Well, I actually have the most mundane of questions, but it’s been so long since I’ve been in an English class that I feel like I’ve completely forgotten (and I’m curious how you do it): how do you go about reading a book as a class? Do you assign them the chapters to read at home and most of them actually do it? Or do you give them class time to read? Do you have the kids who try to spoil the rest of the book for the class? Basically, how does one teach a book in the year 2024? 😀
And do you have your students annotate inside their books? (I know the English teachers in my school require the students to do that, and I get why, but I inwardly shudder every time I see a student marking up a page.)
Haha I love this question because I too am always asking myself how DOES one each a book in 2024?
It’s sort of a combination. I absolutely assign reading every night (almost) unless it’s Shakespeare or any play in which case we read it all in class. But for a novel there’s a couple chapters a night. I read aloud to them a lot too. Sometjmes I make them read aloud to the whole class, rotating kids who read. Sometimes I assign a chapter to be read in class silently with questions or quotes due at the end of the reading. Sometimes I put them in groups and make them read aloud to each other. There’s no one way that works for sure and of course ultimately I have no control over how much they read and I’m not naive enough to think that most of the reading assigned for homework doesn’t get skipped most of the time buuuuuut.
My bottom line is that I believe it’s my job to get excited about the actual text itself (easier for me in some cases than others but overall pretty easy because it does fill me with excitement) and then commit to taking them on the journey of the story with me. And my goal—that I’m sure I often don’t reach—is to make that experience so much more fun if you have actually read. And the way that I teach is pretty text heavy which is why I always make sure I’ve read the chapters for the day and am not just relying on my memory because the way I do it is just sort of absorbing it all up like a vacuum-cleaner, schwooooop, and then either pulling stuff out of the reading to look at directly or directing them to do the same thing. So the big thing that I have going for me, if any, is buy-in. Is getting kids excited about actually reading the actual text. I also speak often and passionately about the evils of sparknotes etc. not because they help kids get better grades or whatever but because they present you with the husk and shell of a story, stripped of all that makes it interesting, and that by reading that alone they’re reading something so dry and dull and are not achieving what I always want them to achieve —which is, have an Experience with the Literature.
Again, it never works perfectly by any stretch and there are so many ways I want to explore in my quest to get better at it but overall I think, at my very best, I can create this wave of energy and excitement in the story itself which is the most organic and ultimately most helpful way to get them to want to read.
Also no haha. I don’t let them annotate! Though occasionally kids DO of course. But sometimes they bring in their own copies in order to do that. The spoilers absolutely happen and are annoying but I sort of get by it by moving on very quickly and/or talking about how it’s often not the ending but how you get there that makes it interesting. Because that’s just true!
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Hello! I hope that you are doing well!
I just wanted to send you a question regarding the amount of power Rhea has in Fódlan since something came to my mind. You know how during Edelgard's coronation, she said to her father that, "The Archbishop of the Church of Seiros would normally act as witness, but my professor will fill that role instead"?
Unless I missed something [or am overthinking], do you believe that Rhea was even there to witness Ionius' coronation?
We were told in the game that it had been ages since a member of House Hresvelg enrolled into the Officers Academy as well as that there had recently been a rift between the Adrestian Empire and the Church of Seiros.
Therefore, to me at least, that implied that said rift had been going on for a while. And I do not see why they would allow her there if such a thing was going on. Yet, Rhea does not retaliate against this as far as I know. Then there is the fact that Edelgard is allowed to be coronated without Byleth's presence. The Southern Church was dismantled, too, so…I think it is safe to say that there was not an official to witness her from there as well. lol
To put it simply, it feels very contradictory to me and adds a crack into the "Rhea controls Fódlan" perspective.
Hi!
I agree, that NPC going all "the empire and hthe church cut ties eons agao that's why supreme leader is the first imperial heir to attend since ages" suggests Rhea wasn't very welcomed in Enbarr.
FWIW the Nopes book about the Southern Church incident reveals the Emperor of that time already wanted to cut ties with the Central Church - and used this rebellion (which was more or less a Varley daughter wanting to have a role instead of letting her bother inherit everything?) as an excuse to finally give them the boot.
In a nutshell, I heavily doubt Rhea was around when Ionius was coronated, if her Church was already "not welcomed" by the time the Southern Church was disbanded.
The Archbishop acting as witness might be just some sort of old ceremonial thing, just like the "covenant of the red blood and the white sword", maybe all coronations try to renact the "oath" Wilhelm took/swore to Seiros when she presumably made him Emperor of Adrestia? And the Archbishop acts as a stand in for Seiros (even if we know better!) when the oath is sworn again by Willy's descendants?
As you pointed out, the Archbishop being present or not is merely decorum, since nowhere the game suggests that in the non-CF routes, Supreme Leader's coup coronation isn't regular or anything.
