Working very hard

I've had a very busy day today. I have sorted out every single teaching resource that I have on my computer into categories and renamed all the files so they make sense.

I have also researched the Great Vowel Shift...something that I should have known about prior to becoming an English teacher. Perhaps I did one day. It goes like this:

You know we have such problems with spelling in English. Well this is all because of the Great Vowel Shift (which, I think, is much cooler with those capitals - it's how it's written). From the 1400s to 1700s, there was a major change in the way that people pronounced their vowels. The reasons behind this are very complicated but the interesting thing is how it affected spelling. During the GVS the printing press was invented and so began the standardisation of English. English spellings, then, became standardised before the pronunciation had finished developing; our spellings relate much more to the way things were said in the 15th and 16th Centuries.

The following url has some recordings of the different pronunciations. (I don't know how to hyperlink yet):
http://alpha.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/dialogue.htm

So now you know. Have pity on your English teachers.

Also, I found lots of Cockney Rhyming Slang on a great BBC encyclopedia website (h2g2):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A649

Now I have to do a bit more research and reinvent upstairs.