Cycle of Tragedy Continues--Sylvia Plath's Son Takes His Own Life

This story gives much food for thought about he nature of artists and people who love them.

It raises the question: How much a writer's biography do you feed to students before teaching a writer's work?






Here's another piece about the family.

Teacher's Discovery Interactive Catalog Going to Librarians and Media Specialists

Our sister division, Teacher's Discovery Interactive, is sending a catalog to secondary schools' Media Center Specialists and Librarians.

If that's you, be on the lookout. If you'd like one, drop a line to 1-877-TECH-311.

In the catalog, you'll find a lot of what we mention here, along with other, tech-based teaching aides.

It's called the 2009 Digital Education Yearbook, and we're sure you'll find it a useful resource for hardware and software that your whole school can use.

Neil Gaiman on Stephen Colbert

Newberry Award-winner Neil Gaiman visited "The Colbert Report," and the interview is fun and insightful.

Gaiman first made his name in comic books, especially the fantasy series "Sandman." An issue of that series, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," (based, of course, on the Shakespeare play) is to date the only comic book to win a World Fantasy Award.

Below is the interview. A couple of four-letter words are bleeped out, so beware.

They also name-drop Art Spiegelman, writer/artist of "Maus," a book that often makes its way into schools.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Neil Gaiman

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Rap Battle
NASA Name Contest

Poetry of Place: Helping Students Write Their Worlds

Interesting new book from NCTE.

Poetry of Place: Helping Students Write Their Worlds

Pi Day!

Mmmmm, pie.


Wait, what? Pi?


Oh, that's cool, too.

The Illustrated Bard

Did they find the only portrait of William Shakespeare made in his lifetime?

Maybe!

Barbie Turns 50!

We here at teacher's Brunch HQ in water-logged Auburn Hills, MI are taking a moment to say "Happy Birthday" to Barbie.

In the last 50 years, Barbie has been a significant part of girls' lives, for better, and for worse.





An interesting project might be looking into Barbie's history, and seeing how she's changed in the last 50 years. Or maybe students could look into the positive and negative social effects she's had.

Of course, you could do that with any toy. . . .

Literature Mini-Posters

We're really proud of these!

With the help of our friends in the Teacher's Discovery-English Division, we found this great artist to make a series of 8 mini-posters. Each poster is filled to the brim with surprising facts about famous--and not so famous--authors, and the images to go along with those facts are just awesome.

We mention Poe, Twain, Salinger, Alcott, Dickinson, King, Whitman, Morrison, Plath, Hemingway. . .the list goes on forever!

People around here have called the pictures "old style," "modern," "cutting edge," "retro," and "wow." We didn't know "wow" was an adjective, but we think it means the pictures look pretty good.

We hope you'll agree!

More Dr. Seuss!

This site features a great retrospective of Dr. Seuss' work during World War II.

It's interesting to see the style we usually equate with characters like the Cat in the Hat being used in a different context.





This is not our first posting about political cartoons, so obviously we think they're cool, and valuable in the classroom.

The depictions of the Japanese, in particular, are more than a little off-putting today. Maybe that's something you and your students could consider.

How does war influence our perceptions of the enemy? How will today's enemy be depicted tomorrow?

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

We in frigid Auburn Hills, MI wish Dr. Seuss happy birthday today!

Not too long ago, we made a Dr. Seuss poster as part of our series of author movie posters.

Studying the "biggies" of literature is all well and good, but we like to remember our love for reading started with a cat and a hat.