As a teacher of Mythology, I think modern readers are vastly unaware of major mythological references that appear all around them. No one bothers to think why a vehicle might be called an Electra or where the name for the Tennesee Titans came from. Plus, one of the most annoying questions asked ("Why do we ever need to know this?) quickly falls away when the student find out fun facts such as:
- The days of the week are named after Norse gods
- Europe is named after one of Zeus' girlfriends
- The Olympics were founded by Heracles
- Words such as "geography", "moraphine", "hypnosis", "music", and the ever popular "hermaphrodite" all reference characters from ancient Greek mythology.
Surprisingly, this is all leading to a point: my demo will center around a technique I've used extensively to get across the major and minor stories of myth and legend. Although I find these accounts fascinating all by themselves, Reader's Theatre provides a great way to get the students interested and excited about the material. So look forward to that.
5 comments:
You are so right. Mythology is important, and I am looking forward with great relish to your demo.
Bring some great mustard too.
No seriously, I can't wait.
I love mythology too!
haha. Nice condiment conversation. I can't WAIT for this demo. I have NO WAY to teach Mythology in my classroom (well, basically because I don't teach mythology in my classroom) but I will...and I want to....just help me figure it out.
Oh...and about the car title... this year my students wrote essays on car names...why during the 60's we had cars named the Galaxie, the Comet, and the Thunderbird and today we have The Explorer, The Pathfinder, The Navigator. It was quite interesting.
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