HIGHLAND

Rusticatio was my first foray into spoken Latin, and
I was amazed at how much I learned in just seven days.
I could make flashcards to learn the Latin words for cake,
flour, sugar, and blueberries, but I wouldn’t remember
them half as well as I do now that I have had to make a
blueberry cake from a recipe written in Latin.
Incorporating Spoken Latin in the
Classroom Offers Students New Motivation
Rusticatio has renewed my drive to improve how I teach
Latin, and has inspired me to start incorporating spoken
Latin into my classroom. If you come into my classroom
this fall, you will see students responding to classroom
instructions in Latin and asking “Quaeso, licetne mihi
ad armarium ire?” (“Please, may I go to my locker?”).
“Why speak Latin when there
are no ancient Romans around?
As we say at Rusticatio, non
discimus ut loquamur; loquimur
ut discamus – we’re not learning
to speak; we’re speaking to learn.”
‘Quomodo Dicitur Volleyball Latine’
or How Do You Say Volleyball in Latin?
My seventh graders, who are all called by their chosen
Roman names, greet me in Latin in the hallways, and
love to ask questions like, “Quomodo dicitur volleyball
Latine?” (“How do you say volleyball in Latin?”). (It’s follis
volaticus, by the way.) My eighth graders are starting to
discuss stories in Latin, and even learning some grammar
concepts through spoken Latin.
It will be a challenge and a journey to move to
a communicative approach to teaching Latin, but
I am convinced that I am moving in the right direction.
Already, I am seeing students more engaged than ever.
Recently, I taught plural direct objects by instructing my
eighth graders to eat first one Teddy Grahams, then two
Teddy Grahams, to throw first one ball, then two balls.
My students’ reaction says it all: “We should learn like
this all the time.” n
Highland’s Faculty Fellowship
Program Supports a Range
of Initiatives for Faculty, Staff
Using iPads and Mobile Devices
to Help Students with Disabilities
The iPad has quickly become a platform for
learning that is agile enough to meet the learning
needs for any subject, any age and all abilities.
Schools and teachers need to be prepared to
effectively implement this valuable resource to
meet the needs of our learning community.
This summer, Michele Daniel-Shenk and
Andrea McEvoy in Highland’s Lower School
received faculty fellowship grants to take
the required 36 classes to receive TCEA’s
Mobile Devices for Children with Disabilities
Certification. This series of classes will enable
them to better direct other faculty members
to resources for use with the iPads.
Dr. John Harmon Completes Two
Fellowships with Middle School Focus
For his faculty fellowships this summer, John
Harmon worked on two curricular projects for the
Middle School. Dr. Harmon’s first faculty fellowship
focused on developing an eighth grade signature
project. He researched culminating projects at
other independent schools and read several
interesting books on the subject.
“My hope is to create a project that involves
reflection, technology and several academic
disciplines. As the eighth grade Language
Arts teacher this year, my students and I will be
working on building this project together.”
The second part of Dr. Harmon’s fellowship
focused on identifying and implementing key
habits of learning for our middle school students.
“As adults, we know that developing a variety
of social, academic, and developmental skills is
important for our students’ long term success, Dr.
Harmon said. “In February, we began as a faculty
to identify the key skills or habits for each grade
level in our middle school.”
In June, the faculty met and provided specific
examples of these habits from their classes.