aws awareness april 2011 lisa - alabama waldorf...

Alabama Waldorf School

Friday, April 8th, 2011

AWS AWareneSs

AWS Events Calendar: April 9th—May 1st

Tours of AWS, led by Enrollment Director Opal

South for both current and prospective parents!

Every Tues.

9am

Marketing Committee Meeting — Auditorium.

Noon-1pm.

Wed, 4/13,

& 4/27

Family Association Meeting — Grades Hallway,

5:30pm

Thu, 4/14

and 5/12

Class Pictures—stop by the office for order

forms! 8:45am-Noon.

Wed, Thu,

4/13-14

School in Session — Bring a Friend to

School Day! More on p. 4

Mon, 4/18

Waldorf Pentathlon! Camp Kanawanahala,

Chelsea (See p. 4 for updates.)

Tue-Thu,

4/19-21

Park it and Picnic at Sloss Furnaces

More on p. 4!

Sat, 4/23

Strategic Planning Committee —Quarterly Meeting Fri, 4/29,

3:30pm

Talent Show! Open to AWS 4th-8th graders,

alumni, parents, teachers, & board invited! Come by

the office for an entry form.

Fri, 4/29

5:30pm

Magic City Art Connection—Visit AWS’ flower-

pounding booth at the Imagination Festival!

Fri-Sun,

4/29-5/1

1. The truth of the matter is that a Grades student has many teachers from the first day s/he enters the classroom! In addition to the class teacher who cov-ers core academics such as reading, writ-ing, math, history, and science, the student has a Russian teacher, a Spanish teacher, a Movement Education teacher, a Hand-work teacher, and in the older rades, a Chorus and Ensemble teacher.

2. The class teacher is specially trained to really work at meeting the needs of each of the children en-trusted to his/her care.

I often hear myself saying that we don’t do things here the way they are done in mainstream schools. One of the ways we are differ-ent is that each faculty member believes that s/he is

here not only to teach the students but to learn from them. A trait common to all faculty members we hire is that the candidate hon-estly conveys a desire to be taught by this experience of teaching, not just to teach.

3. When I was teaching first and second grade, and my own class parents brought the looping concern to me, my answer was that

if I had a difficulty with a child, it was part of my duty to work through it—not to pass it on to another teacher unresolved. I still believe that today. In nine years of teaching, I never had a student with whom I couldn’t work things out. Whether we needed an American Indian-style healing circle, a parent/teacher/child meeting, or just a one-on-one conversation, the students and I always worked through any differences that arose. I learned much from being that accountable to both students and parents. I was 38 when I came to Waldorf teaching and had already learned that when you sit next to a co-worker day after day in a 6 x 8 cubicle for 8 to 10 hours, there are often times when you simply have to work it

Administrator’s Ad Lib: “One teacher for eight years?!” By Lisa Grupe, Ph.D.

A Nursery parent kindly commented the other day, “I really love the Waldorf philosophy and can see how it makes sense

for my preschool child. I’m also impressed with the curriculum for Grades School, but I’m worried about the way the

teachers loop through the grades...what if my child doesn’t like his teacher and is stuck with him or her for 8 long years?”

As a former Kindergarten through 8th grade looping teacher myself, I have much to say on the subject:

out. Learning how to work it out, whether you’re a teacher or a child, is an im-portant skill and an important experience. It could even be argued that learning to use communication tools at an early age is easier than being hit with those demands at a brand new middle school or high school, or even later in life at your first job.

4. In teacher training, I learned that the first place you must look when things are not going along as you wish is inside yourself. If my class had an “off” day, or if I felt impatient with a student, my immediate reaction was to look in the mirror and ask, “What have I done to cause this?” It’s important to remember that when teachers

(cont’d on pg. 3)

Ms. Grupe’s 6th/7th graders show what they learned on Physics Demonstration Day.

