A Latin Wiki

John Muccigrosso has set up a Latin Wiki. A Wiki is a web-page that multiple users can edit. This Latin Wiki was set up for the purpose of collecting useful things for teaching and learning Latin. here you'll find a collection of sentences that provide examples of various syntactic and semantic constructions in Latin. This could be very handy for those of you who are teaching or learning more advanced grammar, such as ablative absolute, future passive periphrastics, subjunctive clauses, all the different types of pronouns, irregular verbs, etc.

Rosa Latinae

Rose Williams has just launched her new website!

A native of Abilene, Texas, Rose taught Latin there for many years. She's now retired but she hasn't slowed down one bit! Rose is the author of a number of clever and amusing books on classical themes. Her most recent release, The Lighter Side of the Dark Ages, "deals with the 500 years after the fall of Rome in the West, when people went right on calling themselves Roman and paying tribute to an ideal which had largely ceased to be real." Students love her books because they are readable. Rose has a witty and ironic writing style. Teachers love her books because they are well-researched and educational.

Some of Rose's other books include Once Upon the Tiber, The Labors of Aeneas: What a Pain It Was to Found the Roman Race, and Vergil for Beginners

Rose's site includes more information about all of her books as well as some wonderful, print quality teaching materials for you to try out in your Latin classroom! Enjoy!

The Forecast Is Looking Good for Latin in the UK

According to the Guardian Unlimited, a daily newspaper in the UK, Latin is taking state sector schools "by storm" in Great Britain!

Roman Mysteries on BBC

Caroline Lawrence's Roman Mysteries series premiered on May 8th, 2007, in Great Britain. No word if or when it will be available in the United States, but in the meantime you can enjoy the Roman Mysteries Game, see a video trailer, find out about the characters and see an episode guide on the BBC website above. If you're in the UK, tune in to BBC1 on Thursdays at 4:30 pm.

Of course, you can always read Caroline's books while you wait. Start with Thieves of Ostia, the first book in the series. In this book, you'll be introduced to the main characters -- Flavia, Jonathan, Miram, Nubia and Lupus -- as they seek to solve the mysterious deaths of dogs in their neighborhood. Followup titles include Secrets of Vesuvius, Pirates of Pompeii, Assassins of Rome and 12 more titles.

Caroline Lawrence maintains an author's website where interested readers can read her bio, check out her blog, download and print nifty bookplates, and read the newscroll to find out what's coming up next for Flavia and her author.

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Here are some good sources of photographs and art to enhance your teaching. Some are free and some are for purchase. Be sure to adhere to copyright laws!

Ancient World Mapping Center Maps for Students Digitized maps for educational use. Teachers and students may use these maps for educational or personal use. Most of these maps come with a customizable blank version, quite suitable for quizzes and tests.

Centaur Systems carries the professional quality JPROGS image collections (many 1200 pixels wide) on CD-ROM. Collections available include Romana, Pompeii, Hellenika, Hispania. Rome the Eternal City, Roman Africa, etc. These images are suitable for presentations, websites and classwork and other non-commercial use.

Maecenas, Vroma and Imagines Locorum Romanorum Antiquorum are 3 sources for free, non-commercial photographs of Classical themed subjects. These are very good resources but be aware that some photos are scans or web quality (meaning fewer pixels for faster download, which means they may not enlarge well.)

Amy High Memorial Scholarship Fundraiser

Those of you living near Alexandria, VA, should plan to attend the Amy High Memorial Scholarship Fundraiser this weekend at the Lyles Crouch Elementary School located at 530 S. Asaph St., Alexandria, VA. The fundraiser will last from 2:00pm-6:00pm. The activities will feature wonderful food, live music, Roman Legionnaires, and a silent auction. There will also be a petting zoo and face painting for the children!

Amy High was a Virginia Latin teacher who had great vision and an amazing imagination but sadly passed away several years ago at the young age of 39. A true loss for her family and for the Latin teaching profession as well. To find out more about Amy High and the work that she did, you can read this article on the Time Magazine website.

You should also visit the Forum Romanum site. Amy played the part of Julia Pauli in these fun news videos, performed entirely in Latin.

The Amy High Memorial Scholarship provides funding for prospective and practicing Latin teachers to attend the Reginald Foster Latin Summer Study in Rome, Italy. Amy was a great proponent of active Latin and studied with Fr. Foster for several summers. According to the organizers, $20,000 was raised at last year's fundraiser and $10,000 in scholarships was awarded this year. The organizers hope to make this scholarship self-sustaining. Find out more by visiting the scholarship's official website. You can also download this year's poster.

Hopefully, this scholarship fund will inspire a new generation of Latin teachers to carry on the work that Amy started!