AROUND THE POND
In Brief On Language Teaching and Learning Dr. Peter Patrikis, executive director of the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning, gave a conference at Taft on the use of technology in teaching modern languages and on the strengths and weaknesses of high school programs from the colleges’ point of view. The Language Consortium includes Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Penn, Princeton, and Yale, where the consortium is based. Dr. Patrikis has published and lectured extensively in this country and abroad. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Harvard. Taft’s exchange teacher from Spain, Juan Ortiz, organized the conference.
Visiting Poet
Senior Seminars Studying the crisis in Kosovo is a likely topic for students embarking on an independent research project, but the subject had special meaning for senior Adriana Blakaj, who escaped the civil war in Pristina, Kosovo, in 1990 with her parents and her brother. “I finally decided to focus my research on the role of communist dictator Josip Broz Tito in the former Yugoslavia, and especially in Kosovo,” Adriana said. “I found it ironic that only a short while after his death, a myriad of nationalities that had existed peacefully for 35 years should descend so quickly into chaos, violence, and overt ethnic aggression.” In the second semester, Adriana began her fieldwork, interviewing refugees and political personnel, attending lectures, and trying to get a feeling for the current problems that have stemmed from the war. Adriana is a student at Yale University this fall. Other seniors who participated in the Senior Seminar course were Demetrius Walker, Peter Webel, Lisa Ehrlich, Michelle Holmes, Avery Moore, Bryan Moore, Janelle Matthews, Lindsay Dell, and Evan Chow. Students worked on research topics and completed fieldwork of their own design. Expert panelists who helped evaluate the students’ efforts were Prof. William McNeill, Dr. Charles McNair, Mr. Leigh Perkins, Mrs. Ann Pollina, Mr. Bob Fiske, Mrs. Lynne Kazimer-Pittsinger, Mrs. Nancy Chapman, Atty. Sean Butterly, Dr. Jerry Sugar, and Mr. Yee-Fun Yin.
Photo by Greg Stevens ’02
Billy Collins, dubbed “the most popular living poet in America,” gave a reading at Taft in May. Collins reads regularly on NPR and at colleges and high schools nationwide; his sense of humor and desire to convince contemporary audiences that poetry need not be stodgy or boring enlivens his performances. His subjects are varied, often taken from the seemingly prosaic objects and activities of daily life: the notes in the margin of a borrowed book, a Victoria’s Secret catalogue, the sounds of his dog lapping water from its bowl.
Adriana Blakaj ’00 with her expert panelist, history professor Dr. William McNeill (right) and college counselor Andrew McNeill (his son). Photo by Greg Stevens ’02