About Our Site and Aequora
Our Aequora site is located at Mark Twain Elementary School in Houston, Texas. It is a school that provides many after-school programs and opportunities to its students, now including Latin.
Aequora is a K-8 program focused on literacy via Latin. At Mark Twain Elementary School, we have chosen Aequora because we believe in the benefits of a classical education. Through The Paideia Institute’s Aequora curriculum, our volunteers harness the classical languages’ power to improve literacy, cultural understanding, and equity in education — all while making the ancient Mediterranean world fun and accessible to students of all backgrounds.
Led by independent site coordinators, Aequora envisions Classics as an inclusive, diverse, and socially engaged field. Our textbook, Aequora: Teaching Literacy with Latin, introduces the basics of Latin vocabulary and grammar, Roman culture and mythology, and connections between Latin, English, and Spanish, all through games and activities designed to show students that learning Latin is fun!
How We Teach Aequora
We have one student volunteer who teaches this program. The program is held once per week in a classroom with about 21 students. Mark Twain Elementary School is a public elementary school in Houston ISD. Houston ISD doesn’t typically offer Latin as a language, so this is the only chance that the students have to get exposure to Latin. The Aequora program is sustained by enthusiastic volunteers all over the country who care about making a difference and want to fight educational inequality through sharing their love of Latin. We are always looking for new volunteers!
Photos
Coming soon!
Site Coordinators
Our site coordinator, Aurelia Shaitelman, is a student at St. John’s School.
