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
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
A recent article in The Times, "Bit-sized Greek and Latin lessons boost reading and maths skills," praised a program in English schools for helping students who are struggling with English and with math improve and catch up to their peers. The program uses Latin and Greek roots to help students pull apart English words so that … Continue reading Latin, Greek, and English Vocabulary
During a discussion of how to improve student writing, a colleague remarked that she gave her students a checklist for each paper and required them to complete it and attach it to their assignments. This checklist included all the formatting guidelines, like font size and margins, that students often forget (or fudge), and some of … Continue reading Checklist for student papers
Students always struggle with remembering the various uses of each Latin case, even after/if you're able to convince them to pay attention to the uses of cases. In my experience, they have the most trouble remembering the uses of the ablative and the genitive cases. I have attempted various strategies to help students remember the … Continue reading Uses of Latin Cases – Word Web
Tom Tulliver hated learning Latin from Mr. Stelling. He hated memorizing conjugations and declensions, and he had no clue why it was useful for him. Tom just wanted to play and learn things that would help him take over his father's business. Tom was so distressed by Latin that he turned to prayer in order … Continue reading Make Classics Matter
This semester, I had the pleasure of reading excerpts from Cicero's First Catilinarian Oration with my Intensive Latin class after we had finished going through the grammar in the textbook. It was a great text to read because there are lots of materials available for it and because it is a great text to review Latin … Continue reading Transitioning from Textbook Latin to Ancient Latin: Cicero, In Catilinam 1
