ginlindzey

This will be a short entry because I feel like I don't have time to post at all but I MUST MUST MUST start posting some things about what I am doing.

1) We are on block schedule this year, and I like it.  I like that after a day of busting my butt planning for the next day's classes that I can then relax a day.  Sort of. Well, I should have graded last night but I took care of me instead. Our block schedule is A B A B C, with C being a flex day of seeing all classes for only 41 minutes.  Otherwise we have 92 minutes per class.

2) I have been able to work in Rassias substitution/transformation drills in Latin 3 and Latin 4 because I had time!  And instead of just using some target sentence from the story as is, I will change out names to be people in the class.  Talk about increased engagement!  They want to know what they are doing in the sentence!!!  So that's been good.

3) I have been working in using basic WAYK symbols with the Latin 1s to make sure they can stop me or ask questions while staying in Latin. Of course even I'm not very good at forcing the issue of staying in Latin because I've been dealing with a few behavior issues (in my last class) and some learning disabilities and I want to make sure EVERYONE is feeling ok before pushing high percentages of Latin.

4) I have been working on making myself do two things: 1st, to pause for a count of three before allowing answers, and 2nd, to actually call on people by name for questions. Boy, let me tell you, that was eye-opening, especially with my last class.  From group responses it sounded like most people were getting the hand of UBI and QUID FACIT, but, sheesh, individually proved something else!

And here's the question: Why?  I think it was two-fold. I think there were engagement issues in that class AND I think I should have given them a brain break instead of racing to the finish line. I didn't get to the finish line because of all the interruptions, so I should have just had a brain break. By not having the brain break I wasted time.

I also gave my first quiz and I'm feeling like it was harder than I meant it to be.  I mean, I think it was very, very easy for some.  However, for students who have processing/analytical issues, it may have been tricky.  That is, I had a fill in the blank conversation over basics of quid nomen tibi est, mihi nomen est, salve/vale, tibi gratias ago, libenter, mihi placet, quid agis hodie, etc--all of which were in a word bank. If you followed the conversation, it was pretty easy. But if you weren't use to solving puzzles by seeing what comes next, it was tricky.  Well, for some. I should grade them next but I have a stack of Latin 3 quizzes to grade first.

So, I dunno.

5) OH OH OH!  We have been having 5 minutes of Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) in Latin on A & B days. So far this is only in Latin 3 and Latin 4, but they are liking it.

6) I have been working on masting Google Forms, Google Sheets, Google Slides, etc.  Just not Google Docs because it doesn't allow me to script keys to type macrons, so Word is still my go-to for that.  I have done some cool slides, made a rubric in a Google Form which then feeds into a Google Sheet and calculates the grade--which was great until I realized that you can't give students feedback that way. I'm researching writing a script (ok, copying the script) to automate emails from the data sheet. I used it for scoring simple (scripted) presentations on Latin names and bullas.  By the way, some of the bullas have been gorgeous this year!  Look at these:





So it's been a busy start to the year for me.

Tomorrow I'm going to have students write about this picture after we discuss it. I combined two pictures so hopefully there will be enough to write about.  We'll see how it goes.  That's all for now.

 

We've been deciding upon Latin names the last couple of days and making bullae. I've never seen such creative, artistic, beautifully rendered or stylish bullae! I always felt that my former students had their imaginations stunted. I don't know why, or how, but I know that's true. These kids are bright and creative. Heck, they are practically bored with me.

So with the II/III class--and the III's have now grown to 7 from the initial sole III on day one--we did a bit of a review on nouns today, that included some down and dirty reading cards. (See other posts from last year about reading cards.) I made a blank label of the first 3 declensions, which I affixed to index cards with clipped left corners. We filled those in, listening to the noun ending song on the computer, and then I had pulled some passages out of Ecce Romani to practice our reading skills. I taught them how to metaphrase, and seemed to have their interest, and then we had a fire drill.

Oh well.

:)

Week 2 is almost done. I have to start real teaching soon. I want to do my pronunciation sheet and worksheet first; I'm revising them to be a bit shorter.

I have a ton to grade for my English classes, which are actually going very well. God knows I don't know what I'm doing in there, but I understand better about what is wanted on TAKS (standardized) writing exams, and surely this will help in the future with the writing of AP essays and such, yes?

I've had hall duty after school in the east parking lot and made friends, so to speak, with a girl who has a broken leg and whose been hobbling about the school. One of her friends is a former Latin student, so my numbers may go up to 8 in that 3rd year class.

Maybe I should read my own ideas about split level classes. I just don't want to get into a rut with translations or written work. I have to somehow balance the two classes without making the class tedious.

I'm half thinking about often having joint warm-ups, at least for a while, which will review certain things both classes should know but might need review.

Anyway. I'm exhausted, but in such a positive place compared to last year. The kids at my school are really great. They really are. So are the other faculty members.