Explore the tradition of classical liberal arts education and study under expert scholars and practitioners.
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The Academy for Classical Teachers (ACT) provides online enrichment for classical teachers who seek to teach in their classrooms according to the principles of a traditional Liberal Arts Education. ACT is a collaborative initiative of Great Hearts Academies and our partner institutions in both higher education and classical K-12. This year’s courses are designed to help teachers dive deeply into content, with an eye toward both theory and practice. Faculty are drawn from our friends in higher education, expert teachers, and scholars who have chosen to teach within the public K-12 arena because of the unique opportunities it affords.
For further questions, please email the Academy Director, Paul Weinhold at pweinhold@greatheartsamerica.org
Leader: Jerilyn Olson, Chief People Officer, Great Hearts Academies
When: Asynchronous course available from January 1 – August 31, 2023
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.
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Leader: Brighton Demerest-Smith, Studio Art Master Teacher, Great Hearts Academies
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.
Leader: Dr. Christopher Perrin, Chief Executive Officer, Classical Academic Press
The renewal of classical education has grown significantly over the last two decades. However, even seasoned classical educators agree that it can still be difficult to answer the fundamental question: “What is classical education?” In this foundational course, Dr. Christopher Perrin provides a clear definition of classical education and then explores key questions, including:
Leader: Joshua Gibbs, Humanities and Literature Teacher, Veritas School
In this course, Joshua Gibbs, upper-school humanities educator at the Veritas School in Richmond, Virginia, shares what he has learned over the course of 10 years about teaching the Great Books to upper-school students. He considers not only the character of teenage students and the challenges they face (such as acedia), but also the disposition appropriate to the teacher. Josh also addresses practical pedagogical issues: how to teach, how to read, how to create meaningful assignments and tests, how to manage parents, and how to create rhythms and traditions throughout the year that blend regularity and rhythm with the unexpected and surprise. This course also features several discussions between Josh and Dr. Christopher Perrin that will prompt further thought and discussion among those taking the course.
Leader: Jake Tawney, Chief Academic Officer, Great Hearts Academies
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.
Leader: Dr. Michael Ivins, Humane Letters Teacher, Great Hearts Academies
When: Fall 2023 on Five Sunday Afternoons | 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm (AZ)
Zētesis (Greek for “ongoing search”) is an online reading group dedicated to the idea that faculty development must include more than training skills for a job. Rather, faculty development properly engages the whole human person, inspiring them to pursue what Socrates called “the examined life”—a life of actively seeking Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Zētesis will meet over the course of five monthly sessions during Fall 2023. We will be reading Euripides’ Bacchae, Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart,” Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground, and Tolstoy’s “Diary of a Madman.” These works, which are adjacent to those typically taught to K-12 students, nonetheless remain in conversation with curricular works and emerge from the same tradition. Please join us for an exciting new Fall seminar series covering this eclectic collection of short works of literature, each of which deals in its own way with questions of meaning.
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The Academy for Classical Teachers is grateful to our institutional partners, whose generosity is helping us build bridges across the classical education movement.
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Classical U, an online teacher-training platform that provides a clear path toward mastery for classical educators seeking to understand the classical tradition of education and teach with excellence.
Great Hearts Institute, an outreach dedicated to renewing the tradition of classical education by directly supporting educators, school leaders, and families.
The University of Dallas, the Catholic University for Independent Thinkers, offers a Classical Education Graduate Program that fosters inquiry, cultivates virtue, and instills wisdom.
