Frances Titchener
Docendo Discimus. We learn by teaching.
This Latin phrase exemplifies the teaching of professor Frances B. Titchener, whose teaching load includes all levels of Latin and Greek language, as well as history courses on Ancient Greece and Rome, Celtic Europe, and Ancient Western Civilization.
Titchener's students in a Roman history course can be seen on April 21-the Latin equivalent of Fourth of July-in togas on the Quad, greeting others with "Salvete, Cives!" Or they might be on the steps of the Amphitheatre on Old Main Hill reenacting the Roman Senate.
A former student said that Titchener "breathes life into the people of ancient times so that their actions seem as vivid as if we were hearing them reported on CNN today."
Said another student, "What she gives us is above just a grade for having completed a class. It is what one means when one talks about a true education, a true enlightenment, which will enrich our lives to the end of our days, and which will also give us the desire to pass on that knowledge to other generations."
Titchener's quest for effective teaching methods is a hallmark of her passion for teaching. She shares and models these methods for a legion of undergraduate teaching fellows who have worked with her. She received the national Teaching Excellence Award (college or university level) from the American Philological Society in 1999.
Titchener says her outlook on teaching continues to evolve and she looks forward to changes as she enjoys the process of refining and reshaping her pedagogical activities. "My ancient historian's heart may be very much in the past," she says. "But my teacher's eyes are turned firmly toward the future."