Calling for a Culling

Hello! My name is Mark, and I am hoarder of classroom materials.

I finished the annual task of packing up and cleaning out my classroom today. For the very first time I chose to leave the posters on the walls, if for no other reason than I did not want to spend the extra time to take them down.

Everything but the furniture must be hauled out by the teachers so that the floors can be cleaned, stripped, and waxed. Fortunately the custodians handle the task of moving the desks, shelves, filing cabinet, and closet on (wheels). All of this is accomplished by a couple weeks before the start of school, and then we haul everything back in and set things back in order.

After I moved my last cart of books and boxes, I noticed that I have much more than a small amount of stuff squirreled away. Take a look:

Yes. Count them. Six cubbies, three cabinets, and spillage out into the floor. All filled with boxes of books, files, desk accessories, decor, toys, arts and crafts supplies, etc. Looking closer will reveal sets and backgrounds from at least two homecoming floats. All of this useful and important in its own time and place, but a pain to pack and move when the building is dark and silent.

I had planned to spend a part of this year to set it all out and then to find it a better home or send it into the trashcan. The goal was reduce my stash to fewer cubbies... but it somehow grew to more! I now admit that I do have a problem. I had set out a special shelf this year marked with a sign reading GRATIS. The idea was place items free for the taking by any student, visitor, or teacher. This process began with good intentions, but as the work and activities grew, the environment withdrew into the background. Sometimes there were piles and stacks to navigate, but never did it stand in the way of our missions.

Something's gotta give, though. I will make it a priority to sift through all these items and keep only which contributes directly to the teaching of six Latin classes or the running of an active Latin Club. After all, having too much stuff can stand in the way of effective use of fewer, higher-quality items. It is time to sift, cull, trash, and give away things that are no longer making the cut. I have gather these items for 31 years. It is time to apply the notion that less is more.

Greener Grasses

I just returned home from a farewell dinner for two Latin colleagues leaving our school system at the end of the week. Each one is departing for pastures expected to have greener grass, albeit decidedly different flavors.

My first colleague will be leaving her high school program after fourteen years. She taught all levels of Latin, including Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate, an occasional middle school class, and a fairly active Latin Club and certamen teams. She became department chair and the odd combination of classes and duties began to compound and overwhelm her. She has a husband and two young children. She has opted to leave these burdens behind and will replace them with what will surely be a two-hour commute each way. She will have a lighter teaching load and enjoy higher pay.

My second colleague will be leaving behind his middle school position after only three years of teaching, admittedly not even enough time to get really get his teaching chops established. He has wrangled middle-schoolers in Latin I, Latin IA, Latin IB, Latin II, and Introduction to World Languages. These combinations of classes, including the nature of these young students, has also worn on him. He will be leaving teaching behind for new and different opportunities. He looks forward to greater freedom, less grief, and more chances to explore and grow.

To lose a fourteen-year veteran is a real loss... loss of experience, continuity, and institutional memory; yet losing a three-year beginning is just as frustrating. The departure of new teachers is a very real problem and threatens our profession. Good Latin teacher are difficult to find in the first place, but then to lose them too soon compounds the problem. Each one has made his and her own decision, and I do not begrudge them their choices at all. Indeed, there may even be a little bit of envy.

As I mentioned in my last post, this has not been a good year for me. Besides missing four weeks of teaching due to medical leave and recovery this spring, as well as time out for conferences and the graduations of both my daughter from graduate school and son from college, there were some classes where my personality and that of my students did not match up well, and some students even rejected any enthusiastic attempt to learn and grow. I hope to pursue these dynamics in later posts. I am just about to complete my thirty-first year of teaching. At one point the notion of retirement surfaced and I rejected it because I could not stand the idea of leaving in a negative note, and indeed I had unfinished business. As the year began to wind down and the frustrations that come with formalized testing, certification, and administrative demands, I began to seriously consider retirement at the end of next year. Thirty-two years in any profession is respectable, is it not? I signed my electronic contract thinking that I might wrap things up on my own terms and leave at the end of the 2018-2019 school year. After all, my certification will be due, our curriculum is changing with a requisite alteration of teaching philosophy, and we are getting new textbooks. Sounds like a good time to depart, does it not? Then I made the fateful move... out of curiosity I checked the pay scale, just to see what my final paychecks would look like. I was floored! In only eight more years, my pay was scheduled to increase by more than $18,000! How tempting! How exciting! In order to keep seasoned, experienced teachers, the pay increases significantly up until it freezes at 40 years of service. This put the breaks on any thoughts of retirement for the moment, but I am a bit disappointed in myself because suddenly I am choosing to stay not just because I want to teach, but that I am reaching for the money.

My two colleagues and I have noticed the greener grasses growing in other pastures or even in our own field. Is it really greener though? Does it taste any different or nourish our bodies or souls any better? At the moment, only time will tell.

More about retirement later. 

