Culpa

I began class the other day by reviewing (very briefly) the indirect command and then asking for a quick outline of the story we were translating before picking up in the middle and moving forward. I was met with blank stares. I asked again, even calling upon some students by name. I was becoming frustrated and could feel my blood-pressure rising; I was thinking that no one in the class had bothered to do the assignment. Then I looked down at my lesson plans and realized that I had not even introduced the indirect command to them and they had not been assigned the translation... we had not even begun the translation! I paused. I smiled. I laughed. And then I told them to never mind -- that was the other class' assignment. Some looked relieved, some smiled, others looked annoyed (but that's OK, they look annoyed most of the time). I teach on the alternating day (A-B) block scheduling system and had confused my "A" day class with my "B" which was a couple days ahead.

I have made mistakes in the classroom before. I can remember introducing a topic once (I forget what it was) and, although not bothering to review my notes ahead of time, presented it to my students with great confidence and flourish. I scribbled away on the board and they dutifully took the notes. Then I told them to open up their books and look at some examples for practice. I was horrified (internally) to discover that what I had spent the last fifteen minutes or so explaining was wrong... very wrong. I paused. I smiled. I laughed. And then I told them to never mind, "Please take the notes you just wrote, rip them out of your notebook, and throw them away!" I even picked up the trash can and carried it desk to desk so that they could throw their notes away. I explained that, yes, even I made mistakes and that I had just made a big one. I then took a bow and said, "Let's start again."

In my twenty years of teaching, I have made numerous mistakes. I humbly express my mea culpas and move forward. Students need to see that teachers make mistakes, but, even more importantly, they need to see their teachers admitting them and correcting them. Some of what we teach in the classroom has little to do with the subject matter described in the course catalog. None of us is perfect and none of us should lead our students to believe that we are. Part of learning language is making mistakes and having those mistakes corrected and, thus, providing experiences to build on.

I remember early one morning in Rome. I awoke and slipped out of the hotel before my students were to meet downstairs for breakfast. I went to the cafe next door and confidently ordered, "Uno cappuccino, per favore." I had been practicing the phrase all the way to the counter because I wanted to use what little Italian I knew. The man behind the counter held up a thumb and said, "Un cappucino." I replied, "Grazie" and he gave me wink. I think I gave him a large tip and went on to enjoy my coffee at the table outside. Even though I know (in Latin) that adjectives agree in case, number, and gender, and that the adjective does not need to have the same ending as the noun, I now know that this Italian adjective doesn't end in an "o" but it still agrees with cappucino.

One of my students came to me yesterday and claimed that she had a teacher who had used a Latin phrase in the classroom. My student told her teacher that she had used it incorrectly. The teacher indignantly replied, "How do you know?" My student replied that she was a Latin student. The teacher snorted that she (the teacher) knew what she was talking about and continued on.

This teacher was unwilling to admit a mistake and, in doing so, lost some respect in the eyes of a student. We as teachers need to realize that we do have more experience and training, but we are not smarter or better than our students.

"Doing my Latin homework takes forever!"

A student came to see me after school recently and wanted to know if I had any suggestions for helping her complete her Latin homework assignments -- translation assignments, specifically. She lamented that it was taking her over an hour to "do" her translations and then she still didn't understand what the Latin was saying.

I asked her to tell me exactly what she did and how she did it.

If she was given an assignment of 20 lines to translate from the story (in Ecce Romani II), she said that she copied down every word (even et and sed) in a long list and them looked up every word and wrote the English meaning next to it. After this tedious process she would look over the translation and then try to make sense out of it. She said that she would then become frustrated and usually give up.

I quickly saw the problem in this approach and offered some advice:

1) The problem - She was looking up the words outside of context. By making a list and writing down the meaning (usually the first one listed), she was losing or missing the meaning as it fit with the other words.

2) The other problem - She was looking up every word. I encourage my students to trust themeselves and guess at the meaning based upon the context. If she looks up movere and discovers that it means "to move," she has used valuable time on an item she could have very well anticipated.

3) My solution - Don't write down every word, or any words, for that matter. Read the sentence to yourself (preferably outloud) and then anticipate the meaning. If you need to look up a word (or a few words), do so but choose the meaning that works in context.

She took my advice and discovered that she could shave off over half the time she typically spent on translations and had a better understanding of what the Latin actually meant.

The Masculinity of Julius Caesar

A recent article posted on David Meadow's outstanding blog, rogueclassicism, offered wonderful and concise information on how we know how the ancient Romans pronounced Latin. I've searched for the actual article but cannot put my cursor on it at the moment.

