Juliet -Royal Wood

Juliet is written from the perspective a young man who wants the girl he loves to be his Juliet. He does not care whether they live ro die, as long as they can be together. Romeo says, “O here/ Will I set up my everlasting rest,/ And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars/ From this world-wearied flesh.”  (V, iii, 109-112)

Should I Stay or Should I Go? – The Clash

Romeo is indecisive and lacks the ability to take responsibility for his actions.  Initially, he does not wish to attend the Capulet party, but in doing so, meets Juliet. He can barely bring himself to leave her balcony after their plans for marriage. After he slays tybalt and pays his final visit to Juliet, Romeo says, “Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat/ The vaulty heaven so high above our heads:/ I have more care to stay than will to go.”  (III, v, 21-23)

You challenge for today is to find a post on one of your classmates blogs and post a rebuttal or affirmation here.

For example:

Once upon a time, an English teacher was reading the blog posts of her incredibly tech-savvy grade nine students. She came upon a post by one, Demetri, and instantly she was intrigued. Demetri sang the praises of a website called Stumble Upon. So the English teacher signed up for her own Stumble Upon account and now she is addicted to training the Internet to find hilarious and useful items for her daily enjoyment.

Anyone have any favourite christmas traditions? Maybe a delicious food that you HAVE to eat?

I buy a crazy bird ornament every year (lots of feather is a MUST) and I make tonnes of cookies. Gingerbread is my favourite!

Your challenge today is to find a friend or family emember to write a guest post on your blog. It can be about anything – but YOU can’t write it.

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Ms. Evans – you may have noticed her observing our class.

So here’s a funny story:  On Sunday some friends and I attended the Leafs Skills Competition – I had never been to one before so I was pretty excited, to say the least.  It was nice to see the players goofing off and having a good time, and Beauchemin brought his four-year old son, Samuel out to play.  He was wearing a tiny version of his Dad’s jersey, so that was really cute, and at one point during the warmup, Mitchell knocked the kid over.  When he stooped down to help him, Samuel just took a swipe at him and got up by himself.  It was kind of awesome to see so much moxie in such a little guy.

I especially love bacon. I like to eat it with panckaes or waffles and put maple syrup on it. Yumma doo!

What’s your most favourite breakfast food of all time?

I’ll remind you that weekends are a chance to blog about the things you do when you don’t have any homework and  there is an entire day stretched out in front of you.

The Tempest plays this Sunday at 4pm at Niagara Square. My boyfriend, Christopher Plummer (Captain Von Trapp – you remember!) plays Prospero in this Stratford production of a Shakespearean classic. At the beginning of December, Hollywood releases a new telling of The Tempest with Helen Mirren as Prospera. The director (Julie Taymor, Across the Universe) has cast a female in the traditionally male lead. I suggest catching Mr. Plummer at 4pm on Sunday, then comparing his performance with Ms. Mirren’s in December. What else have you got to do???

Here’s the official trailer for the Mirren film:

It’s the stuff that dreams are made of – gah! You’re quoting Shakespeare!

The first is Remembrance Day.  Today we take time from our busy lives to remember and honour the sacrifice that honourable men and women made and are still making to protect the freedoms we enjoy as Canadians. If you choose, create a post about remembrance Day. You could tell us what you did to remember and how it made you feel. You could share your feelings about Remembrance Day in general, or tell us a story about someone you know who served or is currently serving in the military.

The second important thing is that the first half of your first semester in highschool is rapidly coming to a close. Midterm marks will be going into the office and report cards will be sent home very soon. Look back on your first half of the semester and predict how well you think you did. Are there areas where you think you could improve or try harder for the rest of  this semester?

Which challenge will you choose?

Your challenge today is to learn about Captain James T. Kirk. You need to tell a little bit about him and why he is an important pop culture icon.

Bonus ticket for those of you who can find a link to a song from the actor’s wildly popular CD.