Windows into Waldorf Jan 10, 2025
IN THIS EDITION
Director’s Note
Key Dates
Open House Volunteers
Community Skate
Community Camping Trip
Pedagogical Pearls
DIRECTOR’s NOTE
While preparing for the upcoming Grade 1 information event for parents of children who will enter Grade 1 in September, I read an opinion essay, “What Most American Schools Do Wrong” written by Adam Grant, originally published in the New York Times in October 2023. This article was shared with me by Tammi Gerrard, our Pedagogical Lead. Here is the link to the full article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/22/opinion/education-us-teachers-looping.html?smid=url-share
The article notes that countries with the “best” education system, as measured by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), have often been a surprise to educators and analysts. In 2000, the inaugural year of the tests with a focus on literacy, the top score went to Finland. In 2003, when the focus was on math, the top country was Finland. In 2006, when the focus was Science, the top country once again, Finland.
“Just over a decade later, Europe had a new champion. Here, too, it wasn’t one of the usual suspects — not a big, wealthy country like Germany or Britain but the small underdog nation of Estonia. Since that time, experts have been searching for the secrets behind these countries’ educational excellence. They recently found one ….”
To keep this Director’s note brief, the secret from the article is the common Waldorf educational practice of ‘looping’, namely when teachers stay with their students for two or more years.
“Finland and Estonia go even further. In both countries, it’s common for elementary schoolers to have the same teacher not just two years in a row but sometimes for up to six straight years. Instead of specializing just in their subjects, teachers also get to specialize in their students. Their role evolves from instructor to coach and mentor.”
Waldorf teachers implicitly understand the reasons for specialising in their students:
“... with more time to get to know each student personally, teachers gain a deeper grasp of the kids’ strengths and challenges. The teachers have more opportunities to tailor their instructional and emotional support to help all the students in the class reach their potential. They’re able to identify growth not only in peaks reached, but also in obstacles overcome. The nuanced knowledge they acquire about each student isn’t lost in the handoff to the next year’s teacher.”
I have long valued looping as beneficial for students; this is the first time I have seen the practice specifically correlated to indisputable educational outcomes.
Wishing all in our Community a Happy New Year!
Conor
KEY DATES
Jan 13 - 7pm - Knitting Circle (at 250 Madison, Elm Room)
Jan 14 - 4:30pm - Info Event for SK families moving into Grade 1
Jan 19 - 11am-3pm - Community Skate Day @ Greenwood Park (see flyer below)
Jan 28
6-8pm - Grade 4-8 Parent Evening
6:30-8pm - Stargarden & Sungarden Parent Evenings
Jan 30 - 6pm - Grade 1-3 Parent Evening
Feb 8 - 10am - Gr 1-8 “COMMUNITY” OPEN HOUSE - volunteers needed!
Feb 13 & 14 - NO SCHOOL for K-8 (Camps Available) - PT Conferences
Feb 17 - NO SCHOOL or CHILDCARE (Family Day; No Camps)
COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSE – VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
As many of you are aware, we are hosting a Community Open House for Grades 1 to 8, on Saturday, February 8, both for new and current families. We are looking for volunteers to support this fun and informative event! Please sign up here:
COMMUNITY CAMPING TRIP!
KillBear Camping – Friday June 13th to Sunday June 15th
This year we are rekindling the tradition of a community camping trip to Killbear Provincial Park following the last day of school. Come and kick off summer break with a weekend in nature surrounded by friends and classmates.
Campers will drive up following dismissal on Friday June 13th and stay for two nights. This is a completely voluntary and unofficial trip, so families will need to reserve their own campsites, and make their own arrangements for meals, camping equipment etc.
If you’re interested in coming, the online booking for that June weekend becomes available this upcoming Monday January 13th at precisely 7am. Ontario Parks reservations fill up very quickly, and you’re encouraged to book as soon as possible. The steps to do this:
Log in to www.ontarioparks.com
Go to Make a Reservation
Select Killbear from the dropdown menu for Park
Enter the dates, the size of your family or group, and the equipment you’re planning to use, and hit Search. Waldorf Academy families will be camping in the Georgian area of the park, in the loop of sites from 416-466.