Rhea controlling Fodlan isn't backed up by canon, Adrestia has been doing its own thing for several centuries, the CoS only provides help (the game doesn't tell us what it is!) to Faerghus : Dimitri becomes King not because Rhea crowns or splashes oil on him, but because he is the Crown Prince and the last heir of the previous King. As for the Alliance, it does its own thing without her input!
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It’s all about hope and fear.
I didn’t leave the church because I was Smart and Logicked my way out. That’s not how you get in and it’s not how you escape either.
I left because I was lucky enough that I turned 20 and didn’t have a calling, hadn’t gone on a mission, didn’t have any friends in the church, and I had a number of friends outside the church, who were nice to me despite my sometimes annoying faith. I left because I knew my parents would still love and accept me even if I did, and for that I am also exceptionally lucky.
I was no longer emotionally involved in the church, no longer attached by friendship or responsibility, and I had clear examples that happiness was possible outside of the church, by people who had never even heard of Mormonism.
I left because my fear of staying outweighed my fear of leaving.
I’m not one to talk about fear a lot as a motivator, and I don’t mean for this to be a depressing look at humanity as “driven solely by fear”. I could rephrase, and say that my *hope* of leaving outweighed my fear of leaving.
But I’m choosing fear because it feels appropriate for the issue. I didn’t want to think about life outside of the church because of fear. I didn’t want to consider an afterlife that wasn’t the Mormon Standard because of fear. Everything on my shelf was put there and suppressed because of fear.
Fear of disappointing those close to me. Fear of eternal damnation if I strayed from the path. Fear of being hurt, or hurting others. Fear that if I thought too long about the flaws in the church and myself, I would become a sinner, an outcast, an apostate. Fear that the life I’ve lived for years and years—my entire life!—is actually a lie.
Fear that if I left I would never be happy again.
Because that’s what we’re taught! That those outside the church aren’t really happy, they’re just sort of… ‘happy’. And that every step away from the path was risking my eternal salvation forever.
Our brains want to protect us! When we see something counter to our beliefs, it tells us to stop, turn back, avoid at all costs. We get that feeling in our stomachs, the ‘lack of the spirit’, and all the thoughts are shut down because we sense danger.
And really, there’s only two ways out of that.
The most painful, but unfortunately very common for many exmormons, the fear of staying has to grow and grow until it’s larger than the fear of staying. Abuse, shunning, addiction, being overworked and used. Eventually, we have to make the choice of staying in a situation that we know might kill us, or make the jump into the unknown and hope there’s something out there to catch us. Like jumping from a burning building, unable to see through the smoke and yet knowing that anything is better than staying near the blaze.
The other option is less painful, but the church actively works to make it impossible. Instead of increasing the fear of staying, you have to reduce the fear of leaving.
Making friends outside the church, meeting people who are happy without the gospel, finding those with nuanced ideas on your principles. Creating a community, a landing pad to aim for when you jump for safety.
The church doesn’t want this, of course. But I want that for my loved ones still stuck in that great and spacious burning building, so I’m going to do my best to build them a soft place to fall.
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Bout to muse about something that is part headcanon part canon events
ㅤ
Tails is finally saved from his bullies by the (currently) small time hero he admires
Tails stalks follows his hero, uses his mechanical knowledge to improve Sonic's plane
While Tails follows Sonic around, even on dangerous journeys, the hedgehog keeps an eye out for the younger fox behind him, keeping him from being in too much danger
Sonic leads by example, demonstrating to Tails how to fight, and Tails runs maintenance on Sonic's plane and teaches him how to read
Soon enough, they become softly inseparable. Even if they can't adventure side by side (although they do more often than not), Sonic keeps contact with Tails whenever he can.
They strengthen each other's weak points. Where Tails lacks in raw strength, Sonic makes up for it with experience and speed. Where Sonic lacks in firepower, Tails has a machine, a gadget, or the technical know-how to take one. Sonic often rushes into danger, fighting without thinking too hard, but Tails' specialty is strategizing or making plans, and he's one of the few who can slow Sonic down enough to make sure he's prepared. And where Sonic supports Tails by being a force of nature, someone who can roll with the punches and execute one of Tails' plans with complete trust or faith, Tails also supports Sonic by understanding what he cannot, by crafting plans when Sonic is at a loss for how to proceed. They have such unwavering faith and trust in each other's abilities now.
Where Sonic is a hero, Tails is his own kind of hero, saving the people only he can save, helping in the ways only he can help. They support each other. They look out for each other. Even if Sonic is a force on his own, or Tails can go on solo adventures, they're more effective when they're together.
And no matter how things change as they grow, the people who come and go, the two of them are a constant. Sonic and Tails, ever at each other's sides.
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