Tests are great assessments, but they don't help students learn very much

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Data Analysis Tasks

Data analysis tools typically take one of two different forms: collecting data (survey, interviews, questionnaires) or finding existing data (databases). Data collection tools don't need to be complicated to be effective. A great tool for collecting data is InspireData, a tool that is usually downloaded on school computers. I used it for an English project to compare the number of deaths during the plague in Europe across different locations. Data analysis tools allow students to develop their own conclusions from evidence and learn to back up the conclusions. They also allow students to learn where something comes from, as too often in classrooms the students are told the "rules" without knowing where they come from. Furthermore, it teaches students problem solving skills. A great example for English is recording the "arc" of the plot for each of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies. Another idea from Linguistics is to let the students know why grammar is the way it is (history, Latin, etc).


Other data analysis tools: tinkerplot, wordle.com, and Go!Motion

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Subbing in Monroe County Schools

I subbed today at Templeton Elementary in a sixth grade classroom. I jotted down notes about what I saw during the class. I came in after lunch and recess, and so the first thing that was being dealt with was the “incident” at recess. One of the troublemakers of the class was explaining to another teacher about a black kid with whom he got into a fight. He said the boy was a “gangsta getting up in my face.” I was a little disturbed by having to somewhat deal with a fight only two minutes into class, even though I didn’t directly deal with the problem. I realized quickly that it was a low-achieving class, and the student teacher in charge affirmed this. It was really pretty diverse; there was an African-American kid, an Asian kid, and two Latino kids, and they all seemed well liked by their classmates. The class in general seemed very accepting and comfortable with one another. The class was also primarily male (maybe three girls?), and it was a very loud and raucous class.

I wanted to comment actually less on racial issues but on tracking. The student teacher explained to me how NCLB was affecting her classroom. She said that they primarily taught English and Math, and there was a big emphasis on testing. There was very little focus on science and social studies, and she said that she hadn’t taught really any science in a few weeks. I just can’t believe that. If America is so concerned with pushing our students to be real competitors, it has to be about more than taking the math and English tests. These kids aren’t learning anything that will help them in the global world, and they are falling behind in those subjects. I just can’t believe that our grand solution to bad schools is to focus the content so much on testing within Math and English. It’s ridiculous. And the strategies to teach were really aimed at low-achieving students and didn’t help the students stretch themselves at all. The student teacher read to them while they drew or slept, and the rest of class time was spent playing an anagram game. So all these kids learn about is English and Math, and all they do is draw, sleep, do skits, and play games. Where is the real learning? When do these kids actually get to be creative? It’s just stupid.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Communication Tools

Communication can be defined as an exchange between two or more people. There are multiple forms of communication tools: one to one (phone, IM, email, text), one to many (blog, email), and many to many (wiki). There are two forms of interaction: synchronous (immediate feedback like texting or talking on the phone, chat room) and asynchronous (email, blog, bulletin). A good example of a communication tool is yakpack; teachers can use this asynchronous tool to communicate information to students such as notes, review information, or important updates. A similar tool is vocaroo.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Poe

Fall of the House of Usher:
  • Gothic and horror themes, suspense, dejection, melancholy
  • Psychological illnesses
  • Madness: Usher has schizophrenia or split personality
  • Frontier gothic: confusion in the night, constricted society, huge mansion
  • Symbol of crumbling mansion, which seems to have its own sentience (eye-like windows, perceive things)
  • Beautiful young woman dies
  • Plenty of symbolism in mansion, status of minds, etc. Also foreshadowing through pink color of Madeline's cheeks

Berenice:
  • Evident psychological illnesses, hallucinations
  • Blurred barriers
  • We doubt the reliability of the narrator
  • Liminal space once again of love and death
  • The beautiful woman dies a violent, horrible death, just like "Usher." Is this to create a more heart-wrenching ending or is a comment on the beautiful and prized things in life?

Tell-Tale Heart:
  • Use of sounds to build suspense: from silent and still to shrieks, screams, and groans; beating heart and ringing; only he hears the heart beating
  • Obsession with the eye similar to the obsession of the narrator in "Berenice" to teeth
  • Affliction of the nerves
  • Relation of insanity and morality
  • Very intense and long descriptions of paranoia, fear, guilt, horror, and more; Poe's gift is his description of emotion and setting
  • Undermining of rationalism in American Gothic: perversity of the self, whether it is acknowledged or not
  • Punishment within religion and American Gothic; punishment isn't always justified, although this narrator attempts to; grotesque punishment
  • Major theme within American gothic is the murderer's fixation: very concerned with the here and now as opposed to higher reason
  • Because the narrator's motive can't be ascribed to logic or reason, it blatantly defies the themes of reason and rationalism in this era
  • Ambiguity is another characteristic of American Gothic literature: what happens to our narrator? How do the police react to his outburst?
  • Comedic irony: insistence on rationality and attention to detail
  • Evil eye: also references to this in Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu faiths as cause for unexplained illnesses or misfortunes; to counteract such misfortune, extraction and distraction serve to dissolve the evil

