As Said by Shakespeare

[Richard Stone]

Richard walked around his English classroom, placing a Belkin keyboard case - with ipad - on each of the desks, he would collect the ones not being used once class started, and then walked back to the front of the room and wiped the board clean, and pushed it to the side to uncover the blackboard. Picking up a piece of chalk he began to write on the board:

Thirteen Common Phrases:
Green Eyed Monster
•In a Pickle
•The World is Your oyster
•Catch a Cold
•It's all Greek to me
•Love is Blind
•Wild Goose Chase
•A Heart of Gold
•Break the Ice
•Laughing Stock
•Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve
•Dogs of War
•Method to His Madness

Placing the chalk in the box, he dusted his hands and then walked over to sit at his desk where he began to set up his laptop for the power-point as the students began arriving. Yes, he could have been mean and placed the likes of The Complete works of Shakespeare on the desk, and really made the students squirm - as he didn't know many who really enjoyed reading Shakespeare - but decided against it.

When it was time to start class, he closed the lid of his laptop and walked to the front centre of the room and faced the students. "Welcome to Cambridge English. For those who don't know me." As there were a couple of new faces. "I'm Mr Stone. To start things off, can you please copy down the thirteen phrases that are on the board, if you haven't done so already." He paused for a moment. "All of those phrases are very common is everyday language, what many of you won't know is that every single one of them came from Shakespeare." He raised his eyebrows with a smile as he walked back to his laptop and started the power-point slideshow on the whiteboard.

"These thirteen phrases from eleven of Shakespeare’s works have made it into our common vernacular since they were first written down. Some have retained their original meaning from the work in which they were first uttered and some have adapted and shifted over time." He said as the slideshow drew to an end. "The idea of catching a cold, or having a cold, is something that was foreign before Shakespeare wrote of the concept. People got sick, sure, before he coined the phrase, but the common cold was not called a cold before Shakespeare named it thus!" He paused as he looked around the class. "Your job today, and homework, is to find two of those phrases that you like the most, though here's the catch; one of them needs to be one that has retained it's original meaning and the other, one that has been adapted. Which is why you have you have the iPad on your desk." As the students got down to work, he began to wander around the room and collected the cases from the unused tables and returned them to the box they had come from.

Roll Call:
Adonya van Rutherford
Athena Achilles
@running9
Danielle Green
Danielle A. St George
Gretchen Holmes
@running5
Stefano Rice

[Athena Achilles]

That morning, Athena found herself faced with a problem she'd never had before, she had no idea what she was going to wear! With so many new clothes, she was almost way out of her depth. She finally settled on a pair of black hip hugging jeans, a pink and white t-shirt and a black cropped vest. Picking up her brand new pink back pack, filled with new folders, pens and pencils, she made her way out of the House and toward the academic building.

When it was time for her English class, she walked in and smiled toward the teacher, pressing her lips together as she was becoming used to the slightly surprised looks she was getting from the teachers, though she nodded as she made her way to one of the paired tables and sat down. Yes, it was a whole new Athena this year.

She took the purple folder out of her bag - each class had a different coloured folder - along with her multi-coloured pencil case. She opened the folder and looked up at the board. Raising her eyebrow, she shrugged and began to copy down what was on the board, wondering where they would be going with those, leaving a few lines between each phrase.

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise when she learned that Shakespeare had coined each of those phrases, but she was keen to know more and as the slideshow began to play, she jotted down what play the phrase came from, who said it and how it had been said. She smiled as they were given their assignment and she chose to do: Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve and In a Pickle. She opened the iPad and folded the cover over so that the device was resting against it and turned it on so that she could begin.

[Stefano Rice]

Seth was excited to be starting a new school. As long as his junior high teachers hadn't completely sabotaged him, this was his chance for a new start. He'd try and play by the rules of these teachers, but he couldn't make any promises, especially if he found another and easier way of getting from point A to point B.

Dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans, without any holes and looking reasonably new, and a white polo shirt, he hitched the bag up his shoulder and made his through the academic building and only after having to ask for directions, and having to redirected, a couple of times, he finally made his way to the classroom he was supposed to be in.

Finding a seat near the back of the room - sure he likes class, but there was nothing wrong with trying to keep up his bad-boy status - he pulled out his book for this class and turned his attention to the board. Opening the book, on the top left corner on the inside of the front cover he wrote Mr Stone - as he hoped it would help him remember who all his teachers were - and then copied down the thirteen phrases on the board - more for something to do than anything else.

He sat up straighter once the class started and the teacher mentioned Shakespeare. Of all the playwrights, he was Seth's favourite! And he watched the slide-show that flicked across the screen at a speed that was easy to read, but not do slow that one grew board of the slides.

He looked down at the list of phrases and frowned until he put a tick beside It's all Greek to me and Method to His Madness. Two sayings that he himself quoted quite often. He was surprised that Lead on McDuff wasn't there, as it was the most often used misquote of Shakespeare, but there again, it was also obviously from the man who had written it, where the thirteen they had been given weren't obvious - he hadn't even picked up on it until Mr Stone had started talking.

[Adonya van Rutherford]

Blythe finished feeding her fish before she turned her attention to her own appearance. The time spent had given her hair a chance to finish drying from her shower, and she turned to that next, curling her hair and then spraying in a bit of sea salt texture. She paired the hairstyle with a cute strapless dress she'd picked up while back in Santa Monica and a pair of dark grey sandals. Finally, she felt ready, and she turned to grab her backpack, which she'd thrown notebooks into the previous night.

Finally, she reached the English classroom, glancing around briefly before she walked to the center of the room and sat down. She pulled out a notebook and a pencil, although she wasn't sure if she wanted to take notes or not. However, that choice wasn't left to her when Mr. Stone started the class, and she started copying them down, leaving a line between each just in case there was more information.

