Non scholae sed vitae discimus

Quia On Line Review for the 8/30 Noun Quiz

2011-08-25T10:55:00.001-05:00

Here is an online quiz to help you prepare for the 8/30 exam. Give it a shot and see how well you do! Click HERE to take the quiz. Be aware that for part of the weekend Quia.com may be doing maintenance. It should certainly work on Monday night at least.

We have an App for that!

2011-08-22T13:04:00.000-05:00

Don't forget to evaluate the Libellus application over the next few days. Let Mr. Martin know your thoughts. Are there other features we might need? Would you like to sign up for email notifications for "blog" updates from the Nuntii news feed? Should the JCL preparation page be included as a page option? Thanks for volunteering to work with the experimentation process!

Welcome Magistra Giles - Our New Latin Teacher!

2011-08-17T21:35:00.000-05:00

Laura Giles, a longtime fixture in the Latin Department at Amarillo High School is joining the Latin Program at Ascension Academy for the 2011-2012 school year. (She's the happy looking lady in the pictures posing with the magician Teller of the team of Penn and Teller - a former Latin teacher himself, really!)

Mrs. Laura Giles is a veteran educator with 38 years teaching experience. She taught for 10 years in Carlsbad, New Mexico and followed that experience at Amarillo High where she directed the Latin program for 28 years. She has a B.A in Latin and Education from the University of Washington and an M.A. in Classical Humanities from Texas Tech University. She will be teaching Introduction to Latin for sixth graders as well as Latin IA, the first of Ascension's two-year high school credit course, for students in seventh grade.

She has also been involved with the teaching of Latin and with the various levels of the Junior Classical League for a number of years and brings her knowledge and enthusiasm to our rapidly-growing classics program. We are thrilled to have such a capable and entertaining educator as a part of our faculty.

An Experiment in Mobility: Ascension Latin: The App!

2011-08-17T21:19:00.002-05:00

Here's a link in our ongoing search for ways to integrate technology into our Latin program here at Ascension. This program began on August 17 and will be available as a trial until August 31. Let Mr. Martin know what you think about a Latin app for smartphones.

Those Pompeian Casts

2010-04-06T11:16:00.003-05:00

A nice video explaining the "Fiorelli Method" used to create the casts of the victims of the 79 AD Vesuvian eruption.

Pompeii Casts

The Benefits of Latin

2010-03-03T05:33:00.001-06:00

A production from the National Committee for Latin and Greek.

Modern fossils - and their classical names

2009-09-17T10:59:00.004-05:00

OK, it's not really Latin, but it's pretty funny. Artist Christopher Locke has begun to produce "modern fossils" by doctoring up antiquated technology from the recent decades. What caught my attention is how he imitated the Linnean system of nomenclature by giving these "specimens" classically-related names. Many of them use Latin. Which ones do you recognize?

Dominaludus nintendicus?
Ambulephebus sonysymphonia?

Check out the artist's website at: http://heartlessmachine.com/section/79989_Modern_Fossils.html

The Minotaur as current event?

2009-09-01T19:53:00.003-05:00

Our friends at the fake news network "The Onion" have brought a mythological twist to U.S. policy. Enjoy - but don't take it too seriously - this is parody, folks. And beware - The Onion pushes the bounds at times.

Is Using A Minotaur To Gore Detainees A Form Of Torture?

More Support for Acquiring a Second Language

2009-08-21T17:30:00.007-05:00

If you're wondering why you might be taking Latin (or Spanish), Science Daily cited a study which suggests that studying a second language improves one's facility in one's native language.

According to a recent study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, it appears humans are not actually capable of "turning off" another language entirely. Psychologists Eva Van Assche, Wouter Duyck, Robert Hartsuiker and Kevin Diependaele from Ghent University found that knowledge of a second language actually has a continuous impact on native-language reading...

According to the psychologists, it is the overlap of the two languages that speeds up the brain's activation of cognates. So even though participants did not need to use their second language to read in their native-language, they still were unable to simply "turn it off." It appears, then, that not only is a second language always active, it has a direct impact on reading another language--even when the reader is more proficient in one language than another.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090818130435.htm

So, that Latin you're learning may be paying dividends as you read English texts. Who knew?

Why Latin?

2009-08-19T15:00:00.002-05:00

Salvete Omnes!

