Many of you may already know me, or you know part of me, so this is less of an introduction and more of an introduction: the remix (insert your favourite DJ’s tag here). My name is Miriam Patrick and I am one of the founders of Scroll and Grove. I was also one of the founders of Pomegranate Beginnings (PBP). A lot has gone on since PBP was founded back in 2015. If you are interested in my academic profile, you can see that here! In this post, however, I want to consider the changes I’ve gone through as a teacher, a Classicist, and as a writer. When PBP was founded, and we published the first Latin novella, I had no idea what would come after. There were great things, but also not so great things; people loved our work and people hated our work. This is true for anyone who ever puts their work into the public sphere. I think, however, that the good far outweighed the bad. While I greatly appreciate all the feedback and engagement from my Classicist community, what will always remain true for me is that I do what I do because I like helping students succeed. They are the reason I get up every morning to go into my classroom and teach. Back in 2015, I was nearly finishing a master’s degree in Classics with a thesis focusing on proto-racism in the ancient world, particularly working with how the Romans treated the tribes of what we call Ethiopia and the tribes of what we call Ireland. This is still a passion of mine and my research in this field is never ending. But, my passions have expanded and evolved. While I still use Comprehensible Input (CI) in my classroom, I no longer only teach Latin. I also teach English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and I now have a second master’s degree in Special Education. Latin was and is my first academic passion. A lot of what you will see from me in Scroll and Grove will be on the topics in Latin I love, but you will also see new things from me. I have always been social justice minded, but I am now in a different place than I was nearly 10 years ago. I think it is a better place and I am so excited to share it with you! Here is just a taste of what is to come in future blog posts from me:
Written by Miriam Patrick
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In a sense, every post or podcast or publication or conversation that we hold here or through Scroll and Grove is asking this question. It could be about what we are doing here in this blog. It could be about what we as teachers and learners are doing here in our classrooms with our students in all their wonderful variety. It could be what we are doing here in our personal lives. Parker J. Palmer says that when we teach, we always teach three things, whether we know it or not. We teach a subject. We teach human beings. And, we teach our lives. So, of those arenas, we will constantly be asking: what are we doing here. Scroll and Grove as a joint effort between daughter and father. He retired a few months ago after 32 years of teaching, mostly Latin, mostly high school but a few other things and in different places and levels along the way. She is in the middle of her career as a teacher, teaching Latin and English as a Second Language, sponsoring or co-sponsoring several student organizations. She is in the thick of teaching, and he has the benefit of the long gaze over a career. We will be offering these blogs twice every month, and sometimes a guest blogger will join us. We will be here reflecting on three things: 1) Latin as language and as literature, looking at meaningful connections between the ancient and modern world.; 2) the art and science of human beings teaching human beings; and 3) the search for truth and meaning through practical and transformative experiences. While we might at times try to tease one of these out from the others, the reality is that they all are always weaving in and through each other. We hope that you will join us in the questions and the search for meaning as we do this work and answer this call to teach. Written by Bob Patrick
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AuthorUnless otherwise noted, all blogs are written by Bob and Miriam. You can learn about them on the about page! ArchivesCategories
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