AWS AWareneSs

Thanks to parents who “stood up” for teachers and pledged money for their summer training, over $1,500 was raised at The Golden Ticket event! Thanks to these parents, refresher courses for the grades teachers already certified are paid for!! A little more than $10,000 is needed to com-pletely fund teachers who need to receive Waldorf teacher training to teach your children in the best possible way! While the school has written a grant for this training, it is a highly competitive granting world out there, and we cannot prudently rely on such funding. So, look for a blue tri-fold display of the teachers who need your sup-port in the halls! Among them…

Handwork Teacher Sarah Gurganus. Her situation is unique because she teaches EVERY AWS elementary student. While she is a fabulous handwork

Stand up for Teachers!... Let’s make our 150 years of collective Waldorf teaching experience 200 years!

teacher who came to us with incredi-ble talent, she would very much like to get Waldorf certified. That shows a real commitment to AWS because it involves 3 years of training! Another teacher who is in certification training is Sadhna Udharam. Sad-hna is completing the 3rd of her 3-year training and will graduate this summer! She will need airfare and lodging in addition to tuition costs. Sadhna’s training is in Waldorf Early Childhood, so what she learns bene-fits the entire preschool team.

Liudmila Self started last fall with a mini-mum of training and is very interested in spending 2 weeks learning about Grades 7 and 8, which she will teach

this fall. One of her classes is online, but the other involves travel, lodging, and tuition. Jodie Bradley has already received Waldorf early childhood training but

is now teaching the Grades. While she Wal-dorf-homeschooled her own son through Grade 5, she really wants classroom-based Grades training to support her AWS career. Any amount is helpful and is tax-deductible since we are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Just make your pledge on the festive blue tri-fold display, email [email protected] to charge your account, or donate at www.alabamawaldorf.org under the “Giving” tab. Your donation can be designated for a particular teacher or

to the general fund. Thanks, as always, for your support of our faculty!!!***

Roasted Beet Dip Contributed by Neville and Rachel Baay

2 bunches of beets (about 2 lbs.)

1/4 cup of O.J. 1 - 2 cloves of garlic

1/4 - 1/2 tsp of ground cumin 1/4 tsp of Sambal Oelek or

freshly-minced chili 1/4 - 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil 2 - 3 tbs of balsamic vinegar

1/4 -1/3 cup of Greek style yogurt (Plain) lemon juice (fresh)

1 tsp salt Pepper to taste

Last weekend, Ms. Ashley and Elizabeth Lasseter hosted a skirt-making Pick-a-Party!

The group of AWS moms enjoyed learning how to make T-skirts (Ms. Ashley’s specialty skirt!), noshing on fruit and pastries, the good company

and the beautiful weather!***

Cooking Directions:

Roast beets for 1 and 1/2 hours or until easily skewered in a covered tray @ 325 degrees. Cool and peel. Place in a food processor with Olive Oil, O.J., Garlic, Cumin, Sambal Oelek, Balsamic Vinegar and a squeeze of Lemon Juice. Puree until smooth and taste. You can add as much of any ingredient as you like to suit your tastes, but start with small amounts because the star of the show is the roasted sweetness and earthy flavor of the beets! When you have a flavor you like, mix in the yogurt. Enjoy! It is wonderful on sandwiches too.***

AWS Family Corner: PICK-A-PARTIES and RECIPES! AWS parent and master chef Neville Baay shares his Beet Dip recipe (a popular dish at The Golden Ticket event!), and Nursery

Teacher Ms. Ashley shares photos from the Pick-A-Party she and parent Elizabeth Lasseter co-hosted!. Thanks to all who hosted and/or participated in the Family Association’s Pick-a-Party fundraiser this year...you raised $1300 that

went toward purchasing mulch, sand, and plants for the playground, in addition to some teacher training!!***

Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, CA is one of the Waldorf Teacher Training insti-tutes AWS faculty attend. Pictured above is their biodynamic garden, a popular spot with students for relaxing and renewing between classes. ***

Friday, April 8th, 2011

Waldorf and the Golden Ticket a Big Success!

Give us your feedback! Go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KSBT2FT to complete a 10-question survey about The Golden Ticket. Your input will help make next year’s fundraiser even better! Many thanks from the AWS Marketing Team.

