Yeah, it’s saying something when you’re the least-favorite teacher in a one-room-schoolhouse kind of situation. But I’ve felt it. The weirdest part is, I’m used to being popular. I was a favorite camp counselor, a beloved student teacher, and the … Continue reading
Confession: I looked into the Phonics Museum curriculum, originally, because of its theme. Not because it was classical ( a very specific philosophy of education I did not espouse at the time). Not because it was made by Veritas Press … Continue reading
I have a middle-grade son who is not a natural reader. Reading is just is not what he’d choose to spend his time doing. He has many interests that compete with reading, so if I find him reading a book … Continue reading
The biggest impediment to drawing is our assumptions. We often miss the actual shape of a thing because we get stuck or intimidated about what we think it should look like. Why do we have kids draw something upside-down? To help students see … Continue reading
Ah, the second week of Fine Arts in the Classical Conversations program: Mirror Image! In my first year tutoring, this was a least favorite lesson, but now it’s my favorite and perhaps the most crucial of them all. I didn’t … Continue reading
For the first drawing lesson, we explore the basic shapes. In Classical Conversations, we spend the first six weeks of the Foundations program learning drawing lesson in the Fine Art segment of the class. My lessons were designed for the Masters class (ages 10-11), but the specific class I had last with cycle one were […]
How do you encourage positive classroom engagement and participation–without having to bring in candy and cheap little gadgets from the Dollar Store? I’m talking about middle school aged kids (and for those in Classical education, that’s the dialectic stage.) … Continue reading
