Magus Quadratus

My sister sent me on a hunt for a "magic Latin box" which conjured up images of treasure chests filled with short cuts to understanding Latin. What she meant was this magic square. Note how backwards, forwards, up and down, it always says the same thing. Here's the website where I found it which explains mathematical magic squares as well.

What is a magic square?

So besides our Roman numeral Sudoku, and those moments of grammatical decoding that required the math part of the brain, we now have yet another way to connect math and Latin.

Tituli Micantes

Quizlet

I found this on a blog made by a science teacher classmate of mine. I think we've all used, or at least been told to use, flash cards at one point or another. I'm not sure how well they've worked for me personally in the past. Here's a site that allows you to make a set of flashcards and test yourself in various ways.

Negatives:
~ Physical flashcards can go to the library, to your friends house, to the beach, in the car, to places computers can't go. Until we all have some kind of smart phone, when a free moment for a little bit of studying arises, we can't pull out flashcards stored on the internet.
~ I always thought that the physical act of writing out the flashcards by hand increased information retention.

Positives:
~ Teaches good strategies for how to use flashcards effectively, strategies that can apply to physical flashcards should the digital ones not be available.
~ The ability to make groups to share sets of flashcards and have a discussion forum could be really useful for cooperative learning.
~ Various forms of testing.
~ Games: simple as they may be, it's no less than simplistic than your standard addictive computer puzzle game, and those are always fun.

Maybe not a paradigm shifting tool, but a useful tool nonetheless. Happy studying!

Emendatio

Apparently the History of Rome podcast is not on hiatus. The podcaster's profile had me confused but there was a new podcast uploaded since I first mentioned his site. So I suggest subscribing if you want to keep your basic Roman history fresh.
I've been listening to a lot of them and they are really enjoyable. Now I've found something to keep my mind busy so I don't mind doing dishes so much.

Fortis mortem solum aliquando gustat

For those of you in Western New York, you can catch performances of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in Delaware Park, any night of the week but Monday, at 7:30, until August 16. More information can be found on their website.

Shakespeare in Delaware Park

I'm not sure how crowded they are on weeknights, but on a weekend I'd be sure to get there at least half an hour early to get a good spot on the lawn.

I know Shakespeare isn't Classical exactly, but he certainly borrowed from the Romans, Ovid, Plutarch, et alii. Thinking like a teacher, everyone has to read Shakespeare in school at some point, and I think we should connect our Latin class to it if we can, and reinforce our understanding of both subjects.

And anyway it's free theatre. You can't go wrong with free Shakespeare in the park on a nice summer night. Enjoy the show!