Above: Thanks to Neville Baay, Mary Ann Saylor, and donations from Bot-tega Café. The food was incredible!!! Below: AWS parents and guests enjoy the festivities. Thanks to Luke & Otey and Sarah & Tim for playing!***

Silent and Live Auctions, coordinated by Keri-Lane Hontzas, Terra Mortensen and Lisa Grupe, netted the school $15,000. Thanks to our gen-erous donors for making this success possible! Below: Original art by Tracy McKay was a hot item at the live auction and it raised money for the 8th grade trip to the Grand Canyon!!

...and students don’t get along, it’s the teach-ers who are the adults in the situation! Usu-ally, I could find an answer: I hadn’t slept long enough; I hadn’t eaten properly; I was stressed because my sister was in the hospi-tal, etc. Whatever the reason, Waldorf phi-losophy asks that we work things out by being accountable for our own actions. 5. One of the greatest advantages of looping, is that because the class teacher is with the students from year to year, s/he gets to know how each of the students learn, what weaknesses need to be strength-ened, what sensitivities need to be nur-tured, and what areas need to be chal-lenged. Nine months simply isn’t enough time to get to know the child. When Steiner prescribed the looping model, it was after

WWI, and he knew that the children would need consistency and rhythm as part of soci-ety’s healing. This need for consistency and rhythm hasn’t disappeared; in fact it’s more important now than ever! Children are in school 8 hours a day, year after year; having the same teachers instills in them a sense of security and confidence the early grades student and the budding adolescent need.

To sum up, one of the many memorable things I learned in Waldorf teacher training was that the parent has three main questions of the class teacher over the years. For the first three years, it’s “Do you love my child?” For the next three years, it’s “Do you under-

stand my child?” For the last couple of years, it’s “Do you respect my child?” A Waldorf Grades teacher teaching the cycle of all 8 grades endeavors to truly answer yes to ALL of these. ***

...A Response to Looping (Cont’d from p.1)

Thanks to Terra Mortensen (above with husband Tim Rooks) and Keri-Lane Hontzas (right) for chairing the event!

Ms. Powell celebrating

Chinese New Year with

her class, currently in

5th grade; she’s looped

up with them since

grade 1.

AWS AWareneSs

AWS Alumni receive top honors!

Congratulations to Janine Mwenja and Alex Kilpatrick on their recent honors! Both Janine and Alex were voted into the National Honor Soci-ety and the Spanish National Honor Society. As part of their 11th grade curriculum at the Jefferson Cty Int’l Baccaleure-ate School, students take advantage of work-study opportunities. Janine has been contributing her talents and skills to the architectural projects at Giattina-Aycock.

Alex interned in the AWS office this past school year. Each

Monday, she came and helped file and organize, answer

phones, and read with the 3rd graders. Thank you, Alex, for your cheerful disposition, your reliable work ethic, and your time to help the school run

more smoothly!***

Congratulations to AWS 6th graders, Shelby and Chad, for their acceptance into the Creative Writing program at the Alabama School of Fine Arts! Also, 8th grader Madeline Hall will be a fine representative of AWS when she attends the JCIB program in the fall! Madeline has been at AWS since she was 2 1/2. All three students will be sorely missed!

****

Pentathlon updates! Sloss Furnace artist and AWS community mem-ber Heather Spencer is creating the event med-als! Schools attending include: Linden Waldor School (Nashville), Atlanta Waldorf School, Sun-coast Waldorf School (Tampa), and The Waldorf School of Louisville. All are invited to come out to Camp Kanawa-hala to watch the events Tue-Thur, 4/19-4/21. Call the AWS office for details. 205-592-054.

****

Special treatment for AWS families at Sloss!

