Blogging for Vergil: Another Latin Epic in the Making

[Andrew Reinhard]

Emily Silverman tuaght Latin at William Penn Charter School, in Philadelphia, for the 2006-7 school year. One of her classes created a rather dynamic site on Wordpress focusing on Vergil's Aeneid with links to blogs of many of the personnae in the epic. Her current students are in love with the project, and past students wish they would have had a project like this when they were enrolled (how often does that happen?). From her "About..." page:

"Once upon a time, not long ago, a couple of students were joking about making facebook pages for Dido and Aeneas or setting them up on match.com. Ha ha…ah ha! This project starts here and moves forward and upwards and backwards. Creativity, recollection of the Aeneid and research into other arts and letters are all here. Had we more time, I’d tighten the ties to the Latin in selections from the Aeneid, probably asking them to provide their own translations and podcasting their reading in Latin and English. You’ll note when you look at the blogs (see the blogroll for links) that there is tremendous flexibility. As long as I could see the connection, or the connection was made clear, it worked for me. The students, by and large, are about as engaged and connected as I could possibly wish. Not only have many added above and beyond the basic requirements, they talk about their characters, the Aeneid, the insights…

"Thank you for taking a look. I hope you and yours have as much fun with these as have we. Feedback and comments are welcome! Curatis ut valeatis…Magistra Emily Silverman."