I wanted to offer my empathy/sympathy on your Time Warner Cable issues.

Comcast hasn't been much easier. I got invoiced for a digital package I don't have "Oh, that covers all the channels over 99", "Maybe but I don't get them and I don't want them". I have my own modem that I bought back in California and they are charging me a rental fee. Uh, no. Then they had the wrong apartment number so they had to cancel our service and reset it against the right apartment.

With all the changes to the bill the person I was talking to told me to hold off on payment until I got a new bill. If they cut my service or charge me a late fee I will cut a bitch.

I love that my school stays out of the Drama curriculum. (they just find other ways to drive me insane). This past year I integrated a "Shakespeare and the movies" unit into my Intro to Drama class. I hope to keep working on that this year. So many students have such a negative view of Shakespeare and it is really frustrating.

This district does Romeo & Juliet with the Freshmen, Julius Caesar with the Sophomores,The Crucible with the Juniors (American Lit) and Scottish Play with the Seniors. I think the AP English IV or the dual enrollment English IV also covers Hamlet. The students never cover the comedies or the histories.

This past year I integrated a "Shakespeare and the movies" unit into my Intro to Drama class.

One of my favorite courses in college was "Shakespeare In Film". We ended with Ran, but it truly ran the gamut. It was great.

It would be amazing if the school would let me develop the unit into a Shakespeare class. I seriously doubt it though. Somehow it wouldn't help them achieve their "AYP" or raise the school grade.

I don't remember when we read what, but I remember reading Lear, Caesar, and Othello in high school. Oddly enough, no R&J or Hamlet. I took Shakespeare in college though, so I more than made up for it there.

Waiting for Godot

I played Estragon in that. Good times.

Somehow it wouldn't help them achieve their "AYP" or raise the school grade.

Actually, it totally would. You would be meeting a ton of literature and writing standards and it would help raise both reading comprehension and writing scores. I bet if you spin it that way, they'd be more open to it.

I remember now -- R&J freshman year, Taming of the Shrew sophomor year, Macbeth junior year, and Hamlet senior year.

I had to be physically restrained from leaving the Mel Gibson Hamlet. We were all sitting there, sighing at a broody, wet Mel Gibson at the funeral, when suddenly it occurred to me - wait, he can't be at the funeral. That's the whole freaking point, that he wasn't there and his uncle usurped the throne!! This was whispered furiously and at rather a high volume for a whisper. There was murmuring, then the everyone else settled down to watch the pretty. I seethed.

The only thing that they care about is money.

Vortex, at this realization, it would become for me something akin to a moral imperative to have their stipends reduced, PITA paperwork or no. They NEED to lose something they value over it. It's too bad you would not be able to get the money for yourself and then flaunt it in their general direction.

One of those other bands is Fair to Midland, who have a bit of a following.

As for Shakespeare, our school, some of the 9th grade classes did R&J, but the one I happened to be in, did not. Not that I mind, as I never have had any use for teen movies, I don't care who wrote 'em. Sorry Billy, not even you. 10th grade was Ceasar, which was interesting to read but killer to write about. 11th grade we got various sonnets, the Scottish Play, and Hamlet. 12th is when things got interesting. The AP class got Lear, Othello, and several of the comedies.