On Saturday, April 23rd, spend some quality time with your family! To celebrate National Picnic Day, Sloss Furnaces is hosting its first annual Park-It and Picnic event! AWS Teacher Erica Spencer and her husband, Josh Hodge, will be giving a guided tour of Sloss to any AWS fami-lies interested that afternoon. So pack a blanket, some good food, plenty of water, and load up the family for fun in the sun!!***

Last weekend I traveled to Washington, D.C., where I served as Alabama Waldorf School’s representative to the 2011 AWSNA Regional Conference. Last year the conference was held in Chapel Hill, NC, and I enjoyed meeting Waldorf teachers, parents, board members, and administrative personnel from schools in the Atlantic and Southeast regions. This year proved to be just as invigorating as last—catching up with Administrators I had met previously, hearing updates from fellow developing schools, listening to inspiring anthroposophical lectures pre-sented by Dennis Klocek, and participat-ing in breakout workshops led by the Development Director at The Waldorf School of Washington, Steve Smith. I also met with the representative from our mentor school in Baltimore, who passed along AWSNA’s recommenda-tions and expectations of our school, namely: to complete our 5-year plan by June 1st; and to re-evaluate our tuition structure, tuition adjustment program, and teacher salaries. In the workshop on Marketing and Development, my peers and I discussed what was working in these areas in our schools, and what wasn’t. I gleaned a lot of great ideas not just about fundraising methods, but about how to implement them keeping in mind Rudolf Steiner’s three-fold social order as a desirable goal: a perfect balance of the three

AWSNA Conference recap From Enrollment & Marketing

Director, Opal South

realms of culture, rights, and commu-nity. Former Development Manager Adrianne Morrison implemented one of the ideas about giving campaigns when she designed the school’s Streamlined Giving campaign. The impetus behind the campaign was that giving of monies to the school should be a kind of spiri-tual exchange between donor and recipient—the more we disengage our individual prides and our egos from the money that’s exchanged, the more spiritual that action becomes. As we look toward future fundraising and seeking of donations, it is this approach to asking and giving that we should strive to embrace wholly. On Enrollment topics, one of the ideas for boosting numbers was a free observation day for prospective stu-dents. AWS is hosting our own version of this day soon, Bring a Friend to School Day! (see flier below) If you know of a Kindergarten or grades-schooler who would enjoy visiting a Waldorf classroom for the day, let them know about next Monday, April 18th! Parents should reserve a space for their child by contacting me: [email protected] or calling 205-592-0541. I’m looking forward to sharing the ideas I took away from the conference with the Board and the teachers in the coming weeks.***

Top: Janine Mwenja, lending a hand at the 2010 fundraiser. Above left: Alex assisting at this year’s live auction.

Alabama Waldorf School...

Excellent Academics Enlivened by the Arts

Windows into Waldorf Enlivening the Drama of History and Math with…well, Drama!

Above: Soldiers brandishing swords and wielding

shields capture the unarmed Ph-ity (Ella Wolfe)

5th & 6th Graders

Present…

Pythagoras ! On March 31st, Ms. Powell’s 5th and 6th

graders performed a play about the con-

flict surrounding the

story of Pythagoras

and his followers.

Anyone present in the

audience for either of

the two performances

could attest that it

couldn’t get much

better...it was obvious that the students

had worked hard to memorize the lines

from the cleverly written play by fellow

Waldorf colleague Eugene Schwartz.

Too, the class worked together with Di-

rector Lynda Powell to block the many

scenes, use clear and emphatic speech,

and assemble a magnificent set (with

much help from grandmothers Jennifer

Kampsnider and Linda Sering and parent

John Murray). Congratulations on a

stellar performance, students!***

James Lasseter as Thermopalous takes a

well-deserved bow…”There we stood, out-

numbered 5 to 1, and I…”

Left: The would-be assassins are turned over to Pythagoras. Middle: Milo catches Thermopalous sleeping on the job. Right: William as young Pythagoras.

“We three always agree”...with dearest despot

Sybarates. Will, Zack, Michelle and Shelby provide

comic relief.

Below: Thermopalous brings the veiled visitors

to Pythagoras. Who might suspect they were

beautiful women, one of them Pythagoras’ wife!?



Jaimen McMillan’s Workshop: INTEGRATING REFLEXES

Part 2 of last month’s Admin Adlib from Dr. Lisa Grupe

AWS to host second annual 5k Race!

Last month, I wrote about the recent workshop AWS hosted featuring Jaimen McMillan, foun-der of Spacial Dynamics™, the Waldorf Pentathlon, and author of The Fourfold Path to Healing. Jaimen led 3 sessions in his workshop, beginning with one on reflexes which I introduced in the March AWareneSs.

If you think about a child’s growing up as a child growing into his/her physical body, it becomes important to realize that reflexes, in this same way, are point-centered--their pur-pose is to help the child survive. Once survival has been accom-plished, reflexes are, ideally, integrated into the body. The palmar reflex, for example, is demonstrated when a baby firmly grips whatever is placed in the palm. Amaz-ingly enough, this grip is

strong enough to support the baby’s full weight.) You can tell that the baby is beginning to inte-grate the palmar reflex when he starts dropping things. This is a sign of the point-centered reflex developing into the peripheral--into the function of attachment. It is designed to take the outside world and bring it in. You can see this demonstrated when a baby starts dropping things from. The baby also rocks on all fours, first with fists clenched and then with the palm flattened. At this point, the gesture has moved from grasping things in order to bring them in to flattening the palm in a gesture of pushing things outward. Since normal developmental progression involves developing gross motor skills prior to fine motor skills, crawling on the floor is important because it helps the baby move from the clenched fist to the flat-tened palm so that this palmar reflex begins to be integrated.

Why is it important to integrate reflexes? Reflexes originate in and activate the lower portion of the brain, often called the reptilian

brain, which is absent of any conscious-ness. You could think of the reptilian brain as being full of passed-on wisdom but incapable of conscious reflection. Thus, if the palmar reflex is not inte-grated, the child’s grip is whole-handed (e.g., s/he holds the crayon or pencil with a clenched fist instead of with a pincer grasp), and the brain doesn’t receive proper communication from the hand; this can actually impede learning! The brain stays in a state of alarm (due to control coming from the reptilian brain) creating a tension be-tween itself and the higher brain that distracts from the possibility of learning.

In a Waldorf school, if a child demonstrates a whole-handed grip or some other outer repre-sentation of an intact (non-integrated) palmar reflex, we

Save the Date! AWS’ 2nd annual Father's Day 5K Race and 1-Mile Fun Run is on Father’s Day Week-end (Saturday, June 18th) at Oak Mountain State Park!! We decided to bring this fundraiser back for the 2010-11 school year, not only because it was a success last year, but because it supports our mis-sion by encouraging students to be accountable for their physical wellness. It also sup-ports the community by making exercise something that can be shared by friends and family. Oak Mtn. State Park show-cases our area’s natural re-sources and provides a safe,

largely asphalt-surface course that is both scenic and shady.

teach him to knit, and also play string games (e.g., Jacob’s lad-der, cat’s cradle, witch’s hat), we play hand-clapping games (e.g., “Double, double this. Double, double that”; “Oh little playmate, come out and play with me”; “Grandma, grandma, sick in bed, called the doctor and the doctor said…”). All of these activities work together to aid his ability to write, to properly hold a pencil, to paint with a paintbrush, and ulti-mately, to think.

Jaimen next discussed the baby’s sucking reflex. He claims that a pacifier doesn’t help the baby to integrate the reflex be-cause the baby doesn’t get any-thing from the pacifier. The baby sucks and sucks and eventually “learns” that s/he will never be satisfied. Jaimen believes that speech and crying are outer manifestations that show that the baby is successfully and healthily integrating the sucking reflex. Just as the transition from the (cont’d on next page)

Our 3.1 mile course has been mapped out by the Birmingham Track Club and runs near Oak Mountain’s beach and along several picnicking areas, making it the perfect venue for race supporters! If you are a local business owner or know of a local busi-ness who might be interested in supporting this event, we are seeking sponsors who share our mission of educating responsi-ble world citizens! Whether a fitness gym, a shoe store, a bank, a green business, or a sports apparel store, it’s a great time for you to affordably get in on the (responsible) fun!

Sponsorship comes in different flavors, and there's something for everyone! Thanks to Signature Health, LLC (Rob Spiegel) for becoming a sponsor and to Trak Shak for handling our timing and donating our racer’s goody bags!

