Building Community

As I reflect on my teaching, it's become increasingly clear just how important a sense of community is.  When I think about all of the best classes I've been in, both as a teacher or as a student, they were the classes with the strongest community.  Times when everyone in the room felt happy to be there, engaged in what was happening, and genuinely interested in success.

This concept goes beyond the classroom, too.  I love the community I've found at my favorite conference, the American Classical League Summer Institute.  I have made incredible friendships that have given me strength and support as I've continued to grow as a teacher and person.

So I wanted to dedicate a post to the wonderful friends and colleagues who have helped me along the way to becoming the teacher I am now.  Bob Patrick has always been a voice of caring and support, and I try my best to live up to his example.  Keith Toda continues to share incredible resources and detailed explanations on how he runs his class.  Mariam Patrick's Twitter threads are thought-provoking yet lighthearted - perfect for when you have a few minutes during your off period and need a little inspiration.  Chris Buczek cares so much about his students and his content; his passion is contagious.  John Bracey's challenge to abolish the traditional concept of "rigor" in favor of an empathetic classroom in which all learners can feel successful inspires me daily.  Rachel Ash's creativity and thoughtfulness help me stay joyfully grounded.  Justin Slocum Bailey's practical ideas, activities, and lessons are readily-applicable to my class and have really helped me to grow more confident in my ability to do this whole CI thing- to say nothing of his constant support and encouragement of me.  Michelle Rahmalo graciously sat down with me and walked me through how she teaches 5th and 6th grades when I was transitioning to these grade levels AND was a brand new mom.  Her blueprint was essential to my curriculum but also my well-being.  Kevin Ballestrini, Lindsay Sears, and Mark Pearsall have given scores of excellent sessions, workshops, and trainings on implementing standards, designing intentional, culturally-relevant curricula, and using tiered readings to helps students engage with challenging texts. In addition, they've shared so many resources and created some really great games for students to use the language.  Lastly, Traci Miller and Erika Shupe are two of the most fun people I've ever met.  In addition to giving thoughtful, engaging presentations, both women are great about making you feel included and welcome.  People who can make you feel like you've been friends for years even if you've only known each other briefly are a real blessing.

These are just a few of the many amazing, kind, supportive and genuinely lovely people I've been lucky enough to know and learn from.  It can be so easy to get wrapped up in the daily grind of school and life, but I hope you all know how thankful I am to know you!

Making MovieTalks Work for You

Salvete omnes!  I am absolutely reeling from a vibrant, informative, and joyous ACL Institute.  I was able to catch up with old friends, make some new ones, and, of course, attend some great sessions.  Most notable were Kevin Ballestrini's presentation on designing courses with transfer goals to ensure vertical alignment and a coherent endgoal for learners; Lindsay Sears' talk on best practices in assessment; and a lecture by Panayotes Dakouras on teaching Roman history through numismatics. 

In addition to attending sessions, I presented on two topics.  I chose MovieTalks for my first because it is what people most express confusion or apprehension about using in class.  I've even given impromptu demos at various conferences or workshops in between sessions since colleagues asked to see how I use them! 

As a practitioner of the "3 C's" of CI, I find MovieTalks to be an excellent way to leverage student engagement to get optimal language acquisition.  Selecting a compelling video clip, talking about it in a comprehensible way, and doing so in a low-stakes environment in which students feel cared for (thereby lowering their affective filters), will help them all acquire language.

Personally, I like to use movie talks with words students can easily confuse (I do one with my 7th graders who use Cambridge Latin Course that revolves around 'canis,' 'cibum,' 'coquit,' and 'cenat'), or idiomatic expressions that are harder for students to internalize ('consilium capit,' or 'poenas dare' for example). 

They are also a great way to include new cases of nouns in a low stakes way that doesn't involve the memorization of paradigms.  I use a MovieTalk to introduce the dative case (nom + acc + dat + verb).  That's a long, syntactically complex sentence for novice learners, but MovieTalks give learners a concrete visual context in which to see how the language is working.  You can get in lots of repetitions, and by pausing the video and pointing to each aspect of the sentence as you say it, students can begin internalizing this syntax. 

This presentation also includes follow-up activities you can do with MovieTalks to get more mileage out of them.  Personally, I embed mine into larger Google Slides presentations that target certain things (with CLC-based instruction, the MovieTalk often allows us to launch into a reading from the textbook, whereas younger learners may be asked to do a quickwrite, partner retell, or answer questions about what they just saw). 

I hope you find my presentation useful!  Let me know if you have any questions!

Cur?

Salvete omnes! nomen mihi est magistra Jennifer Jarnagin et in Dallas doceo.  I've wanted to make a blog for a while, but I was never sure what to call it, how to get started, what to include...the list went on and on.  I was chatting with my husband, who happens to be an incredibly talented writer and journalist, and (not shocking, given his job) he asked me several good questions that made me really think about what it is I wanted to say, how I wanted to say it, and what parts of myself I wanted to share with you all.

I decided to call my blog "The Perks of Being a Latin Teacher" as an homage to my Number-One-All-Time-Very-Most-Favorite-Book, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  It's a YA epistolary novel that I fell in love with in high school.  The main character, Charlie, is such a beautiful person.  The writing is deceptively simple, charmingly funny, and profound.  I think my love for Perks probably started me on the road to becoming a teacher: its treatment of empathy, compassion, and reflection resonate with me and have challenged me to examine my life and decisions.

Charlie strives to see the humanity in everyone and in every situation, which leaves him to occupy a sort of grey area on the fringes of his high school.  He sees everything, and thinks deeply about it, but he spends much of his time in his own head.  His English teacher notices this and challenges him to not just observe, but participate as well.

I think as teachers we are a bit like Charlie; we are constantly monitoring kids and their dynamics, striving to see the good in all of them, reflecting on our practices, dealing with our own lives and families and responsibilities.  But do we participate in our own lives?  Are we remembering that our job is supposed to be fun?  Are we taking the time to practice self-care and avoid burnout?

In this blog I'm going to share how I try to find the balance between the two.  I'll share some classroom activities and strategies, materials, and research/resources that allow me to have fun while doing such a demanding, draining job.

valete!

sine cera,

Jenn