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Portland Waldorf School's monthly newsletter.
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heartbeatCELEBRATING 30 YEARs
february 2013
PWS WELCOMES ERIC UTNE By Maya Muir
On Saturday, March 2, PWS is fortunate to host Eric Utne as speaker at our Annual Bring Your Parent’s to School event. To read Eric’s biography is to meet one of those questing, brilliant minds that never stops looking for new ways to bring people together in community and for new ways to foster the collective good. Eric is perhaps best known as the founder and publisher of The Utne Reader. Since 1984, this magazine has gathered reprints of articles from smaller alterna-tive publications, making smart and challenging voices from lesser-known sources available to a wider public, along with original articles from staff.
In 1991 the magazine formed the Neighborhood Salon Association to “revive the endangered art of conversation and start a revolution in people’s living rooms.” Over 18,000 people joined, comprising nearly 500 salons across North America, many of which still continue.
Less known is that Eric Utne has been involved with Waldorf educa-tion for over 35 years. He is the parent of two Waldorf graduates; he was class teacher for two years at the City of Lakes Waldorf School and board member of Sunbridge Institute for Waldorf teacher train-ing for seven years; and he has been a public advocate for Waldorf education. cont. page 4
february events2/15
Grandparents & Special Friends Day
2/15
Shield Event
In thIs Issuepage 2
MLK Jr. Service Day
page 3
Book Review page 4
Admissions events
page 5
Celebrating 30 years
hear tbeat / PORTLAND WALDORF SCHOOL
page 2
february 2013
Through song and service
all God’s children join hands and sing,
Let freedom ring,
Free at last, thank God we are free at last.
These words taken from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “i
Have a Dream” speech were brought to the PWS
grades students by Marion Van Namen as a fitting and
joyous song to close our assembly on January 18th in
honor of Dr. King. Ms. O’Halagon opened the assem-
bly with a brief biography of Langston Hughes and
her eighth graders presented one of his poems. Then
grades 7 through 3 each presented a song or verse,
and we ended with Marion’s round.
On Monday, January 21st, grades 1 through 12 stu-
dents participated in the National Day of Service in
honor of the life and legacy of Dr. King. First graders
made pine cone bird feeders as a craft project and
then worked with Brendan pruning and raking on our
school grounds. Fourth graders had been collecting
new and used children’s book for the Children’s Book
Bank and spent the day organizing, cleaning and
repairing the books collected. They also filled crayon
pouches with newly-cleaned crayons for our admin-
istrative offices to have on hand for visiting children
and to donate to Milwaukie’s annie ross House.
Fifth grade volunteered with the Milwaukie Downtown
Neighborhood association cleaning planting beds
and picking up litter along Main Street. Sixth grad-
ers sewed up knit-a-thon blankets, picked up trash
along the Willamette river and sang for the residents
at rose Villa and Willamette View retirement homes.
Eighth graders, who volunteer monthly at Geer Crest
Farm, could not make it to the farm on Service Day
because of transportation difficulties, but worked
as coat takers, servers, and table busers at the Geer
Crest Farm Gala Fundraiser held in Portland. John-
son Creek Watershed Council received service efforts
from second, third and seventh graders. Glad for the
dry, yet chilly, morning these students worked at a va-
riety of outside planting, mulching, weeding projects
along Johnson Creek, an important local tributary of
the Willamette river.
High School students selected from a list of 7 service
projects. They planted trees and shrubs along the
i-205 corridor with Friends of Trees. They worked
with Habitat for Humanity crew and volunteers on a
multi-family development in outer Southeast Port-
land. They raked, weeded and mulched in the Crystal
Springs rhododendron Gardens. They assisted at the
animal aid Cat Shelter cleaning and organizing and
playing with the kittens. They helped with the salvag-
ing of useable building materials for the reBuilding
Center on Mississippi avenue. They sewed blankets
for vulnerable children and teens with the Binky Pa-
trol. and they helped by weatherizing homes through
the Community Energy Project.
all teachers reported good cheer and great enthusi-
asm from their volunteer student work crews and ex-
pressed great appreciation to the many parents who
helped with the projects and provided transportation
for many of the students to their off-site volunteer
locations. The good feeling one gets from complet-
ing hard work, plus getting to know your neighbors
and neighborhood and developing a relationship with
a local service organization were also benefits to
students, faculty and parents from our participation in
National Service Day.
Honoring Dr. King By NaNCy PEirCE, 7TH Gr. TEaCHEr
Ms. Churchill’s 5th Grade on MLK day
hear tbeat / PORTLAND WALDORF SCHOOL
page 3
february 2013
years ago Nike, inc. asked the people who work at
their world headquarters in Beaverton what they
might do to make things better for them. Their em-
ployees said they would like a child-care center so
that they could, among other things, be close enough
to their very young children so they could breastfeed.
Earlier this month i attended a panel held for Nike
Child Care Parents featuring kindergarten teachers
from about a dozen schools in the Portland area. it
was great to be with the parents and teachers, sharing
what we each do in our classrooms and some of the
“why”.
While i was there i, was delighted to discover that
they care for their babies and toddlers in the light
of the wisdom of Magda Gerber and resources for
infant Educaters (riE). This is one of the sources
that our Parent/Child program also draws inspira-
tion from. Magda Gerber’s work adds to the depth of
understanding of child development we have through
Steiner, brain research, studies, etc. about the very
unique and precious time of infancy. We appreicate
having been invited to join this panel discussion and
look forward to continuing to be a part of these kinds
of important conversations.
hummingbird feeder painting by 3rd grader
Playground Politics: Understanding the Emotional Life
of Your School Age Child by Stanley I. Greenspan, MD
How do we know what is really going on in the inner
life of our children? We all wonder sometimes why
they do what they do whether their actions please us
or aggravate us. in Playground Politics, published in
1993, Stanley Greenspan looks at these questions and
gives practical advice for parents.
The book is not written from a Waldorf perspective,
but supports many of the goals of Waldorf education.
Greenspan emphasizes the critical role of imagination
and the ability for inner picturing in children’s ability
to work through relationships with parents, sibling
and peers as well as find success in academic work.
He gives real examples of parents who went to him as
a clinical psychiatrist for help in guiding their children
through issues ranging from aggression to difficulty
with math. in each case he helped the parents and
children discover what was behind the issue and take
steps to move beyond whatever was hindering the
child’s progress.
Greenspan advocates five principles of healthy
parenting: floor time (following your child’s lead for
some time every day); problem solving time (working
through issues of the day); identifying and empathiz-
ing with your child’s point
of view; breaking challenges
into small pieces, and set-
ting limits. He gives many
situational examples of
working with each of these
principles.
although the book is
somewhat dated, i found
the information helpful and
interesting. There is a lot
here to help any parent.
The book is available in our
school library in the Parent
resource section.
Book ReviewBy CyNDia aSHKar, LiLy TEaCHEr By KaTHLEEN TayLOr, 3rD GraDE TEaCHEr
PWS goes to Nike
hear tbeat / PORTLAND WALDORF SCHOOL
page 4
february 2013
Greetings from the admissions Office busy season!
as we actively collect applications for the next school
year, we are also offering a wide variety of events
that showcase our wonderful school for prospec-
tive families. Please extend an invite to parents in
your neighborhood, work, place of worship and other
outside communities to come join us in the next few
weeks for…
TOur: Walk-Through-the-Grades
Thursday, February 14, 2013 from 9:00 - 10:30 am
PWS Lower School and High School
also, many hands make light outreach work: much
thanks to our Early Childhood Chair, Cyndia ashkar,
for serving as a panelist at the NiKE kindergarten pan-
el on January 10th and sharing the good news about
our school and Waldorf education. also, thank you to
Cyndia ashkar and andrea Eichinger-Wiese, our Tril-
lium kindergarten teacher for hosting an information
table across the river at the Lake Oswego Mother’s
Group preschool forum on January 17th. and once
again, great gratitude to PWS parent Patti Michaels
for volunteering at our Walk Through the Grades in
January. it takes a village – our active school commu-
nity is busy bringing us towards the enrollment goal
of 360 in 4 years! Like to help? Know of an event
that PWS should attend? Share your rSVPs, ideas
and questions with Mary Beaton in the admissions
Office at mary.beaton@portlandwaldorf.org or call
503-654-2200, x209
Office of Admissions By Mary BEaTON
Eric is also a cofounder of the Headwaters Fund, which fosters economic and community development in Humboldt County, California, and of the Social Venture Network, which supports entrepreneurs striving to “use business to create a values-driven and sustainable world.” His most recent initiative: Earth Corps for Global Service, which he describes as a peace corps for the whole earth, striving to dramatically increase the number of people working for social and environmental service organiza-tions world-wide.
if that were not sufficient, he is a member of the Executive Committee of the Nobel Peace Prize Fo-rum.
