Amy Rechtiene, a Latin teacher at Lake Norman High School recently won the Google Earth: Ancient Rome 3D Curriculum Competition with her lesson, A Tour of Rome Fit for an Emperor. Amy was one of the three winners selected nationwide in the 9-12 division.
Amy learned of this competition from fellow Latin teachers and originally had decided not to enter. But the contest kept creeping into her mind.
“I found out about this contest from an email. Being a Latin teacher can be a bit isolating, so I joined a Latin teacher listserv (LatinTeach) that allows Latin teachers from around the country and the world to share ideas and discuss anything from classroom management to pedagogy.”
“Someone sent out an email to the listserv about the competition and I am very thankful that person did, because I am not sure I would have found out about the competition on my own,” she explained.
The entry deadline was February 9th and Rechtiene worked on perfecting her lesson plan entry from the time she found out about it to that very day.
According to Rechtiene the biggest hurdle to overcome was simply carving out enough time to complete the project.
“The most challenging part was actually finding time to finish the lesson and the brochure I created for it. When I initially came up with the idea during Christmas, I had planned to finish everything by the end of the break, but it ended up taking me right up until the deadline on February 9th. I also must give a huge thank you to Jennifer Craig for proofreading my brochure and lesson plan.”
The competition was open to any K-12 educator in the United States. The entry criteria included creating a lesson plan that utilized the digital layer of Ancient Rome, a Google Earth feature found online. Submissions were judged based on educational value, creativity, clarity, organization and research, and the use of the ancient Rome 3D layer.
Throughout the creation of her entry, Rechtiene maintained her focus on her original objective.
“My ultimate goal was to show that Latin is still very much alive in our modern world,” Rechtiene said.
“So many people think of Latin as a dead language and therefore it has no significance to us in the 21st century. The Romans have influenced our own culture and language in so many ways, and I really strived to show the relevance and importance of Latin in all of my classes. I think it also says a lot that out of the six winners, two of us are Latin teachers.”
Along with an Apple MacBook laptop, Rechtiene received a digital classroom projector, a digital camera, a 3D Navigation mouse, $500 in gift cards to Target and an engraved Google “Top Educator” plaque.
“I am just really in awe that Google thought my lesson plan was good enough. It is so nice to win and get recognition for something that you have worked so hard for,” said Rechtiene. “The prizes Google sent me are amazing and I’ve already begun to use them in the classroom. With the economy as it is, I am really glad to have the Target gift certificate to buy supplies for my classroom.”
