![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I'm reading a book called _A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers will Rule the Future_ by Daniel H. Pink. My former h.s. theatre teacher suggested it and while I'm not too far into it, I'm finding it really good. Ok, admittedly there's something about the writer's style that bothers me (can't say what--possibly that it's too "light"? who knows), but I'm past that.
It has been discussing how abundance, Asia (cheaper outsourcing), and automation have made it so that knowledge workers (those driven by left-brained activities) no longer can corner the market on salaries; that the future will be governed by those that can offer more than just mastery of left-brained activities: those that are creators and empathizers. I'm waiting, frankly, for him to talk about how apple has realized already that beauty with functionality can steal the market. (In other words, I love my iPod and admire iPhones, and I think my son now has an iTouch).
And what does this have to do with Latin? Well, next week is National Latin Teacher Recruitment Week--the week where I stand up in front of my classroom, sleep-deprived and stressed, and (foolishly?) try to convince students that teaching is a worthwhile job, and that there is something magical about teaching Latin.
And here I am, on a morning where the house actually is quiet (ok, but it wasn't a couple of hours ago), a morning where I could sleep in (perhaps if I didn't wake with muscle aches and a mind full of to-do's), and here I am writing on my blog. I was, at least, trying to force myself to accept some relaxation time by reading but it drew me back here. Why?
There's so many why's here.... why do I love Latin? I do. I'm constantly thinking of Latin-related projects. I don't remember when I thought of a project not related to Latin in some way--even the "I wish I had time for this" projects, like wanting to design and make a mosaic. I love mosaics. I cannot even begin to tell you why... or can I? Maybe it's the same as why I like Latin, something that just came to me while reading this book.
True lovers of Latin are whole-brain users.
The left side of the brain is the side that likes order, the side that loves all the endings and the secret-code aspect of Latin, the precision, the beauty of the mathematical equation perfectly solved and balanced. There are people that cannot begin to enjoy textbooks like the Cambridge Latin Course because what they loved about Latin class was changing singulars to plurals, nominatives to accusatives. There was something very satisfying in the mastering of forms. These are often the same people/students who love the language, so they say, but hate translating stories. And perhaps there was a time that I was part of that group. I remember hating translation day. Most of the chapters in my high school text involved the back and forth of transformations of the new grammar structure. Putting it all together was difficult. You ended up writing stupid sounding sentences but then, that was Latin for you, right?
Last summer I was at a Vergil workshop for people who were about to teach Vergil AP for the first time. I watched and listened while most ever single teacher there (or at least the ones who were working in groups and thus I could listen in to what they were doing) treated the beautiful words of Vergl *still* as an exercise of endings and decoding. I'm not trying to be critical; this is just an observation.
What was I doing? I was reading WHOLE PASSAGES in the Latin--or at least a complete sentence!--before beginning to make meaning. My brain was already beginning to make meaning because it had seen the whole picture, it had seen not each and ever tree but had recognized the clusters of trees here and there and saw the beauty of the whole forest. Things that the other teachers were struggling to see because they were merely looking at endings were flowing in my brain. Oh, I wasn't perfect. There were lines here and there I didn't quite get. And instead of wasting time determined to solve the equation, I moved on because the whole picture was too beautiful to miss. I read considerably faster than the other students.
Do I think my Latin is better than theirs? No. I bet their command of conditional clauses and their ability to form future imperatives and other such things is better than mine. But I was enjoying Latin as a LANGUAGE, a real, read-it-left-to-right language. I credit my ability to do this to Dexter Hoyos and his book _Latin: How to Read it Fluently_. I still think this is a MUST READ for anyone majoring in Latin. If I had read it as a freshman in college, I might have a masters or PhD today. But no matter... I'm doing good things with my little BA.
Right brain thinkers consider context, consider the big picture, have creative solutions, and can empathize. What I wish this workshop had focused on now are things I understand to be right-brain issues, things I try to teach to my own students--how to teach/learn the right brain stuff.
How do you get your mind to let go of not knowing what a word means and going for the big picture? After all, Latin students like that precision. They like knowing what every little thing means. There's order in knowing everything, it's a puzzle to be solved. But it isn't. It's a LANGUAGE--expressive and beautiful. There is absolutely no reason at all to keep Latin studies alive if we don't move past the morphology to the beauty of expression and the bigger context. And we as teachers often wait too long to do this.
