Course Description

Writing instruction plays a unique role in any curriculum. Whereas other subjects invite children to study certain discrete realms of knowledge, the goal of writing instruction is to render the student capable of knowing. Language is the form of human thought, and as we make children more adept at using the resources of language, we make their minds more adequate to the world around them. The purpose of this course is to explore the ways writing instructors in a classical school can do justice to this fundamental importance of their subject matter.

Classical education seeks to nurture the whole of a child’s intellectual, moral, and aesthetic capacities. A writing program worthy of a classical school should be one that encompasses and strengthens all of these capacities. The approach delineated in this course is one that seeks to do just that. It is one that seeks to expose students to the rich stylistic resources of the language, and to instill a love of linguistic play in them. It is an approach that encourages students to be craftsmen of sentences, while enhancing their powers of discursive reasoning through effective argumentation. Above all, this course eschews the habits of academic writing, which is only designed to teach students how to do further academic writing. Instead, the kind of writing instruction advocated for here is the kind that will open students’ minds to the vast dimensions of the world they inhabit.

Towards this end, the course makes use of the classical rhetorical, poetic, and pedagogical traditions. As classical educators, we stand as inheritors of the riches of these traditions. By appropriating the practices and theoretical commitments of these ancestors for our own times, we can provide our students with a far more meaningful and far more effective training in the arts of language.

Who: Classroom teachers of English or Humanities in grades 6-12 or home educators who are looking for ideas to teach writing more effectively with their children.

Dates: The course will run on Thursday evenings from February 27th to March 20th. 

Time: Thursdays, 6:00pm-7:30pm (CENTRAL TIME)

Recordings: Recording of live meetings will be sent approximately within 24-48 hours after the meeting. They will be available for one month after each class.

Cost: $125/person (non-refundable)

About the Instructor:

Mark Signorelli has been serving on the Beautiful Teaching team since 2023. He has most recently served as Headmaster at Lumen Gentium Academy, a classical Catholic high school located in Boonton, NJ.  Prior to occupying this position, he was the Director for a Classical Studies program within the Chesterton Network of Schools.  In addition to over twenty years of experience as an educator, Mark has also written extensively for a wide variety of journals, including the Imaginative Conservative, Arion, Modern Age, Public Discourse, the University Bookman, and Front Porch Republic.  He currently writes at his own site, The Classical Corner, and has authored several books. 

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.  

What: For some students getting a decent oral narration can feel like having to pull teeth. This class will go over different methods that can be used to to engage even the most reluctant narrator. Come prepared to read, write, draw, and play!  

Who: Teachers for all ages are welcome. 

Cost: $25 (non-refundable)

When: 

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 is a BEGINNERS-LEVEL class for homeschool parents, history teachers in K-12, in private and public schools discussing how to teach difficult or uncomfortable topics in history. Using examples from history, teachers will learn why such knowledge is not only good but necessary to a student's overall historical literacy. 

When: Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 6pm CENTRAL

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: $30 (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.

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. 

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. 

"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 in exploring 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 interactive, 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: 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.