"The Brilliant Bronte Sisters" with Sheila Hancock

In a recent episode of the ITV show “Perspectives”, “The Brilliant Bronte Sisters”, the actress Sheila Hancock explores the lives of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte, and how people and events shaped their work. 

Hancock does not really present much that many devotees and fans would not already know (who else would stay up to watch a documentary about the Brontes at 10pm on a Sunday evening?). Most know that Charlotte’s infatuation with her teacher, Monsieur Heger, inspired her passionate but reserved heroine, Jane Eyre. We have already seen documentaries with presenters running, hair flying, across the Yorkshire moors crying desperately for Heathcliff in an effort to emulate Emily’s wildness (though Hancock may well be the oldest!). We are aware that Anne’s proximity to her alcoholic and dissolute brother, Branwell, provided the prototype for the abusive Arthur Huntingdon in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. 

But two things stand out in Hancock’s piece. A cameraman zooms in on a full stop in a letter from Charlotte to Monsieur Heger, revealing that it is a tiny love heart, effectively illustrating Charlotte’s tormented, unrequited love for her tutor. This excites and astonishes Hancock and the curator of the Bronte Parsonage Museum. The second affecting moment is when Hancock reflects on the loneliness Charlotte must have felt as the sole surviving Bronte child, with no more siblings with whom to create new worlds or share story ideas around the table. Hancock sheds tears, recalling her own despair when her husband of 28 years, the actor John Thaw, passed away. 

These two incidents prove that you do not need to be an expert or academic to make a moving and stimulating documentary.

If you missed it, you may be able to catch it on ITV Player!

Foyle-d Again

Yes, the intrepid war-time sleuth is back!

The eighth series of the absorbing Foyle's War has reached its satisfying conclusion here in the UK. This series (supposedly the last, according to creator Anthony Horowitz) is set in the Cold War, complete with a new and austere Cold War-esque theme tune.

Foyle comes up against new nemeses, including unhelpful British government officials (Miss Pierce is played with delightful severity by Ellie Haddington), Soviet spies, ex-Nazis he tries (though not very hard) to protect, and his former driver Sam Stewart, now Sam Wainwright, who unwittingly threatens to undermine his work by abusing his authority to help her MP husband with sensitive government material. Fortunately, the post-war years have not blunted Foyle's sharp intuition - there seems to be no case too difficult for this police detective to solve!

As Horowitz is convinced this series will be the last, he has revealed in the Daily Mail that the character of Sam is based on his real-life nanny, Norah FitzGerald, who was a WAAF driver in World War II. Tragically, she became a nanny because three of her potential fiancees were killed during the war. You can read more about her fascinating story here.

Sadly, Acorn have yet to upload an up-to-date Foyle's War website. You can find an old Masterpiece one here. For those of you in the UK, catch up episodes on ITV Player.

Review of Teacher Man (2005) by Frank McCourt

Completed April 9, 2013

It is with a sense of sadness that I put Teacher Man back on the bookshelf. A recommendation by two great teachers whom I admire, it is a teaching memoir both laugh-out-loud funny and profoundly moving. McCourt's accounts of his experiences teaching high school students in New York touches on so many aspects of humanity - both of himself and his students. 

McCourt is a storyteller. In the midst of despair and in the face of apathetic and, at times, disruptive pupils, the only way he could get through lessons was to tell them stories from his own life growing up in both America and Ireland, his own experiences of poverty and cultural confusion. In return, his students tell their stories - the euphoria of cheering for the moon landing on television only to find your father has died in the next room; a Jewish boy who wants to be a pig farmer but faces strong opposition from his Rabbi father.

Other McCourt teaching strategies I would love to steal: getting students to analyse (their own) forged parent notes as examples of good persuasive writing; studying recipes, setting them to music and singing them in class, accompanied by classmates on various instruments, then writing your own restaurant review of local eateries (including the school cafeteria); doing a human continuum with the class in response to the question "Would you tell 'Hansel and Gretel' to your children?".

I am sad that Frank McCourt is no longer around as I would have loved to meet him and hear him tell more of his wonderful and poignant stories. His love for teaching English as a subject and a life skill, together with his true compassion for, and connection with, his students, makes for an absorbing and inspiring read.

I am also sad that during the months I have been reading Teacher Man my own enthusiasm for teaching has waxed and waned. Although I am a passionate advocate of teachers and the teaching profession, even I have to admit that I am exhausted. As I always say, teaching is truly a work of heart and is most definitely not for the faint-hearted. Who would willingly lay their reputation on the line on a daily basis to walk into a classroom alone to face 30 teenagers, some of whom have come to school burdened by life and are not in a place where they will readily receive an education? Who would willingly take on the mammoth task of planning up to 5 periods a day of educational, engaging and meaningful lessons, while trying to fulfil curriculum requirements, fearful of constant and stringent scrutiny?

