Our Courses
Teaching Shakespeare’s Greatest Plays & Sonnets
Leader: Dr. Joshua Avery, Humane Letters Teacher, Great Hearts Academies
When: Asynchronous course available from January 1 – August 31, 2024
Where: Online
Cost: $125 (FREE for Great Hearts Employees)
Dr. Joshua Avery teaches Shakespeare with the Classical Education Graduate Program at the University of Dallas as well as Humane Letters at North Phoenix Preparatory Academy (Great Hearts). In this course, he guides teachers through Shakespeare’s sonnets as well as seven of his plays, providing key insights into enjoying and understanding these classics with your students. His own teaching experience in a classical upper school as well as training of teachers at the graduate level provide a wealth of practical insights into pedagogical approaches as well as insights into Shakespeare’s works as a literary scholar.
Reading and Teaching Homer’s Odyssey
Leaders:Dr. Eva Brann and Dr. Hannah Hintze, Tutors, St. John’s College
When: Asynchronous course available from January 1 – August 31, 2024
Where: Online
Cost: $125 (FREE for Great Hearts Employees)
In this self-paced course, you will read through Homer’s Odyssey, guided and inspired by St. John’s College tutors Dr. Eva Brann (who has tutored at St. John’s for over 60 years and is the author of Homeric Moments) and her colleague Dr. Hannah Hintze. In addition to hearing from both Dr. Brann and Dr. Hintze on the Odyssey, you will also find four seminars (discussion-based class sessions) on the Odyssey, led by Hannah Hintze and featuring several St. John’s students and another tutor.
The Teacher’s Playbook: Practical Pedagogy for Classical Educators
Leader: Jerilyn Olson, Chief People Officer, Great Hearts Academies
When: Asynchronous course available from January 1 – August 31, 2024
Where: Online
Cost: $125 (FREE for Great Hearts Employees)
In this 12-lesson course Jerilyn Olson connects classical principles to practical techniques that teachers can employ in the classroom.
As Great Hearts has grown from one school of 140 students to 32 schools with over 20,000 students by 2021, Jerilyn has had the opportunity to capture the best practices of teachers across multiple contexts and share those practices with each new campus. Teachers are truly at the center of every school and teaching is the work of practical wisdom—it is neither a pure philosophical endeavor nor a utilitarian social science. Newer classical school teachers often find it difficult to visualize what good practice looks like in one’s own particular context. Such teachers often hear talk about the Great Tradition, truth beauty goodness, and Platonic ideas but aren’t sure what means in particular for planning tomorrow’s lesson on fractions.
At the same time, practical teaching handbooks that are full of techniques and strategies aren’t easily harmonized with a classical pedagogy. How can we know how and when employ techniques from these sources?
Using classical rhetorical ideas and real-life anecdotes, Jerilyn seeks to bring together the great philosophies of classical education with effective, practical methods that good teachers employ every day. In these sessions, Jerilyn lays out a vision for practice—a description of what good teaching might look like, and how teachers can organize their ideas around the framework of rhetoric. Along the way, she gives some advice for your ongoing journey in learning good pedagogy, practicing, and getting feedback. Toward the end, she also gives advice to leaders who seek to help guide and develop effective classical teachers.
The course begins with a look at the personal formation every teacher must pursue in order to thrive in the classroom; the course then proceeds to look at how we can establish a classroom culture of order and joy. Finally, Jerilyn explores the classic framework of planning, instruction, and assessment through a classical lens.
Essentials of Drawing
Leader: Brighton Demerest-Smith, Studio Art Master Teacher, Great Hearts Academies
When: Asynchronous course available from January 1 – August 31, 2024
Where: Online
Cost: $125 (FREE for Great Hearts Employees)
In this course, Brighton Demerest-Smith (a classically trained artist and veteran educator with Great Hearts Academies) moves from how to teach the elements of drawing up through still life and master study. Grounded in fundamentals and close observation of subjects, his methods of teaching drawing are traditional and time-tested.
In his work with teachers, Smith champions observational drawing. He limits students to drawing and painting solely from observation. His form of art education is analytical, Socratic, traditional and meant for all levels of students from very beginners to accomplished artists. Smith has carefully crafted a studio art curriculum that builds upon a tradition of drawing and painting which dates back to the 14th century.
Math for Every Teacher
Leader: Jake Tawney, Chief Academic Officer, Great Hearts Academies
When: Asynchronous course available from January 1 – August 31, 2024
Where: Online
Cost: $125 (FREE for Great Hearts Employees)
In this course, veteran mathematics teacher and leader Jake Tawney provides a clear and engaging introduction to the beauty of Mathematics. This course does not propose a specific curriculum. It does, however, present a list of “those things from mathematics you should have learned but probably didn’t.” In the opening lessons of the course you will hear that truth is effusive. Upon its discovery truth demands to be shared, and the mathematical proof is the medium through which mathematical truth is communicated. There are certainly no results in this course that Jake Tawney claims as his own, and many of the mathematical proofs are centuries old. These proofs represent, in a small way, some of the best that has been said within the discipline of mathematics.