Friday, September 30, 2016

Dolus aut Dulce? 2016: The Bolchazy-Carducci Costume Contest

Autumn has fallen upon us at last. Apples are leaving the orchards in bunches, leaves are taking up new residence on the ground, and people are compiling ideas for this year's Halloween costume.

Mont Allen, dressed as a Charun,
claimed the first place prize and
an Etruscan noblewoman (partner
Stephanie Pearson) last year.
We at Bolchazy-Carducci are happy to announce our second annual Halloween costume contest: Dolus aut Dulce? It was so nice seeing all the wonderful costumes from last year's participants, such as the blue-skinned, hook-nosed Charun and Etruscan noblewoman combination submitted by last year's winner, Mont Allen, and partner Stephanie Pearson. So if you plan on sporting a toga with some laurels, going for the whole hoplite, or fashioning your own set of wax wings, we urge you to take a picture of your classics-themed costume and send it to us.

Marie Bolchazy and the late Lou
Bolchazy dressed for ACL 2005 in
a floral stola and a toga, respectively.
Like last year, all we need from you is a photo of you in a classics-themed costume. Send it to us via Twitter to @BCPublishers, using the hash tag #BCPub. Do this, and you automatically make yourself eligible for one of three prizes! One photo will be accepted per Twitter account. If multiple people are in one picture all wearing classics costumes, the prize would only go to the owner of the account that tweeted the picture. If by request the contestants ask that another member of the picture stand as the contestant, one that is not the Twitter account member, or not a Twitter member at all, we will accept that as well.

Teachers, tell your students; students, tell your teachers. Tell all of your friends! No need to wait until October 31 to send a picture. We will start accepting photos this week and will continue to accept pictures until 11:59 PM CT on Tuesday, November 1st. Even if it is not your Halloween costume, so long as you have a photo featuring a classics-themed costume, we'll accept it!

Friday, September 23, 2016

Bolchazy-Carducci: A Year in Review

Tempus fugit! Looking back, 2016 was quite an eventful year full of conferences, contests, and new books for the classroom. Before 2017 sneaks up on us, we thought we would take a second to recap everything that's happened in the last twelve months.

The Bolchazy-Carducci booth at Kalamazoo, MI. 
Conferences. Bolchazy-Carducci has been all over the continental United States this past year. Assistant editor Laurel Draper went over to Monmouth, IL, for the Illinois Classical Conference in October. Shortly afterward editor Don Sprague found himself in Wilmington, DE, at the Classical Association of the Atlantic States, returning for a moment before heading back east, to Syracuse, NY, for the Classical Association of the Empire State. These few weeks set the pace, for in the subsequent months, B-C staff traveled to San Diego, CA (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) and San Francisco, CA (Archaeological Institute of America/Society for Classical Studies and American Classical League); Austin, TX (Modern Language Association and American Classical League); Williamsburg, VA (Classical Association of the Middle West and South); Northampton, MA (Classical Association of New England); Kalamazoo, MI (International Congress on Medieval Studies); and Bloomington, IN (National Junior Classical League). Did you miss us on our national tour? Don't worry, you can follow this link to find out which conferences we will be going to next.

Mont Allen, right, and partner
Stephanie Pearson dress as a
blue-skinned Charun and
an Etruscan noblewoman.
Contests. With the above conferences came almost as many fishbowl drawings. Some people went home with a medieval Latin book bundle, others with an annotated Latin textbook collection, and some with brand new titles from the past year. Regardless of the bundle, the winners, teachers, and students alike went home happy. This past year marked the first time Bolchazy-Carducci conducted a classics-themed Halloween costume contest, Dolus aut Dulce? We saw some beautiful costumes from students, teachers, and entire classrooms. Mont Allen, Assistant Professor of Classics & Art History at Southern Illinois University, and partner Stephanie Pearson, Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology at the Humboldt University-Berlin, dressed together as a blue-skinned, hook-nosed Charun, one of the psychopompoi of Etruscan mythology, "claiming" an Etruscan noblewoman clutching her mirror and claiming the prize to this year's contest. The second annual Martia Dementia contest was even more successful than last year's, with more participation from students and teachers. Homer claimed the throne previously held by Lucan, and the Brookfield Academy Upper School, sponsored by their teacher Ruth Osier, took home the glory and the spoils. Make sure you follow us on Twitter and Facebook so that you never miss out on a chance to win B-C prizes. What will you win next year?


