January News (January 29th, 2021)
Katherine DeClute, Grade 6
Regardless of your political standpoint, there is no doubt that Amanda Gorman's poem was inspiring, moving, and an incredible example of the power of speech and using your words impeccably.
What is a teacher's responsibility in today's day and age and push towards progress and change? As Gorman so eloquently stated, "Quiet does not always mean peace." Therefore, perhaps we can say it is a teacher's responsibility and great honor to ensure the well-rounded education of today's youth.
In the sixth grade, the class had the opportunity to listen to Gordon's speech not once, but twice. They were then asked to tether themselves to something in which they found inspiration and write a poem of their own. We spoke about how no one knows nor can truly ever understand the inner life of another, so we each listened with this recognition in mind. And we all heard different things that inspired us in different ways.
Two students, Katherine DeClute and Amarie Sutter wrote the following poems, which were too beautiful not to share.
Ms. Noll for the Class of 2023
Amarie Sutter, Grade 6
From the Heads of School
Dear Parents,
Next week will mark what would have been my father’s 101st birthday. My pop passed away 21 years ago. He was special in the ways a father is to his children. He had his eccentricities, his funny ways and his moods. I am sure we can all relate to those things in our parents that we recall or realize that which makes them who they are. He played ball with is in the street until his 53rd year when his knee gave out. He would go out for a bit and often return with what he believed was our favorite candy bars. (A small feat considering there were eight of us.) He applauded us when we did well and let us know when we made a mistake. He was either very warm or cool, not a person to play the middle ground. He died the way he lived. When doctors discovered that cancer grew within him, he died of his own will thirty days later.
I believe I remember a great deal about my pop, but what stood out was his love for education. He attended City College of New York back in the day when its education foundation was equivalent to Harvard. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and eventually attended Georgetown Law School. As much as he loved formal education, I think his love for reading and self-education was greater. Dad had his favorite chair in the kitchen that bore his markings. He sat cross legged in that old wooden chair with his black tea on the table and a stack of books that was scholarly in size. When I was young, I simply took for granted that dad just plain loved to read. When I became a teacher, I discovered something far different. I realized that his reading took him to faraway places, both fictional and non-fictional. As we moved out of the house, each of our abandoned bedrooms became a new wing to the library. Dad gradually took his books out of storage in the garage and assembled them in a very roughed out systematic Dewey Decimal system. I realized that his interests were remarkably varied, and he took an interest in multiple genres. As Patti and I began to teach, he became the primary resource for us. We could call him for research information and with no aid of personal computer, we were in touch with books, reading lists and little known stories that made it so fun to learn. For us, he was a National Library of Congress, yet only a call away.
When I look back, I am surprised that I did not love to read when I was young. I lacked the passion for it and my dad never pushed it on me. In my early 20’s, my passion awakened and my thirst for reading became difficult to quench. As an elementary school teacher, I was fortunate to begin to read all of the classics that I should have read as a young person. I realized, though, that he gave me a gift inherently knowing it would eventually come to me. As I sifted through his library after his death, I pulled out book after book that I had read. He loved to make notations in his books. I discovered much to my pleasure that many of his notations were ones that I had noted in my own copy.
5,000 volumes of my dad’s library now reside at the Thomas Aquinas College in Ojai, California. When I visited the library several years back, I realized that he had given me a gift in helping me to love reading and self-education. I remind you to not misjudge the role that we have in our children’s lives. I am so grateful to dad for this gift of reading. Like him, I have traveled to many lands, learned about many civilizations and learned about myself in the process. Our books are in different formats now, whether that be the library, Amazon or Kindle, they are filled with treasures. My father rarely left his armchair in his travels, and yet, he lived as a king; as a pauper; as a shepherd; and revisited his beloved Ireland and Manhattan many times without leaving the kitchen. Many things are changing today and evolving ever so quickly, but quality literature will always be.
My best to you,
Tim Connolly – Faculty Administrator
School News
Upcoming Event! Exploring Waldorf Education: Kindergarten to 2nd Grade
Two times available: Friday February 19th at 11am MST or Tuesday February 23rd at 7pm MST
We are excited to share an upcoming event that is open to both current and prospective families with children in Pre-K to rising 2nd Graders. Are you curious to learn more about Waldorf Education in the early years? Do you have a rising 1st grader and want to know more about how our Early Childhood curriculum bridges the space to 1st grade? Please join us in exploring the ‘why’ behind elements of our early childhood programs and how our children are ready to hit the ground running in 1st grade, plus a unique window into the 1st grade curriculum with insight directly from our teachers.
This is also an excellent event to pass on to any friends or connections who may be interested in learning more about Waldorf Education while we are currently accepting applications for Early Childhood programs and the rising 1st grade class for the Fall of 2021.
Community Covid Update
Although there have been a few impacts due to COVID that have necessitated some absences, we are fortunate to have remained fully open to in-person learning.
We are grateful to the school community for your continued consciousness regarding the health and safety of everyone. Your vigilance for any symptoms, and efforts to support the school’s safety protocols are working. Thank you. Our teachers and staff remain committed to making in-person learning possible, we are grateful to all.
We follow local health guidelines. Due to a recent update by Garfield County Public Health (in line with CDC guidance), in most cases the quarantine period for students exposed to COVID has been reduced from 14 days to 10 days. As always if your student is symptomatic, has a suspected exposure or a confirmed case, please be in contact with the school so we may take appropriate actions.
Some parents have asked if, due to vaccination, our travel policies may change. At this point, we have decided to maintain our policy. If a student travels internationally or to a red County in the USA, we require a quarantine period prior to re-entering school. Please contact Larry Smith to discuss your travel plans larry@waldorfschooorf.org or 970-963-1960.
Here's to the health and wellness of each of us, which enables us to carry on with serving our students.
Larry Smith
Business Administrator
Our Forest Kindergarten Program is in full swing!
We are excited to share that our 3rd, mixed age kindergarten class is settling into their new home! In this unique, outdoor based program, students spend their days in our beautiful Willow Forest classroom that nurtures creative, collaborative play while delivering all the physical and cognitive benefits that time spent in nature has to offer, including heightened observation, decreased stress and increased resilience.
We are currently accepting applications for our early childhood programs for Fall '21 enrollment (with Spring '21 applications considered on a case by case basis). Space is extremely limited, if you or anyone you know if considering this opportunity for their students, please submit an application today.
Waldorf Curriculum Spotlight: Why Do We Take Our Time with Reading?
A common myth around Waldorf Education is that we don’t teach our students to read. A myth that couldn’t be farther from the truth! Sadly, reading ability has become a measure of how ‘advanced’ a child is in their development. Our goal however, is for students to love to read rather than resent it for the pressure it puts on them or feel as if they have “fallen behind” in any way. Reading is far too important to be rushed and in our experience, slow and steady wins the race to nurturing enthusiastic, lifelong readers. Our students begin the formal reading process in 1st grade and continue a steady build of their skills. Ironically, like the Tortoise and The Hare, our graduates are often reading well ahead of their age group when entering high school. We encourage parents to read developmentally appropriate stories to their children at all ages and believe reading should be a joy filled activity in every child’s life.
Faculty & Board News
Joint Faculty/Board of Trustees Meeting Report
Earlier this week, the Board of Trustees attended the Faculty meeting to undertake discussion to have the opportunity to better understand each other's role in the school. As you can imagine, it is crucial for the two parties to work well together. These past ten months have been a great adventure and grand scale puzzle for these two leadership groups to make the best decisions to guide the community through a difficult time. The time together offered the opportunity to express gratitude, to share commonalities of our love for the school and the continued work that we have to do together. We often forget that empathy and listening to the other is a most important part of living.
Our meeting was guided by these words from author, Breñe Brown: “It is only when diverse perspectives are included, respected and valued that we can get a full picture of who we serve, what we need and how to successfully meet adults and students where they are. With this, undertaking the power of empathy is taking the perspective of another person – to become a listener and a student – not a knower. It is also staying out of judgment as best we can. Empathy is trying to understand what emotion is being articulated and communicate the understanding of that emotion. Empathy is the powerful words of ”me too” which may be interpreted as: I may not have had the same experience as you, but I know the struggle and you are not alone. I see your humanity. In your humanity, I see myself.”
