Miriam is Bob’s daughter, also a Latin teacher, and she shares her bio* with us:
Salve!
My name is Miriam Patrick and I am a Latin teacher in a public school in Georgia. I have been teaching using CI methods for three and a half years (I was hired mid term). I have my Bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University and I’m attempting to get into graduate school now for Latin as well.
I love trying new CI methods with my kids, especially when they get into it. I’ve recently started using the jobs that are listed on the site and the kids are really getting into them. They’ve been particularly useful when we have things to accomplish. I’ve also been working diligently with PQA and Asking a story. I have a lot of classes that really get into it and really enjoy it. I recently told my level IIs who are ahead of schedule that we’d take a few weeks to just tell stories and illustrate them… it would be their legacy in my classroom. I have a student in this particular class who has been begging me for months to change the ending of all of our stories to a sea, a sermon, and a ship full of ghosts and he may well get his wish at some point soon. Needless to say, he was ecstatic.
One of my favourite jobs is the word counter. I had my ones count words from the previous day and today as well (total 4 old words; 4 new words). My goal was to beat my previous record. I found that I worked a few words over 20 times during the hour and it became clear to me where I had room for improvement and I think it was helpful to the kids to see the work I was putting into the class and that we were working together as opposed to me being the high and mighty teacher “bestowing” my knowledge š
I find myself frustrated when I hear that I am different because the language I teach. I believe that anyone can do CI and I do think it is the most effective way of teaching language, but I often meet a wall when describing what I do to others. I’m hoping to find here, and I believe I will, a community where we can share ideas, frustrations, and successes so that we can do better with our students.
Gratias Maximas!
Miriam Patrick
*We do request bios from teachers new to this group. If you haven’t yet sent one in, please do so by sending an email to benslavic@yahoo.com. Here is a link to moreĀ aboutĀ that process: