A New Year, A New PBP!

Oh my, is it already August? I know some of you are just getting into the thick of your summer break, but here in Georgia, we are back already! Rachel and I are just in the midst of pre-planning while others welcomed students back this week. As we prepare for this school year, Rachel and I have been reflecting on how far Pomegranate Beginnings has come and the exciting things Rachel and I have been working on for this new year.

This post is a break from our regularly scheduled posts, because it is all about new and exciting things for Pomegranate Beginnings! These things are slowly being rolled out and we can’t wait to share them all with you!

A Welcome

Rachel and I are very excited to welcome Dr. Robert Patrick officially to the PBP team! You may have seen his guest posts from time to time on our site and you may already know that PBP published his book Itinera Petri: flammae ducant. Now, he is officially part of the PBP team. Both Rachel and I are connected to Bob in a variety of ways. I am proud to be his daughter and his colleague at Parkview High School. He serves as an inspiration, sounding board, teammate and so much more for both of us. Bob comes to our team with a plethora of great ideas and thoughts on what we already do and how we can move forward. Look for more from him soon!

Pomegranate Beginnings Publishing, LLC

As we welcome our newest member to PBP, we are also taking the step to become more official when it comes to selling our books and guides. Taking this step will allow us to offer bulk purchasing options for schools. You may see some changes to our publications page as we go through this. If you ever have any questions about purchasing books from us, you can contact us here.

Blog posts, Podcasts, and Book Studies Oh My!

Rachel, Bob, and I have long been working on a variety of ideas that come from our own desires and feedback we’ve received from you all. To that end, you will begin to see some changes to this site and how PBP provides its resources to you. While some of these are ready and available for preview NOW, others will roll out as we go forward:

1. New Mother Site - Slowly we will be moving to a brand new “mother” website. This will serve as the new home for all of our products and resources. You can check out what we’ve got so far at: steppingintoci.weebly.com.
2. New Subscription Service - As we move into our new mother site, you will have the option to enjoy both free and subscription items. This is a marriage between all our ideas and the subscription service will help maintain the website and the work we do. While the subscription service is not running yet, it will be up in the next few weeks! In the meantime, you can always check out our free resources and preview many of the things you would find in our subscription service. More details will come about how you can sign up for this.
3. Blog Posts - As always, our blog posts will remain as you have enjoyed them these past few years: free. They will continue to be published by Rachel, Bob, I and guest bloggers as well. Please keep reading, commenting, and sharing!
4. Book Studies - This past year, Rachel and I began a book study project. We have already published our series on James F. Lee’s book Tasks and Communicating in the Language Classroom. You can check it out here! Our book studies will be part of the free resources Rachel and I offer as part of Stepping into CI. Our next book study will begin shortly and will cover two books: The Book Whisperer and Readicide. Join us!
5. Stepping into CI Podcast - Rachel, Bob, and I have been working on a podcast that we will post regularly through the school year. While this will be Free, and you can already check out our first episode here, for free! Our podcast is meant to work alongside the others you may listen to in that while we will discuss theory on occasion, we are dedicated to providing a podcast with direct classroom applications and practical ideas and experiences.
6. Latin Listening Project - This is a PBP baby that Rachel and I have been discussing and tossing around for at least a year. It is something that we are both very passionate about having and we have heard the request for such things for Latin. So, I am very proud to announce that I am working on my first series in what I am calling Latin Story Radio. I don’t want to give too much away, but I have been working hard on this and am very excited to present the first episode! These listening projects will be part of our subscription service, but you will always be able to sample the first episode for free.
7. Organised Units - This is something brand new to PBP and it is because of our readers that we’ve decided to put this out! As part of our subscription service, we will be putting out occasional, organised units for you to take and use! While each unit will be different and level specific, we will include a variety of resources that may include: lesson plans, vocabulary lists, embedded readings, movie short scripts, and more!
8. CI Bites - This project is brand new to you (and us)! CI Bites comes from the mind of Bob and will come straight to you every Mondays and Wednesdays! The purpose of this part of PBP is to provide bi-weekly, brief posts and ideas on CI practices we can use immediately. Bob is committed to providing quick, easy to read, and easy to implement ideas to you regularly. (personally, I cannot wait for these to come out!) While this will be part of our subscription service, you will be able to preview them before purchasing.

As always, please feel free to contact us at any time by commenting on our posts, or by contacting us directly. We are very excited to roll out each of these things for this and the coming years!

Welcome to the new Pomegranate Beginnings!