I have heard far too many times in my life that "at some point it will all just start clicking." Or, when I complained to a prof one time that I didn't know HOW to improve my reading and he just said that I needed to read more.....oh yeah, like that was a solution!
We *can* and must start teaching HOW to see the bigger picture, HOW to get beyond the word for word. If we don't model reading whole passages to the students, if we don't model getting beyond unknown vocabulary to see the shape of the sentence (and thus figuring out the vocab without having to look it up), we will never move them beyond left-brain thinking.
And here's the thing--if they don't think they can get beyond the morphology to really reading, they won't sign up for AP classes.
And I'm digressing. I was going to tie this into National Latin Teacher Recruitment Week stuff. When we talk to our students, we should point out how fortunate it is that teaching--truly good teaching--is a job that has demanding use of both sides of the brain for so long. And right now, even if future teachers don't make it a life-long career, but teach to provide a service for this country--a few years service--it truly will prepare them for the kinds of jobs that will be out there, because those jobs are going to need people that can not only handle the data and the details but can provide creative solutions and can empathize with their clients.
I mouthed off in my Latin 2 class this week, muttering something like "you should try to teach this class." They are actually a fun bunch of kids, but at the end of the day they are swinging from the ceiling. One piped up and said, OK! So, with National Latin Exam approaching (March 11th for us) and an odd week with TAKS testing in the middle, I decided they can teach some cultural topics. Here's the thing: I told them I didn't want crappy posters with crappy internet graphics cut and pasted together 20 minutes before class. I pointed out that I rarely make displays (if ever!), but will often grab a book that has some good pictures and walk it around the room. Or, perhaps, use some slides (YES, I still have slides and I love them). Occasionally I'll even use PowerPoint. We'll see what they do. I told them it has to be an effective mini-lesson where more than half the class should be able to retain the information. ha. A little taste of teaching. This will either be great or a bomb.
Sadly here is what I've found in the last few years of teaching: students aren't as creative as they used to be. It's too easy to download pictures and make posters for class. It's too easy to get a cool looking font off of the computer than to do your own lettering. Even we teachers perhaps aren't modeling enough creativity. I try....
And I suppose I should stop rambling. I'm looking forward to this afternoon when I'm working on Aeneid stuff. I'll just be putting together quia.com review material and grading some quizzes I've almost forgotten about, but I'll be looking at the WHOLE thing--the whole passage, the whole artistry, not just this word and that word.
And I get it now. For me, it's whole brain stimulation. Whole brain.
It has been discussing how abundance, Asia (cheaper outsourcing), and automation have made it so that knowledge workers (those driven by left-brained activities) no longer can corner the market on salaries; that the future will be governed by those that can offer more than just mastery of left-brained activities: those that are creators and empathizers. I'm waiting, frankly, for him to talk about how apple has realized already that beauty with functionality can steal the market. (In other words, I love my iPod and admire iPhones, and I think my son now has an iTouch).
And what does this have to do with Latin? Well, next week is National Latin Teacher Recruitment Week--the week where I stand up in front of my classroom, sleep-deprived and stressed, and (foolishly?) try to convince students that teaching is a worthwhile job, and that there is something magical about teaching Latin.
And here I am, on a morning where the house actually is quiet (ok, but it wasn't a couple of hours ago), a morning where I could sleep in (perhaps if I didn't wake with muscle aches and a mind full of to-do's), and here I am writing on my blog. I was, at least, trying to force myself to accept some relaxation time by reading but it drew me back here. Why?
There's so many why's here.... why do I love Latin? I do. I'm constantly thinking of Latin-related projects. I don't remember when I thought of a project not related to Latin in some way--even the "I wish I had time for this" projects, like wanting to design and make a mosaic. I love mosaics. I cannot even begin to tell you why... or can I? Maybe it's the same as why I like Latin, something that just came to me while reading this book.
True lovers of Latin are whole-brain users.
The left side of the brain is the side that likes order, the side that loves all the endings and the secret-code aspect of Latin, the precision, the beauty of the mathematical equation perfectly solved and balanced. There are people that cannot begin to enjoy textbooks like the Cambridge Latin Course because what they loved about Latin class was changing singulars to plurals, nominatives to accusatives. There was something very satisfying in the mastering of forms. These are often the same people/students who love the language, so they say, but hate translating stories. And perhaps there was a time that I was part of that group. I remember hating translation day. Most of the chapters in my high school text involved the back and forth of transformations of the new grammar structure. Putting it all together was difficult. You ended up writing stupid sounding sentences but then, that was Latin for you, right?
