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Susan Wilde

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  • Location
    Stoke on Trent England
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    Teaching A/S and A Level English Language and Literature. I work in a 6th Form College, Head of Dept.<br><br>Anyone who fancies getting snipey about my typing/spelling can keep it to themselves, btw - I'm busy, and my first concern is communication, not proof-reading!

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  1. I am so distraught at this news. His death has been subject of great distress on the email Langauge List which was one of Andrew's many projects. I only came over to see if there was a proper tribute for Andrew here, but I was not prepared to hear the terrible cause of his death. Andrew's contribution to English Language teaching in this country is immeasurable; many of us have used his universal teacher site and engaged in personal email communication with him to discuss apsects of our work. His passing has left many of us feeling personally bereaved. It is a cruel a shock to find that Andrew was suicidal. How can one with so much kindness and human warmth, who gave so freely to others, have been driven to take his own life? It is a pity that he did not realise that however much he honestly thought that people would be better off without him, he was wrong ... and that he could not beleive that he could weather whatever low state he had fallen to. I am so, so sad that Andrew has not had that opportunity to survive his troubles and that all the kindness we have expressed towards him is only following him into a void, rather than supporting him to live on. I feel (no doubt arrogantly?) that I could have helped him. I am at a loss for words to articulate my pain and confusion. If we can learn anything from Andrew's demise it must be that even the apparently "super-man strong" amongst us are only human. We must all take extra care to be kind to our colleagues, to cherish our loved ones and to offer support even when none is asked for. RIP Andrew xx
  2. hi there- we seem like a lost tribe on a desert island here! - I've not been in for ages - we too got good results on this pair of books - and I am glad you found my help useful could you post the sanned thing to me: susan.wilde@stokesfc.ac.uk or snail if that is better: Susan Wilde English Dept. Stoke on Trent 6th Form College Victoria Road Stoke on Trent ST4 2RR cheers
  3. I rarely look in any other sections, but I tried quite hard to stimulate interest in the English section because I believe in the theory of sharing resources and discussing teaching issues - but I see that there have been hardly any posts in there since Xmas .. (tho the Lang List email /newsgroup thing still flourishes) I am a veteran user of other forums and there seem to me to be a couple of key reasons why elements of this one have floundered - but you wont like what I have to say ! firstly the structure here is far too complex - there are too many subdivisions, so it is very hard for passers-by and inexperienced users to find a niche --- but I dunno how easy that is to unpick now? Obviously loads of work went into it, but without enough awarness of new end-users Also - sad but true - some posters are too fond of their own voices or pet themes, and long posts that are guaranteed to alienate casual users .. (and usually with no white space either --- if you MUST write reams, allow ppl to scan it and leave a line! ) Then there was the overspill of conspiracy theories into real-life which led to a sudden surge in the verbosity of posts from here, and the compexity of log in process that killed off a few ppl who were fledging users - including myself for a while ... (tho I seem to have managed it today!) I would suggest that this time of year is a good one for recruitment, as we have a bit less stress in this term hence I was browsing about and popped back in But this is probably the biggest issue: I heard on the grapevine that ppl prefer to use the TES site, so maybe they dont need this one for English? I just had a quick look and it is immediatly easy to see that it is clearer and more user friendly, and there is just ONE forum for English, so you can sift through threads, back over 52 pages and ones that ppl want to add to can be brought back to the top ... *shrugs*
  4. there is a good article in the NATE magazine this month (April 2005) about why we still love teaching Miller.
  5. Even in these supposedly liberated times, unless you are gay yourself, I think it is hard to guess how MASSIVE it is for students, especially gay students, to hear teachers express non-judgemental attitudes to queers. Most gay kids feel like they are isolated on an island surrounded by sharks, and a hint that not everyone is homophobic is VERY important to them. They tend to soak up every anti-gay sentiment they hear and believe that this abuse will be unleashed on their heads if they dare to acknowledge their sexuality. I agree with Dave R too - in general terms everyone assumes ppl are straight. The contribution queers have made to our society has tended to be a hidden history, and that matters to us all. It is important to acknowledge that some of the people we revere were not 100% straight and it did not limit them. Yes, I am a lesbian, and yes my students know, and yes it is relevant to make it explicit ..... hands up the married teacher here who never mentioned their spouse (or kids) in the classroom?
  6. I have prepped a 7 page document on Celie's idiolect, available to share - will we suddenly find ppl wanting to talk to me in here?
  7. hi Julie - strangely - I enjoyed inspection too - and it DID achieve some things, and we learnt some things but it has distracted me, rather, from more day to day chores like prep of new texts -argh! I am still not "free" enough to do much on the new techy side - tho i am using the pc and projector in sinple practical ways - rather than for whole chunks of lessons I typed up some notes on a debate that opend up this week on the old nature nurture debate and did the notes as a power point to learn a few of its gimmicks - the kids will probably laugh at me - nay, I will encourage them to laugh at me! but I've got to start somewhere
  8. *shivers* so glad not to live in that sort of hell-hole! Land of the Free? bah!
  9. I think that is highly unlikely. apart from anything it is too "hard" to read - the writing system is totally alien to all but ppl who were brought up with it, and computers dont do it very easily. I think that Chinese will never replace American as the universal language, since it is allied to political power as well as commercial factors.
  10. yay - Julie *peeping head back over parapet after inspection-induced-purdah* did you miss me? LOL I have just got a new pc and projector in my room, and am interested in your topic - I went to a course this summer, which I need to dust off and look at again now - if I see owt that I think you can use I'll pass it on -- I certainly wont be doing death by power point, so many kids in my lasses groan when you mention it- and suggest that having a power point read to you is no more interesting than any other dreary lecture .. did you see my two best ENB6 lesson ideas ? one based on the Old Bailey website and one based on the rhyme zone Shakespeare site? - they are quite interactive, esp the rhymezone one ... I think I've got your email addy at work .. or somewhere . I can forward them .. but inspection is not quite over, and I might just drop into a deep stupor for a month now, anyway!
  11. ah - the one and only e-julie - light of my life ..etc xx how good to see you here - maybe you will brighten up the English bit -
  12. have you bought the Alison Ross text book? I recommend that as a good starting point - http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...5731089-4282841
  13. I was wondering about the colonies in a more general sense, teaching the Scarlet Letter as a lit text. I wonder if anyone can recommend a good site for setting the context for my students. They are A level, but something with simple terms and lots of pictures to generate a sense of the time rather than the detail of it would be great. thanks
  14. I dunno if this is at all related to this stuff, but I have found that idle browsing in the English forum is difficult, ...unless I log into a thread pdq I find myself brought back to this front area of the board
  15. oh I dunno whatit is about the layourtof this site - that I can miss the existing answers when I read a post ! LOL btw - I know a guy called Richard Head too - and he isn't.
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