2019 Year in Review

2019 has (almost) gone, so I'd like to reflect briefly on some of the highlights of my year. 

My teaching in 2019 has had its ups and downs. There were times in the spring when I felt that I might need to leave the profession for my mental health, so I spent a lot of time over the summer in reflection. I am in a much better place now, but I still have days when I feel like pulling a Ginger Spice.

Teaching:

• Writing my own novice-level Latin texts - I wrote about this for 2018 and I am still doing this for Latin II this school year. I love going back to the ancient texts and writing novice-level versions for my students. Right now I prefer it to teaching with novellas because I find that novellas get stale for both the students and me, so students are always getting new myths to read. This semester we read myths about Vulcan/Hephaestus, Mars/Ares, Venus/Aphrodite, Diana/Artemis, and Atalanta. In 2020 I plan to write novice-level stories about myths of Apollo, Mercury/Hermes, and Roman history.
• Procedures - Over the summer I read Jon Cowart's new book on classroom management in the CI classroom. My biggest takeaway this year has been to include warm-up activities for every class to prepare students for class, review previous vocabulary, and offer comfort through predictable routines.
• Google Forms - I'm slowly but surely getting better at creating open-ended activities with Google Forms. In the spring, students solved a mystery with various possible endings. In the fall, students learned what the dreams meant according to ancient Roman interpretations of various types of dreams.
• Dressing up as Banjo and Kazooie for Halloween!

20 years in the making!

Greek & Latin:

• My first ACL - I attended the annual ACL Institute in New York City in June and enjoyed meeting many, many faces I had only known online.
• I haven't read much in the way of Greek and Latin texts (beyond those I use to create my novice-level myth stories for Latin II), but I did enjoy Ken Dark and Jan Kostenec's new book Hagia Sophia in Context: An Archaeological Re-examination of the Cathedral of Byzantine Constantinople. It was the closest I could get to one of my lifelong dreams - getting access to all of the Hagia Sophia. 

Highly recommended!

Travel:  

• Macon and Valdosta, GA - A quick two-day trip during my spring break to explore the swamps of Georgia. Unseasonably cold, but still fun, even though I didn't see the wildlife I wanted to see in Valdosta. I did see two massive gators in Macon though!
• New York City - ACL Institute. My third time in NYC, so less pressure to go sightseeing this time. The highlight this time was visiting the Nintendo Store.
• Augusta, GA - Visiting more swamps. Great place to see alligators. I finally had my first encounter with a Georgia snake too!
• Chicago - Back home for Thanksgiving and my 4 F's of being home: friends, family, fur babies, and food. I visited the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture for the first time, despite the fact that my mother's side is 100% Lithuanian. An unexpected highlight: ancient artifacts from or found in Lithuania, such as amber found in Egypt and Roman coins found in Lithuania.
  

Annum novum faustum felicem tibi, lector!