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Nundinae.... and time to give the babies their names.
I used to do this extensive naming sheet, but it was just too much for middle school students. They all had trinomina, (ok, not the girls), and one side of the room was patrician, one side was plebian. (Hmmm... maybe I should find that sheet to post here because it might work well with high school students.)
I still go through explaining praenomen, nomen and cognomen, giving examples of each, esp cognomina, discussing how they can be descriptive (Strabo, Cicero), geographic (Africanus, Germanicus), family name/adoptive name (Vespasianus, Octavianus), slave or client king name (Narcissus, Cogidubnus). I explain that girls didn't have praenomina. I also mention after we discuss these traditions/rules, that the rules were broken and that there's inscriptional evidence of such.
Then they pick their own names. I have a list of Roman names (male and female), plus a list of adjectives to pick from and I encourage them to be creative too.
So tomorrow we finalize names and make bullas. Of course, I'm betting with a 45 minute day we'll run out of time. (I think I'll scrap the warm-up tomorrow...)
Teachers do bullae differently. You may not want to do them at all, but it is sort of an initiation into the culture of the Romans, and I use them as good luck charms to be worn during quizzes and tests. (They are kept in the rooms.)
I cut out of thin cardboard disks rougly 2 inches across. (I recycle these each year to the cries of the students, but I don't care--it means less work FOR ME and that part is good.) I also cut ribbon (floral ribbon, is what I think it is, but you could use yarn), color coded per grade. Plebeian blue or black ribbon for 6th grade exploratory; green for eques (money!) of the 7th grade; royal purple for the 8th grade senatorial class. I cut and tie the ribbon so it is big enough to fit over my big fat head (!). I recycle these too, so usually I don't have to cut too many new pieces of ribbon.
We cover the disks of cardboard with foil (our bullae are silver, not gold or leather!) and write our Latin names on the foil with Sharpies. Symbols can be drawn on it too. I do have a special way of wrapping the foil around the disk so part of it is left poking up; this is then curled down on the ribbon. No tape, etc, needed.
I don't do too many artsy craftsy things because I just don't have time and I don't like fluff. I do like crafts but I'm not going to satisfy my joy of arts and crafts at the expense of Latin instruction.
(yawn)
This weekend I need to finish the PowerPoint overview for the students AND make sure I can use the LCD projector at school on Monday.
I'm still getting new students and others are dropping or moving.
School has also been a bit unnerving this week--lots of gang activity going on (yes, at middle school) but you can't do anything about people being members of a gang. Yesterday the Crips were making themselves known, or so I think. Today, I saw a lot of red shorts/pants--Bloods.
And if you're reading this and thinking you won't ever teach at a school with gangs, then you are blind to how pervasive the problem is. And a lot of these kids are otherwise nice kids.
Reality check.
I used to do this extensive naming sheet, but it was just too much for middle school students. They all had trinomina, (ok, not the girls), and one side of the room was patrician, one side was plebian. (Hmmm... maybe I should find that sheet to post here because it might work well with high school students.)
I still go through explaining praenomen, nomen and cognomen, giving examples of each, esp cognomina, discussing how they can be descriptive (Strabo, Cicero), geographic (Africanus, Germanicus), family name/adoptive name (Vespasianus, Octavianus), slave or client king name (Narcissus, Cogidubnus). I explain that girls didn't have praenomina. I also mention after we discuss these traditions/rules, that the rules were broken and that there's inscriptional evidence of such.
Then they pick their own names. I have a list of Roman names (male and female), plus a list of adjectives to pick from and I encourage them to be creative too.
So tomorrow we finalize names and make bullas. Of course, I'm betting with a 45 minute day we'll run out of time. (I think I'll scrap the warm-up tomorrow...)
Teachers do bullae differently. You may not want to do them at all, but it is sort of an initiation into the culture of the Romans, and I use them as good luck charms to be worn during quizzes and tests. (They are kept in the rooms.)
I cut out of thin cardboard disks rougly 2 inches across. (I recycle these each year to the cries of the students, but I don't care--it means less work FOR ME and that part is good.) I also cut ribbon (floral ribbon, is what I think it is, but you could use yarn), color coded per grade. Plebeian blue or black ribbon for 6th grade exploratory; green for eques (money!) of the 7th grade; royal purple for the 8th grade senatorial class. I cut and tie the ribbon so it is big enough to fit over my big fat head (!). I recycle these too, so usually I don't have to cut too many new pieces of ribbon.
We cover the disks of cardboard with foil (our bullae are silver, not gold or leather!) and write our Latin names on the foil with Sharpies. Symbols can be drawn on it too. I do have a special way of wrapping the foil around the disk so part of it is left poking up; this is then curled down on the ribbon. No tape, etc, needed.
I don't do too many artsy craftsy things because I just don't have time and I don't like fluff. I do like crafts but I'm not going to satisfy my joy of arts and crafts at the expense of Latin instruction.
(yawn)
This weekend I need to finish the PowerPoint overview for the students AND make sure I can use the LCD projector at school on Monday.
I'm still getting new students and others are dropping or moving.
School has also been a bit unnerving this week--lots of gang activity going on (yes, at middle school) but you can't do anything about people being members of a gang. Yesterday the Crips were making themselves known, or so I think. Today, I saw a lot of red shorts/pants--Bloods.
And if you're reading this and thinking you won't ever teach at a school with gangs, then you are blind to how pervasive the problem is. And a lot of these kids are otherwise nice kids.
Reality check.
