Summer Latin Institute - Day 1 minus 3

Day 1 minus 3 was Friday, June 8.

FINAL DAY OF PRESESSING. Classes begin on Monday, June 11. Real students learning real Latin. Real teachers, real teaching. No more mockery.

I rehearsed my pronunciation lecture scheduled for Monday morning, with emphasis on how I was planning to handle the Latin accentuation rule known as THE LAW OF THE PENULT. I was very proud of the way I fit all the information about pronunciation, syllabification, and accentuation on the board. My more Institute-experienced colleagues, however, urged me to take a lot of that information off the board for what our lead teacher calls my "starting position," and we talked about ways I could unfold some of the information in the course of the one-hour lecture.

Of course, in a traditional classroom, I would not worry too much about any of this, and just scribble the information on the board as I presented it orally. But again, for the umpteenth time, the Institute is a unique learning (and teaching) environment, tightly scheduled, highly compact, where every board and every lecture needs to be carefully planned and structured. Not that planning isn't always a good thing when a teacher walks into a classroom; but some settings demand more minutely careful planning than others, and this is one of those settings.

Later in the afternoon, Latin and Greek faculty met with each other and with Hardy Hansen, the director of the Institute, and Rita Fleischer, the administrator, to go over some logistical details for the summer and DAY 1. Then we read students' files to get a sense of whose smiling (or terrified) faces would be greeting us on Monday morning. And finally, off to Keens Steakhouse on West 36th Street for drinks. The first of many Friday afternoon martinis to come.

More soon... 

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.