My Routine For Starting Class - Building Community

I think it's really important to empower students and to give them the space to own the classroom. Equally it's important for them to view their classmates as community. They feel safest experimenting and making mistakes - which we need them to do - when the other people in the room are community and not just other people taking the class. My routine varies depending on the level.

Latin I
I have jobs listed on my board. They are:
-Nomenclator/Nomenclatrix (who does the attendance)
-Nuntiator/tris (whose job it is to ask me every day: magistra, suntne nuntianda?)
-Inspector/trix (whose job it is to let me know whether the class is ready according to my standards)
-Distributores/distributrices (there are two, whose job it is to distribute and collect any items that day)
-Horologiarius/horologiaria (who keeps time)
-Aestimator/trix (whose job it is to let me know who needs a shoutout)

Officially, whoever happens to be first into the classroom on a given day is the person who can assign jobs that day. Sometimes one kid Claims this as their Calling and it becomes theirs. Sometimes I have ask someone to do it. Varies by class and day.

When the bell rings, my expectation is that everyone is seated, silent, and prepared (everything put away - phones, bags, makeup, etc).

I say to the Inspector/Inspectrix, "O ______________, omnesne sedent?" They look around and respond either "sedent" or "non sedent." Then omnesne silent? Then omnesne parati sunt? If all three are true, I am all happy at them, and they earn three minutes for PAT. If only two are true, they earn two minutes for PAT, etc.

The nomenclator gets up and does the attendance without being prompted. We applaud, they sit down.

The nuntiator asks me, magistra, suntne nuntianda? In most Latin one classes, the students make fun me by going, "Nuntianda sunt!" and then pretending to give announcements, which I find mildly entertaining. After that I get to answer. ;) This is the time for JCL announcements, "Shay is in a play" announcements, etc.

Then we do the praemium dignum. Hold on a sec - I'm going to explain that near the end of this section.

Then class can begin.

If I need a timer that day (to keep track of how long we can stay in Latin, etc), I ask the horologiarius/-a to do that for me. In general, for every two minutes we can go without an unnecessary interruption/unnecessary English, the kids get one minute toward PAT (which will be used on Friday).

If I need anything distributed (white boards, papers, etc), I ask the distributores to do this. They will also be the ones to pick them up when we're finished or to collect any work done that day.

At the end of the period, the inspector stands up and yells TRES MINUTAE RESTANT! RECONDITE OMNIA! and then the class puts everything away (their seats, coloring supplies, etc) as quickly as possible and sits back down for any closing announcements.

At this time, whoever the aestimator/aestimatrix is will write me a note. They've been keeping an eye on the class to find people to shout out - someone who gave a good answer, someone who was really participating, someone who asked a great question, someone who made us laugh, etc. They'll write me a note telling me who should get the praemium dignum the next day and why. That note goes in a mini mailbox I have. Then the next day after the nuntiatrix does her thing, I will pull that note from my mini mailbox and I will read it to the class. We do this in English. The person gets a praemium dignum (which consists of a sticker. they are the most godawful puffy stickers, and they're absurd. they are such terrible stickers that the kids love them, and I've got kids with collections of them on their phones). We applaud the person who gets the praemium dignum.


Latin II

Instead of changing the jobs daily by writing names, we spin the wheelofnames (wheelofnames.com. I have a wheel saved for each class with their names in it, for exactly purposes like this) for each of the jobs. They keep their job for a week. The jobs are the same as they were the first year. We spin the wheel at the end of the week rather than on Monday so the aestimator/trix has time to pay attention so that we can award a praemium dignum on Monday.

Differences - near the beginning of the year, I announce the praemium dignum, like I did for Latin I. About a month into the year, the aestimator/aestimatrix will begin to announce it themselves.

When I describe the person qui praemium dignum meruit, I do it in simple Latin for them, even if the note is written in English. When the kids start doing it themeselves, I encourage them to use as much Latin as they can, even if it's just "homo qui praemium dignum meruit X est."

Latin III/IV

They now have a slightly different set of jobs, and they keep them for three weeks at a time. We spin the wheelofnames (again, I have a wheel saved for each specific class with their names in) on the Friday going into the week where we'll change jobs so that the Aestimator will have time to pay attention and can give a praemium dignum on Monday.

Dux Homines Parandi
Nomenclator
Distributores
Origo Socii Sermonis
Aestimator/Aestimatrix

I can literally be gone for the first seven minutes of class, and the kids will run it themselves.

