Join married teachers, Jonathan & Kiernan Fiore, for a journey through their mutual favorite novel to teach high school students: Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice. We'll study the novel as teachers to see how studying it helps students to learn to read classics, helps teachers to teach great literature, and helps everyone gain a more keen insight into human nature.  This class is for teachers, parents, and all curious readers who want to grow as educators and as human beings.

The Ignatius Critical Edition is recommended, but not required, and will be referred to during the session. Participants can find a free copy on Gutenberg.

Dates & Time: Wednesdays, September 25th - October 30th from 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. CENTRAL TIME

Recorded: All courses are recorded and available 48-72 hours after the course and will be available for 1 month. You will be sent a YouTube link. 

About the Instructors: Kiernan Fiore has worked as a teacher, administrator, trainer, and curriculum developer since 2011. Kiernan was classically home educated using a Charlotte Mason methodology, and her own educational experience is the inspiration for her work. She holds a BA in English from Hillsdale College and an MA in Shakespeare Studies from King’s College London and is certified in 4-8th Grade ELAR and Social Studies in Texas. After six years of working with the Founders Classical network of charter schools in Texas, she now serves as Dean of Curriculum at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach, CA. She has been married to Jonathan, also a classical educator, for six years and is the mother of three children.

Jonathan Fiore is a veteran classical educator devoted to reinvigorating classical catholic liberal arts education for the poor. He was born in California, grew up in New York, and received a classical liberal arts education at home. He studied history at Hillsdale College, and is currently obtaining his M.A. in Classical Education from the University of Dallas. He teaches Western Civilization & Humanities at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach, California. In his free time he loves to visit America’s beautiful national parks, of which his favorite is Yosemite. He is married to Kiernan, also a classical educator, and together they have three children: Catherine, Francis, and Joseph.

David Hicks in Norms & Nobility says "Classical education is not, preeminently, of a specific time or place. It stands instead for a spirit of inquiry and a form of instruction concerned with the development of style through language and of conscience through myth" (p. 18).

Learn how to create a spirit of inquiry from beginner (PreK-4) to advanced levels (5-12 grades). Engage in practical activities in this interactive workshop. Learn how to identify “worksheet” or “textbook” questions and rewrite them into questions that truly engage the heart and intellect of students. Ideal for all teachers (classroom and home educators) for all grade levels and subjects.

Who: For classroom instructors or home educators at all levels seeking to  engage in intellectual and heart-felt conversations without the need of a curriculum or study guide.

What: 2 hour workshop applying the practical application of establishing a spirit of inquiry in your learning environment.  Participants will experience a lesson taught dialectically and will discuss the principles behind the crafting of such lessons. Participants will also gain hands-on experience formulating various categories of meaningful questions.

Requirements: Zoom app (courses are LIVE and not recorded) Participation is necessary for a classical experience. Zoom link will be provided prior to the class.

Date: Saturday, September 28, 2024

Time: 10am till Noon CST Central Time 

Recordings: Live attendance is encourged for an immersive experience. Recordings will be made available 48 hours after the session and will be available till Oct. 31.

Cost: $25, Limited class size; register today! (non-refundable)

About the Teacher 

Adrienne is the founder and director of Classical Education Podcast as well as Beautiful Teaching Consulting. Her expertise is in collaborating and guiding new, and established schools in classical curriculum and professional development needs. She has worked as the Classical Education Advisor for the K-12 Curriculum and Professional Development Project at University of Dallas and served as the Director of Classical Methods for Responsive Education Solutions. In both roles, Adrienne has collaborated with districts, boards, school leaders, and thousands of teachers, helping nearly 30 schools transition to a classical model. She has led teams creating classical professional development, leading parent education workshops, and writing customized educational materials that promote a strong virtue-based humanities curriculum for K-12 schools.

She specializes in Coaching and transitioning schools into the liberal arts tradition; K-8 classical curriculum development; Charlotte Mason pedagogy; Trivium-Based Lesson Planning, classical charter schools; Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant education; Homeschooling.

Adrienne has been married to Brian for 32 years. She is a retired homeschool mother of four adult children and the grandmother of eight. 

Who: Teachers/Parents

What: Shared Inquiry is a discussion method developed by the Great Books Foundation. According to them: "Shared Inquiry promotes an intellectually stimulating interpretative discussion of a work—a group exploration of meaning that leads to engaging and insightful conversation." I will explain Shared Inquiry in more detail, such as the three types of questions (factual, interpretive, and evaluative), as well as the differences between Shared Inquiry and Socratic dialogue. For this practicum, all registrants should come prepared and willing to engage in discussion. To prepare, read both The Declaration of Independence and Federalist 10 (both easily found online). Attempt to read them through twice, taking notes as you go and writing questions you may have. Then, we'll dive into these important documents together!

