APA
Pre-Collegiate Teaching
Awards
2001
Robert W. Cape, Jr., Austin
College
Chair, ACL/APA Joint Committee on Classics in American
Education
APA Plenary Session, January 5, 2002
Dr.
Melissa Schons Bishop
If, fellow members of the APA, there
happened to be someone here among us who, ignorant of our
practices and ways, saw us sitting quietly, politely, and
well-attired, honoring our finest pre-collegiate level
Latin teachers at the APA Plenary Session, she might
think that these teachers of such a revered ancient
language would be the best at presiding quietly but
firmly, and yes, decorously, over a class of
well-disciplined pupils dutifully reciting their lines,
conjugating their verbs, declining their nouns, and
sorting their syntax, as is the image some have of the
optimal Latin classroom.
But she wouldn’t have a clue.
Passion for their subject and boundless energy in helping
their students learn characterize our best teachers, and
the Latin classroom is a lively and noisy place these
days. Moreover,
our best teachers teach other teachers about the ancient
world, ensuring that our discipline is not isolated, out
of the fray. These
teachers are responsible for the resurgence of Latin in
American high schools and junior high schools.
Dr. Melissa Schons Bishop is such a teacher. Dr. Bishop earned her BA in Latin from
Wellesley College, her MA and PhD in Classics from UCLA,
and now teaches at Lenape Regional High School, Medford,
New Jersey. Dr. Bishop is a shining example of a colleague who
has successfully navigated that treacherous strait
between graduate school and the high school classroom.
Her students speak of her extraordinary
devotion to helping them learn and her willingness to
sacrifice her own time after school to ensure that they
know their material.
She is one teacher they say they won’t forget. She has high expectations of
her students, and they note that she will not let them
get by without learning the material.
Their comments have a common theme: she “has shown
herself to be [in] a class above the typical
teacher.”
Her colleagues speak of her extraordinary
energy, enthusiasm for teaching, and innovation.
One notes that she has high expectations not only of the
students, but of herself.
It is particularly in the area of innovative pedagogical
methods that they give her highest praise.
They talk of interactive and multidisciplinary activities, art
classes, Latin Olympics, students networking with other
students, and “teaching for ‘multiple
intelligences.’”
She has also become a resource for other teachers in her
district who want to teach with the Internet.
O, tempora! O, mores! Teaching
Latin with the Internet?
We all know the ubiquity of the ‘Web’ these days
and it is no longer news that many, many Latin teachers
make some use of it for or with their students.
But Dr. Bishop has woven it into the fabric of her class so
thoroughly and so well that it enhances rather than
substitutes for her own teaching. She has exercises and
activities for every chapter in Ecce Romani
for students to practice and review, especially for the
more typically boring rote activities like memorizing
forms and vocabulary. These activities help keep Latin interesting to
students after class is over.
She also has web pages for the parents so they can follow the
class progress along with their children.
She states baldly, “You can expect your child to have
homework every night.” She gives them tips on how
they can help their child study more effectively, and
provides information about when and how she can be
reached—even in the evening!—if parents have
a question or if she can help their child in some way. Her pages are a valuable resource for other
teachers, and she has used them to give in-service
courses for her fellow language teachers on how to
incorporate the Web into their own classes. As one university classicist puts it, her web site
“puts my own web page, and those of many university
classicists, to shame.”
Her dissertation was on ancient witches and she maintains her
scholarly interest in ancient magic and women in
antiquity, giving papers on these topics at regional
meetings and in workshops at University of Southern
California and Harvard University.
She has received several distinguished fellowships and her
excellent teaching has been recognized by grants and
nominations for other awards.
Quid plura? For her extraordinary teaching of students
and teachers, for her dedication, enthusiasm, and energy,
we honor Dr. Melissa Schons Bishop with the 2001 APA
Award for Excellence in Teaching at the APA
Pre-Collegiate Level.
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Sally
R. Davis
Quid Plura? There is hardly
a teacher who has been involved with high school Latin
for any time who does not know the name of or has not
been influenced by Sally Davis. She received her BA in Latin from Bryn Mawr
College, an MAT from University of Alaska, and an MA in
Latin from the Catholic University of America.
She has taught in the Arlington Virginia Public Schools
continuously since 1974.
Most of us are familiar with her several
publications, including an edition of Cicero’s
Somnium Scipionis with Gilbert Lawall, the APA’s
own report Latin in American Schools, her Review and Test Preparation Guide
for the Intermediate Latin Student,
her Vergil Reference CD,
contributions to scholarly journals and the Teachers
Guide to Advanced Placement Latin, and her memorable appearance as the
Cumaean Sybil and Nero’s professional venefica
in the Forum Romanum
video series. She
has served on major committees of the APA and ACL, as
President of the Washington Classical Society and
Classical Association of Virginia, and has helped write
the National Standards for Latin, the National Latin
Exam, and the Advanced Placement Latin Exam.
She has received many other prestigious honors, including
fellowships from the National Endowment for the
Humanities and Rockefeller Foundation, and an
ovatio from the Classical Association of the
Middle West and South.
But in the classroom is where she is really
active. Students and colleagues alike
speak to her enormous energy and the great amounts of
time she spends with her students.
Words such as “encouragement” and “inspire”
fill their letters. They speak of her “infectious
enthusiasm” that helped students become interested
in Latin. All
note the extra time she gives her students, after class
or during her Cena Latina, where she encourages them to do advanced
work outside of class.
Rigor and high expectations are there in abundance—and
evidenced in her students’ scores national exams.
Parents sing her praises for the academic metamorphoses she
has accomplished: one couple comments on her ability to “transform
a middle school child obsessed with popularity and
clothing into a two-time National Latin Exam gold medal
winner.” They
add that her class is a “priceless oasis in a
school and an era where too few view intellectual
accomplishment as the primary goal and ‘relevance’
has become the ubiquitous benchmark.”
Fellow teachers and supervisors attest to
her dynamism, sensitivity, and creativity as a teacher
and as a colleague. One says, “She
exhibits an enthusiasm for teaching that is contagious
and that motivates students and colleagues alike to take
a serious and professional approach to their work.”
They comment on her constant concern “about the academic
growth of her students” and about her continuous
search for opportunities for her own learning and
professional growth.
She is a mentor to other teachers in her district, a teacher
of teachers in university pedagogy courses, and a
national influence on Latin teaching with her
participation in workshops.
With her concern for teaching in the classroom and teaching
her colleagues and peers, in the words of her nominator, “Ms.
Davis has crossed over the traditional division between
pre-collegiate and higher education and has distinguished
herself in both arenas.
She has extended her love for Latin and Classics to thousands
of students.”
To give the final words to her students,
one who went on to study classics at Gettysburg College,
Harvard, Cambridge University, and will soon finish his
PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, says he
has had many excellent instructors, but feels “justified
in asserting that Sally Davis is as good as they come.
No other person has exerted a greater influence on the course
of my life or on the bent of my mind.”
He adds, “if it had not been for Sally’s
encouragement and guidance, I might not have gone to
college.”
For her tireless devotion to improving classics education at
all levels, for her remarkable gifts in the classroom,
and for her ability to inspire us all, we honor Sally R.
Davis with the 2001 APA Award for Excellence in Teaching
at the APA Pre-Collegiate Level.
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