A glimpse inside Hillsdale College's network of classical schools across the country.
Families attend my classical charter school for many reasons. Our curriculum brings students into contact with the greatest books, ideas, and role models in Western civilization. Our students have incredible success in their collegiate years after the education they receive from us. Our families pay no tuition and need not fit into any social, economic, or political mold in order to attend our school.…
I often catch myself thinking that if I just make it through this day or until that break, then I’ll get a chance to catch my breath. Despite my hopes, the next week is almost always full of its own new challenges and problems that I could not or did not anticipate. The following is a list of five truths and their corresponding disciplines that help me teach well when I realize that next week isn’t going to slow down. …
Watching a video of yourself teaching is simultaneously painful and illuminating. While you continually cringe at your every movement and the sound of your own voice, you are also given the opportunity to honestly and objectively observe your practice. Having gone through this many times in my teaching career, I can say with confidence that the pain is worth it. Every time I watch myself teach, I learn about a way that I can improve my practice. …
This post is a follow-up to my recent post: The Case for Mini Whiteboards. If you have not read that post, I recommend you do so, as it lays out an argument in favor of the use of mini whiteboards in the classical classroom. This post will discuss the procedures, routines, and general advice that will allow you, the teacher, to get the most out of mini whiteboards in your classroom. …
“But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”– George Eliot, Middlemarch
To learn calculus is, at its core, to learn the rules of playing with infinity: the infinitely big and the infinitely small, or infinitesimal.…
“Back-to-school” is plastered on every billboard, commercial, and email we see and read just as the last firework explodes on the Fourth of July. The phrase brings back memories of my school uniform and wandering around the house looking for my backpack which had been discarded sometime in mid-June between the garage and my bedroom. My middle sister enjoyed school supply shopping and I looked forward to regular sports practice and competition.…
Hillsdale K-12 schools are filled with talented teachers who are dedicated to their craft, possess a deep knowledge of the content they teach, and model the wisdom and virtue we seek to cultivate within our students. Each year, a small cohort of teachers who are particularly distinguished in the art of teaching are honored as Master Teachers and serve as an extension of the Hillsdale K-12 Office.…
As the school year concludes, teachers are inevitably exhausted, but every June, the teachers from our Hillsdale College K-12 member schools get to look forward to attending our annual Summer Conference in Classical Education. Teachers, leaders, and school staff from across the country descend on Hillsdale’s campus ready to learn from the best, engage in great discussions with colleagues from around the network, and get some well-deserved downtime.…