OPEN SEMINAR SERIES

Presenter:   Liz Beaven, EdD

Focus: EC-12th grade 

We all share concerns for the future; as educators, our interest is

heightened as we have responsibility for preparing our young

people. What will they face and what will they need?

Together, we will explore the founding goals of Waldorf education and their relevance for our time. We will look at what we are experiencing in our classrooms and schools—the gifts, surprises, potential, and challenges--and how the principles and practices of Waldorf education can and must respond. We will examine the gap between prevailing views of education and what parents and teachers say students will need to meet their future. Waldorf education is uniquely situated to bridge that gap and support students today and as they voyage into an unknown future. This is an exciting task that calls for our imagination, courage, truthfulness, and a deep feeling of responsibility.

Presenter:   Frances Vig

Focus: EC-12th grade 

Through presentation, simple observation exercises and discussion, we will look at  how the practice of meditation can help us develop renewed capacities of attention and engagement with ourselves, those around us and the natural world. With this as a context will also discuss the difference between knowing about something, and knowing something.

 As educators we are aware that relationship is key to learning, We also know that relationships need care and attention to thrive and deepen. Yet these very human attributes of care and attention are being challenged by our fast paced world where we are being pulled in many directions at the same time. 

Let's share and discuss what it means to be centered, what it means to care, what it means to know, and how we can choose what to give our attention to.

You will need:

Colored pencils, A black rollerball or felt tip pen, A pencil, Plain paper, A pair of scissors, A clean plain brown paper bag at least 8x10, A plant or a twig,  leaf or blossom, A cell phone

Presenter:  Jason Yates

Focus: EC-12th grade 

Description Coming Soon

Presenter:  Cathie Foote

Focus: EC-12th grade 

Our Truth and Reconciliation Commission gave many “Calls to Action” to every person and organization in Canada. Over the past few years, I have been working to find my own place-

based and family history-based way into taking up some of the action to which I’ve been called as a Canadian. In these beginning steps of mine toward more truth-telling and reconciling understanding and activity, I have also come to see how Truth and Reconciliation naturally calls for conversations that are difficult. In my long-time professional life as a social worker, therapist and Waldorf school administrator, I gained a lot of experience in having difficult conversations. In this seminar, I want to explore how the learnings from truth-telling and reconciling can inform the way we approach and engage in a difficult conversation – specifically in the context of a school, where we as adults have to have many conversations that are

difficult for us.

Presenters:  Laura Mason and Melissa Elliot Otsistohkwiyo

Focus: EC 

 Waldorf early childhood education has a rich history of almost 100 years. Out of that history come traditions, habits, expectations, and ideals that can be hard to let go of. How can we as educators identify the true needs of our own community in this place and time? How do we intuit what activities are meaningful and necessary for our particular group of children? How can we discern what is truly essential and develop programs that nourish children and embrace simplicity? Otsistohkwiyo Elliot and Laura Mason will share their experiences as teachers in very different school communities - one a Haudenosaunee school serving indigenous children on the rural Six Nations Territory in Ontario, the other a suburban school in a hub of the high-tech industry in Washington state that serves families from many cultures all over the globe. They will challenge participants to consider their own assumptions about Waldorf education and work toward identifying the needs they see in their own communities.