Here’s Kevin’s bio:
Salvete Omnes! I joined the PLC at the start of this school year and learned a ton, but took a few months away while my son (now almost a year old) learned the value of sleep. It’s great to be back.
I’m finishing up my third year teaching high school Latin at Northridge Prep (Niles, IL – north suburb of Chicago). I was fresh off the college boat when I started; needless to say, it has been a ‘learning experience.’ At Northridge, students are required to take four years of the same language, so I get to see them for four years straight, as I am the sole Latin teacher.
This has been my first year trying CI and TPRS, and it has been a completely mixed bag of successes and “wow! that sucked” failures. I went to a 2 day conference with Blaine in October, and had my CI batteries charged past capacity, only to have them run low after a few months of scrambling to keep on top of classes.
My biggest obstacle this year has been the temptation to slip back into my old grammar-centric/output-focused ways, especially after first semester, when I felt I had many students who skirted by with a B who knew less than they did last year. I’m just hoping to finish out this year well enough, be just in the grades I give, and use the summer to reconfigure for next year.
However, this year has still been a huge improvement, with the latest success being in my Latin 1 class: the use of a fully developed embedded reading of the story from our book (LLPSI: Familia Romana CAP VIII for all you Latin folks out there). Comprehension has soared in the class.
My goal is to be more active on the PLC here than I was in the past. CI, TPRS, and in particular this fine group of people are a big reason why I didn’t throw in the towel on teaching this year (and more importantly, why I won’t spend the next 30+ years sleeping with conjugation charts under my pillow and playing ‘hunt-the-verb’ with my students).
Kevin Clemens