We have our Amicitia social network, where students, teachers, and anyone who is a classical enthusiast can join and start conversations on just about anything. We have several groups there, ranging from National Junior Classical League chapters to students who are building ancient Rome using Minecraft.

Coming soon is the American Classical League’s technology committee as well as the Rome in Situ program. Stay tuned for those new additions in the near future.

So, if you are itching to have a question answered, and you are not sure where exactly to turn – start with us! All you have to do is head on over to our Q&A feature and ask any question you’d like. Our community will answer it as best they can – you can follow the responses and even vote on which you think is the best!

If you feel you are an expert in the field already, then why not share what you know with the rest of the community and answer some of the questions posed here! As you do, you will gain points and your reputation will rise among the rest of the community! Show off how smart you are by answering questions and gain the respect and awe of the rest of the Romae community!

Get started now!

Romae.org/questions/ask

Yet, how do we incorporate reliable images and other visuals into our curricula? We could buy the DVDs or amass a collection of documentaries, which could be both time consuming and expensive. We could instead get a Netflix account, which is a great way to have access to documentaries via the streaming feed (which is accessible via your Internet connection) or even check out a rotation of Roman documentaries to port to class.

Another shortcoming of this method is editing the content. Maybe you don’t want to watch all 50 or so minutes, but instead want to incorporate just a few moments of what life was like to illustrate new vocabulary or some other concept. Instead of plopping in a DVD and finding that part in the film and then ejecting it to maybe do it again for another segment or example or even for another class, you could use a resource that is free, easy to use, and accessible at your fingertips – YouTube.

Why? For starters, there is a plethora of content available on YouTube that could cover a topic you are interested in conveying to your class. For example, there are full documentaries uploaded as well as various video of numerous trips to Rome and its sites. If you can’t go and take the footage yourself, someone else already has – why not make a use of it?

The other concern is time – you don’t have all class to dedicate to a documentary but you would like to get your students to focus on maybe one incident. A lot of times sections of these documentaries are uploaded so you can find a clip that would give an appropriate example. You don’t have to dig up the DVD and edit it yourself or try to find that particular scene from the movie. You won’t have to spend your weekend previewing various films and then editing just to get that 2 minute clip into your class. Instead, do a search for whatever topic and you’ve got it!

But what is the best way to gather all of these clips into an organized fashion so that you can come back to them whenever you want? Create a YouTube channel! It’s very easy and chances are, you have a Gmail account already – so use it to create an account with YouTube and you now have a channel.

The next thing you will want to do is create a playlist – this basically is like creating a giant DVD to collect all of your film clips on so that you can come back to it and play whatever clip you want. Maybe you want to make a playlist that is general like Roman History or another that is more specific like the Roman Republic. What you would then do is search for clips and then add them to your designated playlist (there is a little + sign in the bottom right of the thumbnail of your video or just under the video there is an add button). You can even leave a little note so you can remind yourself later why you saved that clip.

Another great benefit of having your own YouTube channel is it can serve as a resource for your students to be referred to. Maybe you want to assign some homework and you can always have your students refer to the clip you played in class for reference. Or, better yet, assign to them a new clip they had never seen before in order to get their reaction. There is a lot you can do.

You also are not limited to only video clips from movies, documentaries, etc. Maybe you will want to use movie trailers or video game clips. Maybe even grab recordings of various songs – there are numerous examples of recordings that are trying to recreate Roman music that you could always ask your students to react to.

YouTube is also accessible via mobile devices and your students, most likely, already know how to navigate around it. In fact, don’t be surprised if they give you some tips on how to use YouTube to make class more exciting – and that is precisely what you want: to involve your students in their own education! That is an engaged, 21st century learner!

With such a valuable resource like YouTube, it definitely helps to have access to endless hours of content that can help illustrate what life was like for the ancient Romans. Why not head on over and check it out for yourself? You can follow the link on the primary navigation menu above (marked “RomaeTV”) or just click here to take a look. Subscribe and let us know if you want us to add anything!

Is your domus lacking style? Do you need to redecorate your cubiculum or latrina? A museum exhibit in the Netherlands can help.Through January 6, 2012, the Limburgs Museum Venlo presents IXEA: The Roman Store “IXEA: je Romeinse woonwarenhuis” – site in Dutch and German, an installation that combines displays of re-imagined Roman housewares with the familiar layout of an IKEA store.

via An IKEA for ancient Roman housewares | Gadling.com.

via Romes police dress up as centurions to catch gang of conmen fleecing tourists | Mail Online.

via Is Rome’s Pantheon a Giant Sundial?.

Although it might seem that our love affair with Latin came from our attachment to Classical-style education methods, my own love affair with Latin predates our homeschooling. I was raised among people who thought that Latin was a desperately important feature of a “good education” and who mourned that it had been discontinued from the local high school. I got bits and pieces of Latin, nouns and phrases and heaps of Roman and Greek mythology, but no formal Latin training. By the time I got through college I could pronounce anything you put in front of me, read and decipher simple stuff, and trace Latin/English word roots. Besides being able to identify bizarre Latin literary terms like “bathos” and read scientific nomenclature, I felt that my hodgepodge of Church Latin, random bits thrown at me by desperate teachers, and Latin puzzled out in the course of being a medieval recreationist had enriched my vocabulary and my life in numerous ways. So I was determined, even before our final commitment to homeschooling, to make sure that my kids got Latin.

via Rebel Homeschool: Our Love Affair With Latin Language.

The research was carried out examining samples from various types of trees, or employing the study of dendrochronology. The evidence points out that there were drastic climate changes each decade from 250 to 500 AD. The climate was shifting from dry and cool to warm and wet every 10 years. As such, the agriculture was drastically affected which lead to turmoil as ancient societies were more closely tied to agricultural production – unlike modern societies that can escape such cycles more easily due to improvements in agricultural technology.

Read more.

Take a look at these songs and share them with others! You will be showing how Latin is still relevant while also putting a fun spin on the tradition. And, just a suggestion, you might want to find the music to sing to.

Carols_Carmina Diei Christi