It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our much beloved colleague, editor-without-peer, and dear friend, Laurie Haight Keenan. From 1996 to 2011, Laurie lit up the Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers office with her infectious laugh, her brilliance, her fabulous sense of humor, her boundless kindness, her consummate editorial skill, her sense of the practical, and her relentless pursuit of excellence. Laurie graciously trained editors and developed policies and procedures for B-C that remain in place today. She maintained a special relationship with fellow PhD, founder and longtime president Lou Bolchazy. Their annual collaboration on the B-C catalog was always an epic undertaking! Former B-C president and current chair of the board Marie Bolchazy notes, “I hired Laurie to be an editor for Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. Her work was exemplary. But she was more than an employee and colleague. She was a wonderful friend and I grieve losing her. Rest in peace, dear Laurie.”

 

Working closely with authors and fellow editors, Laurie shepherded dozens of titles from manuscript to print. The authors with whom she worked always spoke highly of her and many of them maintained lifelong relationships with her. G. B. Cobbold, in the acknowledgements for his acclaimed translation of Vergil’s Aeneid—Hero • War • Humanity, wrote “But above all I would like to thank Laurie Haight Keenan, who with inexhaustible patience and good humor guided the whole work ab ovo usque ad malum.” Keenan and Cobbold would go on to collaborate on three additional popular translations of significant Latin texts. Author Judith Peller Hallett shared, “Very sad news about the loss of a wonderful colleague. We first worked together on the Seuss books—and Sheila Dickison and I greatly valued her wisdom, erudition, humor, and patience when we toiled together on our Roman Women Reader.”

Although she had retired from her full-time position and commuting to the B-C office in Mundelein in 2011, Laurie continued to work on the BC Latin Readers, much-beloved by college instructors and their students. She and series editor Ronnie Ancona proved to be quite the editorial team. Of this, Ronnie has written, “We worked together for many years on various projects at Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, she as my editor, and then while we edited together the BC Latin Readers. I learned so much from her. Even after our work relationship ended, we exchanged wonderful emails and shared much about our lives.”

We grieve our loss of a dear friend and colleague. We grieve with Laurie’s husband and best friend, Jim Keenan. We take comfort that Laurie is no longer in pain and trust that she has crossed the rainbow bridge to join her much loved and dearly departed Scottie rescue dogs.

 

See Laurie's obituary and a lovely tribute (scroll down) from her fellow Scottie devotees.

For a representative look at B-C titles Laurie edited.

All best,
 

Don

 

About a decade ago, I first discovered the online design tool called Canva. This discovery was motivated by my desire to find a design tool that was easy to learn, available online, and had a free option. Canva seemed to meet my requirements. I began using Canva myself and with my students in a variety of ways. I used it to create visuals to help explain various elements of Latin grammar for students.

Then, I started to come up with ideas for how my students could use it. At the time, one of my classes was learning about the cursus honorum, so I assigned the students some readings and then asked them to create an infographic to demonstrate their understanding. It was a successful project in large part because Canva makes designing visuals an easy and intuitive process. Equipped with a wide range of templates, color palettes, fonts, and images, Canva makes it easy to design a visually appealing poster even for those of us with no graphic design experience.

Over the years, Canva has continued to be a go-to tool for me when I have tasks that would benefit from visuals. As Canva has continued to grow and expand their offerings, I’ve continued to find it to have more and more useful applications. For example, there are now excellent “whiteboarding” templates that make great graphic organizers for students. Canva offers a variety of presentation, video, and infographic templates that are wonderful starting points for student-created projects too. Canva is free for K-12 teachers and students to use so be sure to sign up via the “education” link.

To get started with Canva, go to www.canva.com. Don’t forget to take a look at the free teacher resources and tutorials.

 

Lynne West is a veteran teacher and teacher leader in K–12 schools. She earned her teaching credentials at Santa Clara University, her master’s degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Los Angeles. In 2016, as a Fulbright Distinguished Teaching awardee, West studied pedagogy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. She founded Sunodia Educational Consulting to share her passion for teaching with her fellow educators by providing creative, tailored, and patient professional development services. Currently, she serves as interim assistant principal for instruction at Bellarmine Prep in San Jose, CA.

Need a map showing Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul? What about a handy glossary of rhetorical devices that commonly appear in Latin poetry? Bolchazy-Carducci has you covered! We have made a number of resources freely available on our website, including some helpful handouts designed to supplement the material on the AP® Latin syllabus. Check out our Caesar Digital Resources and Vergil Digital Resources.

On both resource pages you will find:

We have posted revamped high-frequency vocabulary lists for Caesar and Vergil. These lists are updated lists that were originally printed on the vocabulary pullouts in our AP® Latin textbooks. New formatting allows for much easier at-home printing: lists now fit on standard 8 ½” x 11” sheets of paper—perfect for placing at the front of a Latin binder as a handy reference!

All documents on the Vergil and Caesar Digital Resources pages are free for teachers and students to use. Please let us know how you use these handouts in your classes; we value feedback that can make our offerings more useful!

If you want more online support for an AP® Latin class, check out Lumina: Vergil and Caesar Selections. This digital interactive program provides students with immediate feedback on their understanding of Vergil and Caesar. Features of Lumina include:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bolchazy-Carducci Representatives: Bridget Dean, PhD, Donald Sprague, and Amelia Wallace 

 

 

 

  

  Explore Latin: Aves

By author: Emma Vanderpool