Consilia

Salvete omnes! Welcome to my blog about teaching and learning Latin in the digital age.

In my graduate school class on internet resources and teaching second languages, we've read Blogs/Wikis/Podcasts and Other Powerful Webtools for Classrooms by Will Richardson. I found myself alternately frustrated and inspired by the initial chapters. I will be honest that I have a lot of reservations about using technology in the classroom. Perhaps I will share these reservations in more detail at a later time. Lest I get carried away with my feelings about the downsides of webtools and learning, I want to express my doubts as succinctly as my friends the Romans would. In all things, including technological tools, let us remember the golden mean:

Nihil nimis
Nothing in excess.

So let us move on to some of the potential uses of blogs in the Latin classroom.

#1- The Digital Bulletin Board
Latin and the culture of Latin speakers is all around us. It can appear in a weekly column in the New York Times On Language. It can appear in the BBC and in your own backyard. There are tasty morsels throughout the media, including digital media. To share these new discoveries, enriching our understanding of Latin language and culture, a blog might be just the thing. One of the benefits of the blogs is that students may share fascinating finds just as easily as the teacher can. Here we have a community where everyone learns together, as equals, outside the walls of the classroom.

#2- Summer Book Club
I need feedback from my fellow educators, to see if this is at all feasible. I don't wish to encroach on the territory of English teachers, but I think we might all fight the good fight to encourage independent reading.
You see, everyone tells me that learning Latin is so important because it helps your English vocabulary, which is absolutely true. However, and perhaps I shouldn't say this publicly lest I endanger my professional prospects, the best way to improve your English vocabulary (according to my own high school Latin teacher) is to read. Read. Just keep reading. All sorts of things. Dissecting a word, like an animal in a lab, is very educational. But how will you know its true nature unless you spend some time observing it in its natural habitat?
So I envisioned assigning students reading over the summer. Not a terrible burden, a historical fiction novel set in Rome or the middle ages, or perhaps a short Roman play translated into English. With a closed blog, students could respond to the novel, ask their fellow students questions, and respond to those questions, while still fulfilling family, work, travel and extracurricular summer obligations. The instructor would have the option of either using the blog as evidence of students' reading, or take part in the discussion as well.

#3- Extended Classroom
I've come to this teaching certification/Master's degree program and a most fortuitous time. I'm so lucky to be taking classes alongside several other preservice Latin teachers. Our needs and challenges are different than those of teachers of other subjects, and even of teachers of modern second languages. Collaboration with my fellow Latinists has been absolutely essential to my professional development and a tremendous pleasure.
With the connective power of the internet why should that collaboration end just because we've all gotten fabulous, well-paid jobs throughout NY state? As teachers, we could have our own blog and continue to share ideas, advice, and commiseration. Or our students could work on group projects together from separate geographic locations.

I look forward to hearing the comments of my classmates and fellow teachers. Until next post, valete!

VS