My language teaching focuses on the mastery of the ancient language by making mistakes. This means that I do not evaluate whether students' answers in class are right or wrong, but the students' ability to apply their knowledge of grammatical rules to new exercises. As a result, students are not afraid to make mistakes in class but recognize mistakes as part of the learning process. Students are motiviated to participate and tackle impromptu exercises. They support their peers and grow confident to address and work on topics they struggle with.

I welcome teaching observations and peer feedback from fellow instructors inside and outside my discipline as they provide a fresh perspective on class interaction and help me reflect on my teaching strategies. Below are reflections about my Latin 101 class in fall 2020. The quotations from the two triangle teaching observations are organized by topic and distinguished in print. The full reports, with the observers' permission, are available here: Report 1 Report 2

1) “share screen” function & live editing of power points

"In particular, I thought it was a clever move to edit the PowerPoint slides to illustrate the answers provided (verbally) by students. This meant those who weren’t answering the question could follow along by watching the screen. It also meant that students practiced their pronunciation at the same time as they familiarized themselves with the spelling of these verb forms.

Another strength of this teaching strategy is that the instructor could loop back to examples covered earlier in class in response to students’ questions, helping these students to connect new ideas with those topics already covered."

"The use of PowerPoint as a virtual blackboard was really impressive and seemed to work effectively to bring interactive and real-time experience to the classroom. It is difficult to allow that sort of tactility in an online class. This was a way I have never seen PowerPoint used. "

2) "Cold calling" & Collaboration in classes of small size:

"Something I noticed that I thought worked quite well was how, whenever a student asked a question, the instructor opened it up to the group. Often the student who asked the question would then talk through the process they have been taught to work out the answer. This meant that instead of just giving students the answer, the instructor would help each student work through the problem and help them figure it out for themselves. "

"This ensured everyone was engaged and learning, and I know that gave some accountability for students to study outside of class. As a result, I felt the students had a strong grasp on the concepts. In areas where students might have had trouble translating or breaking down phrases, she worked well to encourage them to continue searching for the correct answer. (...) Engaging the students by having them actively participating was really strong. I know if I was taking a course with this format, I would never be skipping homework and would be studying quite a bit to prepare for class. Additionally, the more you interacted with the students, the more confident they seemed to be in problem-solving. I could see they were able to begin visualizing patterns and applying techniques across other concepts based on the interactive learning in the beginning of the course."

3) Class atmosphere:

"The atmosphere in the classroom was relaxed, students appeared to be at ease admitting they didn’t know an answer or to ask questions, and often students would volunteer answers to questions to help out a classmate."

4) Being approachable in the remote environment

"I really liked how at the end of class the instructor offered to stay in the Zoom chat to answer any questions students had. When it’s so easy to push “end meeting for all” on the Zoom chat, I thought this was a really clever way of 1) recreating some semblance of a normal (i.e., physical) classroom in which students have the opportunity to linger behind after class, and 2) creating an environment where students can come to the instructor with questions or concerns on a regular basis, thus creating an ongoing feedback-system between student and instructor."

5) Questions on my teaching strategy

"What happens when students do not prepare for class? Are they left stumbling about, or do you cater to catching them up in class? How about if a student is just having a rough day? Does that affect their participation grade, or can they make up for it somewhere else?"

Should students fall behind material or attend class without homework, I take this into account if notified ahead of class and do not cold call them during homework review. However, I still encourage the students to participate when they feel confident in review and impromptu exercises in class.