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There's been a discussion on Latinteach regarding what to do about low enrollments. This was followed by another on what to do with colleagues that aren't very professional, don't attend conferences, don't try to improve their teaching, etc.
I bit my tongue.
As it has been pointed out on this blog previously that I have not been kind to a couple of my colleagues in the past. So with that in mind I kept quiet, though many things crossed my mind.
Regarding low enrollments, I just don't get that. I don't get that because when I teach, I teach STUDENTS about Latin. I don't just teach Latin and hope the smart ones catch on and wash my hands of the rest. Whether others do this latter intentionally or not doesn't matter. They do it. They do it because they never try to walk in their students' shoes. They don't try to understand the disconnects. They don't try to figure out a better way of doing something--if their teacher did it that way, well, it's been tried and tested!
Let's face it: students will take ANYTHING if they hear a TEACH is good and interesting and fun. Not even necessarily fun, but it helps. And fun doesn't mean games all day long. To me it means being so passionate and crazy about your subject matter that it's contagious, like laughter.
If the French teacher is fabulous, they'll sign up for French. If the Spanish department is good, they'll do that. And if Latin is reported to be exciting and interesting and useful, they'll sign up.
But if the teacher is--no offence--dull, or doesn't seem to care that 50% of the class is failing, does no recruiting, does no JCL, then there will be no program.
And we can quietly sit back and bit our tongues and say nothing except for this: if that program is in our district, and if that program closes, THAT CLOSURE can determine whether the district thinks it's worth keeping ANY Latin program open.
Someone on another list was saying that their students choke on the in context quizzes. I also bit my tongue on that, waiting to see other responses while pondering how the students can read at all if they can't recognize words in context. I wanted to then ask the teacher whether she EXPRESSLY teaches students how to read Latin, whether she does warm-ups to train them to focus on the details (like metaphrasing which I so often talk about). Then I realized I also have practice quizzes, which begs the question of whether my students just practice until they MEMORIZE it or do the practice quizzes help them focus on the details. My better practice materials are on my quia websites.
Do I worry that the quia babies them? Am I guilty of making Latin too easy? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe the quia provides the constant one-on-one feedback that they need, the kind of drilling that we, perhaps, used to do unquestioningly on paper. But I don't have time to grade those sorts of homework assignments and give timely feedback--wish I did!
MY STUDENTS at Dripping Springs this year told me repeatedly how much they LIKE using quia, how much they learn from the things I design, and how much more Latin they've learned this year in general compared to the last 1 or 2 years combined. Why? The previous teacher taught Latin as book work, as assignments to be tossed out and just done, not as a means to communicate, something that is alive between people--whether it's two people face to face or across the span of time.
But I'm digressing, aren't I?
You can't build a program if you lack passion. A lot of teachers have a passion for JCL--and that's ok. I hope to have JCL madness this year. I hear my certamen machine is on order. Yippee! Some teachers have a passion for Latin itself, loving every bit of teaching from Level 1 to Level 4. Some have both. But if you have neither, you can't build a program.
And if you have neither, you probably aren't going to professional conferences. You probably just like teaching at the level you teach at, doing whatever the district asks of you, grading whatever's necessary, and doing nothing else. And is this bad? Not everyone is meant to be a go-getter. Not everyone is an A student. But if you think what you do doesn't hurt others and doesn't matter, you are wrong.
Maybe your main teaching field is English, and you don't really care about Latin, not really, because it's just your second field. Fine. I guess. But I teach English as a second field and while I really don't have my heart there and I really don't want to spend any time on English that I could be spending on Latin, I still bend over backwards to do my best, and to find out how to do it better next year. But that's me. I know that's me.
If you are feeling burned out and that you just want a break and thus avoid conferences, you will continue to feel burned out because you are probably doing things the hard way--even if it seems easier. Conferences give you a new life and a new passions.
Lists like Latinteach give you a new way of looking at things and a world of other people to ask for advice.
