Classical Conversations New Grammar Lesson Ideas

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This past fall I began tutoring a Foundations class for Classical Conversations. This national homeschool co-op is based on the classical method of education, so the classes are divided by the trivium paradigm. Ages 4-12 are in the Foundations class, the grammar stage. Then they move to Essentials, the dialectic stage, and then Challenge, the rhetoric stage. I tutor a Masters class, the oldest age group in Foundations. These kids are transitioning from grammar to dialectic, and for most of them this is their last year of being in Foundations. My class is really fantastic and I absolutely love spending time with…

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The Weight of Living

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In case you haven’t noticed, I am slightly obsessed with Bastille at the moment. I’ve really liked a couple of their songs for a while now, but after my friend gave me a CD with their entire album, I realized how much I loved all their stuff. What do I like about Bastille? Well, the music is excellent and their lyrics seem to capture something very real and poignant about life.   There’s an albatross around your neck, All the things you’ve said, and the things you’ve done, Can you carry it with no regrets, Can you stand the person…

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Monday Morning!

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I took a brief hiatus over the weekend as I was trying to get over a rather nasty cold. I figured that either during or after Lakeshore I was bound to get sick, and sure enough, it happened. But thankfully I got it after Lakeshore, so I just spent the majority of last week catching up on Sherlock and Downton Abbey : ) Don’t worry, there will be posts to come about those. And Doctor Who. Considering I haven’t talked much yet about the Christmas special, it definitely deserves a post of its own! Meanwhile, now that I’m feeling much…

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Thoughts on MOOCs, Part 2

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In Part 1 I talked about the actual structure of MOOCs, and this post will be more of my personal opinion about MOOCs. What I really like about MOOCs: They provide a necessary structure for learning. I remember with fondness the days when my life was so slow that I could make my own study schedule and just do it. I’d decide to study ancient Rome and dedicate the required time to it, and then somehow do it, at least most of the time. Now that’s a lot harder. Life seems to get in the way, haha. I don’t have…

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Life is Hard

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20140116-143307.jpg“Life is Hard”

Life is beauty through and through
Life is sunny, life is cool
Life is even easy too
But if my word is to be true
Life is something to behold
But if the truth is to be told
Let us not leave out any part
Do not fear, it’s safe to say it here
You will not be called a weakling nor a fraud
For feeling the pain of the whole wide world
You want to help but can’t help the feeling you cannot
And it’s killing you while you’re just trying to smile from your heart
So go on, say it, on the same knees you’re praying
Yes, life is hard

Come celebrate
Life is hard
Come celebrate Life is hard
Our life is all we are

Celebrate it in the sun, promenade it with everyone
Elevate it in a song
And I’ll be there to play it, don’t get me wrong
When I feel like dying and being gone
When life is hard
There’s just one thing, let’s not forget
Yes! life is it!
Life is it, life is it, it’s where it’s at
It’s getting skinny, getting fat
It’s falling deep into a love,
It’s getting crushed just like a bug
Life there’s no love, it’s getting beat into the ground
It’s getting lost and getting found,
To growing up and getting round
It’s feeling silence, feeling sound
It’s feeling lonely, feeling full
It’s feeling oh so beautiful!
Yes!

Come celebrate
Life is hard
Come celebrate
Life is hard
Our life is all we are.

 

Thoughts on MOOCs, Part 1

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 Early last year I was searching for online classes and came across a list of “MOOCs.” This was a new term for me, so I did some more research. MOOCs, massive open online courses, are a new movement in online education. While the term MOOC has been around since about 2008, it seems that they’ve gained more popularity in the last couple years. In 2012 and 2013 the major MOOC organizations, Edx, Udacity, and Coursera, were launched. So, what exactly is a MOOC? You can read about them on Wikipedia, or do a google search, but in this post and…

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Things We Lost in the Fire

unnamed“Things We Lost In The Fire”

Things we lost to the flames
Things we’ll never see again
All that we’ve amassed
Sits before us, shattered into ash

These are the things, the things we lost
The things we lost in the fire fire fire
These are the things, the things we lost
The things we lost in the fire fire fire

We sat and made a list
Of all the things that we had
Down the backs of table tops
Ticket stubs and your diaries

I read them all one day
When loneliness came and you were away
Oh they told me nothing new,
But I love to read the words you used

These are the things, the things we lost
The things we lost in the fire fire fire
These are the things, the things we lost
The things we lost in the fire fire fire

I was the match and you were the rock
Maybe we started this fire
We sat apart and watched
All we had burned on the pyre

(You said) we were born with nothing
And we sure as hell have nothing now
(You said) we were born with nothing
And we sure as hell have nothing now

These are the things, the things we lost
The things we lost in the fire fire fire
These are the things, the things we lost
The things we lost in the fire fire fire

Do you understand that we will never be the same again?
Do you understand that we will never be the same again?
The future’s in our hands and we will never be the same again
The future’s in our hands and we will never be the same again

These are the things, the things we lost
The things we lost in the fire fire fire
These are the things, the things we lost
The things we lost in the fire fire fire

These are the things, the things we lost
These are the things we lost in the fire fire fire

Flames – they licked the walls
Tenderly they turned to dust all that I adore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGR4U7W1dZU

People Help the People

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We all want to be happy, right? We want to be smiling and cheerful. We want a life of perpetual laughter and mirth. Sometimes we’re afraid of anything else. And sometimes we close ourselves up, so the only thing we can feel is happiness. We can carefully wrap our hearts up to guard them from anything but joy. We create sanitized worlds of positivity and optimism. We avert our eyes from anything that threatens our fragile sense of happiness. But it is beautiful what happens when we expose our hearts to the real world. When we accept the sorrow within…

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