Hello friends of Study The Great Books! I am excited to announce that STGB will be doing a series of online “hangouts” this summer (schedule coming soon) where we will either be studying great literature, doing crash courses in logic, or learning about various teaching tools and methods to put into practice in the classroom (or at home with your kids).
These hangouts are one of the benefits made available to those with a paid subscription. Don’t have a paid subscription? There is no time like the present to take that step up from free subscriber. Just to sweeten the deal I am offering a 20% discount over the next week on all paid subscriptions than never expires. That means a monthly subscription will only be $4.00! Subscribe annually and you will save even more. In addition to gaining access to the online hangouts you will also get access to the beta versions of STGB curriculum, in PDF, as it becomes available in the STGB Teachers Newsletter. These PDFs are much easier to use in your home or classroom than are the free online versions and they come with additional study helps and useful information. As these resources grow and are updated (like I said, they are in “beta” presently) you will receive those updates automatically. You’ll be the first to know when new curriculum becomes available for your use.
I am so excited that STGB will be going to the Repairing the Ruins conference this June in Pittsburgh, PA. The support I have already received from paid supporters has allowed me to purchase print materials such as business cards, vinyl banners, a table runner, and other signage. You guys are helping this curriculum project move forward in a professional manner and gain more attention! If you want to know more about the overall curriculum project or our core commitments at STGB then check out this previous announcement about the project.
There are more needs ahead for this curriculum project to be successful. In the near future I will need to purchase some equipment so that I can start designing the layout of the hard-copy print curriculum. STGB will be publishing History and Literature texts which include compilations of all the literature guides, according to each grade level, into one book. These will provide pacing for the year so students and teachers know how to move through the whole material. There will also be introductions to each book, the study questions themselves, information about central characters/historical people, geography, art work, and recommendations for projects and writing assignments, etc. Each book study will be placed in the midst of the STGB timeline so students know where the information they are studying fits in perspective to other important books and events. In other words we are moving towards a complete curriculum. My sincere hope (and prayer) is that the 7th grade History and Literature text can be finished and in production by this time next year. In order to work this direction, though, I am in need of a new laptop and the software to do this right. Presently I work entirely on an iPad (which I love) but it won’t cut it when it comes to running the kind software that will be necessary for designing purposes.
I share all of this so you can see what paid subscriptions actually go to. A large portion of the funds are constantly poured back into the project itself. I don’t mind telling you, however, that the financial support has also just been a benefit to a teacher who is feeding and clothing four kids! So thank you for considering being a part of STGB as a paid subscriber. You are a blessing to me and I am grateful for you.
And hey, if it’s not your desire to upgrade right now (or not in the budget) no problem! I appreciate your just spending time with STGB, reading, learning, commenting, and sharing. You guys are all awesome in my book!
- Jacob Allee