Julius Caesar's arrogant boast, "Veni! Vidi! Vici!" is one of the most well-known Latin phrases tossed about in a variety of contexts. Many who quote this ditty then go on to claim that it could never have been pronounced "WAY-nee, WEE-dee, WEE-kee" because Julius Caesar never would have been caught dead saying anything nearly so wimpy. It seems that the "W" sound is not masculine enough for this general-turned dictator-turned god and that it must have been pronounced with a very forceful "V" sound accompanied by a dramatic extension of the arms.

Well now. One's language is not a matter of choice but one of necessity. If a person wants to get his point across, he must communicate in the tongue offered to him. Imagine today the tragic discomfort of a man, a real man who has just gotten off an eighteen-hour shift building, bare-handed, a bridge across a raging river, who drives his mud-encrusted SUV through the drive-thru lane of the popular fast-food restaurant and must speak into the plastic character's mouth, "I'll have the Ballerina Belle Chicken Sandwich with the Pink Tutu lemonade, the Petey Pirate Jolly Roger Burger with the Ahoy Matey shake, and a side order of Baby Bunny Tasty Delight Cinnamon Rolls." Does he have his gym card taken away? Do his buddies cancel their hunting trip? Do his monster tires deflate for having to say such unmanly things? Of course not.

We cannot judge Julius Caesar and his masculinity based upon our perceptions in modern society. If "Veni! Vidi! Vici!" was pronounced with a "W" (and indications are that it was), who are we to judge whether this was a manly-enough sounding phrase? His language was his language and he spoke it without a thought. We've been told that the shoes of Roman senators were pink. Does this fact make that august body any less manly? I won't even mention that Julius Caesar is said to have plucked his body hair and even wore a tunic instead of pants. Were these girly-man traits the true cause of the fall of the Roman Empire? Hmmm...

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.

Marginalia

marginalia (MAR-je-NA-le-a) n. pl. Notes, thoughts, ideas, doodles, and the like written in the margins of a book or textbook.

When I began this blog as an experiment over a year ago, I named it "Pro linguae Latinae magistris." My goal was to share ideas and experiences that would be useful for other Latin teachers. I have enjoyed the replies of teachers and (something I find very interesting) others who have an interest in things classical. I have now renamed my blog "Marginalia" not because my purposes have changed, but because it better describes what I actually ended up writing. I hope my past comments have been helpful in some way and that my new postings will continue to be of interest to Latin teachers and others who find such commentary useful or entertaining.

History Repeats Itself

In the "The more things change, the more they stay the same" department, we have news out of Italy which reminds us (sadly) of an incident from the ancient Roman world.

CNN reports that a riot between the fans supporting the rival soccer teams from Catania and Palermo has resulted in the death of a police officer and the arrest of 29 brawlers outside the stadium. The officials in the Italian soccer federation have canceled all soccer games for the weekend (Feb. 3-4, 2007) and may consider longer suspension of Italy's most popular sport.

How different is this news from the scene illustrated on the picture above? This fresco shows the fighting between the inhabitants of Pompeii and the nearby town of Nuceria in AD 59. This conflict resulted in the suspension of gladiatorial contests in the town for ten years.

O TEMPORA, O MORES...

Combined (and Uncombined) Classes

I am very excited this year because, for the first time in years, I am not teaching Latin IV students and Advanced Placement students in the same room at the same time. I have handled this situation well in the past but was never very happy with the idea. I have tried different approaches to this arrangement, including splitting the class and teaching each half separately with separate curricula, while the other half completes assignments, projects, or groupwork, and teaching both halves together, the same curriculum, but having different "levels" of expectations and requirements. I prefer the latter, and had the most success doing so.

Now that I have each level in separate classes, I don't have to make special requirements or divide myself or my attention: AP Latin is cruising through Vergil's Aeneid and there's no looking back at the dust we are leaving behind, and Latin IV is reviewing and handling items of grammar and syntax (some advanced) and cutting their teeth on authentic Latin literature. Happiness all around... almost... but more about that later.

In Latin IV this year we are reading and translating from Caesar's De Bello Gallico... an author and work that I am embarrassed to admit that I have ignored for more than a decade. I have plans to revisit Pliny and Cicero (returning to the much neglected prose authors) and then move on to Ovid's Ars Amatoria (after blowing the dust off of those textbooks as well). Basically I plan to revisit authors and works *I* haven't read for a while... Vergil, Catullus, Ovid, and Horace are great authors and I wouldn't ditch them for the world but I'll leave those for the APs and we IVs can snuggle up with the others.

Now for the downside... I am in the wonderful situation where numbers are not a problem -- I owe that to lots of hard work and interesting, challenging classes. Last year I was given a schedule which included two Latin IV/AP classes: one on "A" day and one on "B" day (we operate on an alternating day block schedule). This arrangement allowed two options for a student to fit Latin into his or her schedule. Essentially almost everyone was a happy customer. This year, though, we offer Latin IV on "A" day and AP Latin on "B" day. Due to several "singleton" classes (most of them APs) and band, some upper-level Latin students were not able to take the class of their choice, or (miserabile dictu!) did not take Latin at all!

I was not willing to take on any students in independent and/or individual instruction because I have four preparations (which sometimes morph into six when the classes on "A" and "B" get on different paces), an active Latin Club and certamen teams, department responsibilities as chair, professional activities outside of school, and a family with two active and busy children.

Which teaching situation do I prefer? I must honestly admit that the jury is still out.

Have Column, Will Photo

For so long the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina was the first site I visited after entering the Forum Romanum. Back in the day you had to enter from the Via del Fori Imperiali and actually pay 12,000 lire... Now things have changed and this entrance (and paying to enter) have become a thing of the past. As it should be, entrance into the forum is now free BUT your freedom is much more restricted. Unfortunately, you now must remain within an enclosed space and see the sites from a short distance. Frustrating it is, but I guess I understand. It is always disappointing, though, that few sightseers actually venture into the forum and fewer still really understand what they are looking at. In case you were interested, my favorite entrance now into the forum is down from the Capitoline Hill and near the Mamertine Prison (Tullianum). The best exit remains walking past the Arch of Titus and into the plaza containing the Colosseum. Oh yeah... that's where the crowds are!

I posted this photograph, taken in July 2005, because I was feeling guilty that I hadn't written in a while. I must make more of an effort!

"Latin Word Order Doesn't Matter..."

I hear repeatedly from my students that they have been taught that Latin word order does not matter. I gasp and reply that Latin word order makes all the difference!

A little bit of background first -- I teach Latin II, III, IV, AP Latin Literature, and AP Latin: Vergil. Strange to say, I have not taught Latin I in well over a decade! I regularly get my students from four different Latin I teachers and then lead them upward as far as they are willing and able to go.

I have come to the conclusion that I will have to approach these teachers and address this issue as a fundamental understanding of the Latin language. Since I am not known particularly for my tact, I will have to proceed gently and bring up the subject at the appropriate time.

I tell my Latin II and III students (when we complete our Compositio Hodierna) that the Romans did not have punctuation, did not underline their words, did not have bold print or italics, but relied upon word order to show emphasis and contribute to the meaning.

An example readily made itself available today as we began our reading of Caesar's De Bello Gallico in Latin IV. After encouraging my advanced students to read and translate in Latin word order (left to right, NOT hunting for the subject and verb, as I am so accustomed to do), we came across in the very first paragraph,

Gallos ab Aquitanis Garumna flumen, a Belgis Matrona et Sequana dividit.

When a student asked, "Why did the sentence begin with an accusative?" and scratched his head, I, remembering the conversation I had had with Latin II just the class period before, seized the opportunity to discuss the meaning and importance of Latin word order. I told them that the most important positions in the Latin sentence was the first and last words and that everything in between simply filled in the meaning. So, in our sentence from Caesar, the emphasis was on "the Gauls" and what happened to them (dividit), not so much on the names of the actual rivers, although that information was still important.

I have frequently had this conversation with my AP students when we are analyzing poetry, but I have never really taught this to my lower level students for whom this information is just as important. Now if I can just tell the Latin I teachers who send me their students...

Unpacking the Year

Experienced teachers report for duty on Wednesday, August 16. There will be a week of greetings, meetings, and crafting plans for the upcoming school year. It is a ritual I have experienced 19 times before. As I begin my 20th year of teaching, it should be "old hat" by now, but, gratefully, it is not.

I returned to school this last Monday and spent the week moving boxes, unpacking, and decorating my classroom. I like coming in early and taking care of the aesthetic issues -- it sets the stage, creates the mood, and gives me an opportunity to ease into the year.

