Summertime... and the Working is Easy!

Apologies to the original song lyrics celebrating easy summertime pursuits! The July 4th holiday has passed and I can turn myself to numerous projects put aside during the busy school year. I dare to say attention to this nearly-abandoned blog is now high on my list! I admit that I get excited and begin to post, only to become distracted by things which push other projects out of the way.

Labor est etiam ipsa voluptas.

"My Latin Teacher is a Scrooge!"

The last day of school before Winter Break was Friday, December 18. At the beginning of the last block of the day, I had a student, with contempt in her voice, ask very loudly, "How come we're the only foreign language class not watching a movie?" To be honest, the idea of a movie had not even entered my mind.

My plans for the class included a review and quiz on the comparison of adjectives, practice with participles, and then a group-effort translation on a neat story involving a werewolf. Werewolves are the "in" beastie right now!

I do know for a fact that a couple of my colleagues were showing a Christmas-themed movie in the target language as an "extended listening exercise." They have that option and that resource. Good for them.

My thoughts were to bring closure to the regular comparison of adjectives and continue to recognize and translate participles in context. The translation of the story was a timely and interesting exercise and provided us with the opportunity to see both comparative and superlative adjectives and participles in context.

I had a plan and I carried it out. In my mind, the students had made an effort to be in school and come to class (the entire class was present!), and I wanted to make their time worthwhile. Oh yeah, my assignment over break was to place the textbook and the notebook in the locker and to enjoy the vacation. After all, it's a break, right?

Saxum Volvens: Keeping Up the Momentum

We return to school tomorrow after a five days away; before that we had only a two-day week. Needless to say, the students will not be their sharpest when they come into the classroom. What to do?

Keeping up momentum in the classroom is very important, if the teacher wishes to keep the students learning and the material flowing along. The best way to push that stone on which moss is beginning to grow is the catch their attention with something interesting and then ease into a review of the last subject covered. Then slip something new and tie the two together.

My plan? I found a couple interesting clips from YouTube/eClassics... we'll start there.

As a general rule, I do not give homework over breaks from school. I know from experience as a teacher and a parent that many other teachers don't feel this way and a five-day break from school is the perfect time to assign essays and reading and worksheets and... Guess what, most of it doesn't even make it out of the backpack until the evening before the big return. What kind of quality work does that promote? At that point, the notion of learning anything is gone and the need to complete the letter, but not the intent, of the assignments take center stage.

This time of year does create issues with momentum. Fall Break, i.e., Thanksgiving, is over and Winter Break, viz. Christmas and the Holidays, will soon be upon us. There will be many a distraction in the next three weeks, then a two-week break, then wintry weather, then exams, then wintry weather... I wonder if Sisyphus is looking for a replacement soon?

Those Seemly Summer Assignments

I have given summer assignments this year for the very first time. I have done so with hesitation and still feel very uncomfortable about the whole thing. These assignments are for my 2006-2007 Advanced Placement Vergil students only.

I have long believed that holidays were time away from work and school and have always given all my students the assignment of putting their books in their lockers until school was back in session.

Now I have given in to gentle pressure and expectations that summer assignments are a good and necessary thing. I was quite surprised when, at the end of the last AP Vergil course in 2005, my students suggested that they would have been happier and had an easier go of the AP Vergil course if they were already well-acquainted with the Aeneid before they began translating and critiquing it. They were actually disappointed that they had not received a summer assignment!

So what I have done? I collected the e-mail addresses of all my AP students so that we could remain in contact. I gave them each a copy of a Mandelbaum's translation of Vergil's Aeneid and told them that they needed to read the entire work, including the introduction and notes in the back. I then randomly assigned one of the books of the Aeneid to each student (I have 23 students so there is some overlap) and had them generate an outline of that book. They need to send that outline to me by August 1 and I will collate them all into a larger outline which I will return to them before the start of school on August 23. I have also posted a list of terms about content and background from the Aeneid which they will need to know for their major content test soon after school begins! Furthermore, each student will need to write a general essay on the life and times of the poet Vergil and turn it in on the first day of school! Ack!

My biggest concern at this point revolves around the realm of "What if...". What if the student does not meet the August 1 deadline? What if they don't do the essay? What if they do not read the Aeneid over the summer? Does that mean they start out at the beginning of the year with a zero or two and already far behind? We shall see...

All of this reflects the prevailing attitude of students toward AP classes and the work required in them. I must admit that I am not a fan of AP classes and would not be terribly disappointed if they were outlawed and ceased to exist. Imagine how surprised (and a little disturbed) I was when, several years ago, I asked my advanced Latin students if they would be disappointed if there was no AP Latin. They said that they wouldn't be... they would just take some other AP class instead!