Here we are in late August already! Tempus fugit never feels more real than when the summer break begins to skid to a sudden halt in August.

 

The summer months at Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers are always busy ones as we fill book orders, prepare reprints, and work on projects in anticipation of the start of school.

 

Each summer, we enjoy attending the American Classical League Institute and the National Junior Classical League convention. Check out the reports in this issue of eLitterae from our experiences in the Big Apple and Fargo, ND.

 

A special event each summer for the B-C family is the celebration of Founder’s Day. We gather for a special lunch—our director of finance, David Fiedelman, shares his barbecue skills and serves up a delicious meat dish and a veggie specialty. The rest of the meal is potluck with a range of appetizers, sides, and desserts. Following the meal, David emcees a program that builds camaraderie and honors our founder, Dr. Ladislaus (Lou) Bolchazy. A round of B-C trivia and a coffee toast to Lou helped this year’s luncheon, the VIIth, successfully build community and duly honor our beloved Lou.

 

All of us at Bolchazy-Carducci wish you and your students a spectacular school year! We’re excited to launch LUMINA, an interactive learning tool, for Latin for the New Millennium and a beta version for Artes Latinae. We look forward to sharing LUMINA success stories with you during the school year.

 

We’re in the process of finalizing our roster of webinars for the fall. If you should have a recommendation, please let me know.

 

Always remember that we’re here to help you. We enjoy the opportunity to interact with you. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers is proud of its editors and their classics training and teaching experience. So, feel free to zap us an email with your queries.

This month, I decided to reflect on all the tools that I have written about over the past few years and identify those that help me most as the academic year kicks off. Here are my favorite four tools for the start of the year along with how I like to use them.

 

Flipgrid is a site that allows teachers to post discussion questions to which students respond by using their device to record a short video of themselves. The students click on the prompt to add their recorded response and view the responses of their classmates. At the start of the school year, I love this tool for a virtual ice-breaker activity. It allows students to continue to get to know each other and supplements what we do to this end in class. To check it out, visit www.flipgrid.com.

 

GooseChase is an app that leverages technology to run a scavenger hunt. On the GooseChase web platform, the teacher creates tasks, called “missions” for the students to complete. Choose from four different types of missions: photo missions, video missions, text based missions, and GPS missions. I used a combination of all four types to keep interest high. To participate in the scavenger hunt, students need the GooseChase iOS app downloaded to an iPhone or iPad. It’s an excellent tool for creating a very engaging and active review session. To learn more, visit www.goosechase.com.

 

Magistrula.com is an excellent tool for review at the beginning of the year. I particularly like that, as the teacher, I can limit the practice to the specific forms or constructions that we are working on in class. If my students haven’t yet been introduced to a particular tense, mood, conjugation, etc., I can eliminate those from the practice. Lots of different types of activities are beneficial either in class or as independent practice. The “lacunae” are a fun mad-lib style activity to use as a bell-ringer or warm-up. There are also cartoons that can be used to promote both oral and written skills. To get started, go to www.magistrula.com.

 

Animoto is a fun and easy way to create a video. It is very simple to use! It’s really three steps: pick from one of the pre-made templates, upload your images, and add some text. Then, Animoto compiles the images and text to produce the final video. During the first days and weeks of school, I take photos of student work, class materials, and students learning. I also record students offering their own description of the course and explaining how their grades are calculated. Of course, I always acquire the appropriate permissions. Then, I put all my media into Animoto, add brief explanatory text, and let Animoto do the hard work. What results is a great video to show at parent night. Try it at www.animoto.com.

Fargo, North Dakota, drew swarms of middle and high school Latin students from across the country to the campus of North Dakota State University for the annual NJCL convention. The campus and especially Memorial Union with its Student Center overflowed with energy, enthusiasm, and industry. Indeed, the student attendees proved the truth of the convention theme: apes non sunt solitaria natura (Bees are not of a solitary nature, Varro, De Agri Cultura 3.16)! Fargo’s—local newspaper, The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, certainly took note of the NJCL “invasion” with a terrific set of photos from the Roman Procession from campus to the Fargodome published in the online InFORum.

