I have been thrilled with the many times I've been able to include something that I learned this summer in the AP Vergil Workshop. I wish I could hit a "reset" button and live the entire experience all over again and build on all the things I learned in Italy this past summer. I think almost every day I am able to use something from the Institute in my instruction. My Latin II students recently read an adapted passage from Pliny the Younger about Pompeii and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and so I showed them my photos from the top of Vesuvius! It was so cool to give them my first hand account of how easy it would have been for Pliny to see across the Bay of Naples and witness the entire eruption. However, the most exciting thing for me happened the first week of school when my AP students read about the "Lavinian shores". I was able to talk to them so much more knowledgeably about those famous shores, having been there only three weeks earlier! There were so many things that I loved about the tour this summer, but that day at Lavinium and seeing the heroon of Aeneas was my most memorable experience and the one that I have most enjoyed (so far) sharing with my students.
We have just begun Book IV but I can't wait until we get to Book VI because I have a treasure trove of "stuff" to tell my students about Augustus and his rebuilding of Rome and especially about Cumae and Aeneas' adventures in the Underworld. The pictures and my first hand account from Solfatara and Lake Avernus and the acropolis at Cumae will be such exciting things to share with them. How cool was it that there was a dog guarding the entrance to the Underworld at Lake Avernus and I have a picture to prove it!
All the site visits were, of course, incredible and there is almost no way to measure the value they have for me as I teach the Aeneid and also as I teach my students in the lower levels. However, I think even more importantly, I have so much more confidence this year. Last year was my first year to teach AP, and I knew that I would have more confidence, etc., now in my second year, BUT...Amy, Wow! The materials I got from you this summer and the hours sitting around the table at the Villa were even more helpful than I realized at the time. For me, your expertise this past summer must be the equivalent of several years of actual teaching.