Online High School: Art, Music, and History with Professor Carol

We are very happy to announce, thrilled in fact, that Professor Carol will be back for the 2014/2015 school year. She will be teaching music and art appreciation, as well as Russian history. Yes, THE Professor Carol! We hope you'll join us in this adventure of art and music through history ...

Discovering Western Culture through Music and the Arts

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Class dates: Mondays, September 29 to December 22, 2014. No class December 8th for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Total classes: 12 classes plus 12 recorded lectures
Starting time: 5:00 pm Eastern (4:00 Central; 3:00 Mountain; 2:00 Pacific)
Duration: 1 hour
Prerequisite: None. No musical background is necessary.
Suggested grade level: 9th to 12th grade
Suggested high school credit: 1 full semester Music/Art Appreciation
Fee: $195 for all 24 classes
Instructor: Carol Reynolds, Ph.D. (Professor Carol)
Course description: Journey with Professor Carol through Western History, using music as the focal point but weaving in visual art (painting, sculpture), dance, theater, architecture, and literature. The study of music and the Fine Arts supports the understanding of history, geography, and culture. Elements of science, technology, and language are included in the course as well. Sessions will focus on the years between 1600 and World War One, but will present an overview of Medieval/Renaissance Sacred Music.
Course materials: 1. Discovering Music online curriculum by Professor Carol will be made available to students for half of the regular price ($30 for four months subscription). 2. Music selections assigned by the instructor. These can be accessed in one of four ways. Choose the one that best suits your family: a) Free by searching your public library or YouTube; b) Classical Archives ($8 per month); c) Naxos ($20 per year); OR d) purchase 3-CD set from the instructor (HSC discounted price $34.95).
Homework: This is not a course for the faint of heart. We’ll have a lot of fun as we discover music together, but students should expect a good amount of work outside of the classroom in that discovery. Homework will entail: 1. Viewing recorded classes in advance to the live classes. 2. Viewing assigned artwork and listening to music. 3. Interactive quizzes. 4. A midterm and a final exam (fill-in-blank, short essays, long essays, with answers/suggested answers). 5. Unit projects to be determined. Due to the nature of the medium, we encourage students more than ever to share their learning experience and the resources used in this course with the rest of their family.

History and Culture of Imperial Russia

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Class dates: Mondays, September 29 to December 22, 2014. No class December 8th for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Total classes: 12 live classes plus 12 recorded lectures.
Starting time: 6:30 pm Eastern (5:30 Central; 4:30 Mountain; 3:30 Pacific)
Duration: 1 hour
Prerequisite: None
Suggested grade level: 8th to 12th grade.
Suggested high school credit: 1 full semester History or Fine Arts
Fee: $160 for all 24 classes.
Instructor: Dr. Carol Reynolds (Professor Carol)
Course description: Beginning with ancient Russia and the medieval princes, we’ll study the major developments that shaped Imperial Russia through the Bolshevik Revolution. We’ll cover the roots of Russian Christianity, the effect of European influence, and the primary cultural and military development under the Riurik and Romanov tsars. We’ll examine architecture, folk art, music, and the key contributions of Russian authors Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoi. We will also study factors that led to the fall of the Romanov tsars and the rise of the Bolsheviks, And, we'll end with a look at the arts and culture in the early Soviet period.
Taught in an interactive weekly webinar, the course requires the viewing of a one-hour pre-recorded class session with Professor Carol in preparation for the live class. The course also will feature a number of video sequences filmed by Professor Carol on location(!) in Russia.
Course outline:
Russia and the West
Orthodoxy in Music, Art, and Architecture
Riuriks: The First Russian Dynasty
Time of Troubles and the Early Romanovs (incl. Peter the Great)
The Tsarinas and a Changing Russia
Catherine the Great
Napoleonic Russia
Russia’s Strongest Voice: Pushkin
The Golden Age of Russian
Russian Realism
Final Flowering of Imperial Russia
The End of Imperial Russia & Revolution
Course materials: Land of the Firebird by Susanne Massie [Hearttree Press], 1980. Used and new copies (paperback or hardcover) available at www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/096441841X/catholictreas-20.
Homework: In addition to the required pre-recorded lectures in preparation of the weekly webinar, each unit contains a homework assignment that reinforces and expands the class sessions. These assignments are rich in visual images, music, and clips from historical documentaries. Approximate time needed to devote to the assignments: 2 hours per week. Students should also allot 1 to 2 hours weekly for reading in Land of the Firebird. Midterm and a final exam.

Early Sacred Music

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Class dates: Mondays, Dates to be announced.
Total classes: 12 live classes plus 12 recorded lectures.
Starting time: 5:00 pm Eastern (4:00 Central; 3:00 Mountain; 2:00 Pacific)

Prerequisite: None. No musical background is necessary.

Suggested grade level: 9th to 12th grade

Suggested high school credit: 1 semester, History, Religious Studies, Fine Arts, or Humanities
Fee: $175 if you register on or before November 15, 2014. $195 after Nov. 15th for all 12 classes
Instructor: Dr. Carol Reynolds (Professor Carol)
Course description: Have you wondered about the roots of sacred music and wanted to learn more? This new course takes you from Old Testament times and Ancient Greece and Rome, through the Carolingian Era and the establishment of Christian worship throughout Europe and the Slavic lands, to the dawn of the Renaissance (1400).
We'll encounter saints and philosophers, art and architecture, manuscripts and technology, emperors and political intrigue. And we'll consider the the critical role played by the monks who developed, preserved, and spread the music .
Early Sacred Music features musical performances and commentary from a variety of scholars, including the monks of St. Louis Abbey, Sr. Margaret Truran (St. Cecelia's, Rome), the Ring Around Quartet from Italy, Dr. Michael Dodds (University of North Carolina), Dr. Christopher Anderson (Southern Methodist University), Dr. John Trapani (Walsh University), and more.
This course is taught by Dr. Carol Reynolds, retired professor of Music History (Southern Methodist University) through richly illustrated video class session, written commentary and multi-media assignments, as well as a weekly interactive class session specifically for those enrolled through Homeschool Connections.
Course materials: To be announced.
Homework: To be announced.

Instructor biography: Dr. Carol Reynolds weaves energy, humor, and history into everything she does.   After a career as a professor at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, “Professor Carol” and husband Hank moved to a ranch and began creating Fine Arts courses for students and adults.  Her unprecedented Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, & Culture and Exploring America’s Musical Heritage reach across the world.  Her new course History of Early Sacred Music will appear this summer, as well as online courses on Russian Music, Research Skills for Students Entering College, and a new series on American Music.  A pianist and organist, she is a popular speaker for the Van Cliburn Series, The Dallas Symphony, opera companies, and museums.  She works frequently in Eastern Europe and Russia as Study Leader for The Smithsonian.