Professional development for Waldorf teachers and home school parents. Read Summer Series 2023 details here.

Taught remotely in real-time, this course offers you an invaluable opportunity to focus entirely on your upcoming fifth grade school year in five days brimming with presentations, discussions, and practical activities.

Under the guidance of an experienced class teacher, you’ll discover ways to enliven your teaching and learn how to approach the blocks so that they may meet the fifth grader in a meaningful and lively way. With the insights of anthroposophy, gleaned through a look at child development focusing on your class’s age group, you will get to know the fifth grade child in depth as they stand on the balancing point between childhood and adolescence.

Along with time and space to consider and hone your skills in such practical matters as main lesson books, block planning, projects and activities, and classroom management, your course will include such key topics for fifth graders—and their teachers—as:

1. Topics in language arts, including paragraph writing and class plays
2. Multicultural approaches to mythology and the role of ancient Greece in the fifth grade
3. Topics in math
4. Fifth grade approach to ancient cultures
5. Fifth grade approach to botany and gardening
6. Fifth grade approach to country/continental geography and community service
7. Pentathlon
8. Fifth grade quizzes and assessments
9. Parent work and colleagueship

These subjects will be supported by explorations in art, music, and movement, giving you practical tools to take into your school year.

In addition to inspiration and guidance which will support your teaching throughout the year, you’ll gain many invaluable opportunities for building connections among a community of parallel colleagues from across the country, to carry with you into your teaching.

Grade-specific resource materials useful for your year, including poems, songs, stories, and main lesson book ideas, will be provided to you electronically.

NOTE: This course is taught with the expectation that you have a foundational background in Waldorf education.

Lead Instructor 

Laura Cox is a class teacher at the Washington Waldorf School where she has been a member of the faculty since 2004, first serving as lower school substitute teacher and then, since 2008, as class teacher; she is also a member of the WWS’s College of Teachers and is one of the School’s AWSNA delegates. Her previous work with young people included teaching public school and working in the mayor’s office of Baltimore City as a juvenile justice planner. Laura earned her BA and MAT from Johns Hopkins University and her Waldorf teaching certificate from Nova Institute, and lives with her family, which includes two cats and a dog, on a boat on the Potomac River.

Previous Summer Series Grades participants left us these evaluations of Laura:

• I enjoy Laura’s candor, humbleness, reverence and humor. I feel very grounded and less overwhelmed about the upcoming school year after working with her.
• Laura is an outstanding facilitator, with a wonderful blend of experience, curiosity, and humility. I appreciated how she made space for many voices and ideas instead of presenting her point of view as the only way to teach (the) grade.
• Laura brought wonderful enthusiasm, inspiration and wisdom to this course.
• Laura shared her behind the scenes thought process when it came to choosing literature and preparing lessons, which was invaluable.
• Laura was clear and concise and had the ability to adapt to the needs of the group while still covering the material.
• I am new to Waldorf education and this course provided me with a sound overview in order to plan my blocks for the year and develop meaningful lessons around them.
• She knows so much! And doesn’t stop learning!
• I really appreciated the conversations about managing families and as always, the concrete tools to design my curriculum for this upcoming year.
• Laura is amazing. Her content choice, pace and time she used to ‘go deeper’ made our learning experience meaningful to our group.
• Your course leaves me feeling supported for the entire year ahead.

Your course also includes sessions in art with Kelly Beekman, music with Katey Dolezal, and movement and games with Charlie Orphanides.

Schedule

This course takes place July 9-14 in a synchronous online classroom.

ALL TIMES LISTED BELOW ARE EASTERN (NY) TIME ZONE

Sunday evening: 6:15 pm-6:30 pm: Log in for technical check-in and attendance. First session starts promptly at 6:30 with “The Gesture of the Fifth Grade,” and ends at 8:15. New teachers especially are encouraged to remain for a Q&A with your lead instructor from 8:30-9:00.

Monday-Thursday: Instruction takes place between 10 am and 5 pm (excluding breaks). We also encourage you to attend our elective music studio (5:15-6:15 Wednesday) and roundtable discussion with faculty (7:15-8:15 Thursday).

Friday: Instruction and wrap-up takes place from 10-2:30 (excluding breaks). We also encourage you to attend our elective art studio from 2:45-3:45.

Participants should be prepared to work on course-related assignments outside of their regularly scheduled instructional sessions (including some that may be assigned in advance).

Cost
$635 includes all resource materials, pre-recorded music and movement lessons, yearlong access to your Grade Five Google Classroom and Kelly Beekman’s art portal, and a $60 non-refundable registration fee.

NOTE: Participants will be expected to procure some materials to use during their course. A materials list will be sent three weeks in advance of your course start date.

Available Discounts

• Volume: $60 off each registration for schools sending 2 or more participants
• Alumni/CAD: 25% off for Sunbridge teacher education program graduates OR for payments made in Canadian dollars
• Current Students: 50% off for current Sunbridge teacher education students

Discounts may not be combined. Qualification for discounts will be verified by Sunbridge staff. 

Questions?
Please contact Barbara Vitale, admissions and summer coordinator, at [email protected] or 845-425-0055 x20

Sunbridge reserves the right to make faculty substitutions when necessary. See registration form for refund policy.