Tag: teaching

There and Back Again: Adventures of Teaching The Hobbit

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Last semester at Veritas Christi Hybrid Academy, in my 7th and 8th Literature & Composition class I’ve been teaching The Hobbit. There have been multiple times that my own knowledge of Tolkien’s world has been put to shame by students who are quickly becoming experts in Middle-earth lore! I used this as an opportunity to introduce the concept of summarizing, so each day of class would open with a review of the reading assignment they finished. Then the students would take a few minutes to write a one sentence summary of the chapter they read. I found that they enjoyed reading their sentences…

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A Brief Update

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The last couple months have been pretty busy as I finished up my Gadfly of Serenity paper for the MPCA/ACA conference that took place in early October. The conference was really interesting and the presentation of my paper went well! The version here on my site is the full essay, I had to do some heavy editing to get it condensed for the 20 minutes of time allotted for me during the panel.  And in the absence of a proper blog post, I’ll just give a quick update as to what I’m doing now. I am currently developing an economics curriculum for…

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What is Classical Education?

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This morning I braved the snowy roads (the city apparently decided to not bother plowing even the major roads) to hear Matt Bianco, the national director of education for Classical Conversations speak on what classical education means. It was very informative, as well as entertaining, and I wanted to share what I learned… To make decisions about education, we have to know what our goal is. This really goes for anything in life. And as an aside, this fits perfectly with the human action axiom. We act to achieve ends, and it makes sense that we ought to consider what…

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Link Love

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This is an interesting article arguing that it isn’t necessary to formally teach math. Who invented writing? This charming video from TED Ed describes the development of writing. This looks like a neat writing curriculum, Brave writing. What does it mean to remember? I haven’t watched this TED video yet, but it looks really fascinating. I enjoyed reading about a Day in the Life of a Waldorf Kindergarten. Some thought-provoking ideas about reading from Albert Mohler. I haven’t completely watched this video either (for some reason I have a really hard time watching videos) , but the subject, why MOOCs still matter,…

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More Classical Conversations Lesson Ideas

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Part One: New Grammar Lesson Ideas  Science Experiments Science really varies for me, mostly based on if it is about something I’m familiar with. A lot of what we did last semester was fairly new to me, and I wasn’t able to devote a lot of extra time to research ahead of time. But I have been trying to utilize my resources, such as Khan Academy, and get a really solid understanding of the concepts ahead of time. This week was fantastic because I was able to explain water molecules, hydrogen bonds, and such. If I have a good grasp…

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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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