Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Dolus aut Dulce 2018 Winners





Mercedes Barletta as Thetis dipping Achilles into the river Styx.
During this year’s Dolus aut Dulce Twitter costume contest, we avoided the doli but received quite a few dulcia—submissions in the individual and group categories were excellent! Plurimas gratias to everyone who participated! We loved seeing your take on Greco-Roman history and myth, whether you were a (nice) Roman imago, fierce Artemis bending her bow, Daphne in mid-transformation, a Dionysius/Polyhymnia duo, or Dr. Who (who, in this version, seems to have been the true author of Ennius’s Annales).

A special round of congratulations goes to our winners, whose efforts were truly spectacular. Mercedes Barletta of Harvard-Westlake School sent in a photo series depicting Thetis dipping baby Achilles in the river Styx. Her attention to detail and commitment to the role is laudable. As a bonus, Mercedes sent in a throwback photo showing her as Daphne becoming a laurel tree. See both of Mercedes's photo series here and here.

UMass MAT students created a judgment of Paris tableau.
The winners of our group contest photo offered a humorous take on the judgment of Paris. Latin MAT students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst submitted this creative twist on the story: Chloe Kolbet dressed as a very Parisian Paris, while Steven John assumed the role of Athena, Joe Stern represented Aphrodite, and Forrester Hammer played Hera.

Did you miss out on this year's Halloween contest? Plan to participate next year and encourage your students to participate—this year’s winners received a $50 book credit! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to keep up to date with upcoming contests, new books, and conference and webinar schedules!

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Classics Halloween Link Roundup


Our October eLitterae offers a free excerpt:
the werewolf story in The Satyricon.
Looking for some spooky classics articles and blog posts to read this Halloween? Then look no further. Whether you’re interested in the strange, the arcane, or the absurd, these links should have you covered.

     The blog Sententiae Antiquae is fulfilling many of our classics Halloween needs. Some choice posts include:
      How Do You Say “Trick-or-Treat” in Latin and Greek?
      Werewolves galore! A roundup of selections dealing with versipelles (and a few other   supernatural creatures from the ancient world).

     Atlas Obscura looks into Greek funerary practices involving celery—yes, celery.

     Forbes explores how a zombie predicted the death of Julius Caesar.

     Smithsonian explains the tragic circumstances that led to a “vampire burial” in fifth-century Rome.

     Eidolon tackles the relationship between zombies and gender roles in ancient Greece.


Additionally, if you’re looking for a quick Halloween lesson for your Latin classes, make sure to check out the October issue of eLitterae. Under “Resources & Teaching Tips,” you’ll find some “Halloween teaching treats”: three free selections from Bolchazy-Carducci books!

— Amelia Wallace, Editor

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

3 First-Year Teachers Tell Their Stories: Meet M.



(For an introduction to this blog series, see our first post. To read our first two teacher profiles, click here and here.)

Memento mori! M. has enhanced her classroom
door with skeletons for Halloween.

Meet M., a first-year Latin teacher at a small private K–9 school in the metropolitan New York area. M. teaches fourth through eighth grade; her class sizes tend to be small, fewer than ten students each.

Classroom setup: M. has her own classroom; while small, it accommodates her classes well. Her tables are arranged in a square so that everyone can see one another. Because her students are younger, she wants to make sure the room seems “fun”—she has hung up posters showing Pompeii, Roman monuments, and classical art. She also has posted key Latin vocabulary for students to reference during class, including a days of the week poster illustrated using Lego scenes.

Goals: M.’s goals for the year center on organization and communication:
1. Stay organized—there are so many different things to remember in all aspects of teaching!
2. Implement effective communication with parents.
3. Learn how to use movie talks to engage students while preteaching vocabulary and target structures.

Like K., M. also hopes to maintain her work-life balance as she learns all the requirements of her new school, develops curricula for multiple grade levels, and creates a classroom community.

Methodologies and Approaches to Teaching: M. has already begun using comprehensible input (CI)
methods with her younger students. While fourth grade is more of an exploratory class featuring plenty of games and introductory activities, she is experimenting with different active Latin techniques in her fifth and sixth grade classes. Because her seventh and eighth grade students are already accustomed to a grammar-translation approach, she is maintaining a more traditional teaching style in order to avoid derailing them.

Tips and Tricks: M. highly recommends using the Facebook forum Latin Teacher Idea Exchange for inspiration when planning classes. She notes that collaboration is essential; while she is the only Latin teacher at her school, she has a group of Latin teacher friends across the country who can offer support and suggestions when needed.

Most Looking Forward To: M. is most excited about building good relationships with her new students. She is looking forward to the time when her classes know each other well enough to have inside jokes and when her students feel like they can trust and confide in her.

First Day Hook: M. didn’t have a specific means of “hooking” students on the first day of class, but rather focused on getting to know her students and using her energy—and her experience with techniques from the theater—to engage her students.

M.’s first week of school went by in a blur, challenging yet satisfying. She explains:

The first day felt like a whole week. I was utterly exhausted. The spoken Latin with the fifth and sixth graders is a blast, and they are awesome. Hearing students speaking Latin in the halls makes my day—and they aren’t doing it to impress me, I hear it off in the distance! I want to keep this up with them and improve my own spoken Latin abilities.

M.’s enthusiasm and passion for teaching is readily apparent. Good luck during the upcoming school year, M.!

—Amelia Wallace, Editor