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

Professional development for Waldorf teachers and home schooling parents

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

With the insights of anthroposophy, gleaned through a daily look at child development focusing specifically on your class’s age group, you will get to know the seventh grader as they explore new horizons both within and without. Under the guidance of master teachers, you’ll discover ways to enliven your teaching and how to approach the blocks so that they may meet the seventh grader in a deep and meaningful way. 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.

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

Your course will be chock-full of key seventh grade topics, including:

• Teaching history, including the late Middle Ages, Age of Exploration, and the Renaissance
• Teaching creative writing and history through biographies
• Introducing and practicing algebra
• Expanding into world geography
• Seventh grade sciences, including chemistry, physics, and physiology

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.

 

Instructor

Wendy Kelly is a class teacher at the Rudolf Steiner School in Manhattan, where she has been a teacher mentor, co-chair of the College of Teachers, and founding member of the Media Committee. Previous to joining the Steiner School faculty in 2011, Wendy was a class teacher for 10 years at Green Meadow Waldorf School. A former professional modern dance performer, teacher, and choreographer, she worked with 7th and 8th graders while directing a junior dance company in the Philadelphia area. Wendy holds a BA in Dance and a BA in Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park, an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from Temple University, and an MSEd from Sunbridge College.

Teachers who took a previous Sunbridge Grades course with Wendy had this to say:

~ Wendy Kelly always brings a delightful energy and a wealth of experience to her classes.

~ Wendy couldn’t have been any more wonderful.

~ Wendy carefully and thoughtfully prepared the course. She kept discussions focused and allowed all voices to be heard.

~ The course was thorough, highly relevant, and naturally presented.

~ I received a wealth of ideas for lesson content and working with parents and the class.

~ I cannot imagine it being any better!

 

Your course also includes science with Gary Banks of the Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor and math with Kevin Kilb of Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School.

 

Schedule

This course takes place July 11-16 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.

 

 

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.