First 3 Weeks of the School Year

The first three of weeks of the school have come and gone, so I'd like to reflect and write about my experiences so far. This year I am teaching three classes of Latin I and two of Latin II. I am also in charge of the Latin I curriculum this year. I'm not going to lie, I felt a lot of pressure to be in charge of level one. If I messed up and did not establish a solid foundation, I could jeopardize my students' Latin experience and fail to provide them with the skills to succeed in Latin. 

Thankfully, this has not been the case at all. In fact, I am having a blast with my Latin I students! I attribute part of this to my goal of having more consistent procedures in my classes this year. Just as in previous years, I open the class with "Salvete, omnes!", close with "Valete, omnes!", and expect my students to respond in Latin. To associate names with faces (and because admin insists that we take attendance within the first five minutes of class), I then do roll call and each student must say "adsum" if they are present. When a student is absent, we say, "(Insert student name) abest." 

To fight against the almighty cell phone, we then do a cell phone chant, as developed by Bob Patrick. I ask the class, "Ubi sunt telephona?!" Then we go through various locations where phones may be: "Non in manibus!" "Non in gremio!" "Non in sinibus!" "Non sub cruribus!", followed again by "Ubi sunt telephona?!" "Telephona sunt in sacculis!"

I have also implemented Calendar Talk more consistently this year, inspired by CI Liftoff (Ben Slavic and Tina Hargaden). The students and I write and say the date in Latin (day of the week, date, month, and year). Then I ask about the day's weather and we discuss it in Latin. My Latin I students in particular are having fun with this. One class debates almost every day about whether it is humid or not. In another class, a certain student is always cold, so the rest of the class disagrees and tells her to wear layers! To take advantage of this enthusiasm, I lead class polls:

"Quis ex vobis putat hodie umidam esse?"
*Some students raise their hands and I count aloud in Latin*
"Undecim discipuli putant hodie umidam esse!"
"Quis ex vobis putat hodie non esse umidam?"
*Students raise their hands and I count aloud in Latin*
"Duodecim discipuli putant hodie non esse umidam!"

Compared to my own experiences as a Latin student, I love that my students are so comfortable and eager to listen to and interact in Latin. They also understand indirect statements! Yes, they cannot describe what indirect statements are or they function in Latin, but they understand what I am saying and that is all I want at this time for their level of proficiency.

Another change this year is Brain Breaks (more on this in a future post). I used Brain Breaks last year, but I placed them between activities. This year, instead, I set a timer for 15 minutes and we stop class and do them, no matter what. This change has made a HUGE difference! Last year, students felt like Brain Breaks were just another tedious activity to do, but this year, my students look forward to them. I have also noticed two benefits of Brain Breaks. First, my students and I are truly refreshed and ready to do more afterward. Second, and as a result, my students and I work more efficiently for the entire duration of the class period. 


Some aspects of my year have been off to rougher start, but overall I'm very satisfied.