Sponsorship Levels include:

⇒ $3,500 Title Sponsorship (before 5/1/11)

⇒ $1,000 Sponsorship for inclusion on t-shirts , website, news-letters, any radio/print ads, and on Active.com (where race registration is processed) (by 5/6/11)

⇒ $500 Sponsorship for inclusion on website, newsletters, any radio/print ads, and on Active.com (by 5/13/11)

⇒ $250 Sponsorship for inclusion on website, newsletters, and on Active.com (by 5/13/11)

⇒ $50 tent/area in the start/finish parking lot at Oak Mountain at the Magnolia/Sycamore Pavillion (by 6/1/11).

You can also contribute a gift to the racer’s goody bag or make a tax-deductible donation to the school in honor of a racer. We had a lot of fun last Father’s Day but would really like to have more AWS community members participate! Register on Active.com or on our website at www.alabamawaldorf.org.***



Classroom clips!

World Geography in 7th & 8th Grades

Studying World Geography in the 7th and 8th grades is a fabulous

way to integrate history, cultural anthropology, and map-making

(illustration above by 7th grader Alice Bennighof). Geography

translates literally to the “writing” (graph) on “the earth” (geo).

Students at AWS learn that the geography of the land dictates

much of the culture of the people around it. For example, if there

is a river and the weather is warm, the villages spring up near the

riverbanks and much of the activity is outside. If the land is, by

contrast, mountainous and cold, the habitat of the people is very

different as are their social customs and traditions.***

Photos and Excerpts from Teachers’ Class lessons And Block Plans

Spring arrives on the Nursery Playground!

The primary task of the child up till 7

years of age is to grow. Research has

shown that children’s brains are most

effectively nurtured through movement in

their bodies. In Waldorf schools we take

the task of providing children with a safe,

secure, and healthful environment seri-

ously… but that doesn’t mean it can’t be

fun! These photos, courtesy of Nursery

teacher Ms. Ashley, capture the joy with

which the 2 1/2 to 4-year-olds at AWS

play, work, and socialize.***

At top: Caroline practices balancing while building muscles climbing trees. Above: Rising Kindergartner Jalen works on balance. Right (top to bottom): Davy winks for the camera with friends Janelle and Char-lotte; Izzy...as Queen? ...as powerful, caped Fairy Prin-cess?..anything imaginative goes!; Malcolm experiments with water from the spout with his classmates/ prob-lem solvers… and maybe future scientists…?***

clenched palm to the flattened palm shows integration of the palmar reflex, speech occurs when the child crosses the bridge from sucking as an inward ges-ture to sucking with an outward getsure. Crying is another exam-ple of the baby making the move from an inward gesture to a (very!) outward one. Instead of quelling these integration activi-ties, parents can rest assured that these responses are healthy and necessary! If a situation arises where the child simply must have something to suck on, Jaimen recommends a piece of licorice because, as opposed to sucking, the chewing required with the licorice allows the baby to actually get something out of the activity. He doesn’t, however, recommend giving the child a sucker because the sucking acti-vates the reptilian brain in a way that chewing does not. Chewing is healthy because it subcon-sciously teaches the baby that s/he must chew food to get the nutrition out of it. After the licorice is chewed, some speech/language work would be an ideal follow-up; this is because the

child is trying to make the leap from sucking as a way of satisfying her needs (as it did when she was nursing) to speech being the mechanism for her needs to be conveyed and satisfied.

Successfully integrated reflexes result in children who are able to move gracefully through space. The activities Waldorf teachers do in Morning Warm-Ups and in Move-ment Education classes are de-signed specifically to show the students where their ever-lengthening arms and legs end, where their personal space is, and where the other’s personal space is. Students who’ve been educated in this manner also have an easier time socializing with their peers and elders. Reflexes begin by helping us find the insides of our bodies, by helping us improve muscle tone, etc. That’s only half of the full pic-ture, though. Healthy integration of reflexes occurs when the child begins to turn those inward ges-tures outward: when the child turns a point-centered world inside out and follows that path out-

Lisa Grupe holds a doctorate in Devel-opmental Psychology in addition to a Waldorf Grades teaching certification.

...INTEGRATING REFLEXES (Cont’d from pg. 6)

Right and above: Rory, Penny Rose, and River investigating with careful eyes the smaller world of the nursery playground.

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aws awareness april 2011 lisa - alabama waldorf...

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