All Things Considered

As exam week rolls into view, I find it necessary to take stock of this year which, I must admit, has not been a good one, either for me or for some of my students. I am returning to Marginalia as a means of reviewing, organizing, and analyzing what went right and what went wrong in my classroom and inside my head. I am being purposely vague at the moment; just laying out a general road map of personal discussion. Welcome back to me!

P.S. I will also be editing this blog: making updates, deleting nonsense, and adding commentary. I was surprised to find that I started this twelve years ago, and it has been dormant for much of that time. Perhaps it is time to erupt.

Declining in Greek

We have put AP Latin Literature to bed -- hopefully for not too long a nap. The College Board will issue their proclamation soon about what road we will all be taking in a couple years.

The class is not over yet, though. We are playing in Greek: learning to read and write the alphabet, working with some prefixes, roots, and suffixes, learning some vocabulary, and (today) we learned how to decline a noun. Our goal is to read and translate the first story or so in Athenaze.

So, I write on the board ho anthropos mikros (transliterated into the English alphabet here). My students made me proud several times today. Right off the bat they recognized that Greek had an article.

Another student quickly asked, "Does the -os ending have anything to do with the -us ending in Latin?" I beamed.

When I demonstrated the declension, they were fascinated that Greek did not have an ablative case. I explained that the Greek genitive and dative took up the slack. Another student commented, "Good! I never liked the ablative anyway." (Boooo.....!)

After the declension (and a little prodding from me), they recognized that the omega in the dative singular was analogous to the -o in Latin and that the -oi (nominative plural), -ois (dative plural), and -ous (accusative plural) were not too far removed from the Latin. It is interesting to note that they don't think the -on and -um are close cousins.

I love my students and I love when we are learning for the sake of learning!

The Tatters of the Year

It is Memorial Day and tomorrow we will enter what I have come to call the tatters of the year. The AP and state exams are over. The weather is warm. The finish line is in sight. I try to tell my students that, even though you can see the end of the course, the race is not yet finished. Too many, though, have set their goal well short of that chalk line ahead.

Even though there are still three weeks left in the school year (time enough to learn some new things!) instruction is effectively over. The seniors, who will graduate a week before the end of school and (most of whom) are grade-exempt from final exams, have already stopped coming to school. This has a profound impact on the motication of the rest of the student body who also want to check out early. There are also fieldtrips, assemblies, and other activities to distract them from their studies. Oh yeah, there are still second semester exams to be given...

OK, what to do?

In the words of the Borg (from Star Trek: The Next Generation), "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." I have learned that I can beat my head against the wall and drag the students kicking and screaming (or, worse, chatting or snoring) through a lesson on the ablative absolute or I can change things up and work toward application of the material learned in an earlier, more focused period of their education.

In AP Latin, we dutifully said our farewells to the Latin Literature syllabus and didn't look back. We are now learning the Greek alphabet and will try to cover the first chapter or two of Athenaze. I am surprised at how excited the students are to start something brand new. They tell me that it is like going all the way back to starting Latin I, when everything was fresh, new, and exciting. Ah, but our time in Greek will be too short... just a taste for now and encouragement to take it in college.

In my other classes we are moving toward reading and translating. To teach the uses of the subjunctive mood at this point would be a Herculean effort which would quickly turn, I fear, into a Sisyphean labor. These new things are best left for the next school year. Why not take everything we have done this year and apply it to readings and translations in their textbooks and a few outside items I bring in? We can polish these skills and reinforce the material taught this year as an effort of moving toward their finals. Application is to be stressed over acquisition.

It's a plan.

Heading Down the Road

Today we reached the three-quarters mark of the school year. The weather is warm, the flowers are beginning to bloom, and the trees are starting to bud. Springtime has come to Virginia. This means, of course, that our teenagers turn their thoughts to matters other than Latin.

Now comes the battery of state testing, the barrage of field trips which have, up-to-now, been denied because of preparation for state testing, and the myriad of other distractions which come alive this time of year.

I have often said that anything you want to teach you really need to present before the final marking period. Don't get me wrong... I will continue to teach and offer opportunities for learning, but I need to remind myself not to get too frustrated when things don't go as smoothly as possible. It is time to vary the activities and keep the students guessing.

I realize that I'm not offering any specifics in this posting -- perhaps later.

Things to remind the students: 1) The only way to coast is downhill. 2) Yes, we are going to continue to work after the AP exam, and, no, we will not be having a film festival. 3) Seniors! The last day of school is June 1, not April 1. I realize that your acceptance letters have arrived, but that doesn't mean that you have finished the race. We are rounding the final turn but the long straight-away remains!

Oh, yeah... the photograph is from our visit to Ostia Antica in 2005.

