From Shannon Whiteside:
The CMI conference was last week in Wilmore, Kentucky. It was our first hybrid conference where sessions were offered in person and online. One of the recorded sessions I listened to was Nicolle Hutchinson’s talk on “Relational Governance”. Nicolle is the Director of Gillingham Charter School in Pennsylvania which is a Charlotte Mason School.
Her talk was geared towards those in schools, but what she said was applicable to teachers in the home, as well. She talked about the fact that due to burnout, the average career of a teacher is only five years. Nicolle stressed the importance of continually learning as an educator and modeling that to our students. In her school, the teachers and staff habitually discuss Mason’s volumes in small groups; they also read a specific book together throughout the year. It might be about a subject area or an educational theory. One year they read through How to Teach Nature Journaling by John Muir Laws. Nicolle also has teachers continue to research and investigate different areas that students are struggling with and find ways to help them. The whole point is that we can’t just continually give output to our students; we need input. We need to be learning and to stay excited about learning.
I want to encourage you to find ways to keep learning and growing as a person. I would love to know what you are doing this summer toward that end. It could be a hobby you are enjoying, a book you are reading, or a skill you are developing. Head on over to this post in the Hive and let us know.
Notes
1. Alveary Leadership Team: As we first mentioned at the conference and again in an email last night, the CMI Board has accepted Dr. Jen Spencer’s resignation and wishes her well as she spends more time with those grandbabies! You can send notes of appreciation and thanks to Jen here. At Jen’s departure, we welcome Dr. Shannon Whiteside as the full-time Alveary Program Director.
2. CMI Conference: Wow! It was great to see so many of you at the conference! We hope you were as blessed as we were by our time together. Please note you can still buy access to recordings you may have missed. And we would greatly appreciate your feedback on this survey if you attended.
3. CMI Courses: New teacher training courses are available and starting soon! Head over here to see how they might serve you as you serve the students in your care.
4. Amazon Smile: Please consider designating the Charlotte Mason Institute as your charity of choice on your smile.amazon.com account. This will be painless and cost-free for you, but it will be of help to us (even if you only choose CMI for the few weeks that you are purchasing your books for next year and then switch back to a different charity of your choice). All revenue goes right back into development and research, which results in better resources for you. Thank you for considering this option.
5. Biology (Grade 10): Novare/CAP finished updating their teacher notes for Biology, and we updated the lesson plans accordingly to include all labs. Please reprint/redownload these lessons.
6.This Week in the Hive: How do you resist the pull of the ubiquitous screens in your life? We found our members’ thoughts in this post refreshing and thought-provoking.
7. 2021-22 Memberships: “30 days hath September, April, June, and November. . .” Please remember that all 2021-22 memberships expire on June 30, 2022. You have until 5:00 p.m. EDT on that date to download any lesson plans you wish to save. Please do not wait until the last minute, as we are unable to honor late requests for access.
Queries
Office Hours: Here is the video from our time together on June 8:
Our next session will be Wednesday, June 29 at 3:30 p.m. EDT. If you have questions you would like our team to address, please submit them at least 24 hours in advance by commenting on the event in The Hive. Here’s the schedule for the coming weeks:
June 29 | General Q&A - Shannon Whiteside
July 6 | High school - Kerri Forney and Kelli Christenberry
July 13 | General Q&A - Shannon Whiteside
July 20 | Modern languages - Rachel Miller
Have a great weekend!
The Alveary Team
