CAM is pleased to announce Nancy Antonellis of Brockton High School as the 2023 winner of the CAM Excellence in Teaching Classics Award. Nancy was chosen for her commitment to student engagement, pedagogical innovation, and lifelong learning. She has approached the teaching of Latin in innovative ways, including work with ancient inscriptions and a project in which students designed their own vases. She has moved her department from a grammar-translation pedagogy to a focus on proficiency, with work to implement the Ørberg series in the classroom. Her service to the Classics in Massachusetts includes work on updating the MA World Language Frameworks and the MTEL for Latin and Classical Humanities.  In addition to her work at Brockton she is also a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Reading; her research is an extension of her Museum Outreach work at the ancient Corinth Museum in Greece 

L to R: Greg Stringer, Emma Vanderpool, Jacqui Bloomberg at the MaFLA Awards Luncheon, at ACTFL, Friday, Nov. 18, 2022.

CAM Excellence in Teaching Classics: 2020, 2021, and 2022

The Covid years have taken their toll, and we did not manage to present the “Excellence in Teaching Classics” award in the last two years, but there is a fortunate result: we are able to make up for lost time by retroactively awarding the prize to three worthy teachers.

Jacqui Bloomberg, Dana Hall School (2020)

Jacqui Bloomberg has been a legendary and dynamic force at the Dana Hall School, where she is currently World Languages Department Head.  For over thirty years at Dana Hall she has taught every level of Latin, including AP and a course on women in the ancient world.  In recent years she has also been offering a dual enrollment course. 

Jacqui has always been devoted to developing the depth and breadth of her Latin for herself and for students, as a participant and instructor at the immersive programs of SALVI, and most recently attending the Conventiculum Bostoniense. She regularly seeks out pedagogy workshops and integrates communicative methods in her classroom. She is a model and mentor for her colleagues, a regular participant in extra-academic Latin, leading sessions with Lupercal and contributing to reading groups. 

In addition to the amazing things she does for her students, Jacqui took a sabbatical tour of other teachers' classrooms a few years ago, and made a website of her experience -- the JACOBEIA—and filmed the video, Teaching Latin in the XXI Century.  Her high profile in the profession is the result of hard work and her willingness to travel, study and take chances.  With her magisterial expertise and huge heart, Jacqui should receive all the honors our field has to give.  CAM is pleased to present her with its Award of Excellence in the Teaching of Classics.

Emma Vanderpool, Springfield Honors Academy (2021)

Emma Vanderpool deserves a special place in the world of those of us who teach Latin authors because she is herself an author who writes in Latin!  She has nearly a dozen Latin novellas in print, generally accessible for students in Latin II or III; these  books cleverly reinforce core vocabulary and supplement the classroom textbook.  Moreover, her books are rooted in history and culture, making them gateways for discussion of Roman life.  Since she started teaching she has continuously invested time and effort into applying best practices in her classroom.  Her enthusiasm is famous and contagious.

Emma has also been active in the wider community of classicists as a regular presenter at professional conferences and in her critical efforts to help her colleagues build connections to one another and to teaching resources.  Many of us know her for her indefatigable work in making the remote CANE meetings work in 2020, 2021, and 2022.  In fact, she has been an important contributor to virtually all national and regional classical associations.  She is currently the Massachusetts Representative for CANE.  Her delightful, collaborative energy both in and out of the classroom make her truly deserving of CAM’s Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Classics.

Gregory Stringer, Burlington High School (2022)

Latin was revolutionized at Burlington High School with the arrival of Gregory Stringer.  Gregory rebuilt the curriculum from the ground up by introducing a new textbook and the use of communicative methods, especially spoken Latin, which has greatly enlivened his classrooms, though he does not lower his expectations and students really do still have to memorize things.  Enrollment has grown substantially under his watch, and his students continue to perform well on the National Latin Exam, demonstrating the efficacy of his approach.  His expertise in delivering effective and engaging instruction have ensured that Burlington will have a vigorous program for years to come.

Gregory has also been an outstanding colleague to the broader community of Latin teachers; he is a “preeminent ambassador” for the use of spoken Latin and has been generous in mentoring others.  Indeed, he is now the Program Director for the Conventiculum Bostoniense.  He has also been busy gathering data from classrooms that use active methodologies and has begun to publish the results in journal articles.  In his role as the Classics in Curricula Coordinator for CANE he serves teachers in New England and beyond.  An especially important contribution to the profession was his work in planning the 2020 Our Voices in Classics conference, which brought together a variety of speakers on inclusive pedagogy.  His enthusiasm and generosity are hallmarks of his career, making him worthy of CAM’s Award of Excellence in the Teaching of Classics.