What the Heck am I Thinking?!!

Honestly, I am the last person who should be doing a blog, let alone one on Comprehensible Input (CI) in the Latin classroom.
 

Although I have been a Latin teacher for over 15 years now, I can count on one hand, or more specifically, on one finger the number of semesters which I have been exclusively using CI in my classes. For the past 5 years or so, I have been dabbling/using TPRS but that was the extent, and I never really had an end goal in mind for students when I was using it. To me, TPRS was just a great way to teach vocabulary in an interesting way - who does not like a good story? But outside of that, I never ventured past anything else with CI. I continued to focus on teaching explicit grammar and made sure that I completed all of the required chapters in the book.

For the past 4 months, however, I have dedicated myself to teaching Latin using CI. This past summer, I was fortunate enough to have attended THREE separate workshops on CI in the Latin classroom, led by fellow Latin teacher and friend Bob Patrick. Of course, this has required a MAJOR shift in my pedagogy, and I am still trying to figure it all out, but wow, I am seeing results with my students like I have never before.

Which brings me back to my original opening statement: who am I to start a blog on using CI in the Latin classroom, when I myself am trying to figure it all out? A few reasons:

1) There are only a handful of pedagogical blogs dedicated to CI in the Latin classroom. And let me say, they are all excellent, but part of me feels the need to add my voice in all of this.

2) I want a place to storehouse CI materials which I have created. I have shared a number of resources which I have created with other Latin teachers online, and after awhile, I forget what-I-have-shared-with-whom or who-wants-what. It would be much easier for me to put everything into one place, and folks can take what they want, alter it for their own purposes, etc, if they want.

3) I want to share and dialogue with other users of CI. I have enjoyed gleaning much CI wisdom from many blogs out there and would like to continue that dialogue.

4) I want a place to share my own experiences, victories and failures with CI, especially with other Latin teachers who are using CI. CI is starting to gain some momentum in the Latin classroom, and I want to be part of this movement.

So here then I resolve to discuss my "journey into CI" with all of you. I have no idea where I am going with all of this or to where this path will take me, but gosh, it is all pretty exciting. Here's to the journey!