Creative English Teacher — Five Reasons To Teach Series

Although spring showers haven’t exactly pierced the drought of March to the root—in fact, winter’s coming on fast—I am inspired to write about The Canterbury Tales. Why? Because it’s a blast to teach in my British Literature class! Yes, you heard me right. An “old, moldy” classic is a blast to teach! So without further ado I give you five reasons to teach this entertaining (and sometimes raunchy) classic! The Canterbury Tales perfectly captures the emergence of the Middle Class. Many great works of literature perfectly capture a particular time period. When Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, the Middle...

Five Reasons for Teaching Egyptian Mythology and Culture Although I have taught various kinds of mythology—the typical Greek, Roman, and Norse varieties—it was not until I was encouraged by a fellow educator (thanks, Chris), that I decided to give Egyptian mythology another look. What I found is that ancient Egyptian culture is fascinating! (Why hadn’t I realized this before? No jokes about being in “de Nile” please.) Furthermore, I realized that the ancient Egyptian stories not only entertain, but also address some of the problems we still face today. Since my sophomore world literature course revolves around the theme of...

Five Reasons for Teaching Beowulf I can still remember the first time I heard someone read Old English aloud. The words had a hypnotic sound to them like a druid casting a spell. Of course, this druid was Dr. Ellis, my Hawaiian-shirt-wearing English professor. I couldn’t believe that what I was hearing was actually English or at least “pre-English.” I later learned that Dr. Ellis was so knowledgeable in linguistics that the Merriam-Webster folks (of dictionary fame) would send him whole sections of the dictionary to double-check for accuracy. Throughout that semester Dr. Ellis taught us how to conjugate Old English verbs...