Taking Stock of the School Year

I have just completed my 19th year of teaching and, to be sure, it was the hardest one to date. I attribute this difficulty to several changes: 1) our school system started alternating-day block scheduling this year and we had to pick up an extra class (upping our total from 5 to 6); 2) this was my first year serving as department chair (and there were not a few unusual difficulties); and 3) this was the 2nd year for our new school and the "first-year" excitement and enthusiasm is gone and we have settled into the system as another cog in the machine.

Even before the end of the school year I began to think and plan for next year. Every job should have a "summer break" to allow employees and (indeed) management the time to reflect on what is working and what isn't and what can and should be changed. This is my task for the summer and I'll start now...

What is working? I have many students who are successful in and excited about their study of Latin. They can pick up a passage of Latin, from Ecce Romani, if they are in Latin II, or from Martial, Catullus, Ovid, and Horace, if they are from Latin III through AP, and read it, translate it, and understand it. What is more, there are some who even enjoy it! Furthermore, I have students who are busy preparing projects and cramming for certamen for the upcoming National Junior Classical League convention in the end of July. They don't have to do this, but they go out of their way and pay lots of money for the opportunity to do so. Finally, I have two very dear students who just graduated and are planning to study Latin and the classics in college and they are planning to become Latin teachers! While I can't claim credit for their desire to become Latin teachers (they came to our new school with their minds already made up), I can rest comfortably that I did not dissuade them in their ambition during their last two years in high school. A few other new graduates also tell me that they will continue taking Latin in college just for the fun of it. Do I hear angels singing?

What is not working? I have some students on the other end of the spectrum who hate Latin, really dislike me, and ended the year with very low averages or even failed the class. These are students who tell me (as do their parents) that Latin is their only low grade and that their Latin grade was bringing down their GPA. Now, I learned many years ago that there is no way to have or make everyone satisfied or happy and I will not even attempt it, but this always leaves me pondering what I could do better or how I can help my students out. I do know that I could do a much better job grading papers and getting them back to the students. I could be more proactive and contact parents sooner or more frequently when a student is struggling or even sinking.

What can and should be changed? The biggest thing here is staying organized, staying on top of all the paperwork and administrivia that comes my way. All too often the end of the day comes (after make up work, Latin Club, certamen practice, etc.) and I gather up all the things that need to be done and shove them in my bag to be carted home. Sometimes I pull these items out at home and give them some attention and sometimes these items, having never seen the light of the lamp, simply enjoy the ride back to school. In either case, I take the precious time, if any is available, to reshuffle the papers and get them back into their requisite piles. This has got to stop. I found that forcing myself to stay even later after school (until 5 p.m. or more) to handle these papers gave me the opportunity to handle them, file them, or discharge them without having to sift and sort. Likewise, using this time to grade papers and them into the class folders for the next day makes grading more efficient and convenient. I can them make my way home and enjoy my family without the thoughts of all this pulp and ink hanging over my head. Ask any teacher, he or she certainly knows what Damocles felt! This fall I will certainly continue this practice of addressing work at work and taking time for myself at home. I will not be naive to believe that I will never do work at home anymore, but I can definitely lighten the load and be reasonable in the understanding of what I can actually accomplish at home in the evening.

What else can and should be changed? I will make the effort to have those students who need extra help stay after school and receive the help they need. I have always waited until they initiate the call for help, but some wait until the problem has become a crisis or don't even ask at all. Since we now have block scheduling (90 minute classes every other day) and I have more of a clue how this set up works, I am considering breaking up the time in class and and differentiating activities in such a way that those who need reteaching or more practice can receive it from me in a special help group and those who wish and need to excel can have the opportunity to work on special projects or assignments before we reconvene for new material, checking activities, or otherwise moving ahead. I can set aside time after school to set up tutoring sessions for those who desire them. I can seek out volunteers from my advanced students to help teach, reteach, review, and practice.

Now comes the task of making it all happen. I will revisit these thoughts as the summer comes to a close and the new school year starts ramping up. Now is the luscious time for thought, reflection, tinkering, and trashing. Send in the clowns!

Class After AP

My students asked today what we were doing after the AP Latin Literature exam. Certainly they are not looking ahead and anticipating the end of the year... My reply was that we would be translating some of Horace's Odes. I had wanted to do the Catullus/Horace combination this year but a couple of very eager students convinced me that Ovid was the way to go. No problem on this end -- there was some things I wanted to do with the Amores anyway. In any case, I believe there are some poems of Horace that every serious Latin student must experience before graduating from high school. More about Horace later.

In the years that we have taken the AP Vergil exam, I often give my students a mini-lesson in ancient Greek. I have them learn to recite, read, and write the Greek alphabet, transliterate some Greek terms and roots into English, and then tackle the first few chapters from Crosby and Shaeffer's An Introduction to Greek and Balme and Lawall's Athenaze. The students enjoy this unique diversion and feel that they've gone back to first-year (which essentially they have) and that things are suddenly easy and exciting again. A few students have even gone on to take Greek in college. If nothing else, I tell my students that they can now go to college and identify the correct fraternity or sorority house advertised in the party flier.