The time together was a beginning for this new year. We pledged to continue to meet more frequently to listen to one another and to guide the school in the best way possible.
Holly Richardson – Expansion of Foundations Year Program
It has been an exciting year with the Foundations Program on campus for all of its classes. The older students delight in having the younger children and babes in arms around. The program is now serving 20 families and with that, Ms. Holly and the Early Childhood Faculty is excited to expand! Beginning in March, Holly will offer a bi-lingual Musical Story Time class along with a long held desire to offer a Peas in the Pods classes....there will be more information to come. With this great news, we are excited for Holly's role in the school to be expanded to an 80% full time equivalency. Simply said, we could not be more pleased!
Nicki Leniton – Student Support Team returning to full strength
When the pandemic struck last school year, a good number of aspects of the operating budget had to be frozen until we could determine the full effect. After analysis, we are excited to have the Student Support wing of the school return back to the equivalent of two full time staff members. Beginning next school year, Nicki Leniton will join Liisa DeClute in serving the students in the school in this full-time capacity. Nicki has been on staff at the school for what will be two years this coming June, and we are pleased to have this capacity back to conduct this important work.
Faculty Changes for the 2021-22 School Year
I penned in the last newsletter that the faculty spoke last week of their desires for the upcoming school year and whether or not they could recommittment to their work next year. I am pleased to announce that our staff will largely return next year with a few exceptions. For the moment, here is an update on staff movement:
A letter from Sunflower Assistant, Jessica Barnum (Ms. Jess) announcing that she will opening her own wellness business in the year ahead.
Dear Waldorf Community,
As I sit to write this, I am thinking about the concept of “milestones in momentum” and how each of us flows through the stages of life with each unique stage presenting a medley of physical, emotional, philosophical and spiritual epiphanies, transitions, pauses and opportunities.
Since November 2019, I have been in the blessed presence of the Kinderhaus faculty, children and families, and at large, with the entire Waldorf faculty, students and community. As I reflect upon my milestone of having taught in schools for 25 years and turning 49 years old this May, I notice light beams of intuitive stirrings, all stemming from the abundance of love I experience at school every day. I am inspired by my colleagues’ endearing commitment to education and growth, by the stories and insights shared by parents, and by the flourishing free will of each child as well as the collective free will of the entire child tribe.
My entire being is in resonance with the children’s laughter and wild wonder, and each day I settle quietly into a place of solace, gratitude, humility and clarity. I observe the children’s every breath inhaling and exhaling the truth of spirit, their own milestones caressing each moment of every day, their loyalty to rhythm and to each other, and their assertion of presence in themselves and on this earth. I am calm in myself. I am one with them. They remind me that I am one with everything around me. Oh, I am so in love with this milestone.
I realize as I quietly observe these children that I am listening to the intuitive stirrings inside of myself with a newfound clarity, experiencing a confidence in it that only arises when one has truly folded into the depths of a moment. And it is perched there like a child who clings to my leg in stillness, the two of us standing in silence staring at the gaggle of geese that has flown over the play yard, and the child looks up at me with wide eyes and I see reflected back at me with tender transparency the depths of who I am, who I have always been. A teacher. And a student.
I stand in the power of connection with this little being, this big soul, and I know that it is time. I know the who, what, when, where, why, how and the heart of it. I know that I am a teacher and a student of listening to one’s own intuitive stirrings and to those of others’, of pure presence and of the belief that each of us is a rhythmic work of art. I know that it’s time to keep being me and to do what I’ve wanted to do for a long time - open my own wellness practice to offer space, opportunities and tools for others to listen to their intuitive stirrings, to be present and to believe in what grounds them in the artful rhythm of themselves, their experiences and their surroundings.
