B: Operation LAPIS

We all remember high school, right? I don't speak of parties or extracurricular activities but rather classroom experience. How many times did you feel engaged, active and excited to be in class? For me, those memories are few and far between; my class structure was lecture-based with mandated note-taking and resulted in a learning experience that fell into the realm of forgettable.

When teachers approach their students in new and innovative ways rather than resort to old teaching standards, I get extremely excited and hopeful. Recently, NFA has achieved such innovation through the efforts of its Latin teacher, Kevin Ballestrini. Ballestrini, along with his colleagues, has created an online, forum-based, role-playing game called Operation LAPIS. The game takes place during Roman times and students enrolled in his class become immersed in this text-based environment and adopt Roman avatars. The game revolves around missions, where student groups must work together to translate and comprehend Latin in order to progress through and complete missions. Completing missions earns achievements that can be translated into classroom rewards.

The result of this program is that students are learning Latin at a remarkably faster rate and most importantly, having fun while learning. Where was this when I was in school, seriously?!

A teacher's power to engage their students and to raise subject comprehension is an incredible feat, so bravo Kevin. I hope this teaching interface translates to the larger population not only for foreign language courses but for all disciplines.

Below is a link to the Norwich Bulletin article on Operation LAPIS
Video game has a mission for NFA students: Learn Latin