Teaching the Classics Online in a Pandemic

In the late fall/early winter of 2020, I taught an Intro to the Classics course to local middle schoolers at St. Martin de Porres School in Uniondale, using the Cooney Classics curriculum. My Zoom class was anywhere from 7-10 kids, grades 5-8. 

Last spring, I taught a Latin course at St. Martin’s in person (just before COVID), using a curriculum provided by Aequora. Although the overall structure and cadence of the classes were built similarly, something that I learned this time around was that online classes go by much more quickly. 

When I had originally developed my Intro to the Classics class, I planned the lessons to be 30 minutes each, assuming that the classes would be in person. But over Zoom, the activities ran shorter, due to limited ability for group work, as well as kids being more hesitant to ask questions. So, each lesson only took about 15 minutes.

I only realized this midway through my first lesson, so I pivoted to teaching two lessons per meeting. This made the course almost half the originally intended length: running at only four weeks long instead of seven. 

Mainly, I feel like teaching online is just a completely different environment. I would not suggest adding extra content if your curriculum is running short, because at the end of the day, it is a club for the kids. If it turns into a lecture, they may have less fun, resulting in fewer participants at the next meeting. 

If I redid my course knowing it was for online teaching, I would have added many more visual aspects to my lessons, to substitute the collaborative element that online teaching restricts. Colorful photos and animated videos would be a great way to capture the audience’s attention.