I was attending a Professional Learning day before commencing the final term of the year and one of the presentations used this clip from Youtube as a point of reference.
I was taken by Rita Pierson’s presence and humanity. It was refreshing to hear someone so passionate about her students and the experiences that she has with them.
Irrespective of the content or the context of the your teaching, this is a truly inspirational talk.
John Green’s Crash Course in Roman History is about twelve and a half minutes well spent. Without seeming to breath, Green manages to cover a great deal of ground with a surprising amount of lucidity. For a quick introduction to Roman Republican Government and its down side, you could do worse. “When, if ever, is it OK to stab someone twenty-three time?” This is not a bad starting point for the discussion.
Continuing on from my other post of useful things, below are some more handy on-line resources. These are more directed at research and cultural background, rather than language study
Dalton has been around for a while as a very useful site for links across all aspects of Ancient Rome.
Much like Google, this gives you a computer generated view of Ancient Rome. They describe themselves as follows:
The Forum Romanum is an on-line resource project funded by the VRoma NEH grant aimed at creating an on-line community that collects and makes available materials related to the Roman Forum. This web site contains a clickable map and text links that will carry visitors to information about major structures of the Roman Forum. Each page contains a description of the structure, its function and an image. Links to related stories, more images and maps, textbook connections, literary references, famous characters, and relevant web sites are included.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/index.shtml
BBC History has useful essays dealing with aspects of Roman History and in particular Roman Britain.
http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/asbook.asp
The Internet History Sourcebooks have been on the web and have updated over time into a much more user friendly format.
http://www.luc.edu/roman-emperors/impindex.htm
This site contains a range of useful, referenced essays on the life of each Emperor. The coverage is less complete as the Principate moves on past Late Antiquity in the Eastern Empire (Byzantium).
After an article in the Melbourne Age on increasing Latin numbers, a colleague consulted the VCAA (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority) site to check the numbers of Year 12 students sitting the Latin paper over recent years. Below is a graph of, generally, increasing numbers. It would be fair to say that a number of independent schools have reintroduced Latin over the last decade. We are yet so see the full impact of these programs on Year 12 numbers.
This is a really helpful map that shows the origins of the Homeric Heroes from around the Aegean in the Late Bronze Age. When looking at the Iliad, this is a very handy thing.
With thanks to @QueensClassics
The Year 11 and 12 students that I teach need to have a clear understanding of hexametric scansion. As a result, they need a clear understanding of dactylic hexametre. I have found a few resources along the way that help, including these two videos on Youtube that have been most helpful.
Dactylic Hexameter- Longs and Shorts
Dactylic Hexameter – Proper Metrical Technique
Having taught Latin to secondary students for a number of years, I have found some useful things along the way, both for the study of the language and for the social-historical context. Below are listed a few things which may be old news for some, but perhaps not for others.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
Perseus has been around for a while and is still a great source of texts. There are analytical tools available for translators along with dictionaries, translations and commentaries. In more recent times, the Hopper format has provided the ability to place a range of resources alongside in the window.
Livius is a great site for matters relating to Roman History. It is particularly useful for biographical information on key Roman figures and is cross linked effectively.
UNRV is less detailed than Livius, but a better resource for gaining a good overview of events and where they fit into the flow of history.
http://www.forumromanum.org/index2.html
Forum Romanum contains a range of resources relating to the history of Ancient Rome. There is a very useful text archive alongside scanned and indexed secondary historical resources, albeit a little dated.
After a few issues around hacking a little while back, I have decided to refloat quidfac inquit as my blog. Hopefully it will be a little more secure this time around. I am hoping to cogitate, reflect, vent, kvetch and generally whatever about whatever to do with the teaching and learning of Classical Studies, Latin and Religious Education. So here goes blog version two. Where better to start in these things than from the Parthenon…