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A friend sent me one of those goofy questionaires that you are supposed to answer and send to 10 more friends, etc, and if you do, X will appear on your screen. I typically hate those things (anything like a chain letter) but this one I did.
One of the questions (and I wish I had kept a copy for myself but I didn't) asked what inspires you, and I found myself typing that anything to do with Latin. I will spend hours on thinking up cool things for Latin, making quia reviews, designing quirky mini-buttons in Latin (have you seen them? http://www.cafepress.com/animaaltera/348478), etc. But do I do this for English class? No. I mean, Shakespeare I enjoy, but I am not putting hours into Merchant of Venice.
That part's my job, the part that's eating my lunch.
But I'm happy to grab Ovid and ponder how to construct a good test, and after liking what I've done, ponder how that reflects upon what I should currently be doing with my Latin 2 and 3's.
My pace with them sucks, but I'll get better.
I *want* to sit down and grade Latin. I *care* about their progress; it's not a chore to grade their stuff, not in the same way as English.
OHMIGOSH... I haven't designed my English Vocab Quiz I'm giving on Tues.
stercus. See? It doesn't inspire me. I can easily forget what I need to do in THAT class.
But the Latin, well, I've probably spent hours on this one AP student, because it's the thing I feel like I understand and love.
Latin inspires me, catches my imagination, makes me curious, lights me up.... A good story does the same. But the rest of what we do in English doesn't. I don't want to be an English teacher, I confess. I don't. I would if we didn't have to write. If we didn't have to write the way we write. If we could have these rich discussions over a story, if students would read the story and we discussed it... then... then it might interest me more.
I can read a good Latin commentary, like Rick LaFleur's text on Ovid, and feel like I'm in a discussion already. I'm back to being the student, but I'm also the teacher. We learn from each other.
I have to make a decision soon about AP for next year... I'm trying to decide WHAT I will do. I can't decide about anything. I'm half tempted to do Ovid because I love Ovid and I think it will be easier than Cicero. But if I do that, I definitely want to read some of the Cicero syllabus with my Latin three class. And if I want more prose to be read, I really need to up the pace of what I'm doing with the 3's, don't I? (Just talking to myself.)
Figure out what inspires you and obsesses you. If teaching is just a job, if you're more interested in OTHER things when you get home and couldn't care less if you ever read another real text of Latin, then maybe Latin doesn't inspire you. And if it doesn't, well, is teaching the job for you, or are you just marking time until a better job comes along? Or do you just not know what else you are good at? You have no other skill??
I don't mean this harshly but we don't need people teaching Latin who aren't totally inspired by it, because if you aren't inspired by it, you'll never be interested enough in reaching ALL your students. You'll just want to teach the drill and kill way, probably how you were taught, having that weed out your classes, and then you'll complain when your upper division classes are small. We don't need that in the profession in the 21st century.
I hope that you are inspired!
One of the questions (and I wish I had kept a copy for myself but I didn't) asked what inspires you, and I found myself typing that anything to do with Latin. I will spend hours on thinking up cool things for Latin, making quia reviews, designing quirky mini-buttons in Latin (have you seen them? http://www.cafepress.com/animaaltera/348478), etc. But do I do this for English class? No. I mean, Shakespeare I enjoy, but I am not putting hours into Merchant of Venice.
That part's my job, the part that's eating my lunch.
But I'm happy to grab Ovid and ponder how to construct a good test, and after liking what I've done, ponder how that reflects upon what I should currently be doing with my Latin 2 and 3's.
My pace with them sucks, but I'll get better.
I *want* to sit down and grade Latin. I *care* about their progress; it's not a chore to grade their stuff, not in the same way as English.
OHMIGOSH... I haven't designed my English Vocab Quiz I'm giving on Tues.
stercus. See? It doesn't inspire me. I can easily forget what I need to do in THAT class.
But the Latin, well, I've probably spent hours on this one AP student, because it's the thing I feel like I understand and love.
Latin inspires me, catches my imagination, makes me curious, lights me up.... A good story does the same. But the rest of what we do in English doesn't. I don't want to be an English teacher, I confess. I don't. I would if we didn't have to write. If we didn't have to write the way we write. If we could have these rich discussions over a story, if students would read the story and we discussed it... then... then it might interest me more.
I can read a good Latin commentary, like Rick LaFleur's text on Ovid, and feel like I'm in a discussion already. I'm back to being the student, but I'm also the teacher. We learn from each other.
I have to make a decision soon about AP for next year... I'm trying to decide WHAT I will do. I can't decide about anything. I'm half tempted to do Ovid because I love Ovid and I think it will be easier than Cicero. But if I do that, I definitely want to read some of the Cicero syllabus with my Latin three class. And if I want more prose to be read, I really need to up the pace of what I'm doing with the 3's, don't I? (Just talking to myself.)
Figure out what inspires you and obsesses you. If teaching is just a job, if you're more interested in OTHER things when you get home and couldn't care less if you ever read another real text of Latin, then maybe Latin doesn't inspire you. And if it doesn't, well, is teaching the job for you, or are you just marking time until a better job comes along? Or do you just not know what else you are good at? You have no other skill??
I don't mean this harshly but we don't need people teaching Latin who aren't totally inspired by it, because if you aren't inspired by it, you'll never be interested enough in reaching ALL your students. You'll just want to teach the drill and kill way, probably how you were taught, having that weed out your classes, and then you'll complain when your upper division classes are small. We don't need that in the profession in the 21st century.
I hope that you are inspired!
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Date: 2006-10-23 12:23 pm (UTC)jennifer