Your children have watered, sun-beamed and enriched the garden inside of myself and because of this, I will extend this to others, a cycle of milestones in momentum, of love and of care. I am here with your children now. And next year I will return to Waldorf as a substitute and I will be with them then. This place is a hearth in my heart. Your children are the fire in my steps forward, and I am honored to carry forward the torch of …
… the will that flares
From the spirit that stares
Into the wilderness of being
The art of beaming
You
The art of seeing
You
With gratitude and love for each of you,
Ms. Jess
Sunflower Class Assistant
An excerpt from a letter from 5th Grade Class Teacher, Ms. Hall, announcing that she will be seeking to loop back to 1st Grade for the 2021-22 School Year:
I have been wrestling with my thoughts around entering middle school for the first time, for a long time now. I have had many conversations with experienced middle school teachers at our school and I feel like I have a very good understanding of the amount of time and energy it takes to be a successful Waldorf middle school teacher.
During this pandemic experience, I've been presented again and again with the notion that it is of the utmost importance to get to what is essential in all areas of my life. Whether it be in my teaching, in my relationships, or in my family life, I have strived to narrow down my focus to what is most important. In considering my teaching role for next year, I've come to realize that the most important thing for me is to be as physically present and emotionally engaged with my daughter as I can. Magnolia is only 5 and she needs her mommy to be available and close during these tender years. In order to do this, I cannot give the time and energy that is required to be a middle school teacher.
Thus, I have made the decision to step away from this class after 5th grade, and if the faculty deem it a good fit, loop back as the first-grade teacher this fall. Please know that I made this decision with the utmost love for my daughter as well as all of your children. Your children deserve a teacher who can give them the middle school experience they need and deserve. It is because of my love for this class that I want nothing but the best for them and have a very vested interest in finding a wonderful teacher to shepherd them through 8th grade.
Ms. Hall
General Community News
If you receive a state income tax refund in 2020, you have the opportunity to donate some or all of your refund to WSRF.
Decide how much of your refund to donate.
Enter Aspen Waldorf Foundation and our registration number 20043005257 in the Donate to a Colorado
Nonprofit Fund line on your state income tax return or tax software – or just give this info to your tax preparer when you share your tax documents.
Thank you for supporting WSRF!
Learn more about this program at RefundWhatMatters.org
Refund What Matters
Anne Jamieson
Community Development Administrator
Research Institute for Waldorf Education Survey
Please take a moment to read through the following from a long time Waldorf pedagogue, Connie Stokes, who serves as the chair of the undertaking of this parent survey. The survey seeks to engage you on questions that will help with broad range perspectives on the education. Please support the movement with your time and note that the end date is a week from today for completion.
Dear Waldorf Parents,
Happy New Year! I think you will agree this past year has proved to be quite extraordinary. Through all of it, however, your continued commitment to your Waldorf school and to Waldorf education gives us hope for the future as we work together to foster the healthy development of our children and our communities.
The Research Institute for Waldorf Education (RIWE) is embarking on a long-term survey project that will seek to engage your broad-range perspectives on Waldorf education. Goals include:
• hearing why you chose Waldorf education.
• learning how it has shaped the development of your children.
• documenting the impact of Waldorf education on your home life and parenting styles.
• collating your views on current social issues of inclusion, diversity, equity, and association, and how your school has addressed these issues.
• asking whether you would recommend Waldorf education to your family and friends.
Since we are still in throes of the pandemic, we have decided to hold off until the fall of 2021 the comprehensive survey of parents we have been developing. Instead, we are asking you now to participate in a brief survey linked to your experiences of pandemic related issues as they have affected you and your children during the past ten months.
Below you will find a direct link to our brief survey. Please complete it as soon as possible and no later than Friday, February 5 by 10:00 a.m. PT. The survey will take 15-20 minutes of your time, depending on how many children you have in grades 1-12. Since the survey is anonymous, your responses will be completely confidential.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/S5G2SLB
In addition to receiving a summary of our results, your school will receive raw data of your confidential comments, along with the original questions.
You are welcome to use this link https://www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/
if you are interested in more information concerning the work of the Research Institute for Waldorf Education, including its Online Waldorf Library (OWL), a rich resource for teachers and parents.
If you wish to read our most recent survey of Waldorf high school graduates, covering the years 1990-2017, please see the attached flyer. Your school should have received one copy of the book entitled Into the World: How Waldorf Graduates Fare After High School which analyzed the results of this survey. The book is also available through Waldorf Publications at https://www.waldorfpublications.org/
Please contact me with any questions.
Warm regards,
Connie Stokes
RIWE Parent Survey Project Manager