Many teachers complain at the end of the year that packing up is such a waste of time, particularly since we have to unpack it all again at the beginning of the year. I understand the need for cleaning, reassigning rooms, and keeping things in order, but I enjoy unpacking for another reason. As I pull items out of boxes and place books back on shelves, it gives me an opportunity to revisit each item, re-evaluate its purpose, and weed out those things which no longer make the cut. More importantly, it also provides me with the time to reminisce -- yesterday I found a stack of Latin Club photographs I took several years ago of students I had almost forgotten. Revisiting the past provides great incentive for the future. Isn't that a lot of what we do in Latin class?

Now I can commit my time to writing lesson plans, creating handouts, and giving attention to the World Languages Department (I am the department chair) and assisting our new teachers (this year we have four in our department!). And the students arrive on the 23rd!

And they all came tumbling down!

This is a picture of the tumbled columns from the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, Greece. It was taken by a student (Kimberly A.) on our trip in 2004.

Did you ever wonder... What would the ancient Greeks and Romans think about our preservation and veneration of their ruins? Would they laugh? Would they be surprised? Would they be disappointed?

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!

The Colosseum in Profile

The Flavian Amphitheater, looking good after a decent scrubbing, in July 2001. The first time or two I saw the Colosseum (early to middle 1980's), it was much dirtier and covered with layers of soot. It has been interesting watching Rome get cleaner and greener these past twenty-four years.

The Philosopher's Kitchen

My wife is a librarian and this makes for a dangerous combination for a marriage (an embarrassing and hopelessly out of touch combo, if you ask our thirteen-year-old daughter).

Anyhow, my wife brought to my attention a wonderful book: The Philosopher's Kitchen: Recipes from Ancient Greece and Rome for the Modern Cook by Francine Segan (Random House, Inc., 2004). This cookbook contains recipes (I believe) students would actually eat. There is no talk of lark tongues, sow's bladders, or peacock brains (which, unfortunately, most students then choose to remember and confirm the general public's views of "typical" Roman food which always ends up in the "vomitorium") but reasonable and realistic items. Even more impressive, many recipes have photographs of the final product, making them look very tempting and enjoyable.

The table of contents lists:

• Ad Gustum: Appetizers
• Fire: Soups and Stews
• Earth: Salads and Vegetables
• Water: Seafood
• Air: Poultry
• Macellum: Meats
• Panis: Breads
• Ambrosia: Desserts
• Menus and Entertaining

Opening the book at random, one finds "Herb Crisps" (p.186):

• A quote from Aesop
• A short introduction to the recipe with reference to the photograph on an earlier page
• The modern recipe
• The original recipe (from Chrysippus)
• And the entry ends with a item of interest (which are delightfully scattered throughout the textbook) which mentions how the ancient Egyptians kneaded bread with their feet.

This book is a must-have for any teacher who makes food a part of the classroom experience or anyone who loves to cook!

Also tempting... the author has penned Shakespeare's Kitchen. Now I have to find that one too!

*The fine print: I have no connection with Francine Segan or Random House Books. This is not a spam promotion. I merely found this delightful book and wanted to share the excitement.

Classic(al) Superman

My family and I took in a matinee of the latest Superman movie today (Superman Returns) and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I could not help but pick up on the obvious and less-than-obvious classical references and allusions in the film (keep reading -- I promise not to divulge anything important to the story of the film):

1. Lex Luthor, haughtily revealing his latest plot, explains that Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man, thus providing our first technology.
2. Lex continues to explain that the Romans conquered the world by building roads.
3. When the massive globe atop the Daily Planet totters and falls, Superman races to the rescue and catches it, striking a wonderful Hercules pose.
4. Superman falls to Earth from the heavens and reminds me of the fall of Hephaestus.
5. Not exactly classical, the the film absolutely drips with Christian symbolism and references.

Even if you're not into sci-fi flicks, you may like this film. Check out the reviews and go see it!

It never rains in Italy in the summertime...

I had taken eight trips to Italy during what everyone would consider "the summer months" and had never experienced any rain. So, wise guy that I am, I always told my students that they never had to worry about umbrellas or ponchos when they packed for the trip. Leave it to Iuppiter Pluvius to prove me wrong on our trip in 2005! It was a summer cooler than normal and we experienced periods of heavy rain a couple of days during our trip. The key was to stay positive and remind the students how fortunate they were not to have to experience Italy in all its dusty and sweaty glory. I also enjoyed seeing wildflowers blooming in the Forum in July and Italy dressed in an uncharacteristic green instead of its usual golden brown.

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!

