Yearly Archives: 2014

Announcements for 9 March

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CANE

  • The theme for the 2014 CANE Summer Institute is “ “On the Shoulders of Giants”: Greco-Roman Giants and their Modern Emulators.”  Registration is forthcoming!

BEYOND CANE

  • Registration for this summer’s American Classical League Summer Institute in Williamsburg, VA is now open.
  • CLIPEUS is running several Latin speaking meetups in Boston, including a Cena Latina on the Ides. Check the link for more information.
  • The New England Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Language (NECTFL) is at the Copley Place hotel in Boston March 27-30th, and promises a full schedule of Latin seminars, talks, and workshops. Sign up through the NECTFL website.
  • ”The spring meeting of CAM has been tentatively scheduled for Saturday, May 3, 2014 and will be held at Westwood High School (200 Nahatan St, Westwood, MA). The theme of the meeting will be “All Things Augustus” — appropriate for the year in which we celebrate (sive commemorate) the 2000th anniversary of his death.”
  • SALVI’s Rusticatio Latin July 2014 immersion weeks and pedagogy seminars are filling up fast. Act now if you’re interested in attending!
  • McGill is offering a summer course in Classical Studies in June and July. Check out their flyer.
  • The American Institute for Roman Culture (AIRC) has a 2014 schedule for its Summer and Fall study abroad programs, and include Media Studies, Art History, and Field School Excavations.
  • The NYU Center for Ancient Studies, the Department of Comparative Literature and the American Comparative Literature Association present The Sophistic Practice A plenary panel session; part of the ACLA’s 2014 Annual Meeting taking place at NYU, March 20-23, 2014. Topics include:
    • Sophistics or How to Really Do Things with Words, Barbara Cassin (CNRS/Paris Sorbonne/ENS Ulm)
    • Euripides: Sophistic Gods Playing with Their Traditional Images, Pietro Pucci (Cornell University)
    • (White) Lies of Their Times: Sophistic Rhetoric in Heliodorus’ Aithiopika, Susan Jarratt (University of California, Irvine)

    Friday, March 21, 2014, 2:20pm-4:10pm
    Jurow Lecture Hall, Silver Center for Arts and Science
    32 Waverly Place or 31 Washington Place (wheelchair access)
    This lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the Center for Ancient Studies at 212.992.7978 or at ancient.studies@nyu.edu

The NYU Center for Ancient Studies, the Department of Classics, and the Dean for the Humanities present
The Gods of Olympus: Travel and Transformation
A talk by Barbara Graziosi (Durham University) derived from her new book, The Gods of Olympus: A History (Metropolitan Books)
Thursday, March 27, 2014, at 5:00pm
Jurow Lecture Hall, Silver Center for Arts and Science
32 Waverly Place or 31 Washington Place (wheelchair access)
Book-signing and reception to follow.
Barbara Graziosi was born in Trieste, Italy, and studied in Oxford and Cambridge. She is Professor of Classics at Durham University and Director, for the Arts and Humanities, of its Institute of Advanced Study. She has published widely on classical literature and its reception, and regularly contributes to radio and TV programs on the arts.
This lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the Center for Ancient Studies at 212.992.7978 or at ancient.studies@nyu.edu

Conferences: Why We Need to Care 5

This entry was posted in Feature Posts and tagged Latin latina_vivit pedagogy Resources Teaching on by

Last weekend, I attended SALVI’s Biduum Virginianum.  As we sat around dinner talking on Friday night, one of the participants mentioned that he was going to NECTFL in March.  Another participant looked at him incredulously.  “Do you teach another language too?” he asked.  The NECTFL-goer shook his head no.  “Then why,” asked the other participant, “would you go to a modern language conference?”
The truth is that Latin is not always accepted or even noticed by other foreign language teachers.  Yes, it is starting to get better, and already has at some schools, but we are still, mostly, in our own game.  Yes, it is important to go to the Classical conferences, such as CANE, but more Latin teachers need to start going to the Regional conferences, like NECTFL.  But why?  Why should we take time to go to a conference that doesn’t pertain directly to us, people ask.  Here is my response to that:
Last year, I attended ACTFL in Orlando, Florida.  Encouraged by the fact that Bob Patrick was the first ever Latin Teacher nominee for Language Teacher of the Year, Latin teachers turned out in force.  As a result, there were more sessions that pertained directly to Latin.  Teachers of other languages remarked over and over again, to each other, on Twitter, and to me directly, “Wow, there are a LOT of Latin teachers here.”  We were noticed.
There are techniques we can learn from the Modern languages and there are techniques they can learn from us.  TPRS, Whole Brain Teaching, Reading strategies, connecting across the languages, cool summer programs…the list goes on and on.
There are vendors who do not necessarily have products for Latin…yet.  If we want cool products for Latin, too, we must visit the vendor tables and talk to the vendors, and show them that there is a need and a market for these products and how their products could be adapted for Latin.
Latin may be a bit strange to other teachers, who believe it to be “dead.”  We need to make it come alive.  We can do this by speaking it, and learning the “Modern Language Strategies”  to demonstrate this to the Modern Language Teachers and our Administrations.  (HINT: Many administrations get very excited when a Latin teacher asks to go to a Foreign Language conference and makes the argument that they want to learn more about language teaching!  Often, you can score some money!)
Let me put this challenge to you:  Go to a Foreign Language Conference. (NECTFL is in BOSTON this year–March 27-30!!)  Take a serious look at the program and try, with an open mind, to attend one session about a teaching technique that is not specifically for Latin.  If you do not come away with something useful, try another one.  I can make this promise to you:  You will go home with something interesting–whether you needed a reminder or it is totally new to you.
We Latin and Classics teachers may be the “odd” bunch, but we are by no means the ugly stepchildren.  Getting everyone else to see that as well requires taking an interest in ALL language pedagogy and working with the other languages.  We can just keep talking about how no one notices Latin and that we don’t have interesting products for Latin, or we can do something about it.  It’s time to start changing everyone’s thoughts about Latin.  So, Sodales, take up the challenge!