Consulting
Kinds of Consulting
Offering a variety of consulting programs, we aim to help you see your school well, address your school appropriately, and lead your school purposefully. We are available for full day, multiple day, and online consulting with either a representative from the school, a group of administrators or teachers, or the faculty. Special pricing for online consulting is available, see the “Remote Consulting” fees.
We offer consultants in the following topics, and after a phone conversation, we can customize a program as well.
For Classroom Teachers:
Whole School Training Program
Interested in developing the art of teaching in all of your teachers? Not every teacher is prepared to join CiRCE's Teacher Apprenticeship. We have a plan.
Enroll two of your teachers in the three year long CiRCE Apprenticeship. They will attend two retreats a year, bi-weekly webinars, write monthly essays, assess their teaching and others', as well as ask and answer questions within a small cohort of dedicated teachers learning under a master teacher.
The first year these two teachers join the Apprenticeship, CiRCE will also come onsite for three consecutive days of consulting in mimetic teaching with the faculty. The second year, the same CiRCE consultant will return for two to three consecutive days of consulting in pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment. The third and final year that your two teachers are in the Apprenticeship they can begin mentoring other teachers in your school while the same CiRCE consultant returns for two to three consecutive days of consulting. The fourth year, the year after their graduation, they can begin an internal apprenticeship for your teachers, your students, your community.
– involves a 4 year plan and all of the below individual training opportunities
Lost Tools of Teaching Training
In this double day of consulting, a CiRCE Certified Master Teacher will work through the two classical modes of teaching: Mimetic and Socratic. The workshop will begin with the foundational belief that truth is, it can be known, and it can be communicated. We will then consider both the Mimetic and the Socratic modes for discovering, knowing, and communicating truth. We will look at how to do them, how to do them well, and how to discern the dangers of each.
This training also can be brought to a school in a single day with a few options: a full day of mimetic teaching training, a full day of Socratic teaching training, or a combined day with morning focused on mimetic teaching and the afternoon focused on Socratic teaching.
Lost Tools of Reading Training
In this single day of consulting, a CiRCE representative will offer an introduction to reading well, a part of the liberal art of grammar. We will introduce how to “see” things in a story, using good questions, the CiRCE highlighting system, and listening for echoes. Our minds read in layers; our minds ask many questions. By learning to answer the questions the mind is naturally asking and learning to see what the best readers and writers in history have seen, we can become more interested, engaged, and eager readers.
We can also rest in our ability to read. This training reduces reading anxieties and gives teachers skills that continue to guide adult readers. As William Wordsworth shared, "The child is father of the man." The child we teach to read is the adult reading to his child.
Lost Tools of Writing Teacher Training
In this one to three days of consulting depending on the needs of your school, a CiRCE Certified Master Teacher will offer a detailed introduction to The Lost Tools of Writing. The teacher will reveal how to solve the three problems all writers face; the questions that make for the kind of deep thinking that leads to good writing; and why writing doesn't need to be a stressful, intimidating process. Our attention will be guided to see the big picture of LTW, some difficulties students and teachers encounter, and sample lessons.
This training can be narrow or wide. While we recommend all teachers learn how the art of rhetoric is nurtured in all academic pursuits, we can craft this training for your whole faculty or your writing department.
For Homeschool Teachers/Administrators:
- Classical Education in the Homeschool
If there’s a topic you’d like us to discuss that you don’t see on the list above, let us know. While we have the list above to help you know what is available to you, we always tailor our instruction to the specific needs of the people before us and are happy to adjust to accommodate your needs!
For School Leaders:
- Vocation and commission development (commonly referred to as vision and mission)
- Faculty recruitment and evaluation
- Headmaster/board relationships
- Necessary elements of classical education
- Pedagogy: curriculum, mimetic/socratic instructoin, cclassroom and school aesthetics, assessment
- NEW for 2022 Leadership Develpment Cohort for Headmasters and Board Members: This new program features indepth, in-person twice a year retreats (summer 3 days, winter 2 days) in Charlotte, NC with CiRCE’s team of consultants. Throughout the year, this fellowship will gather in monthly webinars to continue developing, discussing, and dialoguing regarding your identified needs. Our goal is to offer focused, intensive training while allowing you the time to attend to your local school. Through the webinars you will continue having guidance from your consultant while collaborating with your cohort.
Restful Teacher Training
In this single day of consulting with your teachers, a CiRCE representative will present the five principles of restful teaching. Teaching doesn't need to be a stressful, intimidating activity. Restful teaching is possible!
Topics will include:
Restful Teaching (Why restful teaching rises when teaching is oriented toward perceiving truth and Truth)
Restful Planning (There are three modes of teaching/learning (the three columns) that enable us to plan restfully)
Restful Curriculum (The arts of truth-fishing)
Restful Pedagogy (Teaching truth)
Restful Assessment (Evaluating truth perception)
If these topics resonate with your school's needs, we can also develop this into two or three days of training weaving in practice activities to help tie down the ideas and internalize the skills.