When looking up our good friend Julian Morgan on Google I found that he is speaking at one of a number of training days for Classics teachers run by Keynote.

Keynote seem to have got hold of some good lecturers. Julian is involved in the day called ...   more »

The item below, from today's Times, looks at first sight like another blow to the Classics, since most Classics teaching is in independent schools at present, and admission to universities from these schools will become progressively harder.

It could have a silver lining, though.

First, as things are at present, independent school students offering Latin   more »

This came into my in-box this evening. Brian Bishop is a member of a London group that meets to chat in Latin, and told me about it recently. He must have sent a copy of his e-mail to the convenor of the group, who replied in Latin, and sent a copy to me. So here is the e-mail, with quotation from Brian's:   more »

Calling all Latin teachers! Here's a website that I think you really ought to investigate.

St Louis University seems to have very go-ahead Classics staff, and their website has not only some excellent teaching theory but also some fun 'flash' movies that might come in handy for classroom use.   more »

If you are interested in the new Cambridge e-learning project and couldn't join the web chat this afternoon, you may be interested in the complete transcript. I have put up 4 photos out of those that were on screen during the chat.   more »

Excerpted from the Institute of Classical Studies list of meetings, I offer the programme of this excellent festival. If I have missed any events, or have made mistakes, please let me know by using the Comment facility. I would like this to be an accurate guide, so help!   more »

The ancient Greek sculptor Phidias might have created the unique bronze head of a Thracian ruler, recently found in Bulgaria.   more »

Here is my personal response to the experience of going to Euripides' Hecuba at the Donmar Warehouse in London.   more »

For some reason the Institute of Classical Studies, based in the Senate House in London, sends me its annual Meetings List, which has just arrived on my doormat. Although honoured to receive the mailing, I'm not likely myself to attend lectures and seminars in London, so I wondered how to pass on the information to those who might attend. A small search through the 48 page booklet and - Bingo! - I find that all the information is here.   more »

I got home this afternoon all ready to report on Hecuba at the Donmar, when I found this e-mail, and put Hecuba on the back burner. I think we should make use of this opportunity. Here's the message ...   more »

Berlioz's music is fabulous, and I am very grateful to have seen the Covent Garden production back in the 1950s, a traditionally staged version of the two operas performed in one evening, as the ENO is going to do. The two moments that stick in the memory are the Trojan March, choral version, belted out by massed chorus bunched together as for a whole-school photo, and in complete and wondrous contrast, the lone Trojan sailor high in the rigging of Aeneas' ship, singing a wistful and beautiful melody - don't know what it was about, but it was entrancing. But burning aircraft in the Aeneid? No thanks!   more »

An interesting article in The Age (from Australia) gives some facts and figures about the United States' brand of imperialism. But it's the reading list that interests me.   more »

I think this article is worth printing out and putting on your classroom wall. See what you think. "This language is so powerful and inspiring," she tells her students at Provo High on Friday, their first day. "You will have synapses shooting off in your brain you never had; you will have insights and 'ah-has' you never had."   more »

The Independent's interview with actor Tim Piggott-Smith, who is Agamemnon in the Donmar Warehouse's coming production of Hecuba, incidentally gives a round-up of some of the plays and films to look out for. Here's some of the interview (look out for an interesting sentence or two on the tragic chorus - useful for essays?):   more »

At long last, prompted by the thump of The Journal of Classics Teaching on my doormat, I popped the Cambridge e-learning demo disc into my laptop to check it out. Yes, it's good. Well, after all the time, effort and money that has gone into it, one would expect no less. Let me get my two niggles out of the way now   more »

That's it, really. Here's is web page: http://alexanderthemovie.warnerbros.com/xtremedesktop/   more »

There's to be a new version of 'Hecuba' as remodelled by Frank McGuiness. 'Hecuba' previews at the Donmar theatre (0870 060 6624) from Sept 9.   more »

My learned friend Brian Bishop occasionally sends me interesting pieces that he has picked up from internet news groups (at least one of them conducted entirely in Latin). He sent this to me today, part of the discussion over a threatened Latin course (or 'program') apparently, and I pass it on. I hope we have no Classics teachers in the UK who are like the one described in Ginny's piece. Her final paragraph   more »

I've just this moment had an e-mail from David Swift, who has a page of photos from the ARLT 2004 Summer School. By the way, David is preparing a Classics Department web site that can serve as a model for ...   more »

Way back in March the ARLT Refresher Day course members were told about the Gifted and Talented project run by Warwick University. At long last I've got round to checking this out. It strikes me that here's something we can do for those brilliant pupils that we would love to have for our Latin or Greek set, but who have chosen to take double maths and physics. You'll see that the page, when you look it up, introduces the Classics group like this:   more »

The bank holiday dramatisation of the Odyssey was not unique, apparently. In 1981 American public radio presented an eight and a half hour version, and it has now (2004) been issued, probably on CD, but certainly for download from Audible.com.   more »