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 sixth grade school year in five days brimming with discussions, presentations, practical activities, and the arts.

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 sixth 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 sixth grader in depth as they enter early adolescence. 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 be chock-full of key sixth grade topics, such as:

• Roman history and the early Middle Ages
• New math concepts, including business math and the percentage
• Geometrical drawing with compass and straight edge
• Geography
• Sciences, including earth science, physics, and observational astronomy

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

In addition to the 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 

Elizabeth Hall is currently the fifth grade class teacher at Green Meadow Waldorf School. This is Liz’s fourth class of middle schoolers she has led at Green Meadow since joining their faculty in 2006; she also serves on her school’s Collegium. A full-time class teacher since 1998, Liz has been involved with home schooling, tutoring, and working with children with special needs in Waldorf environments since 1992. Prior to joining Green Meadow, she was a class teacher and lower school chair at the Waldorf School of Baltimore. She also teaches humanities and science classes, and anthroposophical studies, in Sunbridge’s Waldorf Elementary and Early Childhood Teacher Education programs, respectively, and speaks at local and international conferences on Waldorf Education and child development. Liz holds a BA from Earlham College, where she double-majored in English and Spanish and minored in art history; an MA in education and a Waldorf certificate 1-8 from Antioch New England; and a certificate of curative education from Camphill Special Schools, Inc.

Summer Series 2020 participants had this to say about Liz Hall:

• Liz and her abundance of knowledge and resources were extremely satisfying and helpful.
• The Main Portion with Elizabeth Hall was fabulous!
• The group interest, participation, and knowledge was inspiring. Great resources and ideas.
• Fantastic! Welcoming, funny, organized, thoughtful, knowledgeable.
• This course was rich in discussions, helpful advice, wonderful resources and incredible stories.
• This course was amazing. Amazing! (Liz) has just the right balance of calm and enthusiasm. She was inspiring and a great moderator. The online venue really added to the diversity of the members in the group and I think that really added to our experiences. Everyone contributed such valuable resources!
• This experience was fantastic. I have taken Sunbridge Summer “Approaching” classes before and I actually found that I preferred the online format. The teacher, Liz, was inspiring and a fantastic story teller and I found that the number of participants in the online format was very energizing. I learned a lot from my peers in addition to learning from the teacher.
• Amazing! I could tell she prepared every day. She had a wonderful balance of story, discussion and resources. I loved that she told stories and that she used these as starting off points for our sessions. Great modeling in every way!

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 facilitator-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.