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Parents of classical students
Book study: Norms and Nobility by David Hicks
with Karen Glass

"The end of education is not thinking; it is acting. It is not just knowing what to do; it is doing it. The sublime premise of a classical education asserts that right thinking will lead to right, if not righteous, acting."
David Hicks, Norms and Nobility
What: Online teaching and live discussion of Norms and Nobility every two weeks, plus access to study material to accompany your reading, as well as discussion space to explore ideas together and ask questions outside of live meetings. This book is an investment to purchase and requires an investment of time and thought as well; however, it has the potential to transform your thinking about education in a way that will be a positive benefit to a teacher, and that teacher's students, forever after.
Who: This study is for thoughtful educators who wish to deepen their knowledge of classical education and consider how ancient ideas about education and its purposes can be implemented in contemporary times. This book is for those who want to challenge themselves, as it requires effort to read.
Class Limit: Places are limited so we can all participate in discussion.
Course Dates: The course will run from September 3, 2024 to March 4, 2025. There will be 13 live meetings, plus online discussion.
Recordings: Recording of live meetings will be sent within 24-48 hours after the meeting and available for two weeks after each class.
Time: Every other Tuesday, 7:00pm-8:00pm (CENTRAL TIME)
Cost: $249
$249 if registered after August 6.
Course Map
2024
September 3 - Preface and Prologue
September 17 - Chapter 1, Virtue is the Fruit of Learning
October 1 - Chapter 2, The Word is Truth
October 15 - Chapter 3, Teaching the Father of the Man
October 29 - Chapter 4, The Tyrannizing Image
November 12 - Chapter 5, Saving the Appearance
November 26 - Chapter 6, On the Necessity of Dogma
December 10 - Chapter 7, The Ennobling of the Masses
January 7 - Chapter 8, The Promise of Christian Paideia
January 21 - Chapter 9, A Curriculum Proposal (What Might Have Been)
February 4 - Chapter 10, Some Questions and Assumptions
February 18 - Chapter 11, Three Schools in One Academy
March 4 - Chapter 12, The School Within the School, and Epilogue
About the Teacher
Karen Glass is a homeschool mother who has taught her four children through graduation and spent over two decades delving into educational philosophy, beginning with Charlotte Mason and extending to classical educators throughout history. She has a B.A. in English, but her real education has been self-education, and her passion for education has led her to write several books, including Mind to Mind (an abridgement of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy of Education), Know and Tell: The Art of Narration, In Vital Harmony: Charlotte Mason and the Natural Laws of Education, and A Thinking Love: Studies in Charlotte Mason's Home Education. When she asked David Hicks, the author of Norms and Nobility, to read and consider writing a Foreword to her first book, Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition, he graciously consented to do so.
Bring Shakespeare Alive!
with Beautiful Teaching Team

Description:
At the end of this course, you will have a better understanding of how to enjoy and approach the Bard with your students.
Few authors play so important a role in the curriculum of a classical school as Shakespeare. Yet the language and complexity of his plays can prove daunting to classroom teachers, home educators, and students. In this six-week intensive, you will work with three experienced teachers, who will share proven approaches to bring the Bard alive with students from grades 3-12. Several of the most commonly taught plays will be discussed, and you will have the opportunity to gain insight into these works, as well as come away with strategies to teach children to read, listen to, understand, write about, and perform the plays of Shakespeare.
Syllabus:
- March 1: Introducing Shakespeare: Enjoying Shakespeare with Students
- March 8: Reading Shakespeare: Reading & Understanding the Plays
- March 15: Talking About Shakespeare: Dialoguing about the Plays in class
- March 22: Writing About Shakespeare: Using Writing & Assessment to Improve Students' Understanding of the Plays
- March 29: Performing Shakespeare: Staging Productions with Multiple Ages
- April 5th: Putting a Shakespeare Play Together: The Tempest on stage for all levels
Who: This is for classroom teachers, home educators, and drama teachers
When: 6 weeks - Every Saturday Morning March 1 through April 5, 2025
Time: 10-11 am CENTRAL
Zoom: A link will be emailed the day before the session.
Recorded: Every session is recorded and will be available to view for one month after the session. Recordings are sent to paid participants approximately 24-48 hours after the live session.
Cost: $99/teacher
About the Instructors
Kiernan Fiore: Mrs. Fiore fell in love with A Midsummer Night's Dream as a homeschooled 6th grader and has never forgotten her first literary love. She eventually lived her dream and studied for an MA in Shakespeare Studies at the Globe Theater in London. She now teaches Shakespeare to students from grades 4th-12th at Holy Innocents School, where she also serves as the Director of Academics and tries to weave Shakespearean language into every professional development presentation she gives. Mrs. Fiore married a fellow teacher -- their first date was watching Shakespeare's Henriad -- and raising their three rambunctious children is like living in a Shakespearean comedy.
Mark Signorelli: Mr. Signorelli has taught Shakespeare to high school students for over twenty years, in a variety of classroom settings. He was one of the founders of the Atlantic Poetry Guild, which ran seminars on teaching Shakespeare for high school English Teachers in New Jersey. He has been both a teacher and administrator in classical schools, and currently consults with Beautiful Teaching on a variety of humanities-related topics.
Benjamin Lyda: For over 10 years, Benjamin Lyda has been producing and directing Shakespeare’s plays, introducing the bard’s works to children ages 9-18. From homeschool living rooms, small reader’s theater productions with homeschool families, to large productions on professional stages with classical schools, he offers practical advice for all kinds of situations. In addition, he has over 20 years of experience as a teacher and administrator. He has a Master of Humanities and a Master of Theological Studies. He is happily married to his highschool sweetheart and together they are bringing up 6 children with insatiable curiosity.
Teaching Writing with the Progymnasmata
with Benjamin Lyda

