Halloween homework (29 Oct-2 Nov)

Latin 1--Continue brainstorming about your project: e.g. what kind of culture do you have that will produce these myths?  What is important to them and how do they preserve it? 

Latin 2--Brainstorm on your project: where do we get the myths from, and (by extension), how do we find the primary sources?

Latin 3--Chapter 6 of Ghosts: 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3

Latin 4--Have chapter 5 (law stuff) of Justinian's Flea read by Wednesday morning.  We will also go over the textbook readings and any exercises you feel need going over.

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

 I am so into this book right now; I would read it to my SOAR class but...  The selective, but effective, use of profanity prevents that.  Still, students of any language (especially an old one) would do well to remember the following exchange between the titular character, Alif, an American academic and a jinn named Vikram:

"... How do you translate ذرة in your English interpretation [of the Quran]?"
"Atom," [she] said.
"You do not find that strange considering atoms were unknown in the sixth century?"
[She] chewed her lip.  "I never thought of that," she said.  "You're right.  There's no way atom is the original meaning of the word."
"Ah."  Vikram held up two fingers in a sign of benediction.  He looked, Alif thought, like some sort of demonic caricature of a saint.  "But it is.  In the twentieth century, atom became the original meaning of ذرة, because an atom was the tiniest object known to man.  Then man split the atom.  Today, the original meaning might be hadron.  But why stop there?  Tomorrow, it might be quark.  In a hundred years, some vanishingly small object so foreign to the human mind that only Adam remembers its name.  Each of those will be the original meaning of ذرة."
Alif snorted.  "That's impossible. ذرة must refer to some fundamental thing.  It's attached to an object. 
"Yes it is.  The smallest indivisible particle.  That is the meaning packaged in the world.  No part of it lifts out--it does not mean smallest, nor indivisible, nor particle, but all those things at once.  Thus, in man's infancy, ذرة was a grain of sand.  Then an atom.  And so on.  Man's knowledge of the universe may grow, but ذرة does not change."
...
"I don't understand," said Alif.  "What does this have to do with The Thousand and One Days?  It's not a holy book.  Not even to the jinn.  It's a bunch of fairy tales with double meanings that we can't figure out."
"How dense and literal it is..."
"Your mother's dense," Alif said wearily.
"My mother was an errant crest of sea foam.  But that's neither here nor there.  Stories are words, Alif, and words, like ذرة, sometimes represent much grander things..."

G. Willow, Wilson. Alif the Unseen. New York: Grove Press, 2012. 207-208.  

What really interests me is how I am reading this two years after this article by Rober Krulwich tickled my fancy in a similar way.  Krulwich tells a story of the (not-quite-yet-Buddha) prince Siddhartha contesting for his bride-to-be.  One challenge in these contests is a mathematical problem: how many Xs in a yojana (~10 kilometers) where X is the smallest possible unit imaginable.  And he's not far wrong!  He estimates the approximate size of a carbon atom. 

The moral of the stories?  Just because someone lived a thousand, two thousand or more millennia ago does not de facto make them a moron. 

That, or the Buddha was a jinn, but that's mixing mythologies.  ;)

Homework for 15 to 19 October

Latin 1:
Monday--Timeo, timere "to fear"
Tuesday--Casa, casae (f) "little house"
Wednesday--Via, viae (f) "road" or "way"
Thursday--Ager, agri (m) "field"

Latin 2:
Monday--Pono, ponere "to place" or "put" (present tense, active and passive)
Tuesday--Pono, ponere "to place" or "put" (imperfect tense, active and passive)
Wednesday--Figo, figere "to fasten" or "attach" (present tense, active and passive)
Thursday--Figo, figere "to fasten" or "attach" (imperfect tense, active and passive)

Latin 3: Ghosts of Cannae
Monday--5.1
Tuesday--5.2
Wednesday--5.3
Thursday--5.4

Latin 4:
We will go over chapter four of Justinian's Flea for tomorrow, chapter five for when we get back!

