Huge congratulations to Dr Sonya Nevin on the publication of her edited volume Teaching Ancient Greece: Lesson Plans, Vase Animations, and Resources, the latest volume from the “Our Mythical Childhood” series! This volume is packed with lesson plans and resources based around pottery as a means of accessing the ancient world. Drawing on the amazing Panoply Vase Animation Project, each lesson uses a particular vase and its animation, and the lessons have in-built flexibility to accommodate learners of different ages and abilities. Bringing together the experiences, perspectives and expertise of a diverse range of educators around the world, this volume is a treasure trove waiting to be explored! And you can do just that for free! Click here to download a free, open access copy of the volume or here to purchase a hard copy to decorate your bookshelf!
Congratulations to all involved in the latest publication in the “Our Mythical Childhood” series: Classical Mythology and Children’s Literature…An Odyssey. This beautiful volume by Dr Elizabeth Hale and Dr Miriam Riverlea (and with wonderful illustrations by Steve K. Simons) takes the reader through an alphabetical journey of Classics in children’s literature, opening up a world of possibilities for how and where younger (and older) people today can engage with the ancient world! Both informative and thought provoking, this is a little gem. And, if that wasn’t enough, the volume is … wait for it … open access! You can download a copy here. Really looking forward to more upcoming volumes from the series, particularly Teaching Ancient Greece: Lesson Plans, Vase Animations, and Resources, edited by Dr Sonya Nevin!
Here at Access Classics, we’re always interested to see what our Classics outreach colleagues are up to, and Maximum Classics is doing some fantastic work! If you would like to introduce some Ancient Greek or Latin to your classes, would like to try your hand at an more in-depth approach or are interested in teacher training in these areas, have a look through the great resources on the Maximum Classics website or send them a quick query!
Congratulations to all involved in the wonderful volume Our Mythical Hope. The Ancient Myths as Medicine for the Hardships of Life in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture, which arises from the Our Mythical Childhood project. This open-access (🎉) edited volume considers how “the authors of literary and audiovisual texts for youth make use of the ancient myths to support their young protagonists (and readers or viewers) in crucial moments of their existence, on their road into adulthood, and in those dark hours when it seems that life is about to shatter and fade away” (quoted from descriptor found here). If you are interested in how ancient mythology remains relevant for and useful to us today, this volume is for you, and you can download a copy of the volume here!
Attention, everyone!! The excellent Panoply Vase Animation Project is joining forces with the University of Cambridge Schools Classics Project to launch five new animations to help bring the excitement of mythology and animation into classrooms! These animations, which were made for the Our Mythical Childhood project (through the Universities of Roehampton and Warsaw) all relate to Greek mythology: Heracles and the Erymanthian Boar, Dionysus, Iris, Libation, and Sappho 44.
The event will take place on 24 April, 1–5.30pm:
The animations will be shown during the first hour, and this will include, for the first time, the showing of a recording of Sappho 44 sung in Greek and accompanied by a lyre. It will be sung to the tune it would have had in antiquity – this is not to be missed!
The remainder of the afternoon will be dedicated to a pedagogy session, which will begin with a short talk by an experienced teacher on using the animations to teach visual literacy in Greek Art. This will be followed by:
o information on the materials available to accompany each animation
o some brief information on how the animations fit in with the UK GCSE/A-Level curriculums**
o some short presentations from teachers on their experiences of using the animations in the classroom
o a look at the mini documentaries that Panoply has made to go with them
**Teachers of the Irish Junior and Senior Cycle Classics curricula might also find these very helpful and interesting!
For the Junior Cycle, all would be a great accompaniment to the core Myth strand, and Sappho 44 would work very well with both the World of the Achilles strand and the Ancient Greek language option!
For the current Senior Cycle, the animations of Dionysus and Sappho 44 could add to the Greek Drama and Ancient Epic topics, and all would feed into the Art and Architecture in Greek Society topic.
For the new Senior Cycle curriculum, the animations could be really helpful resources for the World of Heroes (Heracles and the Erymanthian Boar; Sappho 44), Drama and Spectacle (Dionysus) and Gods and Humans (Libation) strands.
You can find more information about this great event at this link, and you can book your place here.
Access Classics 