Who: For those teaching writing to children 8-18. For those seeking an intuitive way to teach writing. For those who want an alternative to the "five paragraph essay."
What: Many contemporary curricula merely take a modern analytical approach to writing while sprinkling in classical vocabulary. Instead, progymnasmata approaches writing through synthesis, beginning with ideas instead of processes.
The progymnasmata focuses on moral development and the discovery of Truth. It trains the intellect and the moral imagination. Developmentally appropriate, the progymnasmata progresses from concrete to abstract, simple to complex, poetic to civic, narrative to persuasive, and normative to controversial.
This approach to writing offers flexibility and creativity within limits and a guiding form. Most writing training is driven by outlines rather than ideas. An outline driven method, such as the "five paragraph essay," results in writing dry as crust and stiff as iron bars. Instead of cramming an idea into a form, the progymnasmata teaches how to find a form for an idea.
Time: Tuesday, March 11, 7:00-8:30 pm CENTRAL TIME
Zoom: A link to the class will be shared on the day of the class.
(Live attendance is encourged for an immersive experience.)
Recorded: This will be recorded and available approximately 48 hours after the class. The video will be available to view for one month.
Cost: $25/person (non-refundable)
About the Instructor:
Benjamin Lyda 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 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 is married to his high school sweetheart and together they are bringing up six children.
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We Need John Senior More Than Ever
with Benjamin Lyda

Who: For parents and teachers of all ages, who want to re-enchant education. For those who understand we must learn to cultivate the soil of our children's hearts, so that they cling to the Good, True, and Beautiful as adults. For those who can see that our culture has forgotten something that must be recovered.
What: This introduction to John Senior course seeks to apply his teaching on how to win back the souls of our children, those souls that are so often ensnared by the noise of the twenty-first century.
Said a former student of his, "John Senior, like Socrates, had the uncanny ability to get young people to think, to wonder, and to change course in midstream. How he did this owed a great deal to his own sense of wonder and appreciation of Gods presence in our lives." Living through the radical changes of the 20th century, Senior witnessed the rise of the automobile, the arrival of the atomic bomb, television, computers, fast food, cell phones, and the internet, just to name a few. He remembers that things have not always been like this, and we would be wise to listen to him to understand what we have lost and how to recover the enchantment of reality.
Time: Tuesday, March 18, 7:00-8:30 pm CENTRAL TIME
Zoom: A link to the class will be shared on the day of the class.
(Live attendance is encourged for an immersive experience.)
Recorded: This will be recorded and available approximately 48 hours after the class. The video will be available to view for one month.
Cost: $25/person (non-refundable)
About the Instructor:
Benjamin Lyda 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 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 is married to his high school sweetheart and together they are bringing up six children.
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Cultivating the Imagination: Approaching Fairy Tales, Fables, and Moral Lessons
with Adrienne Freas

What: In this session, teachers will learn why fables and fairy tales help children develop a well-ordered imagination. We will discuss how to approach stories without getting in the way of the child's imagination. Experience the role, and proper ordering of the imagination through reading, narrating, and discussing a fable and a fairy tale. Teachers will learn the importance of respecting the imagination through reading, narrating, and properly discussing the moral of a story. We will include a progymnasmata fable writing exercise!
Who: For parents, classroom instructors or home educators.
(good course for parents whose children are at classical schools)
Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025
Time: 6-8 pm CST Central Time
Cost: $30 (non-refundable)
Zoom: A link to the class will be shared on the day of the class.
(Live attendance is encourged for an immersive experience.)
Recorded: This will be recorded and available approximately 48 hours after the class. The video will be available to view for one month.
About the Instructor
Adrienne is the founder and director of The 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 five. She works part-time as a Classical Pedagogy and Curriculum Specialist for Coram Deo Academies in DFW.
Poetic Language Lessons for Little People
with Adrienne Freas

Description
I have written a new curriculum called Poetic Language Lessons: A Gentle Primer in Grammar and Rhetoric (primarily for children ages 6-8). This is a free introduction to the philosophy of the curriculum.
Ideas we will cover include:
- What is a poetic imagination?
- How do you truly integrate multiple subjects?
- Introducing grammar to children
- Rhetoric for little people
- Elements of music as it pertains to the art of rhetoric
- Incorporating wonder and a curiosity framework
When: Saturday, May 3, 9:30-11 am CENTRAL
Zoom: A link will be sent the day before the session
Recorded: This session will be recorded and available 24-48 hours after the session. It will be available for one month.
About the Instructor
Adrienne Freas is the founder and director of The 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. She also served as a curriculum and pedagogy specialist for Coram Deo Academies, a university-collaborative model school in DFW. In each role, She led teams creating classical professional development, parent education workshops, and writing customized educational materials that promote a strong virtue-based humanities curriculum for K-12 schools. Adrienne has been married to Brian for 32 years. She is a retired homeschool mother of four adult children and the grandmother to eight (plus a grand-puppy).
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