Initium Scholae

I had a former student who is starting her first year of teaching text me a few weeks ago for some start of school tips.  Her text got me thinking a lot about how I start the school year.  I first thought about what kind of advice I got twenty-three years ago when I started teaching and how different my teaching is today. I was told, "Don't let them see you smile until November."  Conversely, my advice to her was, "Smile..... Have fun with the kids and be generous with yourself."  I added, ""Think through your procedures.  Be firm but kind when you enforce them.  Do enforce them."  I find that the procedures in my room fall into place these days without much elaboration on my part.  Through a variety of means, I communicate clearly to kids that their enthusiastic participation is expected each day.  My students comply with this expectation cheerfully.  I suspect it is because I let them into my world soon into the school year.

I almost always begin with a slideshow about my life and my summer that I tell them about in Latin.  Typically, I tell the story in Latin and check for understanding in English.  There are lots of pictures of my family, friends and pets, such as this one:

For the last two years, I have expanded this activity more and more.  Now, I spend about a week telling and reviewing my story.  I now circle information in Latin and still sometimes check for understanding in English.  I add details a little at a time and reinforce target vocabulary daily.

After the students hear, read, and know my story, I now ask each student to share their own slides shows.  Students spend several days writing short stories about themselves that they typically illustrate with Google slides, though they are allowed to make videos.  They work in partners and then with me to make sure they are communicating what they want to say.  The final product looks something like this example.  Then each student presents his story verbally in class, and students get a script of each other's stories that they can use for reading.

I find that these activities are not only an easy way to get back into Latin, but it also does such a good job of building community that we reap the benefits as a class all year long (and really beyond when it comes time for class sign-ups for the next year). - Parva

Circling with Pets

"Circling with Pets" is quite a strange title for an activity if you aren't already familiar with the Circling with Balls activity. Our school has a culture that already emphasizes athletics in many areas of school life, so I chose to focus this lesson around students' home lives instead. (Also, I personally am obsessed with my own pets and don't "play" a sport, so this activity was much easier for me to model authentically.) This lesson was designed for the first two days of our 6th grade language carousel, a 4-week sample course before students make their language choices for middle school.

I passed out a blank piece of paper and gave them these instructions on the board.

Side 1:  Draw a pet you have or want to have. quod animal habes, vel habere vis?
Side 2:  Draw your family. qui sunt in familia tua?

I modeled this with a drawing of my own pets.

Once they're finished, I went around the room asking questions about students' animals. I wrote

habes/habeo and vis habere/volo habere on the board and their English meanings. My students already learned the words for mother, father, sister, and brother in Latin last year, and I circled with those as well. I also wrote MAGNUS and parvus on the board in Latin in different sizes to show their meanings and asked questions about whether their pets and siblings were big or small.

At the end of class, students turned in their drawings to me and I created a slide for each student that described their family, the pet they have or want to have, and said whether they were a boy or girl. 

Here are some examples:

ego sum puer. canem, nomine Lucy, habeo. in familia mea, sunt mater, pater, et frater, nomine Nicholai. quis sum?

fratrem, qui semper Pokemon Go ludit, habeo. mater et pater sunt quoque in familia mea. canem parvum, nomine Sam, habeo. sum puella. quis sum?

ligrem habere volo. unam sororem et tres fratres habeo. unus frater est infans. sum puer. quis sum?

(Yes, this kid wants a liger.)

In class the next day, we did choral translations of these slides and guessed who each person was. The students were able to hear many repetitions of our target vocabulary (family words, habeo, and sum/est) and get their moment of fame.