Teaching is not a fall-back sort of job. It's not something to settle for. You either have to really want it, or go do something else.
I bit my tongue.
As it has been pointed out on this blog previously that I have not been kind to a couple of my colleagues in the past. So with that in mind I kept quiet, though many things crossed my mind.
Regarding low enrollments, I just don't get that. I don't get that because when I teach, I teach STUDENTS about Latin. I don't just teach Latin and hope the smart ones catch on and wash my hands of the rest. Whether others do this latter intentionally or not doesn't matter. They do it. They do it because they never try to walk in their students' shoes. They don't try to understand the disconnects. They don't try to figure out a better way of doing something--if their teacher did it that way, well, it's been tried and tested!
Let's face it: students will take ANYTHING if they hear a TEACH is good and interesting and fun. Not even necessarily fun, but it helps. And fun doesn't mean games all day long. To me it means being so passionate and crazy about your subject matter that it's contagious, like laughter.
If the French teacher is fabulous, they'll sign up for French. If the Spanish department is good, they'll do that. And if Latin is reported to be exciting and interesting and useful, they'll sign up.
But if the teacher is--no offence--dull, or doesn't seem to care that 50% of the class is failing, does no recruiting, does no JCL, then there will be no program.
And we can quietly sit back and bit our tongues and say nothing except for this: if that program is in our district, and if that program closes, THAT CLOSURE can determine whether the district thinks it's worth keeping ANY Latin program open.
Someone on another list was saying that their students choke on the in context quizzes. I also bit my tongue on that, waiting to see other responses while pondering how the students can read at all if they can't recognize words in context. I wanted to then ask the teacher whether she EXPRESSLY teaches students how to read Latin, whether she does warm-ups to train them to focus on the details (like metaphrasing which I so often talk about). Then I realized I also have practice quizzes, which begs the question of whether my students just practice until they MEMORIZE it or do the practice quizzes help them focus on the details. My better practice materials are on my quia websites.
Do I worry that the quia babies them? Am I guilty of making Latin too easy? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe the quia provides the constant one-on-one feedback that they need, the kind of drilling that we, perhaps, used to do unquestioningly on paper. But I don't have time to grade those sorts of homework assignments and give timely feedback--wish I did!
MY STUDENTS at Dripping Springs this year told me repeatedly how much they LIKE using quia, how much they learn from the things I design, and how much more Latin they've learned this year in general compared to the last 1 or 2 years combined. Why? The previous teacher taught Latin as book work, as assignments to be tossed out and just done, not as a means to communicate, something that is alive between people--whether it's two people face to face or across the span of time.
But I'm digressing, aren't I?
You can't build a program if you lack passion. A lot of teachers have a passion for JCL--and that's ok. I hope to have JCL madness this year. I hear my certamen machine is on order. Yippee! Some teachers have a passion for Latin itself, loving every bit of teaching from Level 1 to Level 4. Some have both. But if you have neither, you can't build a program.
And if you have neither, you probably aren't going to professional conferences. You probably just like teaching at the level you teach at, doing whatever the district asks of you, grading whatever's necessary, and doing nothing else. And is this bad? Not everyone is meant to be a go-getter. Not everyone is an A student. But if you think what you do doesn't hurt others and doesn't matter, you are wrong.
Maybe your main teaching field is English, and you don't really care about Latin, not really, because it's just your second field. Fine. I guess. But I teach English as a second field and while I really don't have my heart there and I really don't want to spend any time on English that I could be spending on Latin, I still bend over backwards to do my best, and to find out how to do it better next year. But that's me. I know that's me.
If you are feeling burned out and that you just want a break and thus avoid conferences, you will continue to feel burned out because you are probably doing things the hard way--even if it seems easier. Conferences give you a new life and a new passions.
Lists like Latinteach give you a new way of looking at things and a world of other people to ask for advice.
Teaching is not a fall-back sort of job. It's not something to settle for. You either have to really want it, or go do something else.
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