Modern Shakespeare, Wednesday, Period 1 & 2

[glacial_queen]

After the violent disaster that had been Jono and Hannibal's wedding (of which she had contributed much of the violence), Karla was tempted to show Ran. But she wasn't sure Peridot's reading level was up to snuff to follow the subtitles. So, instead, she had another movie that discussed violence in its many variations and the effect it has on the text. But before she could start the movie, there was something she had to clear up first.

"Okay, so everything in the documentary...forget it," Karla said, rubbing her temples. "I'm sorry. It was just...yeah, everything about it was wrong. Hilarious, but wrong." It was below her Queenly dignity to admit that she'd gone home and snickered at all the words Philomena had underlined with her finger. And then sent it to Ender, because what was the point of having friends if she couldn't troll them? "So, take it as a joke--a parody--and let's move on."

There, that done, Karla could move onto the proper lecture. "So, one of the benefits of modern adaptations is the ability to look at the plays in ways that Shakespeare and his contemporaries could never have imagined. There are new ways of looking at the text, like feminist criticism or queer theory--that is, examining the plays with an eye towards how gender or sexuality is constructed. And with that, comes a focus on minor characters. Modern adaptations can expand upon their roles or delve deeper into their characterizations, or even use them to shed new light on the text. Today, we're looking at one of the most famous examples of this, by revisiting our first play, Amleth."

Working With Jerks, Wednesday, June 8, 2016

[heroic_jawline]

Today in class there were computers at the desk of every student and an email chain that everyone had somehow been included on for some unknown project. There were a good twenty emails in which multiple someones had decide that the best method of communication was to hit 'reply all' every single time.

And, if the kids had keen eyes, they'd notice that cced into this email was titled 'the boss' just to add onto the poor office manners list of offenses.

"Today we'll be talking about how to handle situations when you're not face to face with your coworkers," Tony said, giving the email a look like it offended him personally. "Email etiquette is something I feel strongly about. Because I get a lot of emails."

"And I...have learned what email is," Steve said, looking slightly abashed. "I don't get quite as much as Tony does."

And SHIELD probably filtered what they sent to him. So. There was that.

"Lucky man," Tony said with a sigh. "Sometimes people will decide to include the supervisor in on these emails because they're trying to cover their own asses or have a valid issue that needs to be addressed. The former happens more often than the latter in my experience. This tactic can lead to some... friction when working with people."

Understatement.

"Other people tend to reply to everyone in an email chain rather than just to the person they need to discuss the matter with. Which leads to emails you just don't care about constantly popping up."

"Oh!" Steve perked up. "I got one of those! Rumlow wrote back like five times in all capital letters telling everyone to stop replying to everyone."

And then Natasha had told Rumlow, in person, to stop making it worse and Rumlow had sulked for two days. Steve left that part out.

"And that is an example of how not to handle the situation," Tony chimed in helpfully. "But we'll see what new and exciting missteps you can make."