The Society for Classical Studies is pleased to honor Jane Brinley with the 2016 Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Precollegiate Level. Ms. Brinley has spent the past two decades teaching Latin in Washington, DC. From 1998-2010, she was a faculty member at St. Anselm’s Abbey School, where she taught all levels of Latin, including Advanced Placement. In 2010, she left St. Anselm’s to start a Latin program at School Without Walls, a magnet public high school situated on the campus of George Washington University. When Ms. Brinley arrived at School Without Walls in 2010, there were only two sections of Latin 1 and a handful of students in Latin 2. Six years later, Ms. Brinley has a thriving Latin program with full sections of Latin at four different levels; great participation and excellent results on the National Latin Exam; magnificent study abroad opportunities in Rome and an emerging scholarship program for these trips; and recent alumni confidently and enthusiastically continuing their study of Latin at the university level.
Ms. Brinley has also established an innovative partnership with Elizabeth Fisher, Professor and Coordinator of Classics at George Washington University. Each year, Professor Fisher places an undergraduate student from one of her advanced Latin seminars in Ms. Brinley’s classroom. The student intern works beside Ms. Brinley for one semester and learns first hand the daily life of a secondary school Latin teacher. As a direct result of this program, Ms. Brinley has helped shaped future Latin classrooms: two interns have already begun their careers as Latin teachers and are planning to pursue graduate degrees in Classics and full teaching certifications. Ms. Brinley has also participated in panels and workshops that explain the logistics of this internship program as well as its benefits, and thus has turned a local partnership into a national example of collaborative teaching and mentorship that spans undergraduate education, high school learning, and teacher preparation.
And so, we honor Jane Brinley for her long-standing record of success as a DC Latin teacher, for her emerging Latin program at School Without Walls, and for her collaborative teaching project.
Joint Committee on Classics in American Education Subcommittee
Mary English
Kathy Elifrits
Kelly Kusch
Keely Lake