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Siddhartha in the 21st Century

Each year I read Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha with my World Literature 12th grade students. While a few of them are quick to understand the concepts and deeper insights into how one should go about living life, most need the themes and ideas driven home through curriculum supplements.

This year I utilized readings from The Way of Chaung Tzu by Thomas Merton to help elucidate key concepts. I also called on YouTube for a visual assist, and found a great three-part Siddhartha series created by high school students.

Today we watched videos one and two. Tomorrow we'll watch the finale before beginning work on the culminating activity for the unit, an essay entitled Siddhartha Comes to America!

Below are the three student-produced Siddhartha videos. I hope you enjoy them as much as my students and I did.

Ripway is up

The Ripway server is now working again. The website said they were experiencing a "denial of attack," tech jargon for computer hackery. I wish the folks at Ripway well. I don't want to upload all my files again... nor do I want to change all the hyperlinks in my prior blog posts!

Ripway file server is down

I discovered today that the Ripway file hosting site I used to upload all my handouts and assignments is down. I don't know if this is a temporary or permanent situation. I have e-mailed the folks at Ripway inquiring as to what is going on.

If it turns out the site is dead, I will need to upload all of my files again to a new server. I don't know when everything will be back up, as if your lives are like mine, it seems that on some days I barely have enough time to eat three square meals.

Ah the joys of teaching... and technology!

If anyone knows of a free and reliable file hosting site that allows direct links, please let me know.

Oedipus... with vegetables!

Creativity and quality production combine to make this animation a winner.

Lord of the Flies masks

Below are some of the masks my 12th graders created during our Lord of the Flies unit. Consult the link list to the right for the assignment instructions.

Halo Macbeth

Who said Shakespeare was boring?

All hail Macbeth!

I've added a Macbeth character poster activity I did last week with my seniors. There's also a handout on citing correctly from plays. There's a lot more I'd like to add to this page, but alas, there is only so much time.

As for the image above, I had students do a five minute freewrite. They were free to describe what they thought was going on, write about any connections they made between the image and their world, write about how the characters were feeling, etc. It sparked some creative responses, and even my more reluctant students were able to chime in.

New additions

I've just added a number of links and downloads to a variety of materials, lessons, and websites. Take a look and let me know what you find useful!

Stay tuned

This page will eventually become an online English teacher resource. I hope to consolidate and sort a number of valuable teacher websites that contain handouts, lesson plans, and ideas.

I'll also upload some of my assignment sheets and lessons for other teachers to peruse. This site could become valuable to my students too, as my more common handouts will be available for download.