ginlindzey (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ginlindzey) wrote2009-02-04 06:08 pm
ginlindzey) wrote2009-02-04 06:08 pm
Entry tags:
we are an elective subject
Every now and then a Latin program will be under the threat of a budget cut. I was taken to task recently for implying that our teaching jobs are usually untouched by the economy. Teaching is a safer job than high tech at present and probably other things (car industry?), but yeah our jobs come under theat.
HELLO-- we teach an ELECTIVE. You know, from elego, elegere, elegi electus. To pick, choose. Just because we think what we teach is important or even critical and certainly darn useful in a multitude of ways doesn't give us a permanent seat at the table.
To paraphrase Ovid, if you want to be valued, be valuable!
Programs don't grow just because you tell people that Latin is good for them. Programs don't grow because you can show on paper that Latin produces higher SAT verbal scores.
It's marketing and salesmanship.
Can you SELL your product? Once sold, do customers keep coming back for more? Do you make sure as many of your customers as possible can get the most out of your product?
Or do you sit there with a box full of your product, unopened, because you can't sell it or your customers don't understand how to get the most out of your product?
If you think I'm simplifying the matter, I think you're wrong. Loving Latin will never be enough to be a good teacher. It's not a bad place to start, but if you can't sell it/teach it, it won't matter.
I gave Latin 2 students back their tests today. Some A's and B's; too many C's and F's (more than usual). It's that time of year; everyone's burned out and lazy. But I told them that even with this knowledge, when I saw that virtually everyone missed a certain set of questions, my first thought was whether *I* had screwed up. (Actually, I had coded two of them wrong!) The NEXT thought wasn't "lazy students" or "not my best crop of students" but HOW can I get them to do this type of question better? (It was a grammar ID section following a sight passage.) So we went through these 10 particular questions and we talked about different ways to understand/see the right answer.
I am constantly thinking about HOW can I help struggler X & Y understand the material. That is, whether I mean to or not, my teaching is student centered. DOCEO takes two accusatives, you know. I'm constantly repackaging Latin, creating clearer instructions, better applications, etc etc.
Baby, I can sell it!
And because of that, students notice and parents notice.
I knocked myself out last night, getting very little sleep, determined to finish grading the Latin 2 tests. Part is multiple choice, part short-answer Latin and English questions, and part a short translation (of a seen passage). A kid said the magic phrase today... wish I could say which one it was now but I don't remember. But he said he REALLY liked how I graded tests because the feedback actually MEANT something. Other classes, he said, merely used scantrons. The teachers didn't care about what you put, only whether it was right or wrong.
Does this mean I'm working myself to death? Perhaps. But part of what I'm going through these first few years at Dripping is about the struggles in building a program and having it grow so quickly.
I can't tell you how many parents have told in just the last few weeks HOW VERY GLAD they are that their child has me as a teacher (or HAD me as a teacher!).
Do I think I've got job security? Yeah, I suppose arrogantly I think I do. But it's not because I teach something so important like Latin. It's because I make myself VALUABLE as a teacher.
So the question I'm asking you is, have you made yourself truly valuable? Or do you just have a job?
HELLO-- we teach an ELECTIVE. You know, from elego, elegere, elegi electus. To pick, choose. Just because we think what we teach is important or even critical and certainly darn useful in a multitude of ways doesn't give us a permanent seat at the table.
To paraphrase Ovid, if you want to be valued, be valuable!
Programs don't grow just because you tell people that Latin is good for them. Programs don't grow because you can show on paper that Latin produces higher SAT verbal scores.
It's marketing and salesmanship.
Can you SELL your product? Once sold, do customers keep coming back for more? Do you make sure as many of your customers as possible can get the most out of your product?
Or do you sit there with a box full of your product, unopened, because you can't sell it or your customers don't understand how to get the most out of your product?
If you think I'm simplifying the matter, I think you're wrong. Loving Latin will never be enough to be a good teacher. It's not a bad place to start, but if you can't sell it/teach it, it won't matter.
I gave Latin 2 students back their tests today. Some A's and B's; too many C's and F's (more than usual). It's that time of year; everyone's burned out and lazy. But I told them that even with this knowledge, when I saw that virtually everyone missed a certain set of questions, my first thought was whether *I* had screwed up. (Actually, I had coded two of them wrong!) The NEXT thought wasn't "lazy students" or "not my best crop of students" but HOW can I get them to do this type of question better? (It was a grammar ID section following a sight passage.) So we went through these 10 particular questions and we talked about different ways to understand/see the right answer.
I am constantly thinking about HOW can I help struggler X & Y understand the material. That is, whether I mean to or not, my teaching is student centered. DOCEO takes two accusatives, you know. I'm constantly repackaging Latin, creating clearer instructions, better applications, etc etc.
Baby, I can sell it!
And because of that, students notice and parents notice.
I knocked myself out last night, getting very little sleep, determined to finish grading the Latin 2 tests. Part is multiple choice, part short-answer Latin and English questions, and part a short translation (of a seen passage). A kid said the magic phrase today... wish I could say which one it was now but I don't remember. But he said he REALLY liked how I graded tests because the feedback actually MEANT something. Other classes, he said, merely used scantrons. The teachers didn't care about what you put, only whether it was right or wrong.
Does this mean I'm working myself to death? Perhaps. But part of what I'm going through these first few years at Dripping is about the struggles in building a program and having it grow so quickly.
I can't tell you how many parents have told in just the last few weeks HOW VERY GLAD they are that their child has me as a teacher (or HAD me as a teacher!).
Do I think I've got job security? Yeah, I suppose arrogantly I think I do. But it's not because I teach something so important like Latin. It's because I make myself VALUABLE as a teacher.
So the question I'm asking you is, have you made yourself truly valuable? Or do you just have a job?