Poems: Browning, Rossetti, and Dickinson


Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Sonnets
  • Juxtaposition of love and pain
  • Receive love based on self-worth
  • Romantic love, outward expression, love can be clumsy
  • Death, love, and the liminal space between them


Christina Rossetti: Who Shall Deliver Me?
  • Who is this "someone"? Is it God, herself, or a man?
  • Grace can take away our pain; very religious undertones
  • Lots of self loathing and anger
  • Similar themes as found in Paul's letter to the Romans


Emily Dickinson: "For each ecstatic instant" and "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant"
  • Self-worth
  • In "Ecstatic" Dickinson alleges that happiness is bittersweet; you can't know happiness without some pain, which is what Austen alleges in Persuasion
  • Little structure
  • Truth is ambiguous and can be many things

Persuasion response

Anne grows up a lot in this novel; by the end she can't be persuaded as easily as she was by Lady Russell. She is also very perceptive which allows her to form better judgments based solely on her own observations. There is very little discussion of gender save the scene toward the end when Anne and Harville discuss the constancy of women in love; their discussion flows over to art expression in which men have more advantage and tend to paint women in a poor light. Another image of women is the role of Mary Musgrove in the novel; she is ironically made a mother, but her number one concern is herself. She uses her children to get what she wants, such as the case of her son's injury. Anne is definitely presented as the heroine of the story, but does that make her the modern heroine? She doesn't possess many of the characteristics we expect to find in heroines, but she is strong of character, expects people to do good things, enjoys intelligent discussion, and strays from gossip and persuasion. If not a modern hero, she was a hero for her time, at least. Anne also has much of the Elliot pride in her, but it affects her differently than it does Sir Elliot or Mary; instead, Anne takes pride in elegance of mind and amiability. I think this makes Anne a more realistic character; she has her flaws, but they aren't overwhelming, and she puts her abilities and mind to good purpose.

Modern day comparison: Cinderella

Themes:
  • Upward class movement: juxtaposition of lower class men who are amiable and caring to upper class men (Elliots) who are vain and arrogant
  • Beauty: Anne versus Elizabeth
  • Pride
  • Assumptions that lead to pain or embarrassment
  • Persuasion v autonomy
  • Confusion is huge throughout the novel; Wentworth and Anne are confused regarding each other; Elliot trying to win Anne; internal struggle, too
  • Humor: Mary and Sir Walter are hugely funny; they are foil to the complicated arena of Wentworth and Anne, and they serve many similar functions as the comedic foils in Shakespearean plays
  • Suppressed emotions
Austen in context:
  • Women in this period are supposed to be fragile; they can't express anger, but boys can express anger if it is in a directed arena; they are considered weak
  • Passionate and intense feeling are only acceptable if they serve the family=family unity is extremely important, as Anne proves through her fidelity to her family's happiness
  • Within novels, emotions are never really conquered because there would be no rebellion and no room for growth
  • The healthy way for a young man to focus his anger was through politics or work; Wentworth proves this by immersing himself in the navy
  • 3 most threatening emotions: anger, fear, and jealously. Anne experiences some of these, but she doesn't allow them to rule her, making her the picture of emotional perfection in the Victorian Era.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Multicultural strategies of Teaching

Collected from Romo, Serrano, etc:

  1. Create multicultural clubs
  2. Bring student experiences into lessons
  3. Travel
  4. Focus on guided learning rather than being the popular teacher
  5. Keep learning and reeducating yourself: "The real purpose of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things"
  6. Reflection!!!!
  7. Challenge harassment
  8. Allow for opportunities to speak and write about multiculturalism
  9. Cultivate student esteem and responsibility
  10. Help students understand peer pressure
  11. Mentor
  12. Respect on both sides
  13. Socially engaged students/citizens
  14. Use simulation and role-playing
  15. Need to be intentional
  16. Struggle for students
  17. Challenge student assumption and be aware of our own attitudes
  18. Take risks
  19. Validate students' culture and experiences
  20. Remain open to new perspectives
  21. Humility, flexibility, courage
  22. Feedback is important--develop accountability groups with the staff
  23. Education should shake up our world views
  24. Be aware of silencing
  25. Hold students to high expectations
  26. Be open and frank with students

Overwhelmed

I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. As a teacher, I want my students to learn so much that I don't think they are going to be exposed to before. I want them - my English students - to know and care about their environment. They are just as responsible as anyone else for the climate, and they should be aware of that. So many people are ignorant these days, and that's just ridiculous. And it would be so easy to work that into our curriculum. My 12th grade teacher did; I wrote a paper about it. Furthermore, students aren't exposed enough to politics; I certainly didn't know all the facts surrounding the Iraq war; I voted for the president that my Dad voted for. Students should be well-informed and excited to be participating in their community. Of course, most of my students won't be of age, but I can still prepare them and make them curious. This, too, can be implemented using a paper or project, but I'd really like to find a novel about it that would be relatable. Maybe Anne Frank would have a good correlation? - I could argue that Germans weren't aware of what was going on around them, so my students should be aware....Or maybe something different.

