The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent the positions, strategies or opinions of the school that employs me.
Category: Latin
On teacherspayteachers.com, I found a wonderful game: Latin Battleship. In this version, students guessed spaces on the board by conjugating verbs or declining nouns. It's a great, fun way to review forms. The template is blank so you can create reviews for anything you want, but I learned that 4th declension nouns do not work … Continue reading Latin Battleship
This year, I did some experimenting with assessments. Usually, each unit includes two vocabulary quizzes, a grammar/morphology quiz, and a unit test. The test is certainly summative, but I view the vocabulary and grammar/morphology quizzes as both formative and summative in nature. I also think grades should reflect student's current knowledge of the material, so … Continue reading Retake quizzes
During spring break, I read a wonderful blog post from Education Week about formative assessments. It inspired me to try some new strategies that were definitely more effective, especially with my 7th graders. Usually, before spring break, we would use my adaptation of think-pair-share: students would practice forms in their notes, then each put a small number … Continue reading Where are my mistakes?
During spring break, I read a wonderful blog post from Education Week about formative assessments. It inspired me to try some new strategies that were definitely more effective, especially with my 7th graders. Usually, before spring break, we would use my adaptation of think-pair-share: students would practice forms in their notes, then each put a small number … Continue reading Sort these forms!
This past school year was pretty busy and I took the beginning of the summer to focus on something other than school for a change. However, with the summer coming to a close, it's time to get back into the swing of things so I thought I'd return to blogging for a change. Today, I … Continue reading Synopses in English and Latin
As I've mentioned before, I really enjoy that our school offers us the opportunity to meet and discuss books about education. Even though I was not able to attend all the meetings this time, our book study for the Fall Semester was Thomas R. Guskey's 2015 book On Your Mark: Challenging the Conventions of Grading and … Continue reading Continuing Reflection on Grading
"This is, like, your favorite game." One of my students said after I announced that we were going to play a game that I like to call "Are you smarter than Google Translate?" Pretty much every world language teacher dislikes our students using Google Translate, and each of us has our own way of discouraging … Continue reading Discouraging the use of Google Translate
This year, as I transition from the university to middle and high school, I have learned a lot that will change how I teach next year. The most dramatic change will probably be to review a LOT more than I have been this year. At the beginning of the school year, after a nice summer … Continue reading The Power of Reviewing
One of the great things at the Episcopal School of Jacksonville is that, each year, teachers can meet as a book club to discuss a book about education, learning, and teaching. This year, I was happy to be a part of the book study of Ulrich Boser's Learn Better about the process of learning and what … Continue reading Ulrich Boser’s Learn Better
One of my students has asked me about better ways to remember and memorize things for Latin, so I decided to look more into the neuroscience of memory. Thankfully, in 1996, Daniel Schacter published Searching for Memory: The Brain, the Mind, and the Past, which summarizes some research. While it is a little over 20 … Continue reading Memory