His talk on March 2 is entitled “Education and Parenting in an age of Technological Change.” Don’t miss the rare chance to hear this dynamic activist and speaker!
Eric Utne cont. from page 1
hear tbeat / PORTLAND WALDORF SCHOOL
page 5
in the spring of 1982, i met a group of parents who
wanted to start a school based on the wisdom of ru-
dolf Steiner. They had brought the director of rudolf
Steiner College and author of “Creativity in Educa-
tion”, rene Quierido, to Portland to give a talk, and
200 people had come. Based on this interest, they
decided the time was right - it would be financially
feasible to begin.
as a fundraiser, they brought the Pickle Family Circus
to town. Two people especially carried the vision and
efforts that were needed to bring the first kindergar-
ten into being, an early childhood educator named
Tom Klein and his C.P.a. wife, ruth. Tom had been
a student at the rudolf Steiner School in New york
and his passion for this education carried the tasks
needed for the endeavor. By June, there were six chil-
dren ready to enroll in the fall. a young teacher, Denis
Fitts, was hired. He asked me to be his assistant. That
autumn, the doors of the “Morning Song” kindergar-
ten opened and group of 16 children came to play and
work together.
although i already was a teacher of young children,
Waldorf education was new to me. i was (and con-
tinue to be) intrigued by the uniqueness and yet
grounded practicality of it. i am especially enamored
of the practice of bringing everything we can to the
children “from the whole to the parts”, something i
learned on the first night at the little study group i
joined those many years ago. in “The Kingdom of the
Child” we read that the first grade teacher will ask his
class, “What is the greatest number of all?” you can
imagine the many responses; zillions, infinity, goo-
golplex... Then the teacher will guide the children to
the discovery that the greatest number of all, really, is
one, because first of all everything is a whole.
They proceed to, “Where do we find “two-ness” in the
world?” Day and night, up and down, earth and sky...
and “three-ness?”...when they get to “eight-ness” the
octopus, of course, always shows up.
The examples of the wisdom of Steiner/Waldorf edu-
cation are manifold. rudolf Steiner, i would later learn,
was also a forerunner and initiator of what we know
as true organic farming. He took it further, under-
standing that the earth and cosmos are related, and
gave humanity biodynamic farming. His insights into
what is healthy for human beings were significant and
led to the events that inspired rachel Carson to write
Silent Spring.
Every day i am grateful to everyone who is a part of
our school; the dear children who grow into beautiful
young adults, their families, everyone who works at
our school, paid and not, and the friends who come
and discover here an image of the human being so
needed in our world.
Help us to celebrate Portland Waldorf School’s 30th
anniversary by attending our Flour Mill auction on
april 20th!
Discovering Waldorf By CyNDia aSHKar, LiLy TEaCHEr
March 2, 2013 3:30-6pm Bring your Parents to
School Night
Have a look at your student’s work and look ahead to next
year, then join Eric Utne for an enlightening conversation
Eric Utne on
Education and Parenting in an Age of Technological Change
february 2013
hear tbeat / PORTLAND WALDORF SCHOOL
page 6
february 2013
February Make One Take One Crafts:
2/7 – Woven Sweater Hearts 2/14 – Wet Felted Bowl 2/28 – Wood Burning The store will be closed during the February break.
Spring Creek Store
i recently read an article in the online Journal of Play, “The Special Value of Children’s age-Mixed Play” by Peter Gray. Our “family-like” settings at PWS provide an innovative preschool experience for children 3 - 4 years olds, integrated within our kindergartens, and i was happy to see studies cited therein confirming the importance of this practice of age-mixing in early childhood settings.
Every day in our classrooms, we see younger chil-dren being inspired by their older friends, and we watch older children carefully helping their young-er classmates. in his article, Mr. Gray describes “three categories of benefits of age-mixed play...age mixing allows younger children to engage in and learn from activities they could not do alone or
with just playmates of the same age (age-mates); observe and emulate models of activities more advanced than their own; and receive emotional support and care beyond that which age-mates could provide.” although Mr. Gray focuses mainly on benefits for younger children, the older ones, of course, contin-ue to make important gains in social and emotional skills as well as recognize their new-found abilities and capacities for helping others.