Also, students should be expressing their own opinions; a journal is perfect for this because it allows them to get their own ideas out. Maybe that's how I'll get them interested in all this stuff. Because I also want them to be aware of their surroundings and aware of the racism and discrimination in their schools and homes. Journal entries prompting them to discuss this would certainly raise awareness; and we could discuss it in class. A good book to tie this in: Anne Frank, while I'm on it! Also, The Color Purple is good, the Awakening, and the Merchant of Venice. Another way to promote multiculturalism is to have my students read a diverse selection of books: Their Eyes Were Watching God; Haroun and the Sea of Stories; Good Luck Club; When I was Puerto Rican; Merchant of Venice again; Arabian Nights; Fall Apart; Frankenstein.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Glogster

"Reading Jane Eyre" by Smith

To shortly sum up Smith's article, the themes of a Gothic novel are huge in Jane Eyre, but they are more subdued than in other works such as those by Poe. Within Jane Eyre the Gothic turns what is commonplace phenomena into the symbolic. The three key Gothic scenes within the novel are 1) Jane reads about Bewick's History of Birds, 2) Jane's dream of Bertha Mason, and 3) descriptions of Bertha. Smith also concludes that race in the novella outlines tensions between the rational and irrational. Bertha and Jane are really only separated by race because they are very similar in passion and will. Smith notes differences between the West-Indies and Europe: the first is described as sulpher and bloody, while Europe is described as fresh and pure.

Benito Cereno

Herman Melville
  • worked on a ship; was a whaler; lived with cannibals for a while
  • when "Benito Cereno" was published, the Civil War was pretty much inevitable

Themes

  • human depravity, sea adventure, slavery, gothic
  • epistemology: how do we know what we know? (senses, reason, emotion)

Symbols

  • San Dominick=self-contained universe, Oatum-Pickers
  • Bachelor's Delight=success/prosperity, similar to Bachelor in Moby Dick, very male-dominated world
  • Don Benito=means blessed
  • Captain Delano=named after a Hebrew general, served usurper Absalom
  • White skeleton
  • Knot=symbol of Delano's struggle to understand; could also be opportunity to reach out to Delano through a coded message
  • Key in the padlock=white supreme race holds key but now in chains and it's inverted; slave owners now slaves themselves
  • Spanish flag around neck during shaving=Delano sees it as colorful decoration, but it's meant to lower the flag because it's now a rag

Notes

  • rise of the U.S. vs. Spain
  • it was a real event; slavery was considered corrupt at this point
  • stance on slavery as a crippling state
  • Babo isn't stereotypical slave: he's intelligent and small
  • is Melville critical of slavery? He leaves Babo dignified in death
  • Amasa is a fool - he's ignorant and naive
  • Melville seems to be very against slavery
  • are Delano's coughing fits on purpose? are they a cover-up or do they serve to distract when Delano gets too close?
  • did Delano remain ignorant because he didn't know what to do with the knowledge, because he couldn't face the cruelty, or to protect himself physically?
  • contemporary examples of skewed frame of reference: Bush (enforced democracy); Le Mun Wah's documentary on racism and white supremacy and naivete; creationism v evolution
  • "Follow your leader"=does it mean that Benito was meant to follow Babo (in death) or Aranja (who was literally placed on the front of the ship); also, Civil war propaganda
  • also like Orwell's 1984=words are all inverted, have double meanings
  • told from Delano's perspective as opposed to Babo's because it's a mystery; also told from black slave's perspective which would not have been published then; furthermore, mysteries are all the rage during this time (Poe, Bronte)
  • get main story from a deposition which is odd
  • compared to Uncle Tom's Cabin (in which the lead black is docile), this slave narrative enjoyed strikingly less popularity, probably because the blacks revolted
  • Babo's character=changes throughout novel; starts out sugary and false; are we sposed to be rooting for him, and is he the hero; shouldn't Babo have understood the evils of slavery
  • inversion of slavery=this slavery was disguised whereas in the south the more slaves you had the richer you were deemed
  • Babo's slaes had someone to rescue them; people cared about their lives and rights

The good and bad of technology

Reasons to consider technologically-based products:
  • engaging and fun

Drawbacks:
  • too advanced
  • access
  • preference
  • malfunctions
  • can hurt development in a certain aspect of student learning (spelling)

Affects three E's:
  • enhancing because allows more development of a topic
  • efficient if teacher knows what they're doing

Examples of three E's:
  • digital story
  • blogs
  • webquest
  • prezi/powerpoint (with action buttons!)