Once you’ve selected a site, you can select Reserve to finalize your reservation details.
A WhatsApp group has already been created for interested participants:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/GWlqFLcCIAL2WwVQu0B2zc
Everyone is invited to join the Whatsapp group, even if you’re not sure yet if you’re able to commit. The group will be a great place to ask your questions about camping, swap gear, plan activities, etc.
PEDAGOGICAL PEARLS
The Winter Term is already in full swing after the holidays! Everyone seems happy to be back in their classrooms surrounded by familiar faces - and by some new ones. Four students have joined our school this term: welcome to Lyon, Zarah, Angus and Owen!
Grade 1 will be starting to learn to play the pentatonic flute this term. The pentatonic scale consists of five rather than 7 notes, namely D, E, G, A and B. This scale is commonly used in Asian music, as well as in American folk songs. Pentatonic music has an ethereal quality, and is said to be able to touch children more profoundly than conventional music. Steiner viewed all humans as musical beings, and believed that music brings feeling to our learning. Music has many other benefits as well, according to Mary Fettig, a long-time Waldorf teacher:
Music is a science: an exact and specific discipline calling upon the performers' knowledge and control.
Music is directly related to mathematics, being rhythmically based on the subdivision of time into fractions.
Music is a foreign language that uses highly developed symbols to express ideas.
Yet music is a universal language where anyone from any culture can communicate with others, and our students learn songs from other lands which helps to encourage global awareness.
Music is a physical activity requiring immense coordination of fingers, hands, arms, cheeks, lips, and facial muscles. Singing and playing the recorder both ask us to breathe deeply and in control. In playing the violin or cello, the musician has to cross their midline and coordinate the two sides of the body.
Music is also an art, one that allows for individual expression and one that touches on human emotions.
Music is a social activity. When a class or group is singing or playing together, there is often a beautiful moment where everyone is in sync and on key and the music lifts us all up, highlighting human connection. Participants need to listen to others, to wait their turn, and to sometimes carry others along.
Next week, Grade 3 will be heading out into our own neighbourhood to offer to make entry ramps for local businesses that do not yet have them. The class is partnering with StopGap Foundation, an international initiative borne out of the Community Ramp Project in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood. This class activity relates directly to the practical aspects of the Grade 3 curriculum which arise from children’s increasing awareness of their individuation, and their need for assurance that they are able to find ways to eventually function independently in the world, and help others do the same (measuring, building, problem-solving). It is also a wonderful opportunity to be of service to our local community members.
Jay Goldklang
Grades 4 and 5 have started work on their class play, James and the Giant Peach. Enthusiasm is high! Part of their daily warm-up includes juggling. Not only does it warm up the body, it builds the mind:
“Multiple experiments and many hours of research have been conducted at some of the world’s premier universities and institutions in order to find out how … juggling impacts the brain structure and neural pathways of the brain…. MRI’s of the participants’ brains are taken before and after the experiment for the researchers to keep track of any potential changes in the brain structure of the participants. Researchers at the University of Regensburg in Germany noticed that in the juggler’s brain there was a notable increase in the density of the gray matter in their brain.”
American Academy of Neurology (Feb/Mar 2024) states that
“one study, published in 2004 in Nature, reported that gray matter in a part of the hippocampus that's associated with complex visual processing became denser. Another study, published in Nature Neuroscience in 2009, reported changes in the brain's white matter in areas associated with reaching and grasping in the periphery of vision—regardless of skill level.”
Similarly, the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (June 2022) reported,
“In all of these selected studies, positive structural changes in the human brain were found, including changes mainly in the gray matter (GM) volume in the visual motion complex area (hMT/V5) and the white matter (WM) volume in fractional anisotropy (FA).”
Embodied learning is an essential aspect of the curriculum at Waldorf Academy for these neurological and other psycho-physical benefits, not to mention the sheer joy it brings!
Meanwhile, in another exercise of neuroplasticity, Grade 7 & 8 students are starting their block on Stereometry and Platonic Solids, and Grade 6 is starting a block on the study of Rome.
The New Year has clearly come in like a lion, and we are glad to see everyone healthy and eager for new experiences and personal growth in 2025!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
