Yesterday, while I was teaching, I received this email.
What does ‘agere’ mean?
That was it.
I knew immediately what the student was struggling with. After all, this word is one of the early tripwires in an online Latin course that I teach.
It is now Saturday morning, and I still have not responded. I will be responding within a few hours.
I used to tell my students that they would hear from me within 24 hours. Lately, that number has edged up to 48 hours.
Here’s the problem: I am an army of one. I am still in the classroom, I have five kids, I still hold a construction job part-time, I try to upload new videos weekly on to YouTube, I teach seven online classes, and I spend about four hours a day responding to email.
There’s a simple solution, but it’s sometimes hard to see what’s right under your nose as George Orwell once pointed out.
A few days ago, I sent this message to one of my students:
100% Ummm… Nailed it! Do you know that you have a 99% average for this course? That easily put you in the top 1% of all my students. I don’t want you to get a big head or anything… but, you are really good at this. Have a happy Thursday!
I have several students who operate at this level. They truly astonish me. In fact, after 20 years in the classroom and five years teaching online I’m becoming increasingly convinced that the best thing you can do for your education is to get out of the classroom! I am not alone in this conviction: http://nautil.us/issue/29/scaling/why-virtual-classes-can-be-better-than-real-ones
So, here’s the question. How do I harness the power of those students? They are very good at what they do. The answer was right under my nose.
I have established forums on my site. I’m a busy guy. You are going to get tired of waiting for me. I respond to every email, but increasingly it’s taking more time.
If you need a response to a question, and you don’t feel like waiting, don’t email me.
Instead, go to my site: https://dwanethomas.com/
Find the ‘Forum’ tab.
I have set up forums for most of my online classes. I will be setting up more in the days ahead. There are students in the forums who could answer your questions far faster than I will answer them. I stop by the forms once a day just to make sure everything is okay. I also answer questions that students can’t answer.
It’s been fun to watch. Students are becoming friends in the forums and are even talking to each other in Latin.
Most of my forums are closed unless you are actually one of my online students.
However, you should know there is a free forum open to the public for any Visual Latin questions.
Stuck in Latin? Tired of waiting on me?
There’s a simple solution. Get help quickly! Join a forum. Get help quickly. Make new friends. Practice your skill. Stop waiting on me.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Dwane
