Classes begin on Monday, June 11. Today is DAY 1 minus 2.
I think I’m ready. I feel ready. I’m anxious, to be sure; that is probably inevitable. But I know what I’m doing, and I know how to do it.
There is no lurking on the sidelines, as on some level I hoped I might be able to do, at least for a few days. I am giving the one-hour lecture on pronunciation, syllabification, and accentuation on Monday morning. My colleague is presenting a review of grammatical terms and concepts (parts of speech, clauses, etc) for both Greek and Latin students together right after registration, but I am presenting the first bits of Latin the Latin students are going to see. It’s kind of a big deal, in my mind at least.
On DAY 2, I will be doing the Vocabulary Notes, a sort of daily mini-lecture (like, ten minutes) where we go through that night’s vocabulary word by word, pointing out any special features (the verb dō has unusual principal parts for a first conjugation verb, and a short “a” in the stem throughout most of the present system). It’s also a nice place to point out English derivatives (nauta, nautae, M, sailor…yeah, that’s where we get “nautical”).
On DAY 3, I will be doing the daily optional sight reading, when we will be reading the second installment in a continuing saga of Aeneas and Dido presented in simple prose with lots of vocabulary and syntax help in the notes. These optional sight sessions allow eager students on top of their game to do something additional and challenging. At the very same time, another teacher is always leading an optional grammar review, a place for struggling students, or even just-getting-by students, to get additional help with the previous day’s new morphology and syntax. I’m actually not scheduled to lead an optional grammar review during the first week, but I am scheduled for two optional sights. Hmm…should I interpret this one way or another? Better not!
Newbies like me do get spared from full-on, two-hour grammar lectures for the first two weeks, Units 1-8. My first lecture will be Unit 11, the deponent verbs chapter. I need to start thinking about that now.
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.