Bring your own device experiment

As per our various discussions last week, please consider the following text amended to the syllabus:

Students are encouraged to bring personal electronic devices for educational purposes (cell phones, mp3 players, tablets, etc.) Students need faculty permission to make cell-phone calls during school hours. Inappropriate use of a personal electronic device may result in confiscation.

N.B. Students assume responsibility for safety and storage of their devices.

Examples of acceptable educational uses include, but are not limited to:
· Checking a definition
· Inputting homework, notes or other class materials
· Listening to music while working solo or in small group
· Searching for supplementary material or information

Examples of unacceptable uses include, but are not limited to:
· Texting on an unrelated topic to someone outside the classroom
· Searching for material specifically barred by law or school policies

My objective in this experiment is to…

1. Teach and demonstrate good digital citizenship
2 Teach source evaluation (digital, traditional and hybrid)
3Teach how to use technology to produce a good product, i.e. avoiding “death by PowerPoint”

This is not a license to abuse electronics in other classes; this extends only to this classroom and no further. Please make sure that your electronic devices are stowed and secure before leaving the classroom.

Homework for 8 to 12 October

Latin 1 and 2
Monday: Amicus, amici (m)--Friend
Tuesday: Animus, animi (m)--Breath/spirit
Wednesday: Vir, viri (m)--Man

Latin 3
Monday: Ghosts 3.6
Tuesday: 4.1
Wednesday: 4.2

Latin 4
Chapter four of Justinian's Flea for next Monday

The Last Unicorn's contribution to the myth class

So, I need to chase down this quote in the 'real' book, but I have to wait for it from the library...  Instead, this is my transcription from the graphic novel; words from a brigand who is offended that the wizard knows stories about Robin Hood, but not himself:

"Robin Hood's a classic example of the heroic folk figures synthesized out of need... John Henry is another.  Men have to have heroes, but no man can ever be as big as the need, and so a legend grows around a grain of truth, like a pearl... Robin Hood is the fable and I am the reality.  No ballads will accumulate  around my name unless I write them myself; no children will read of my adventures in their school books and play at me after school.  I mean, you can't leave epic events to the people.  They get everything wrong."

Of course, though he speaks about Robin Hood, the same could be said for many heroes.  ;)

Cleopatra and de quiz de Nile

Remember, quizzes for all Latin sections tomorrow; below is a brief summary of the mini-seminar from Latin 2 on the movie Cleopatra.

~The movie had a slower pace than many students desired but the action was good when it happened; the second half was more political and focused on the core characters of Antony and Cleopatra rather than the wider story.

~Cleopatra was very charismatic and sympathetic but many felt that she got over Caesar's death too quickly; she was with Caesar for power but Antony for love.

~Through most of the movie, Cleopatra want Egypt to be great again and tries anything within her power to make that happen.  Her focus is on her son as the heir of Egypt and Caesar but then she chooses Antony over her duty and obligations.  At the end, she's not crying over her son or kingdom, but Antony.

~Does the queen emulate the goddess Isis to make her seem more confident or does emulating a goddess make her so?  She was raised to think of herself as a living deity, something which Caesar and Marc Antony were not raised to belive nor would their culture acccept the mindset of one man being "master of Rome" (or anything else for that matter).

~"Octavian really got on my nerves."  Yea, well, emperors are not known for making friends...  ;)

HomeWHOOPS for 1 to 5 October

Seems I forgot to post this to the blog yesterday...  Oops, sorry.  :\

Latin 1 and 2 (2 does Imperfect as well as perfect)
Monday: Teneo, tenere (to hold)
Tuesday: Video, videre (to see)
Wednesday: Voco, vocare (to call)

Latin 3--Ghosts
Monday: 3.3
Tuesday: 3.4
Wednesday: 3.5

Latin 4
Chapter 3 of Justinian's Flea for Monday