 

Editors Don Sprague and Amelia Wallace staffed the Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers display set up in the Learning and Teaching Materials Exhibit wisely located in the midst of the action in the Student Center. A steady flow of students, teachers, and parents checked out the B-C materials, respectively eager to find a book for their learning pleasure, to check out possible classroom adoptions, and to secure a suitable resource for their sons and daughters. As is the custom, the translations of popular children’s stories like Ubi Fera Sunt and Arbor Alma caught attendees’ attention. B-C’s new titles, The Latin of Science, Scarborough’s First Lessons in Greek, and They Said It First, offered as prizes in the B-C book drawing, attracted lots of interest as well.

 

 

 

Experiencing firsthand the palpable zeal these students have for their Latin studies always inspires the B-C editors. They especially enjoy interacting with students who are annual visitors to the company’s exhibit. And, of course, it’s always a pleasure to visit with returning teachers.

 

By tradition, the Learning and Teaching Materials Exhibit is open three days of the convention. On the second day, the display closes midday, affording exhibitors an opportunity to explore the local area. So, Monday afternoon, Amelia and Don ventured across the river to Fargo’s neighbor, Moorhead, Minnesota. The Historical & Cultural Society of Clay County and its local museum kept their interest for the afternoon.

 

They enjoyed two replicas, testament to the area’s Norwegian heritage, a Viking ship and a stave church. They so immersed themselves in the museum’s special exhibit “War, Fear, and Flu,” an exploration of the impact of World War I and the influenza epidemic on the local area, that they lost track of time and ended up leaving the complex with the last employee on staff that day!

 

The editors were pleased to represent B-C at NJCL 2019 and to visit North Dakota, a new state for both of them.

 

 

 

The celebration of the American Classical League’s centennial drew a record number of attendees, some 460+, to the organization’s birthplace, New York City. The Midtown Hilton Hotel hosted the milestone institute that was designed to maximize participants’ appreciation of the Big Apple. A set of pre-institute excursions explored various classics-inspired city itineraries and a schedule that limited evening activities to the banquet made it easy for attendees to take advantage of Broadway, world-class restaurants, evening hours at the museums, and the magnificent skyline.

 

Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers dispatched president Bridget Dean, PhD, and editors Laurel Draper and Don Sprague to this special gathering. The Wednesday prior to the grand opening of the exhibit hall, the trio took advantage of the opportunity to attend a performance of the celebrated and award-winning Hadestown—the perfect musical for a group of classicists!

 

On Thursday, they proudly exhibited B-C texts and other pedagogy materials and welcomed longtime collaborators as well as teachers new to the company. The institute drew a record number of exhibitors. The exhibit hall hosted the morning and afternoon breaks and the buzz of participants catching up with old friends and making new ones. The editors enjoyed reconnecting with a number of B-C authors including the likes of Marianthe Colakis, Sheila Dickison, Ed DeHoratius, Judith Peller Hallett, Ken Kitchell, Willie Major, and David Pellegrino.

 

The B-C staffers found the institute with its excited buzz of pride and special energy from the exhibit hall to the banquet an energizing and inspiring experience. Kudos to ACL executive director Sherwin Little and his many collaborators on a fitting tribute to the ACL Centennial!

 

 

Lumina offers a revamped Artes Latinae. This fully interactive online program teaches all of Latin grammar in two courses. Purchase the program at a special discounted price of 30% off!

 

Based on the program developed by Dr. Waldo E. Sweet of the University of Michigan for Encyclopedia Britannica, Lumina: Artes Latinae is an easy-to-follow course that includes all the tools a student needs to achieve a firm command of Latin. The course was carefully crafted and refined to suit the needs and abilities of a broad spectrum of students. Lumina: Artes Latinae meets existing foreign language requirements for high school graduation.

Watch B-C announcements for Lumina webinars on both the Latin for the New Millennium and the Artes Latinae programs this fall. Contact us for an individual consultation: bridget@bolchazy.com.

  William Sanders Scarborough's
First Lessons in Greek
A Facsimile of the 1881 First Edition
 
William Sanders Scarborough's First Lessons in Greek
A Facsimile of the 1881 First Edition
 

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