One of our favorite TV shows is/was Community. If you haven’t watched it, please do. Right away. It’s hysterical.

As I was playing around with curriculum unit ideas for Crow’s Nest Academy, I couldn’t help thinking of one of my favorite episodes -“Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design.” It features a colossal blanket fort complete with a Turkish District, a Latvian Independence Parade, and a Civil Rights Museum as well as a hare-brained conspiracy plot involving a made-up night school.

Here’s a clip.

One of the classic moments is when two of the characters find a list of the courses offered at the night school, including:

  • History of Something
  • Introduction to Basics
  • Principles of Intermediate
  • Theoretical Phys Ed

Naturally, I decided that Crow’s Nest Academy needed to have equally compelling course unit names to make sure Fain stays engaged.

So far, I’ve got a general outline for the first four units and accompanying texts, which will take us through the end of November. The names that I’ve given the units are as follows:

  • Advanced Hubris for Beginners
  • Rebellion 101
  • Swearing for Young Sailors
  • The Fundamentals of Reading Water

Believe it or not, we’ll have all of the Common Core standards covered by the end of unit five. I’ll go into more detail in future posts, but we’ll be using the following texts as foundations for the units:

I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am. I’ve missed teaching, and I actually get to develop curriculum the way that I believe will be most effective rather than as dictated by a suit. All of the units will be relevant to our adventures at sea and at port, and they’ll be holistic, covering multiple disciplines simultaneously.

That last bit is blowing Fain’s mind a little. He can’t imagine a school without specific classes. But he’s not arguing.