Daily Archives: November 6, 2017

Quid sacco meo electronico insit

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This is not a written-out version of a model classroom exercise which you can find done by the Quomodo dicitur? trio and others via Tu tuba. For one thing, I’m not as photogenic as these media stars. For another, it has been a very rough week in Maine–my school was without power for a solid week after the storm on October 29th, and I have been driving to campus under three enormous white pines, hanging precariously on the power lines. I’ve wondered how you say “widowmaker” in Latin (viduifex?) When I haven’t been teaching in dim classrooms by available light, I’ve been checking on elderly friends and offering my shower and laundry room around to the waterless.
Power returned to campus Sunday, and I was able to teach with Web access on Monday! Di laudentur omnes! Under these once-again-normal circumstances, here’s what I have bookmarked and/or have electronically at the ready on my Mac for teaching AP Latin and Catullus (separate courses):
1. A Third Way Glossa Lewis and Short. I’m personally attached to this e-version of the venerable lexicon I used in college 40 years ago. It feels homey at this point, and I always smile happily at not having to turn pages to get the article I want. Several people (including Chris Francese at Dickinson) have pointed out that Logeion offers a great deal more than this Glossa site. Absolutely true, although I have often found that the Glossa site loads a little faster and gives the whole L & S article in every case. With Glossa, however, you must remember the orthographic oddities of L & S: j and v for consonantal i and u; all participles under verbs (e.g. citus); all adverbs under adjectives.
2. Dickinson College Commentaries. When I began to teach the Caesar portion of the AP syllabus, I found this site of immense value, both for me and for my students. I still do–I think it pulls together just the right amount of information for students to understand the text in their preparation for the AP exam.
3. Theoi.com. My Catullus student asked me who the parents were of Aurora/Ἠώς (we were discussing the adjective Eoa in carmen 11). I didn’t remember (if I ever really knew), so we looked it up on the Theoi.com web site. I think this site is a great resource–well organized, citations from virtually all the ancient sources, and a wonderful collection of images from art. (She’s one of the Titanides, the sister of Helios and Selene. Hyperion and Theia are their parents).
The other online tool I must mention in this context is “The Bridge“, the product of a team at Haverford College under the direction of Bret Mulligan there. The Bridge allows you to create vocabulary lists based on a wide range of “texts” in the broad sense–textbooks, lists of most common words, and literary texts. You can narrow the scope of these lists in all sorts of ways–individual poems, chapters, passages by line numbers; or by parts of speech. The Latin (and Greek texts) are macronized/accented, and copy easily into an online flashcard program like Quizlet. Particularly for AP students, this is an incredibly useful tool.
Be well, do good work, and happy teaching!

Quid Agitur (November 5th)

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•Don’t forget about CANE’s wonderful Writing Contest for middle and high school students. Submissions are due December 15.
•Northeast Catholic College (Warner, NH) has a call for papers for an undergraduate and graduate conference on the theme “The Classic in the Modern.” The conference is Saturday, February 24th, 2018 from 8:30 – 5:00 in St. Paul’s building. The planning committee welcomes your abstracts for oral papers. Please send abstracts of 150- 250 words to nnnewman@northeastcatholic.edu by Saturday, November 11th for consideration. Please include pertinent contact information and institutional affiliation (if any). For Undergraduate students, please include a brief letter of support from a faculty mentor. For more information, updates and registration please visit northeastcatholic.edu.
•Upcoming Classics lectures in the Pioneer Valley are listed on this Classics page of the Amherst College web site.
•Lectures taking place in the Boston area are listed on the Boston Area Classics Calendar.
•The Western Massachusetts Conversational Hour meets every Thursday at the Esselon Cafe in Hadley, MA for Latin conversation. For details, please contact TJ Howell.
•In the Boston area? Check out the Active Latin Meetup page for events.
•Central Connecticut State University is working to create a certification program for the teaching of Latin. Attached you will find the program of studies. In order to make this idea come to fruition we are seeking support from Latin groups. We need at least 10 students to sign up for this cohort in order to run the program. As an incentive to enroll into the program we are looking for funding to offer scholarships to help defray the cost of course work at the University level. If you are interesting in supporting this initiative in any way please contact me at the below email address. Gina Gallo Reinhard ginagallo@bristolk12.org
•Grey Fox Tutors offers several different free online professional development workshops for Latin teachers, including Conversational Latin, Latin Reading Group, and Technology and Latin. The weekly schedule is:

  • Tuesdays 8-9 PM Eastern: Conversational Latin Workshop.
    Thursdays 6-7 PM Eastern: Latin Reading Group or Latin and Technology.
    Saturdays 10-11 AM Eastern: Conversational Latin Workshop.
  • These classes are open to all current, former, or prospective Latin teachers, and they are held online through Skype. Teachers can start at any time. To register for any of our Workshops, please email professionaldevelopment@greyfoxtutors.com.

•The CANE News page is a convenient resource listing events sponsored by CANE, conferences in New England, other calendars and events listings, recurrent spoken Latin Meetups and Conventicula, courses and degree programs, fellowships and scholarships, and a link to the jobs page.
•Links to the New England states’ classical associations: NH, VT, ME, MA, RI, CT.