Posts Tagged ‘teaching’
One of the most difficult-seeming tasks for a teacher is to inspire your students to study the material you’re teaching outside of class. The results of my first unit’s test–delayed because of 2 weeks worth of snow days–reinforces that, because the results are so frustratingly low. I’m not a teacher inclined to curve tests numerically, [...]
I began using a language study tool, [Duolingo], a few weeks ago, after the burning shame of being unable to call my Spanish-speaking students’ parents directly got to be too much to bear. So far, I’m learning a lot about elefantes y platos, but also about how yo como mientras leo. It’s nice for someone [...]
Speaking Spanish has been one of my minor little tricks that isn’t much to sneeze at. I took a couple years in high school, and let it go at that. But it helped enormously when I went to Latin & Greek much later, and with the massive demographic shifts, even learning a little bit more [...]
So, casting about for useful online Latin resources as I was wont to do earlier this fall, I stumbled across a little corner of the Web. I was just looking for something to help my struggling level Is practice their noun declensions. At first I scoffed, thinking it was some teacher’s personal pet Latin Web [...]
So, I’ve been trying to find some good apps for my students to use as electronic Latin dictionaries. I finally got around to it, and here’s the results of my search. I have tested all the Android apps, but I don’t have an iPhone; if you have good suggestions to supplement this list or have [...]
One of the great emotional hurdles I’m discovering in a full classroom setting is the anxiety of sufficiency. I don’t mean just whether we’re engaging the material that Latin students ought to know. Though blending culture lessons evenhandedly into the grammar is a distinct challenge, we are not doing too terribly for my first real [...]
So I had my last visit with my intervention subject the other day. For our last session together, I brought for her a present of a pack of glittery pencils in various colors. (She chose a pink one. It was a good choice.) She has been a real trooper, with my inconsistent scheduling (thanks to [...]
Sometimes the drive to begin something is just utterly lacking. Dread overcomes me, and I want to find anything else to do than the thing that I must do. Thinking about doing the task consumes me, even though actually beginning is the one thing that would fix it. Ambition is so easy to the mind, [...]
Not for me, but for the Sidhe. I am taking care of her today while her body wages war on a sub-microscopic invader. Well, haven’t gone to the doctor yet, so we don’t know if it’s actually the flu. But the symptoms, speed, and severity seem to line up. Thank goodness for weekends. We went [...]
I realize I’m dropping plates only after I’ve dropped them. This is getting very old, very fast. I forgot some important paperwork that is due tomorrow; I am barely keeping pace with my lesson plans, and I don’t know how to fix this broken cycle I’m in. I don’t want to get fired. I just [...]