NOTE: This course has reached maximum enrollment and is now full. If you wish to be notified in case of cancellation, please fill out this wait list form.

This course will be taught remotely in real-time. Details here. 

Professional development for Waldorf teachers and home school parents

This course offers you an invaluable opportunity to focus entirely on your upcoming first grade school year in five days brimming with discussions, presentations, and practical activities.

Under the guidance of a master class teacher, you’ll discover ways to enliven your teaching and learn how to approach the blocks so that they may meet the first grader in a lively and meaningful way. With the insights of anthroposophy, gleaned through a daily look at child development focusing on your class’s age group, you will get to know the first grader as they cross the bridge into elementary school. There will be 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 first grade topics as:

• Finding and telling the right fairy tales and nature stories for your class
• Introducing the first steps of literacy
• Qualities of numbers and the four processes in arithmetic
• Teaching form drawing, painting, drawing, modeling, and singing

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 background in Waldorf Education. 

Lead Instructor

Winnie Stern is currently completing taking her class of students from first through eighth grade at Green Meadow Waldorf School. A former substitute teacher, Winnie initially became interested in exploring the foundations and goals of education through a philosophical lens, and discovered Waldorf Education while seeking to answer the question “What kind of education helps to create a happy and healthy human being?” Despite her recent time with adolescents, Winnie considers first grade to be the most inspiring, difficult, and important year in the lower school. It is her belief that the foundational work in first grade is key to continued transformation for students throughout the years; this foundational work includes the development of strong rhythms, healthy social interactions, and an enthusiasm for learning. Winnie, who also teaches in Sunbridge’s elementary teacher education program, holds a double-major BA in philosophy and education from Brooklyn College, an MA in philosophy and education from Columbia University Teachers College, a NYS teaching license in grades 1-6 education, and her Waldorf teacher certification from Sunbridge Institute.

Your course also includes music with Patti Regan of Berkshire Waldorf School and art with Kelly Beekman of The Waldorf School of Philadelphia.

Schedule

This course takes place June 27-July 2 in a synchronous online classroom.

Sunday evening: 7-7:30pm technical check-in; first session starts promptly at 7:30 and ends at 9
Monday-Thursday: About 4.25 hours of formal instruction delivered between 10-4:30
Friday morning: Last session runs 10-12
ALL TIMES LISTED ARE EASTERN (NY) TIME ZONE

NOTE: 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), as well as to be available to attend late afternoon and/or evening instructor-led discussions on topics that may arise during the course of the week.

Cost
$570 includes all resource materials and a $25 non-refundable deposit. See main summer page for discount options.

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

NOTE: This course has reached maximum enrollment and is now full. If you wish to be notified in case of cancellation, please fill out this wait list form.

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.