I was copied in on the following discussion between some of the Latin teachers on our site and want to share it with anybody interested at getting a closer, rather funkadelic, look at what’s shakin’ in their world:
James started off the discussion:
I found this video by poking around the website of a person with whom I shared a few words via Twitter. Man oh man. I used to teach like this. We all did, didn’t we? Latin is a special beast. I think this lady is the reigning Latin Teacher of the Year for Texas or some such place. Latin is a special beast. Or maybe it isn’t, but it is treated as such.
http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=kgeiTZI
Then Jeff responded:
Wow! This was me for 8 years. Watching this makes my stomach turn. We will never convince her to do CI, not after the teacher of the year validation. How did we do this for so long. It is so tedious watching it.
I wonder why she was teacher of the year. Did she wow them with technology? The whole trying makes my skin crawl.
Then Bob said:
…the most common is the most difficult – just like life…, she said. Made me shudder.
And John Piazza next said:
As long as teachers like that are rewarded with accolades, respect (=fear), and a green light to exclude 96% of students from their classroom (e.g. “students have to be literate in English if they want to take Latin with me” or “go take Spanish with all the other idiots who will never learn or amount to anything”), nothing will change. This is a culture that thinks you need to suffer and/or be a robot in order to learn anything real. But Bob has won a few awards himself…
Then Jeff added:
I must admit that I was just like that. I am ashamed. The funny thing is that even other teachers expect us to do just what John says: one of our English teachers told me that he doesn’t teach grammar because he expects us to do that.
I told a parent and VP that I teach latin not English grammar. If English grammar is so important, then we should teach it in English or offer a class in grammar or linguistics. I also got some blatant blow back when a certain student couldn’t lord her knowledge over every one else. Instead of trying to become more proficient in Latin, she wanted me to teach in a way that valued her perceived superiority. She wanted to feel better than everyone else and wanted me to make sure that she got that. That others were doing well was like taking away her only power. It was brutal.
Bob again (and in this segment he mentions his upcoming talk at the University of Georgia, which we all want a report on):
Speaking of awards, I want to tell you all something, because a large part of my passion is advocacy–advocacy for good teaching, advocacy for all kinds of students, advocacy for classrooms that are really about cultivating trust and real human relationships without which there really is no teaching or learning (that is respectable), advocacy for looking them in the eyes and teaching to the eyes.
In 2010 I was named Latin Teacher of the Year for GA; in 2011 Foreign Language TOTY for GA. In two weeks, I travel to the annual meeting of SCOLT (the southern arm of ACTFL) where I am one of 10 teachers from the region up for TOTY for the Southern region. The winner of that goes to ACTFL the next year as one of 5 for ACTFL TOTY. The President of SCOLT is also the director of FL for my district, and he seems to think that I have a good chance of making it.
A lot of this is a real pain in the ass, quite honestly–and yes, it is without any question an honor and humbling. I am telling you this because my singular interest at this point is that from this point on, winners of these things become vocal advocates for what we are doing in the classroom.. For that alone, I’d like the chance to get to talk about what WE are doing in Latin classrooms and what WE are doing in all kinds of language classrooms across the country. So, keep your fingers crossed with me that if nothing else, that opportunity arises. On April 11 the interviews happen in Birmingham and on April 12 the SCOLT TOTY will be announced.
And, btw, I’ve taught exactly as this teacher is here. I’ve told those interfering with my glorious presentation to be quiet. I was stunned to get to watch someone else do it–totally oblivious to the fact that the Latin hardly mattered, and that the students who were not feeding her the correct answers mattered even less–except that they be quiet. Compare that to Susan Gross’ definition of reading–which I’ve fallen in love with: Reading is when you look at squiggles on a page and see a movie in your head. The kids in this class look at these squiggles and see red and green squiggles appear on the whiteboard and the disembodied voice of the man (woman) behind the curtain in Oz.
This whole journey is about getting the man/woman to come out from behind the curtain and face their students with meaningful messages in the language we want them to learn.
Off school today for Good Friday. Home working on a presentation to the World Language and Literacy Ed department at UGA who have invited me to “teach them how to do what I do”. They think it might be good to know what this TPRS is. I am working backward from a Fable, Mus et Cervisia. Over 8 hours, they will learn about 40 Latin words and be able to read this fable in Latin with some discussion about it by the time its over–perhaps even a timed write. That’s a week from today. Hopefully, I can give a report next weekend.
James added:
I found this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF8IaAp1wbk
Her credentials are 1) a fun Latin club, 2) creating a website, and 3) preparing a student (and some others, too, I’m sure) to pass the AP/SAT Latin test and save thousands of dollars in (private) school tuition.
The last comment in the thread up to this point is from Dan Navar:
I will say that she’s gifted with the technology and the graphic organization. I’m thinking about what my own students would say/how they would react to such a lesson. Probably something along the lines of why they should care about the characters, about how they don’t care what a broach is, about how they don’t know or care what “having been given” means in English, about why the word order makes no sense. etc… This is good. For all the complaining students do about my class – that they don’t understand what is going on is not one of them save for a few special students in each period who really don’t try at all. This is giving me some much needed perspective before the break (as 60-70 percent of my classes are gone on field trips). I feel like I’ve done the best job at Westlake with what I know. I need to keep this in mind when students bitch about it being too boring or that they want their phones out or that they don’t understand why they can’t have side conversations.