On Friday I finally had a breakthrough moment with the kids in my Latin class. I had a difficult start, because my class contains some students who have had Latin for a couple of years, and some who have no experience studying a foreign language of any kind. So I've been blowing their brains out by talking about inflected endings, which is why we say puella for "girl" when it is the subject, and puellam for "girl" when it is the direct object, and I have heaped vocabulary on their heads all the while. So last week I decided that I'd let them have a little fun, and I taught them to sing "If You're Happy and You Know It" in Latin, and this turned out to be very effective in helping them to associate happy thoughts with the class. So I was pretty ecstatic on this day, when I walked outside the classroom a couple of minutes after class was dismissed, to hear Latin still on the lips of my students. One was demonstrating our new song to some friends, one was trying to translate the "Hello, mother...Hello, father" song into Latin using mater and pater, two of his new vocabulary words, and one of the cool guys was taunting another by telling him "Tu mater est oppidum magnum," which roughly translates to "Your mother is a large town." After thinking for a minute, the recipient of the insult got it, and both boys broke into hysterical laughter. A little nerdy, you might say...but it was music to my ears.
So my bliss continued when I was wasting time on the internet this weekend and I found that not one, but THREE of my favorite artists have some new albums coming out: Pat Green, Clay Aiken, and Josh Groban. I was excited about JG in particular, because it's been a LONG time coming. I put all three items, plus some more, on my Amazon wish list (link to your right) for your holiday shopping convenience, Mom.
Yesterday I bought "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing the Piano" and started practicing on the keyboard at the church between services. This has been on my to-do list for a long time, and I feel very gratified. Today I practiced the right hand notes for the Doxology, and it was sounding pretty darn good if I do say so myself. Also I finished "Dispatches from the Edge," which was a surprisingly enjoyable read by Anderson Cooper.
Add into the mix that we enjoyed a nice afternoon on the town yesterday, went to a very encouraging church service, had dinner with some friends, got some free cake, and had two nice services at church today...I've had about all the excitement I can take for one weekend. It's a good thing that I have to get back on the job tomorrow or I'd start getting spoiled.
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5 comments:
Hooray for good weekends! And the good result in your Latin class! A little encouragement goes a long way for teachers. Hope this week is good too.
I had a good weekend, too! Aside from the same church service, dinner with friends, and free cake that turned our teeth blue... I browsed the internet quite a bit with a sweet napping kitty in my lap. I spent about two hours on i-Tunes and bought several songs that I had always liked. I booked a trip to Seattle for a conference. I blogged... a long one, too. We also cleaned house, and a clean house always makes me happy!
I can't enjoy a day off until the house is clean, personally. I get distracted looking at the spider carnage everywhere.
AAAAAHHHHH! Attack of the whacko Whitney spiders! (Seriously, they are so weird looking!)
Whacking spiders is kinda fun. Well I just watched you and Cliff really. But it was very entertaining.
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