And indeed there was. She copied down the play and the gist of the meanings of the phrases, then listened to Mr. Stone's project. She decided relatively quickly to just do the first of each instance, 'green eyed monster' and 'in a pickle'. Why work harder than she had to? She grabbed her iPad and then turned it on, navigating her way easily to the browser that would let her do her research.

[Danielle Green]

English out of all of her academic classes was her favorite. This was the subject that people loved it or it was just a burden to them. Danny loved it, she didn't know why but being able to express her feelings through the written word was just fantastic. Moving down the hallway with the rest of the students, she felt like a fish in the current, finally she hopped out of the current of students and entered into Mr. Stone's classroom. 

Seeing as there were already a few people in the class, she found a seat towards the farthest side of the room. She pulled out her notebook and pencil, she liked that they still could take handwritten notes not were not forced to take notes digitally because writing them down on paper help her to remember.

Once Mr. Stone started the class she copied down the words written on the board and listened to him at the same time. When the class was told to pick two of the thirteen phrases she scanned over the words and decided on two, Heart of Gold and Method to His Madness. Pulling up Google Chrome on the iPad she got to work.

[Deleted]

Another class that he was not to excited about. Jackson didn't like reading and writing and that sort of thing. There were kids in his class that he knew were over the top into Shakespeare and writing short stories and poems and that sort of thing, but that just wasn't him. With him being a junior he chose to challenge himself a little bit more this year. Cambridge English was the highest level of English that the academy offered and it didn't really scare Jackson all that much. He broke off from the flow of students and walked into the classroom. He saw a few familiar faces, of course Blythe was there, not that he would bother to say 'hi', she would probably be in his Trail Class and would have to listen to her complain about Mr. Rhodes, but that was another class and another time.

Jackson took a seat and listened to Mr. Stone as class started. He wrote down the thirteen phrases and proceeded to choose two of them from the instruction that Mr. Stone had given them. Break the ice and In a Pickle. Jackson turned on the iPad at his desk and flipped the cover over to make a stand. He pulled up an internet browser and got to work on looking at the two phrases.

[Deleted]

Eh English, not his absolute favorite class but he would deal with it. Chase walked through the hallways with the his fellow classmates and soon enough he entered the classroom he was looking for. Though he hadn't been in the exact same class before he had had Mr. Stone before. Chase took a seat where there was an empty one and pulled out his notebook. He eyed the iPad on his desk and moved it aside before he got started on writing down what was on the board. Luckily Mr. Stone informed the class that they had no option but to copy what was on the board down so Chase a few steps ahead already.

He listened to the introduction of the thirteen phrases and nodded his head. Since he was not a big Shakespeare fan nor an English fan in general he would have never knew that little piece of information otherwise. When the teacher informed the class what they would be doing with two of the thirteen phrases his eyes roved the words before he finally decided on two that he liked, Method to his Madness and Laughing Stock. He flipped open the iPad and turned it on before getting to work looking up the phrases and where they came from.

[Danielle A. St George]

Dani couldn't help the nervous butterflies that were making themselves known. First day of school, and she was excited, but it was still one of those things. Taking a deep breath, she filled her locker with the excess books and files, just taking the ones she would need for the periods before lunch. The weather was still mild, so she was dressed in knee length shorts with a short sleeved t-shirt and black sandals. Her hair was pulled back into a messy bun, held in place with a hair elastic that had probably seen better days. Slinging the satchel over her shoulder, she made her way to her first class, which was English.

Slipping through the door, she greeted the teacher and sat down, not recognising anyone in the class that was there so far. She took out her notebook and a pen, writing down the phrases on the board before turnin her attention to the teacher.

Circling two of the phrases, she opened the iPad case and started researching.

Method to his madness

The term comes from a line of Shakespeare's Hamlet. It is used to describe someone's inexplicable behaviour.

<<Lyrics>> Flashlight - Jesse Jay
<<Lyric Banner>> Onzy
<<Image Credit>> Line @ Caution 2.0
<<Notes>>

[Richard Stone]

Richard wasn't the type of teacher to bother his students while the worked, so he sat down at his desk and began to work out how he would teach their next class - he already knew what they were doing, but he liked to go through the how as well as the what.

His eyebrows shot up when he looked at the clock above the door, it was hard to believe that the class was almost over already. "Right oh, everyone." He said as he stood up. "Our time is almost at an end, so I'll let you begin to pack your things up. You have your homework, and if I'm not mistaken, most of you will already have most of it completed and I will look forward to reading through what you have written when you hand it in at the beginning of the next class." He walked over to the board and picked up the chalk duster. "We will continue our work on Shakespeare when I see you again. Until then, I bid you farewell." There was still a couple of minutes before the bell would sound to end the class, but when possible, he liked to give them the time needed to pack up their belongings, and it gave any students who wanted to approach him to ask any questions they might have.

[Adonya van Rutherford]

Blythe kept working on her work, although it was tempting to get distracted along the lines of the internet. But, as she knew, that wouldn't really help matters, and then she'd just be in hot water and still have to do the homework later. So, instead, she focused and had the given work nearly done by the time Mr. Stone disrupted her to let the class know that it was time to start packing up. She turned back to her work to finish the end of her thought, and then turned towards the basics of cleaning up. Clearing the history on the iPad, because why should anyone get to use her work, and then closing her notebook and slipping it into her bag.

She played with her phone as she waited for the bell to ring, and then tucked that back into a sidepocket when they were finally released. She left the classroom without a backwards glance, ready to head to the next class... Or at least, ready to endure it, if she had to. At least she had the fun of cheer practice to look forward to, the first week of them devoted to bringing wanna-bes up and ready for try-outs.