Best Ever Birthday Bash: Bill turns 450

Hey Kids!

Didn’t we have a great time at Bill’s Birthday Bash?  Here are some links highlighting the day in Stratford-upon-Avon:

Our own festivities began with a parade led by our own bugle and band corps followed by the passing of the quill from the Bard himself to our Head Student.  We then unfurled the flags, presented flowers at the grave, read birthday poems, ate cake and ice cream, Skyped across the pond with Anjna and Lisa from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon, and competed in a Shakespeare Academic Bowl with the parents and Fr. Joseph.   Without actually flying into Heathrow, we think we did a spot on job of celebrating like the Brits.  Some of our students even prepared homemade Elizabethan dishes!  You can see our festivities here:

Bill’s Birthday Bash on PhotoPeach


What was your favorite part of the birthday party?

What do you think you’ll remember about Shakespeare in years to come?

 

The Power of a Smile

Every day our principal, Mrs. Kroll, asks us to be Jesus for someone.  Today, one of our seventh grade students, her two brothers, and their parents exemplified this idea magnificently.  While rolling coins from their change jar, they decided to donate half the rolls to The Smile Train, a charity the middle schoolers support due to our reading about a character with cleft palate.   Half of the coins amounted to $73.50.  That is nearly one-third of the total cost of surgery for one child.

The power of a smile is contagious.  What can you do to make someone smile?  How can you be Jesus for someone today?

A Tributing to Shakespeare or Attributing Shakespeare?

Live The Bard!
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Su℮ ❥ via Compfight

Would you be surprised to learn that a man stole a 1623 edition of The First Folio and was able to hide his theft for ten years?  Well, Raymond Scott did just that.

Sometimes people try to steal the work of others for their own benefit.  On the other hand, sometimes people use the work of others without meaning to steal it.  They think that because they found it on the internet, it is free for anyone to use.  That is not always the case.

This week’s Student Blogging Challenge invites us to ethically use images, videos, and music in our posts.  That means we need to add this pizzazz to our posts without stealing the work of others.  First we need to make sure the creator wants to share his work, and then we need to attribute our source.  Check out this excellent article from the Edublogger before adding any pizzazz to your post.  You don’t want to be found guilty after the fact and be forced to protest too much.
And speaking of attribution, here’s an interesting video about some people who wonder if the works we attribute to Shakespeare should be attributed to someone else entirely.

Did Shakespeare really write his plays?

Is his authorship to be or not to be?  That is the question.