Time: 6-7:30 pm CENTRAL

Recorded: All courses are recorded and available 48-72 hours after the course and will be available for 1 month. You will be sent a YouTube link. 

About the Instructor: Drew Mery is a classical educator and Doctor of Arts student in the Humanities (Philosophy and Religion) at Harrison Middleton University. He's been published in FORMA Journal and The Consortium Journal.

Couse Description: This course will cover the history, meaning, and theology of Icons and how to use them in school lessons with students. An Icon is more than just a painting. It is a window into the divine and a way, a physical representation of the good, the beautiful, and the true. Christians icons are an important part of early church traditions. The study of icons allows students to experience a holistic approach to integrating the Christian faith with history. 

Date: October 1, 2024

Time: 6-7 pm (CENTRAL)

(Live attendance is encourged for an immersive experience. Recordings will be made available 48 hours after the session and will be available till Oct. 31.)

Cost: $15 (non-refundable)

About the Instructor:

John Heitzenrater is the headmaster of St. John Chrysostom Academy in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Mr. Heitzenrater has nearly 20 years’ teaching and administrative experience in classical schools. He began his career teaching history and humanities at the Lady Margaret Roper School and St. Peter’s Orthodox Classical School in Fort Worth, Texas.

John received his A.B. magna cum laude from the College of St. Thomas More where he studied literature, philosophy, theology, classical languages, and history. In graduate school he attended the University of Dallas where he received his Master of Humanities with a concentration in history in 2016. He and his wife Christina have 11 children, seven girls and four boys, many of whom attend St. John Chrysostom Academy.

What: This is a beginner course to teaching poetry.  Learn how to memorize, read aloud, think about, and write poems. 

Who: Anyone who will be teaching poetry to children ages 9-18 will benefit from this course.  Anyone hoping to learn more about poetry will enjoy it.

Cost: $25 (non-refundable)

When: Thursday, October 3, 2024, 7:00-9:00 PM CENTRAL.

Recorded: Our courses are interractive, so we encourage live attendance. All courses are recorded and available 48-72 hours after the course and will be available for 1 month. You will be sent a YouTube link. 

About the Instructor: 

Benjamin Lyda holds a Master of Humanities degree from The University of Dallas and is certified by the state of Texas to teach 6-12 grade literature, history, speech communication, special education, and debate. He is the author of Scriptorium – Writing with the Progymnasmata, a 3rd-8th grade curriculum. 

He has been head of a classical charter high school and founder of a Charlotte Mason inspired K-12 school.  His more than 20 years of teaching experience is wide and varied including teaching in urban and suburban settings.  In addition Benjamin regularly works with both advanced and struggling students in public, private, and homeschool settings.  He founded and ran The Children’s Shakespeare Academy, directing full productions of the bard’s plays for homeschool children 9-18.   He is married to his high school sweetheart and together they are bringing up six children. 

     "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all  

              Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

-John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn

What: Stratford Caldecott's work Beauty for Truth's Sake is one of the most important books written about Classical Education, in particular for its emphasis on what was called in the Medieval world, the quadrivium. If you read anything about classical education, you will often hear the term trivium, bandied about. The Trivium had to do with literary arts (reading and writing) whereas the quadrivium had to do with the numerical arts (arithmetic). This work seeks to help us understand math as an integrated part of a classical education guided by ultimate questions about the world and how we relate to it properly.

Who: Educators and parents who are interested in the history of math and how math, or more properly, the quadrivium, relates to and is an integral part of classical education.

Class Limit: Places are limited so that we can all participate in discussion.

Course Dates: The course will run from October 9th to November 20th, 2024. There will be 7 live meetings.

Please note that this class is being held on Wednesday nights. There is also a Friday night option if Wednesday is not good for you. Please do not sign up for both.

Time: Wednesdays from 7:00pm-8:00pm (Central)

Course Overview: 

October 9th - Introduction, "To Sing with the Universe"

October 16th - Chapter 1, The Tradition of the Four Ways

October 23rd - Chapter 2, Educating the Poetic Imagination

October 30th - Chapter 3, The Lost Wisdom of the World

November - 6th - Chapter 4 The Golden Circle

November 13th - Chapter 5, "Quiring to the Young-Eyed Cherubims"

November 20th - Chapter 6, The Liturgical Consummation of Cosmology 

and Conclusion, Beyond Faith and Reason

Requirements: 

A copy of Stratford Caldecott's Beauty for Truth's Sake

Recorded: Our courses are interractive, so we encourage live attendance. All courses are recorded and available 48-72 hours after the course and will be available for 1 month. You will be sent a YouTube link. 

