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
"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
This semester, as I walked around my classroom, I noticed that students' notes and notebooks were somewhat sparse and disorganized. In fact, they were mainly the paradigm charts.... often without explanation. This disturbed me, but I saw why their notes were this way. Students copied what I wrote on the board (or PowerPoint) or they … Continue reading Lecture worksheets
My new job brought a lot of transitions: new school, new students (in new age levels), new city, new social life, and new threats from natural disasters (I am lucky to have survived Irma so well). Now that I am getting more settled in Jacksonville, I want to get back into the blogging habit and … Continue reading More games in the classroom
My recent silence in the blogosphere is a reflection of moving to a new school and attempting to shift my pedagogical mindset. I will be starting, this fall, at the Episcopal School of Jacksonville, which has a great reputation and many qualities that encourage a great educational experience. It also has several qualities, like easy … Continue reading Who drives your classes?
While researching for my recent post about politics in the classroom, I came across this excellent quotation: "If children become accustomed to discussing their differences in a rational way in the primary years, they are more likely to accept it as normal in their adolescence. Citizenship education helps equip young people to deal with situations … Continue reading Rules for Discussion
With a new job and a new semester, I thought it was time to give the blog a new look and let you know about a side project I've been (slowly) working on: a set of YouTube videos about Latin constructions! Latintutorial is an excellent YouTube channel that helps students study morphology, but I was … Continue reading New Latin YouTube Video Series!
Recently, I read Chris Bartlo's article about how programming supports math students' abilities to be more precise, receive prompt feedback, accept and normalize the struggle of working, work collaboratively, and be more metacognitive. The article appealed to me because teaching Latin, like teaching math, is about teaching students a skill. One paragraph from the article seemed particularly appealing … Continue reading Coding and the Beginning Latin Learner