The Dux Homines Parandi stands up and stares everyone down/walks around the room to make sure they're ready. Some of them are sassy and will tell kids "telephonillum in sacco!" or "quid agis, Sam?" Some of them just...stare you down. When they are, the Dux tells me, "Parati sumus."

The nomenclator calls attendance and asks me if there are any announcements.

Then the origo socii sermonis makes their way to the front of the room. They are as their name suggests: they start conversation. This is a time for them to ask the class what's new, if anyone has any good stories to tell, what's going on in their lives, and how they are. For the first week or two, I do this to model how it works. I check in with kids based on things they said the day before (how was that game you mentioned? how'd the test go?) Then over the first few weeks (my two weeks and the first week or so of the kids doing it) we brainstorm some questions they can ask and phrases that are useful to us.
-ecquis fabulas narrandas habet?
-quid novi apud vos?
-ut successit ____________?
-quomodo se habet ________________?
-quomodo vos habetis?
-ecquis gloriari/queri vult?

and similar.

I keep a set of these questions on a big post-it in my room where the kids can consult them at will.

They get five minutes to have whatever conversation they want as a class, as a large group, talking about their lives and what's going on, and it is mostly Latine. I learn a lot about them - one kid was submitting art to the google doodle challenge, so we followed that eagerly. One talked about her daily journey in her physics class. Some tell stories about their lives, some talked about stuff that they were struggling with, and overall, it genuinely bonded them together as a class.

I had a class that did not readily participate in this. They had things to say but were fairly quiet. So for them, we alternated between giving a prompt (tell a story that involved fire, for example) or choosing four people who would come in the next day and tell us something going on in their lives. Those kids could say anything they wanted to, and often ended up pushing themselves outside of their boxes and doing very well.

Again the first week or two, I did the distribution of the praemium dignum, although the aestimator/trix left me notes in my mailbox. At this point, the expectation is that they're doing them in Latin. When they take over, the expectation is that they do the announcement in Latin as well. We still applaud and hand out the stickers (and the seniors possibly find them funnier even than the freshmen).

The goal is always to give the class opportunity for communication and opportunity to work together. They become concerned about each other's lives and wellbeing, they care about each other, and they work together more effectively when they genuinely know and relate to each other, and when they consistently find opportunities for ownership, praise and intentional kindness.

At various times, I have changed the jobs and the routine to respond to a particular class, and sometimes it does need tweaking. Two years ago I had a class who, god love them, wanted to be told a story every day. So instead of the Origo Socii Sermonis, they had a story rota, and one kid every day would begin the class by telling a story about whatever they wanted. I wrote them down as they narrated them, and it's still hilarious to go back and read the ridiculous stories they told.

Spinners and Speaking

Wheelofnames.com is one of my favorite websites. You can customize what items are on the wheel (and the colors, if that's your jam. it is my jam.), and you can save those wheels to use later. I have one for each of my classes, and then periodically, classes and I will build one together.

One of the ones we recently built had numbers on it. I picked about twelve people and asked them qui numerus acceptissimus tibi est? and they told me. This is hilarious, because they didn't know what they were being used for, and Mark's favorite number is 18, which is Known.

Everyone was mad at Mark about five minutes later.

In any case, I now had 1, 4, 18, 12, etc. I had the kids stand up in pairs facing each other and gave them a topic. (you could also have a wheel of topics if you want to leave it to chance)

We spun the wheel, and the wheel told them how many items in that category they had to come up with. There are virtues both to giving them the topic and then spinning the wheel, and to spinning the wheel and then giving them the topic. I encourage you to experiment and decide which you like best.

Depending on the level of chaos you thrive in in your classroom, you can have the pairs:

-shout their answers at each other in an attempt to get the requisite number of items before their partner (encourages both hilarity and quick thinking in the TL, but necessarily discourages listening)

-work together to come up with the requisite number of answers in a set amount of time/before other pairs.

Having shouted at each other for X number of seconds or until it sounds like they're winding down (my usual method of deciding when they're done), I pick a few pairs and ask them to share their best answers. You can just accept those answers as is, or it can lead to more PQA/circling/input.

The topics can be anything. In Latin two, they had (among other things) letters of the alphabet (we had a gimme to start :P), body parts, things you do in the baths, jobs, food words, and - I kid you not - things you can do to save energy in the home.

We did not spend time in any unit discussing "ways to save energy in the home." But you bet they know things like "turn off the lights" and "close the fridge," and they've never been asked to apply it in that way. It allows them to stretch and realize just what they can talk about. It's a good warm up or brain break, and the kids get a kick out of doing it.