As I stand at this crossroads of my teaching career - do I continue on the rocky, uncertain path or do I head for higher ground - McCourt's sage advice remains in my mind: "Find what you love and do it."

If you are, have ever been, or harbour any thoughts of being a teacher, you MUST read this book!

Curiosity Killed the Dog, But Not the Teacher

To the Australian teachers whose school holidays are rapidly approaching their end (*sob*), why not spoil yourself with a ticket to the latest National Theatre Live screening?

To celebrate the end of the holidays, plan to go see the National Theatre Live screenings of the London theatre adaptation of Mark Haddon's acclaimed novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. One of my personal favourite books, it's a murder-mystery told from the perspective of a young boy with Asperger's and how he solves the mystery of the neighbour's dead dog. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It will give you insight into the mind of a student with special needs, as well as being a unique piece of storytelling.

The play has received great reviews, e.g. The Guardian. I am curious to see how they have adapted it. Screenings taking place this weekend, October 5 and 6. See www.ntlive.com/ for more info.

When I was doing my education degree, I wrote an English unit around The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Louis Sachar's amusing There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom and Helen Keller's The Story of My Life. Although I haven't yet had the opportunity to teach the unit, the objective was to promote tolerance and understanding of diversity among Year 9 students. Hopefully I will get the chance to run it in the not-too-distant future. If you have had positive experiences teaching any of these texts, I would love to hear from you!

The Globe on Screen

My favourite theatre in the world, the Globe in London, has announced a series of international screenings of some of its shows, similar to the National Theatre Live concept.

In September-October 2012, audiences in Australia and New Zealand will get to experience some of the Globe's top shows from 2011 in the comfort of a cinema in their hometown. Click here for more details and the trailer.

The three shows from 2011 that will be featured are All's Well That Ends Well, Much Ado About Nothing and Doctor Faustus. The Globe's Much Ado, starring Eve Best and Charles Edwards as the quarrelling lovers, faced stiff competition last year from the West End Much Ado which had Doctor Who's David Tennant and Catherine Tate at its helm. To the Globe's credit, their production received just as gushing reviews, and in fact some theatregoers preferred it for its authenticity.

I went to see the Globe's Doctor Faustus in London last year, mostly because I had studied it at uni but never seen a production before. Also, because Arthur Darvill (Rory from Doctor Who) was playing Mephistopheles. It was of the Globe's usual high quality, but a bit too panto for my liking. Not sure whether this was because of the play, the acting or the production!

Globe on Screen will definitely be worth a look. More details to be released soon.

Nineteen Eighty-Four - Shaken and Stirred

Looking forward very much to taking the students to see Shake and Stir's adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Shake and Stir have proved time and again that they are a young and innovative theatre company whose interpretations of classics are fresh without trying too hard to be hip. They presented an enjoyable potted version of their Bard to the Bone show at the ETAQ Conference on the weekend and were warmly received.

I cannot recommend highly enough the Teachers' Resource Kit Naomi Russell has compiled for Shake and Stir's production. You can find it here. I have already tried out the Physical Jerks activity at the beginning of period one on a Monday morning. A good way to wake the students up - particularly the ones who came in late! They were then grumpy and complained that they now understood what it was like to have no freedom - huzzah!

We also did the 1984  bingo as a lead in to a discussion on how language is linked to power and control. They came up with comments on how language is controlled (Newspeak, etc.), but also how language is used to control (propaganda).

Tomorrow, again inspired by Shake and Stir's teachers' notes, I am going to turn my classroom into Room 101 and we are going to explore our deepest fears about the future. I will then introduce them to the literary concepts of utopia and dystopia using Mike Ashley's exhibition guide for last year's British Library exhibition, Out of this World: Science Fiction, But Not as You Know It. I thought it would be interesting to also frame discussion in light of the original utopia-into-dystopia - Genesis chapters 1-3. The big question they will be seeking to answer in the lesson is: what utopian and/or dystopian elements may be seen in the sci-fi texts we are studying this term?

Will let you know how it goes!

National Theatre Live Season

I know I keep going on and on about this, but National Theatre Live keeps getting better and better!

They have announced the next line-up of screenings which includes encores of the excellent Frankenstein and One Man, Two Guvnors. I am proud to say I have now seen both versions of Frankenstein and they were both excellent. Miller and Cumberbatch prove beyond a doubt that you can be fantastic as protagonist and antagonist.

Anyway, what I'm really excited about is that one of the screenings in the new line-up is a production of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Haddon's novel, about a boy with Asperger's who tries to solve the murder of his neighbour's dog, was a critical and popular success. How writer Simon Stephens will adapt it for the stage, and who will play the main character, will be worth seeing, I'm sure. Stay tuned for further details.