Helpful hints:
  • when you are going to have students work on a computer, check ahead of time to make sure technology works
  • when using powerpoint, you can create an action button by right clicking on a shape, select hyperlink, and click the page you want it to refer back to

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Jane Eyre discussion

The last quarter of Jane Eyre deals with several interesting themes that we see throughout the novel. At this point, Mr. Rochester has just been found out, and his and Jane's marriage falls through. When Jane attempts to leave, Mr. Rochester says a few unsavory things. He stands in front of the door to prevent Jane from leaving, and he also says that he will resort to violence if she does not see his side. On the other hand, there is also this cultural expection during the Victorian age that men will be aggressive and forceful. Jane is unusual because she rebels against him, and she continually says that she has little fear of him.

Another interesting portion of this section is its ties to religion. Religion is discussed earlier in the novel with Helen and Brocklehurst, but here we see Jane's spirituality in contrast to St. John's orthodox religous beliefs. Jane seems to really chafe against his rigidity, and we are given to wonder whether Bronte feels the same. Does she agree that spirituality should be a more personal experience that isn't so tied up in duty and the church? She is at least implying that St. John's religious beliefs prevent him from really loving anyone because he's so single-mindedly focused on God.

Instead of love, St. John advocates utilitarianism, which proposes that the greatest good in this world does the most good for the most people. This is a more Eastern idea typically, and also a more Orthodox idea, whereas modern Western thought advocates the rights of the individual. St. John's emotions, in this context, seem to be further critiqued. His motives, always pure, are never about love.

The love between Jane and Rochester is, on the otherhand, suggested to be pure and worthy love. When Rochester loses his sight and his hand, it only deepens Jane's love for him. But what does his loss of sight and limb signify? It could be a religious symbol; the sermon on the mount says that it is better to lose your sight and to cut off your hand than to lust after someone. Perhaps his loss of sight and hand also emasculates Rochester. It takes away his violence and his threat to Jane, making him a more devoted lover.

Tracing the Emotions:
At Gateshead the key emotions are fear, rage, and pride. At Lowood Jane battles more with despair, shame, resignation, and confidence. She is very concerned with Miss Temple's opinion of herself following Brocklehurst's denunciation. At Thornfield Jane is still pretty immature emotionally: she feels pride, infatuation/desire, and jealousy. At Marsh's End Jane really begins to develop her emotions and her character after making the difficult decision to leave Rochester; she feels gratitude, belonging, healthy, spiritual, and uneasy. Finally, when she returns to Fevindean, she feels primarily love and happiness.

Tools in the classroom

Technology can be used to address different tasks that are used in the educational process:
  • Content Exploration Tasks (Google earth, Grammar girl podcasts on Itunes)
  • Production Tasks
  • Communication Tasks
  • Data Production and Analysis Tasks
  • Productivity Tasks

Content Exploration is probably the most familiar type of educational task.
  • Reference
  • Drill & Practice
  • Tutorial
  • Games (Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego)
  • Simulations
  • Open-Ended (geo cache for a field trip, GPS, Google Earth, Google Sketch up)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Jane Eyre: Background and themes

Background on Charlotte Bronte:

  • only lived to age 39
  • lived in rural Yorkshire known as the "Moors"
  • went to boarding school where two of her sisters died, just like the girls in Lowood
  • she and her sisters wrote intensively together; they all worked as governesses and failed
  • distanced herself from Jane Eyre by publishing under "Currer Bell"


Religion:

  • Helen represents the modern view of religion (one of hope) while Brocklehurst represents the old view of religion (which is about suffering)
  • Both Helen and Brocklehurst are very opinionated in their views
  • Jane's emotional gospel: justice, speaks out
  • Helen's emotional gospel: puts faith in God, subservient
  • Rochester's own moral code: existentialism, his own morality
Romantic versus gothic: many gothic scenes (Red room, Bertha, ominous dreams, nighttime visits)


Modern view of feminism: women shouldn't be confined to cooking, sewing, etc. She values mental and emotional action; furthermore, Jane is guided more by empathy than anything else

Overview of a W200 class

Important information about NETS-T and professional development

NETS-T standards
1. facilitate and inspire student learning and community
2. design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments
3. model digital age work and learning
4. promote digital responsibility and citizenship
5. engage in professional growth and leadership

Professional development:
1. Formal includes conferences, classes, and committees
2. Informal includes reading on my own, experimenting with ideas, new ideas from colleagues, wired.com