Cost: $40 (non-refundable)

About the Teacher

Aaron Mitchell has been teaching various disciplines in classical schools since 2012. He received his B.A. from Cornell College with a triple major in Classics, Philosophy, and Religious Studies. Upon graduation, he began teaching at Great Hearts Academies in Phoenix, AZ. While there, he taught Middle and High School Latin, History, and Music. In 2017, Aaron was privileged to return to St. Peter’s Classical School, his High School Alma mater, as a faculty member. During his tenure there he taught Greek, Latin, Literature, and Euclidean Geometry. He has spent the last few years doing curricular development for Math and Classical Language instruction at St. Peter’s, particularly focusing on classical language instruction using both inductive and deductive methods, and how an ancient understanding of quantity effects math instruction. He currently teaches Humanities and Euclidean Geometry at Great Hearts Academies. He enjoys reading poetry, playing music with his wife Corrie, and watching their son play youth baseball.

"We become what we behold." William Blake(ish)

"Virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions.” Aristotle

"We are what we repeatedly do... therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit." Will Durant

What: Human beings are natural imitators. From the time we're born until we die, we tend to learn many things best by copying the movements, words, expressions, and behaviors of those we love and admire. Join me to explore ways to harness the power of imitation in the classroom beyond conventional copywork.  

Who: Teachers for all ages are welcome. I will focus more on ages 11-18, but the principles are universal for ages 0-99.

Cost: $25 (non-refundable)

When: Saturday, October 12, 2024, 10:00-12:00 AM CENTRAL.

Recorded: Our courses are interractive, so we encourage live attendance. All courses are recorded and available 48-72 hours after the course and will be available for 1 month. You will be sent a YouTube link. 

About the Instructor: 

Mariah Martinez has worked in education since 2015 as a teacher, curriculum developer, and mentor teacher. Mariah attended the Honors College at Houston Baptist University where she received a B.A., double majoring in Philosophy and English. In 2021, she received a Master of Humanities in classical education from the University of Dallas. She is certified as a 7-12 ELAR instructor in the state of Texas. She began her teaching career at a Great Hearts school in San Antonio and now works at a Founders Classical charter school in Texas. She has eight years of middle and high school teaching experience and is a founding faculty member of the high school at her current location where she now serves as the assistant headmaster for the upper school. She has experience not only with developing classical curricula for the high school environment but has also developed guides for creating house systems and student leadership positions. Mariah's goal is to help make the methods of classical education and the philosophies behind them accessible for all.

What: This course teaches how to produce Shakespearean plays with child actors.  Wouldn't you love to see Shakespeare come alive for your students? Instead of just reading Shakespeare, what if they could perform his work? Whether your students are ready for Readers' Theater in your living room or full productions of the bard's plays in a professional theater, this course will give you instruction on how to involve students from 4th grade and up in Shakespeare. Mr. Lyda will draw from his years of experience and offer step by step instructions on how to plan a production, run rehearsals, and make specific plays come alive with thematic ideas. 

Who: Everyone who will wants Shakespeare to come alive for their students through performance, the way Shakespeare intended. All experience levels welcome.

Cost: $25 (non-refundable)

When: Saturday, October 12, 2024, 10:-00 AM - 12:00 PM CENTRAL.

Recorded: Our courses are interractive, so we encourage live attendance. All courses are recorded and available 48-72 hours after the course and will be available for 1 month. You will be sent a YouTube link. 

About the Instructor: 

Benjamin was on The Beautiful Teaching Classical Education Podcast discussing his Shakespeare Academy. Click here if you want to listen to that episdoe.

Benjamin Lyda holds a Master of Humanities degree from The University of Dallas and is certified by the state of Texas to teach 6-12 grade literature, history, speech communication, special education, and debate. He is the author of Scriptorium – Writing with the Progymnasmata, a 3rd-8th grade curriculum. 

He has been head of a classical charter high school and founder of a Charlotte Mason inspired K-12 school.  His more than 20 years of teaching experience is wide and varied including teaching in urban and suburban settings.  In addition Benjamin regularly works with both advanced and struggling students in public, private, and homeschool settings.  He founded and ran The Children’s Shakespeare Academy, directing full productions of the bard’s plays for homeschool and private schohol children 9-18.   He is married to his high school sweetheart and together they are bringing up six children.