I finished the 7th book today, and I am completely exhausted!  What a ride!  I am so impressed wtih J.K. Rowling and how she did this entire series...I honestly had no idea what she was going to do with these characters - it just seemed like they would need to grow up an awful lot in this last book in order to do what needed to be done - and they did!

 

I wonder if Rowling felt relieved at being finished with the series, or a bit sad...probably a whole bunch of different emotions going on.  I, for one, applaud her incredible writing and her ability to keep people on the edges of their reading seats for 10 years (the first book was released in the U.K. in 1997)!

 

Now I'm thinking it would be really cool for her to start a new series, based on the children of Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione, and Draco (Scorpius???  Yikes - sounds like a little angel, don't he???).  Perhaps, though, Ms. Rowling would just like to rest and enjoy life with her husband and children - she's more than earned it!! :)

 

I'm sure she'll never see this, but thank you, J.K. Rowling, for a wonderful series of books that brought us these unforgettable characters who showed us that the most important things in life are, truly, friendship, love, and loyalty!

I am still in shock that I love coaching drama as much as I do!  I took drama in junior high and high school, and enjoyed it a great deal, but didn't ever think I would teach it.

 

This past year I organized a Shakespeare Festival for all of my English classes (7th, 8th, and 10th grades, plus our afterschool Shakespeare Reading Group), and it was an enormous success!  Each of my classes learned several scenes from four of his plays, and did so very well - I was just so proud of what they accomplished in 6 weeks!  This prompted our afterschool group to ask if we could form a drama group and do a production of Much Ado About Nothing, which we were reading at the time.  I said sure, asked the board of directors if it was okay, got their enthusiastic permission, and had auditions.

 

In a school with only 60 students, grades 1st-12th, I had 30 kids audition, the majority of them high school age.  The interest and enthusiasm blew me away!  I had assumed I wouldn't have enough people to fill parts for the entire play, so I had planned to cut a few minor characters...Nope, it wasn't necessary!  As a matter of fact, I actually had to turn down 7 of the people who auditioned (they are actually getting to be extras in the masked ball scene, which they are very excited about!)!

 

We've been working on the play since May, and the performances will be in September.  I am so proud of my students - The Highland Players - and the hard work they are putting in this summer.  Their ability to learn Shakespeare never ceases to amaze me - and their desire to learn more about how to get him across to modern audiences is impressive.  They're not worried about looking foolish - they want to make sure they're doing everything they can to get his words across to their audience.

 

If anyone reads this and wonders about Much Ado About Nothing, or about Shakespeare, I would highly recommend reading that play in particular.  In addition, the 1993 movie version with Ken Brannagh and Emma Thompson is particularly good.  It is very accessible, very fun, and a great read and watch! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

One day last week, I was looking on-line for books through amazon.com, I believe it was...and what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a notice that "300" is coming out onto DVD July 31st!  Could my July have gotten any better?!?  First, we have the 5th Harry Potter movie, "Order of the Phoenix," coming to theaters on July 11th...then we have the 7th HP book, "Deathly Hallows" (I think that's the correct title), coming out at midnight on July 20th.  I didn't think it would be possible to fit one more extremely cool release into this amazing month of July 2007...but then call the neighbors and wake the kids, holy cow, here comes "300"!

 

I saw "300" twice when it came out and loved every minute of it...wait a second, I guess I didn't love every minute.  Being a somewhat conservative female, there were two parts which I felt could have been left out...but I suppose there are folks out there (men, perhaps?) who would have missed those two scenes...I'll leave it to your imagnation which two scenes I'm referring to! :)

 

Seriously, though, I thought it was very well done, and I'm so excited to have it on DVD!

 

Happy July, Everyone! :)

Okay, I must admit to being stuck in the 20th century...graduated in 1986...yes, that makes me 39 right now (2007)...but what on earth is a blog?  Sigh...

 

(As you can see I like punctuation, and I tend to overuse it...there's just something interesting and anticipatory about the lovely little ellipsis!)

 

So I begin my quest in search of the blog...is it a bio-log?  A blah-log?  Is it something cut down by lumberjacks?  Perhaps Internet lumberjacks?  Hmmm...many things to ponder this evening...

 

I shall pursue this quest for knowledge by consulting wikipedia.org immediately, if not sooner, and then I shall probably post again...on my first ever blog! :)

 

Happy Trivia, Everyone!

 

(Later that same night...)

 

By Jove, I think I've got it - Web Log!  Ahhhh, the things one can learn on the Internet!

 

I will continue with my Web Logging...oh, I mean, "blogging"...in a few days, once I return from a brief vacation - I am heading south as, apparently, 100+ degrees up here in northern Idaho just isn't hot enough for me! :)

 

God bless everyone who inadvertently stumbles into this wacky world of my very first Blog! :)