Living the Happy Life

I offered this poem to my Latin III students recently. They dutifully translated it, but, as it should be, they did not appreciate the message:

Martial X.47: "Living the Happy Life" Vitam quae faciant beatiorem, Iucundissime Martialis, haec sunt: Res non parta labore, sed relicta; Non ingratus ager, focus perennis; Lis numquam, toga rara, mens quieta; Vires ingenuae, salubre corpus; Prudens simplicitas, pares amici; Convictus facilis, sine arte mensa; Nox non ebria, sed soluta curis; Non tristis torus, et tamen pudicus; Somnus, qui faciat breves tenebras: Quod sis, esse velis nihilque malis; Summum nec metuas diem nec optes.

And here is my (somewhat free) translation:

Martial, my good man, these things make for a happier life: stuff not gotten from work, but left to you; a happy garden, always a fire in the stove; never being called to court, a little-used suit, a mind at peace; free-born strength, a healthy body; straight-talking wisdom and friends who feel the same way; modest entertainment, simple food; not partying all night, but free from cares; not sleeping alone, but not around either; dreams which make the night pass quickly: may you want to be who you are and long for nothing; may you neither dread your final day nor look forward to it.

Certainly words of wisdom which could have been typed by anyone seeking to shut out the frenzy of the modern world and not penned by someone over 1,900 years ago.

Cheering for Compositions

Composition, the translation of English into Latin, has long been a chore for students learning Latin. I've always enjoyed the mental exercise and find it to be a useful teaching activity. What other assignment requires students to apply everything they've practiced and learned in one, neat, little package? My students, though, can find it tedious and even frustrating. I'm sure that I'm not the only teacher who has this experience!

I do have a game we play occasionally to make composition more interesting and exciting... turn it into a competition!

This is what I do:

1) Divide the students into three teams. You can do this randomly or assign them by ability to get a good combination on each team.

2) Divide your blackboard/whiteboard into three sections; assign each team to a section. Keep the sections close together so that you can see all three at the same time.

3) Announce that each team will be translating the same sentence into Latin and the first team that gets the sentence completely correct will win the point or get credit. Here's the catch: each team puts their sentence on the board but the teacher can only say, "There are no correct sentences on the board" until one of them is completely correct. The teacher can offer no assistance or even tell the teams where the problems are -- that is the job of each team to determine.

4) Continue assigning sentences from a list or an exercise in the textbook as time and tolerance will allow. The team with the most points at the end of the game will receive credit, extra credit, or some other reward.

Suggestions:

A) Only one person from a team at the board at a time. This allows the teacher to see the whole board and determine which sentence is correct first. Students have to "tag team" to get to the board. A team shouting at a member on the board often leads to confusion or frustration. Have the team member return to the group's huddle.

B) Don't assign the sentences for homework ahead of time. One diligent student can dominate the team and the whole game.

C) Don't worry about teams "copying" the sentences from other teams on the board. This is part of the learning process. Also, savvy teams have been known to leave an obvious error which can lead another team astray but can be easily corrected to catch the win.

D) Encourage the members of each team to work together to figure out the sentence. When the pressure is on and there are three incorrect sentences on the board, the suggestion or idea of everyone on the team can make the difference between winning or losing.

E) You can make more than three teams if you have enough board space and you feel comfortable looking at multiple sentences at the same time.

I have found no other technique which makes translating into Latin so exciting. To hear students cheer when they have translated a sentence correctly is truly music to a Latin teacher's ears!

Amy High Latin Foundation

I attended a fundraiser for the Amy High Latin Foundation on Saturday, May 13. I decent event, all in all. One of the highlights was a demonstration by the Legio XX:

It seems there is a living history event called Roman Days 2006 coming up in Maryland the weekend of June 3-4, 2006. I just might have to check it out!

But back to the subject of my post... Amy High was a dynamic teacher who taught Latin on all levels, her last assignment was teaching third-graders in Fairfax County, VA. You may have seen an article on her in Time magazine back in December of 2000. You may also remember her as Iulia Pauli, the roving reporter in the Forum Romanum video series produced by the National Latin Exam. Tragically, Amy died a few years ago. She loved traveling to Rome and studying oral Latin under Reginald Foster, the Latin cleric to the Pope. As her legacy, her husband and several very close friends established the Amy High Latin Foundation to support aspiring and experienced Latin teachers who have a desire to travel to the Eternal City and study. To date, the foundation has awarded more than $30,000 in scholarships.

If you are a Latin teacher (or will soon become one) and have any interest in traveling to Rome to brush up on your oral Latin skills, this is a valuable source of inspiration and funding.

Finally, the Foundation is always looking for donations. If you have extra funds in need of a worthy cause, this is one of the "biggies" for the study of oral Latin.