(That's Latin for "Hello, Everyone!") Mr. Martin here with an introductory post. I'm delighted to be at Ascension Academy and back in my hometown of Amarillo. I've been teaching Latin and English for the past 24 years, and I'm looking forward to the new faces, surprises, opportunities, and challenges to be found here at Ascension.

Since Latin is now a required subject, many of you might understandably be wondering "what's the big deal about Latin?" I'll confess that I'm biased about this, but let me attempt an answer.

What other academic discipline allows one to geek out so thoroughly over 13 centuries worth of riveting history and compelling personalities? Imagine tracing Rome's steps as it rises from a scattering of wattle and daub huts hunkered above a pestilential swamp by the Tiber River to grow into a immense empire encircling the entire Mediterranean.

With typical Roman modesty, they called the Mediterranean "Mare Nostrum" = i.e., "Our Sea." These weren't shy and retiring folks.

Since the Romans were never too worried about borrowing the furnishings of cultural heritage from other lands, let's not forget the hundreds of stories, tales, explanations, and adventures that make up Greek mythology, all of which found their way into the Roman mindset - and eventually into the fabric of our own daily lives. The Goodyear "winged" logo? It's merely a recasting of Hermes' swift foot. Nike? She's the Greek goddess of victory.

Now, let's consider the literature and with its opportunities to read the words of the Romans themselves - from the snarky jibes of Martial to the philosophical musings of Horace and Cicero; from the military propaganda of Caesar to the epic sweep of Vergil - Roman writers explored the entire realm of human experience. Love, war, fear, humor, ambition, loyalty, envy - when have these ever passed out of style?

Finally, let's look at the language itself. A teacher/friend of mine often tells her Latin classes that they must "put a toga" on their minds as they engage in the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of the Romans. Learning the Latin language allows us 21st century types a chance to enter a time machine and capture a glimpse of a culture that shaped the foundations of our civilization. Latin's influence lurks still in the deepest roots of our vocabulary. (All those yellow words have Latin ancestry...) For better or worse, 18th century grammarians swiped a fair amount of the rules for English from the syntax of the Romans. To know Latin is to be closer to the roots of our own literature and language.

And I haven't mentioned art, architecture, or concrete.

I could give you lots of statistics about the leaps in S.A.T. vocabulary acquisition to be derived from the study of Latin. Surveys of college and university directors of admission show a strong preference for candidates with a background in the classics. All of these are simply icing on the cake. I hope you will love the language and culture of the Romans for its own beauties.

Welcome to Latin. I think you're in for quite a ride.

A virtual Pompeiian house

2009-08-07T14:49:00.007-05:00

Here is a quick virtual reality tour created by Glenn Gunhouse based upon Pompeii's House of the Vettii. Consider how Romans would have decorated their homes based upon your viewing of this video. What is similar to our homes? What is different? Nota Bene: By the end of CLC 1 you ought to be able to name in Latin several of the rooms and the features depicted here. Can you find all 10 architectural features? Here is a list:

atrium
cubiculum
peristylium
compluvium
impluvium
hortus
lararium
triclinium
tablinum
ianua

Fans of Percy Jackson? A promo for The Last Olympian

2009-07-23T09:23:00.007-05:00

Cerberus CLC 1: Latin aloud is ...well, allowed

2009-07-08T20:49:00.008-05:00

This is a reading of the first story in CLC Stage 1. Read along in your textbook as you listen to the reading. Then, try reading the story aloud yourself. Don't worry if your reading isn't perfect - the important thing is to begin playing around with the sounds of Latin.

Here's a link to the story: "Cerberus"

A new Latin dictionary comes to town

2009-07-08T19:16:00.009-05:00

It seems that a couple of friends of mine from Austin, TX have been very busy software developers/editors recently - that is, when they aren't off saving the world through their mad knowledge of classics. Clint Hagen and Andrew Rist have just rolled out "Glossa" - a Latin dictionary which can be either web-based or downloaded in a convenient desktop version. Sadly, there isn't yet a chewable tablet version that can be ingested for those days you're away from the computer.

They tell me the downloadable version will work on PC and Macs. It worked wonderfully on my iMac, and I'm sure it will work on your computer as well. curre! noli ambulare! You'll want to be able to say you were in on the ground floor of this so you can impress all of your classicist friends. Click on the image below to check it out.