September News (September 3rd, 2021)
COVID Updates
Update 1
Regarding the first case of covid in the 3rd grade, two siblings whom have been in quarantine and asymptomatic tested positive. This has no impact on the school since the siblings have been in quarantine.
Update 2
As of 9/2 we now have another case of covid, this time in the middle school. All parties that need to quarantine have been notified.
As usual, please be vigilant every day for any symptoms your students may develop. If symptoms develop, please keep your student home and phone the office to discuss what is happening and to create a return to school plan.
2021-22 School Directory now available
The 2021-22 WSRF Directory App is now available! If you were a DirectorySpot user last year, then you don't need to do anything. Just log in (same username and password) and you will see the new data. Please make sure you have the latest version of DirectorySpot to see the new features (check the app store for any updates).
If you find any errors, please notify the front office (robynn@waldorfschoolrf.org) and she can make the corrections.
Parents can download DirectorySpot for free from the App Store (iPhone users) or Google Play (Android users), or you can also access the data from the web.
For Apple Users:
1. Go to the iTunes App Store and search "DirectorySpot"
2. Download to your device.
3. Launch DirectorySpot, enter your email address as your Username, and click on "Reset Password." An email will be sent to you with a link to set your password.
4. Set your new password, then go back to the DirectorySpot app on your phone and enter your new password (make sure to click on "Save Password" so that you will not have to enter it each time).
5. Click on "Login" and start using the app!
For Android Users:
1. Go to Google Play and search "DirectorySpot" or go to http://goo.gl/iBK9lY
2. Download to your Android phone.
3. Launch DirectorySpot, click "Reset Password", enter your email address and an email will be sent to you with a link to set your password.
4. Set your new password, then go back to the DirectorySpot app on your phone and enter your new password (make sure to click on "Save Password" so that you will not have to enter it each time).
5. Click on "Login" and start using the app!
To access the data from the Web:
1. Go to www.directoryspot.net and click on "login" in the upper right hand corner.
2. Enter your email address as your Username, and click on "Reset Password." An email will be sent to you with a link to set your password.
3. Once you have done that, enter your password.
4. You will be able to see the directory data and search on it.
Waldorf Curriculum Spotlight: Why a slow tech approach?
Technology is valuable and holds an important place in our world. The rush however, to place a tablet or computer in the hands of young children has been shown by substantial research to bring a slew of negative consequences. Our goal is to nurture students with capacities for critical thinking, problem solving and creativity that empowers our Middle School students to begin engaging with technology as a tool for innovation. WSRF graduates have gone on to hold roles in leading technology companies including Apple Inc. and have expressed the value of learning to engage with the world around them before easily making the transition to working with technology as a tool in our modern world. We believe in ‘slow tech’, not no tech. To explore our media approach further including details on a slow tech diet, please visit our website here.
Traffic Flow Reminder
Reminder: please note the one-way direction of traffic flow into our parking lot. Vehicles entering the main entrance are to travel one way in front of the school and then around to the parking lot. For the safety of all, please do not pull directly into the main parking lot.
To assure the smooth flow of vehicles, drop-off and pick up is permitted directly in front of the school when it can be accomplished quickly, otherwise please park your vehicle in the lot. To drop off or pick up quickly, please pull your vehicle to the right side of the driveway and stop just before the crosswalk to drop-off or pick up. Vehicles wishing to pull into the parking lot may proceed to the left of vehicles lined up on the right.
All vehicles traveling to the Kinderhaus are to proceed directly to the left when pulling into the main entrance, and around to the parking spots on the North side of the school.
Please also note the two disabled parking spaces and do not block these. Finally, please note that the Faculty lot is reserved for Faculty only.
Thank you for your cooperation.
The Seventh Grade began the year...
...with a deep dive into perspective drawing. Students heard the biography of the innovative problem solver, Filipo Brunelleschi, who greatly contributed to these new concepts during the Renaissance. Here's a great example drawn by Mazy McEwan.
Mountain Bike Club Invite & Survey
WSRF is happy to announce that in conjunction with Roaring Fork Cycling, we are planning to offer a Fall Wednesday after school mountain bike club program for students in 3rd -8th grade, starting September 15th. We are planning to put together a session of 6 Wednesday rides with two to three pods of WSRF students depending on interest, available coaches, ages, and weather. Cost is estimated to be $150 for the Fall session.
While this is a super fun opportunity for children, it is also a great time for parents to ride too. We encourage you all to make your own parent pod and get out on the trails together while your children ride with RFC.
Students need to have a well fitting tuned bike, helmet, snacks, water, and ready smile. We will meet in the WSRF parking lot and transportation will be organized amongst parents.
If you would like to see this program happen and intend to enroll your child(ren), please complete this survey.
Roaring Fork Cycling is also looking for coaches and parent volunteers. If you know of anyone please direct them to: eric.dasko@roaringforkcycling.org
Joyful Lyre Gatherings in Colorado!
By Wendy Polich
The Rocky Mountain Lyre Choir: Holly Richardson (Carbondale, CO), Lorraine Curry (Glenwood Springs, CO), and Wendy Polich, (Littleton, CO)
We few lyrists of the Rocky Mountain region gathered over a July weekend as part of LANA’s regional summer-into-fall gatherings. For me, living on the Front Range near Denver, I always relish the opportunity to see my mountain lyre sisters, Holly and Lorraine. Each time I visit them it’s a breathtaking journey through pine and aspen forests and incredible mountain views, my little car chugging its way over not one, but two 11,000-foot mountain passes of the Continental Divide. The final 12-mile stretch of my 3-hour odyssey traverses through rugged Glenwood Canyon, equally breathtaking as you wind through its high mountain walls and tunnels along the Colorado River, a seemingly impossible place to put a railroad or an interstate, yet both are there, the interstate divided into an upper and lower highway, one above the other, in order to fit.
Both Glenwood Springs and nearby Carbondale, where Lorraine and Holly live, are charming, gorgeous, warmly hospitable places, just like these lyre sisters! It’s a magical nourishing place of natural beauty and sisterhood where my heart wells up with joy. And if that weren’t enough, the cherry on top is our communion with our lyre playing. After a year’s absence, we met where we left off, our lyres getting reacquainted with each other after reading the Calendar of the Soul verse, then streaming, improvising, singing; “Dona Nobis Pacem” and Colin Tanser’s “Sea Mist” among our favorites. And always there with us in spirit, listening intently or making mischief, was dear Hartmut, and, I imagine, Channa and Kerry, too.
Of course, I would be remiss not to acknowledge the darker side... that this was the first time I ever travelled that entire mountain corridor through veils of smoky haze coming from all across the West. Travelling through Glenwood Canyon was the first time since a year ago when the fires closed it for weeks. I was witness to the burn scar—the charred, barren canyonland annihilated by the fire—and after returning home, the canyon was again damaged and closed because of mighty mudslides.
I am so grateful that I have my lyre sisters and community to bring healing beauty, with intention, into the world.
And finally, I was pleasantly surprised when Marianne Dietzel, from Minnesota, contacted me recently because she was visiting Colorado and wanted to play lyre together! I contacted Virginia Anderson (who only lives 15 minutes from me yet we had never met) and we all got together to play this last Sunday. What a joy to play and sing for the first time ever together! It was as if we had always been playing together. After playing the tone of the day planetary scale and improvising on it, we played Colin Tanser’s “Sun Glimpse”, Thomas Pedroli’s “Prayer” arrangement, Channa Seidenberg’s “Though in Noon’s Heaven” round (while singing) and Christof-Andrea Lindenberg’s “Weaving Threads of Gold and Silver”. As we sent up prayerful tones and voices, we were nourished and grateful, since each of us are used to having to play alone.
I’m happy to report that Virginia and I will be playing together on a regular basis, and that Marianne and I are committed to going to the Czech Republic next year! Holly, Lorraine and I have committed to meeting at least once every quarter, and, I can’t wait to introduce them to Virginia and welcome her into the Rocky Mountain Lyre Choir. She will be a wonderful addition!
I look forward to reading about other regional gatherings!
