MARGINALIA

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...

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 e...

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 ...

Experienced teachers report for duty on Wednesday, August 16. There will be a week of greetings, meetings, and crafting plans for the upcomi...

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 ...

I have given summer assignments this year for the very first time. I have done so with hesitation and still feel very uncomfortable about th...

The Flavian Amphitheater, looking good after a decent scrubbing, in July 2001. The first time or two I saw the Colosseum (early to middle 1...

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 ...

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...

I had taken eight trips to Italy during what everyone would consider "the summer months" and had never experienced any rain. So, w...

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 chang...

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

Composition, the translation of English into Latin, has long been a chore for students learning Latin. I've always enjoyed the mental ex...

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 demon...

April 21st has arrived and provides us with the opportunity to reread Livy and revisit the founding of Rome: Ita Numitori Albana re permissa...

In Latin II we have been discussing Roman food and dining habits. Of course we covered reclining in the triclinium, garum, olive oil, and th...

It has been too long since I posted a picture so I offer this image of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi: I took this photograph in July 2004 ...

The poet Martial writes in Epigram V.58: Cras te victurum, cras dicis, Postume, semper: dic mihi, cras istud, Postume, quando venit? Quam l...

“Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” I think I first heard this smirky phrase when I was a student in high school. I probably even l...

A poster of Leonardo da Vinci arrived in the mail the other day. Actually it was a promotion for a travel company, but I took it to the pape...