Richard LaFleur's translation
of Maurice Sendak's classic,
Where the Wild Things Are.
New Books. We had a lot of exciting new releases this past year. Bonnie Catto released Latin Mythica II: Troia Captaa follow-up to her Latina Mythica,. Rose Williams's Latin of New Spain, a set of representative selections from Neo-Latin works, hit the shelves as well. Dale Grote's The Vulgate of Mark with the Synoptic Parallels brought engaging narratives of the Vulgate to the Latin classroom. Jo-Ann Shelton provided students with insight into political and social life of ancient Rome with Pliny the Younger: Selected LettersG. B. Cobbold gave a lively prose rendition of all six books of the De Rerum Natura with his Lucretius: The Nature of the Universe. Kenneth Kitchell gave selections covering all aspects of medieval life with The Other Middle Ages: A Medieval Latin Reader. Lastly, Richard LaFleur provided a lively translation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book with Ubi Fera Sunt: Where the Wild Things Are in Latin.


Founder Ladislaus "Lou" Bolchazy sporting a toga.
Founder's Day. Lastly, this year marked the 4-year anniversary of the passing of Bolchazy-Carducci founder Ladislaus "Lou" Bolchazy. Good food and good company filled the office as old friends and colleagues joined us in Mundelein for an annual luncheon as we celebrated Founder's Day. Everyone looked back fondly on the founder and the legacy he left behind.

Looking Ahead. That about wraps up the 2015–2016 year. We anticipate just as much excitement in the upcoming year. Students and teachers can look forward to more contests, such as Dolus aut Dulce? and Martia Dementia. Look forward to seeing us at a conference near you too, so be sure to enter a fishbowl drawing to win a book bundle. Here's to the 2016–2017 year!

Friday, September 02, 2016

Welcome Back to Latin

Welcome back! We at Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers hope that you enjoyed your summer and are ready for another exciting and rewarding school year! While the first week back is full of syllabi, class expectations, new names (and new, more grown-up faces to go with old names), and more, we know you want to jump right into learning as well. This post gathers some ideas for that first week back.

Let us know how these work. If you have a favorite welcome-back activity you'd like to share, let us know. We'll include it in next year's welcome back write-up.

B-C author Rose Williams
receiving the ACL Merita
Award from ACL president
 Kathy Elifrits back in June.
Decorate your classroom, Latinē. This idea is simple. Have your students break into groups to write Latin vocabulary on index cards and affix them to the appropriate item in the room. Prepare a list or let students use a dictionary and their own creativity.

Visit Italy. Hand out or project a blank map of Italy (you can find a free one in the Digital Content Tab on the product page for A Roman Map Workbook) and have students guess where certain key ancient cities and geographical features are. For Vergil classes, the free map of The Wanderings of Aeneas found on our Digital Resources for Teachers link could be used. For those interested in speaking and introducing simple sentences, Rose Williams has an excellent example of a map lesson for the first day of Latin.

Learn something new about (your)self. Have students research the etymology of their names and then present them to the class. This could easily be combined with other common ice-breakers like the old stand-by 'what they did over the summer.' Students could also choose a Latin name as part of this activity.

Write a story, Latinē. The easiest way to do this is to use a story you've already written and remove some words like a Mad-Libs. You can find several of these on the internet, like here and here. If you write your own, you can work in characters from myth or history for extra review. To help introductory classes, you may want to hand out cards with suggested vocabulary and have students choose a card to play for each blank. If you like this activity, The Pericles Group sells a polished card game version you may want to invest in.

Celebrate birthdays early. Use a calendar with Latin quotes (the free one from B-C works great, download here if you didn't get a copy in the mail). Give each student the quote from their birthday to to translate or present.  This activity creates the opportunity to revisit each quote throughout the year on the student's birthday and as you learn the grammar each contains.

Do you have any experience using these ideas you would like to share? Are there other activities or resources you use? Feel free to comment below. I'd love to hear from you!

Thursday, September 01, 2016

August Answer for Roman Calendar

If you have not already done so, check the inside back cover of our 2015-16 Roman Calendar for a reproducible worksheet that asks students to engage with the mythology-oriented artwork included in the calendar.
For those completing the worksheet, here is August’s image, question, and answer.

Question: How can you identify this sculpture as Minerva? What do you think she held in each hand?

Answer: The helmet and the Gorgon head identify this sculpture as Minerva. She may have held a spear in one hand and a shield in the other.

English derivatives are the focus of the 2016-17 Roman Calendar reproducible worksheet (inside back cover). Tweet @BCPublishers your answer to that month’s question by the 25th for a chance to win five of our new buttons. We’ll announce our answers, as well as the winner, at the beginning of the following month. Submit an answer for your class, or encourage students to participate individually.

To add your name to our mailing list for the Roman Calendar, email orders@bolchazy.com with the subject line "Roman Calendar"; be sure to include your name and mailing address in the body of the mail. Calendars are mailed annually in August.