Last summer I was at a Vergil workshop for people who were about to teach Vergil AP for the first time. I watched and listened while most ever single teacher there (or at least the ones who were working in groups and thus I could listen in to what they were doing) treated the beautiful words of Vergl *still* as an exercise of endings and decoding. I'm not trying to be critical; this is just an observation.
What was I doing? I was reading WHOLE PASSAGES in the Latin--or at least a complete sentence!--before beginning to make meaning. My brain was already beginning to make meaning because it had seen the whole picture, it had seen not each and ever tree but had recognized the clusters of trees here and there and saw the beauty of the whole forest. Things that the other teachers were struggling to see because they were merely looking at endings were flowing in my brain. Oh, I wasn't perfect. There were lines here and there I didn't quite get. And instead of wasting time determined to solve the equation, I moved on because the whole picture was too beautiful to miss. I read considerably faster than the other students.
Do I think my Latin is better than theirs? No. I bet their command of conditional clauses and their ability to form future imperatives and other such things is better than mine. But I was enjoying Latin as a LANGUAGE, a real, read-it-left-to-right language. I credit my ability to do this to Dexter Hoyos and his book _Latin: How to Read it Fluently_. I still think this is a MUST READ for anyone majoring in Latin. If I had read it as a freshman in college, I might have a masters or PhD today. But no matter... I'm doing good things with my little BA.
Right brain thinkers consider context, consider the big picture, have creative solutions, and can empathize. What I wish this workshop had focused on now are things I understand to be right-brain issues, things I try to teach to my own students--how to teach/learn the right brain stuff.
How do you get your mind to let go of not knowing what a word means and going for the big picture? After all, Latin students like that precision. They like knowing what every little thing means. There's order in knowing everything, it's a puzzle to be solved. But it isn't. It's a LANGUAGE--expressive and beautiful. There is absolutely no reason at all to keep Latin studies alive if we don't move past the morphology to the beauty of expression and the bigger context. And we as teachers often wait too long to do this.
I have heard far too many times in my life that "at some point it will all just start clicking." Or, when I complained to a prof one time that I didn't know HOW to improve my reading and he just said that I needed to read more.....oh yeah, like that was a solution!
We *can* and must start teaching HOW to see the bigger picture, HOW to get beyond the word for word. If we don't model reading whole passages to the students, if we don't model getting beyond unknown vocabulary to see the shape of the sentence (and thus figuring out the vocab without having to look it up), we will never move them beyond left-brain thinking.
And here's the thing--if they don't think they can get beyond the morphology to really reading, they won't sign up for AP classes.
And I'm digressing. I was going to tie this into National Latin Teacher Recruitment Week stuff. When we talk to our students, we should point out how fortunate it is that teaching--truly good teaching--is a job that has demanding use of both sides of the brain for so long. And right now, even if future teachers don't make it a life-long career, but teach to provide a service for this country--a few years service--it truly will prepare them for the kinds of jobs that will be out there, because those jobs are going to need people that can not only handle the data and the details but can provide creative solutions and can empathize with their clients.
I mouthed off in my Latin 2 class this week, muttering something like "you should try to teach this class." They are actually a fun bunch of kids, but at the end of the day they are swinging from the ceiling. One piped up and said, OK! So, with National Latin Exam approaching (March 11th for us) and an odd week with TAKS testing in the middle, I decided they can teach some cultural topics. Here's the thing: I told them I didn't want crappy posters with crappy internet graphics cut and pasted together 20 minutes before class. I pointed out that I rarely make displays (if ever!), but will often grab a book that has some good pictures and walk it around the room. Or, perhaps, use some slides (YES, I still have slides and I love them). Occasionally I'll even use PowerPoint. We'll see what they do. I told them it has to be an effective mini-lesson where more than half the class should be able to retain the information. ha. A little taste of teaching. This will either be great or a bomb.
Sadly here is what I've found in the last few years of teaching: students aren't as creative as they used to be. It's too easy to download pictures and make posters for class. It's too easy to get a cool looking font off of the computer than to do your own lettering. Even we teachers perhaps aren't modeling enough creativity. I try....
And I suppose I should stop rambling. I'm looking forward to this afternoon when I'm working on Aeneid stuff. I'll just be putting together quia.com review material and grading some quizzes I've almost forgotten about, but I'll be looking at the WHOLE thing--the whole passage, the whole artistry, not just this word and that word.
And I get it now. For me, it's whole brain stimulation. Whole brain.