if you want to read more, the article is at: www.journalofplay.org Volume 3, Number 4, Spring 2011
Mixed Age Kindergarten By CyNDia aSHKar, LiLy TEaCHEr
hear tbeat / PORTLAND WALDORF SCHOOL
page 7
We look forward to welcoming our Grandparents and Special Friends on February 15, 2013! if you would like to extend an invitation to a grandparent or special friend, please direct them to the follow-ing link, or please register them here: http://portlandwaldorfgrandparentsday.eventbrite.com. you may also register them by calling or emailing Sara at 503-654-2200 x210 or sara.case@portlandwal-dorf.org. Please rSVP by February 8th. Please note that every child will not have a guest – that is ok! Guests will arrive at 8:30 am, and we will have refreshments available for them in the gym. They will then join their 1st student at 9:00 am. They will be able to visit up to 3 students by switching every 15 minutes (we will prompt each transition). Schedule 8:30 am: arrival and Welcome (refreshments available)9:00 am: Classroom Visit10:00 am: Children’s presentation in the gymnasium 11:00 am: Guests may visit school store or have a school tour Shields will be on display and available in the gym-nasium for silent auction bidding. Learn more about our annual Shield Benefit: http://www.portland-waldorf.org/support-pws/shield-benefit.html
if a guest can only come later than 9:15, they are warmly invited to join us for refreshments and then the assembly at 10:00. Because of space limits, visits to the classrooms are limited to Grandparents and Special Friends only, but par-ents are welcome to join us at the assembly.
Parents, please try to park in one of the aux-iliary parking lots we will make available that day (watch for signs) in order to leave space for guests. Parking will be challenging during the morning drop-off.
if you have any questions, please call Sara Case at 503-654-2200 x210 or send an email to sara.case@portlandwaldorf.org.
Grandparents and Special Friends Day
Auction
february 2013
hear tbeat / PORTLAND WALDORF SCHOOL
page 8
PWS February Vacation Program 2013
Tuesday, February 19th-22nd For children ages 4-11
Whole day: 8:30 am-3:30 pm $50Half day: 8:30 am-12:30 pm $30
(sibling discounts offered)Program includes baking, snacks,
crafts, art, songs and fun
regisTraTion DeaDline (Forms in The main oFFice)
WeDnesDaY, FebruarY 13
additionally, many of our families have found GeerCrest Farm to be a wonder-ful farm experience
hear tbeat / PORTLAND WALDORF SCHOOL
page 9
februarymon tues wed thurs fri sat/sun
1/31
Hearing and vision screening
2/1 PWS Community Choir 8:45 am
Adult Eurythmy 8:45 am 7-9pm Winter Music Concert
2/2 Boys BB Varsity @ home 4:30pm
2/3
2/4
Middle School BB Girls @4 Boys @ 5:30 @ Meadow Glade
Parent Council 7-9pm
2/5 2/6 Lily Parent Mtg 7-830pm
2/7 Circus Skills 1:30-3pm
Middle School BB Girls @3:30 @home
Senior HS Eurythmy Performance 7-8pm
2/8 PWS Community Choir 8:45 am
Adult Eurythmy 8:45 am Middle School BB Boys @3:30 @home
HS BB JV Boys @ 5pm Girls @ 6pm Varsity @ 7:30 @home
2/9 Gr. 3 Parent Mtg 9-10:30
Community Square Dance 6-8pm (see ad)
2/10
2/11
Middle School BB Girls @4 Boys @ 5:30 @ Open Door
2/12
Grade 10 Class Play, Music Room 7pm
2/13 6,7 & 8th Grade Combined Pt. Mtg, Music Rm 7-8pm Grade 10 Class Play, Orchard Rm 7pm
2/14 Walk Through 9am
Circus Skills 1:30-3pm
Middle School BB Girls @4 Boys @ 5:30 @ Good Shepherd
2/15 Adult Eurythmy 8:45 am
Grandparent’s and Spe-cial Friends Day 9am
Shield Event 6-8pm
2/16
Valentine Tea (for prospective families) 10-11:30am
2/17
2/18 President’s Day, no school
2/19
Waldorf Teacher Conference Week, no school
yes, camp
Middle School BB Girls @3:30 Boys @ 5 @ Port-land Lutheran
2/20 Waldorf Teacher Conference Week, no school
yes, camp
2/21 Waldorf Teacher Conference Week, no school
yes, camp
2/22 Waldorf Teacher Con-ference Week, no school
yes, camp
2/23
2/24
2/25
Board of Trustees Meeting 6pm
2/26 2/27 High School Parent Meeting 7-9pm
2/28 Circus Skills 1:30-3pm
3/1 PWS Community Choir 8:45 am
Early Release at 1:30 for entire school, in preparation for Eric Utne’s visit.
Yes aftercare
3/2 Eric Utne!
Bring Your Parent’s to School ...3:30-6pm
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