waldorf charge

from seven to fourteen and beyond

(This article is a slightly modified reprint of a blogpost I wrote for The Magic Onions.)

Sedimentary rocks settle back to their bins inside the science closet. The chalkboard compass acutely rests deep in my desk. My sword leans against a wall like a seasoned knight retired from his last battle. From studying rocks to Rome, knights to starry nights, my year with the sixth grade comes to a close. Here at the end of this amazing year - my first year at Davis Waldorf with my students, I wanted to take this opportunity to share some thoughts about the development of the child, and how it determines the charge of the Waldorf teacher.

Steiner’s developmental approach to Waldorf intuitively holds the child first from the physical environment. This is the kindergartener whose body and soul are nurtured through the oneness with his teacher, peers, and surroundings. Next, the child of the first through eighth grade, from 7 to 14 years old, is then held by authority and leadership. The teacher’s role through the grades is being the noble knight, to use imagery from my sixth grade year. In chivalric fashion, with unwavering resolve, the teacher must guide the student with charismatic aplomb.

I have had to be a noble knight this year! The curriculum of the sixth grade is such that it meets the mind and heart of the 11-12 year old. My students were like rowdy attendants to the king’s ball, enjoying the thrill of entertainment, which sometimes can be as economical as pulling one’s lips to imitate a quacking duck. Then, with the announcement of a cause, a challenge, or a quest, and with the possible reward of victory or even certain death, they sober to become unified crusaders! How fitting it was this year that they had studied the clarity of Roman law, and the code of the medieval knight. For the sixth graders, it has been about the passionate interplay of silliness and sincerity.

Banking on their capacity for precision and recitation, I wrote the “Warrior’s Creed” which they performed with martial arts-style movements at the Medieval Games and at our May Faire.

Courage
With strength and sacrifice,
My sword I wield.
Justice
From righteous code,
I will not yield.
Mercy
I sheath my sword
And extend my hand.
Generosity
I giving heart
Benefits all the land.
Devotion
With discipline
I resolve on the right.
Faith
I trust my path
Towards everlasting light.
Hope
From spirit mountain
I gladly stand and fight.


The eighth grader, at about the age of fourteen, is then held in a different manner. It is not so much holding as if in cupped, protective hands, but rather open and challenging, like you are asking, “So what do you think you should do?”

After fourteen, the child, or the young adult, is developmentally prepared for independent judgment. It is scary to think that we are empowering our teenagers with making their own decisions! But perhaps, it would not be so scary if truly we as caregivers, teachers and parents, were fully present in creating nurturing environments, and leading with responsibility and role modeling. Then, we should be able to trust that their decisions will be made from a place of our own making.

The charge of the Waldorf teacher, in the context of the threefold nature of the human being (body, soul, and spirit), is to transform the children’s natural desire for learning into treasures of creative and intellectual capacities. As the child develops, the needs evolve. The parent or teacher must recognize these shifts and find the rhythm of the growing child.

My own fourteen-year-old graduates this year from Davis Waldorf. He has decided to pursue his ninth grade at a nearby public school in Davis. The school offers a fantastic music program, and my son auditioned as a clarinetist for the concert band and as a saxophonist for jazz band. I had driven him to the school and I waited in the hallway as the music teacher lead him into one of the practice rooms. A faint but confident melody penetrated through the adjacent wall. Only a few measures later, the music teacher emerged from the room and told me that my son had earned positions in both bands. It struck me with full force for the first time that my first born child had just carved his own path, paved the way for his own fate. My role as a guide for him had reached its apex. From here on, like a waning moon, I glimmer only as a celestial navigator, and I let my son’s own luminous self become the star. I thought about the instruments that we always had around at home when he was a toddler. I thought about the times I would play songs on the piano or when my wife would teach him how to hold a clarinet. We had given him the physical environment and the guidance to appreciate music.

Now he is making his own music.

stones and stars

astronomy in the sixth grade

Five thousand years ago, neolithic people of Briton carved and moved 80 four-ton bluestones from the Preseli Mountains in South Wales to Wiltshire - a 250 mile distance. A 300 foot diameter moat was dug with antlers and encircled the stones. Nearly 1000 years later, massive 50 ton sarsen stones topped with lintels formed a circle around five trilithons and the Altar stone in the middle.

On the summer solstice, heelstones placed at the eastern edge of the moat bracket the first ray of morning sun, which pierce into the center of Stonehenge to the Altar stone. To a people who had shifted from a nomadic life to an agragrian society, the sun and its daily rhythm through the seasons was reliable, its life-giving power was to be revered and honored.

This is Stonehenge.

This is astronomy for the sixth grader.

To the ancients, the movement of the heavenly bodies was viewed from a geocentric perspective and with the naked eye. We studied the movement of the sun, its ecliptic, the solstices, and the equinoxes. We studied the moon and its phases. Then, we expanded outward to the celestial sphere, where we pointed to the north celestial pole and discovered Polaris, the North Star. It follows the axis of the earth and so has become invaluable in orienting navigators and stargazers to the constellations. From Polaris, we found the circumpolar stars such as the Big Dipper. From the Big Dipper, we "arced to Arcturus, and spiked to Spica." Then we discussed the band of animal signs, the Zodiac, that appeared like a belt around the ecliptic.

From geology to astronomy, I had taken the sixth grader through a journey of their personal development and my development as their teacher. As is true for much of Waldorf, there is a poetic underpinning to the things we do. For me, geology in the beginning of the year represented the firmness of the earth from which I needed to connect with the students. We needed grounding, and geology was the discipline that would do it. In the end of our year, after studying Roman and medieval history, economics, physics, and geometry, we needed a block that would represent the outward optimism of looking forward to the seventh grade. Astronomy, the study of the stars, was the perfect close to our year.

Geology to astronomy, stones to stars, earth to heaven.

In the beginning of the year, we visited Lassen Volcanic Park. Last week, we visited Cache Creek Regional Park in Yolo County. Lassen was meant to be instructive about geology. The Cache Creek trip was meant for the students to have fun - and if stars happened to be visible from the canyon floor and the students happened to pause and look up, then we got some astronomy too!

In the beginning of the year, I had a pre-formed image of the potential ideal of my students. Like a sculptor with a block of limestone, or a conductor with a musical score to an orchestra, I had worked towards that image. From my Renaissance nature, I would shape them through example as an artist, musician, philosopher, and scientist. From my personal being, I would guide them as a father who nurtures my own children. From Steiner's anthroposophical frame, it would be through "discipleship and authority." From a spiritual place, I would go about our day with reverence, order, and peacefulness.

At the end of the year, the students have grown in mind, body, and spirit. The kinetic reality of teaching and learning, of the individual personalities of the children, and of their dramatic age nature produced a sixth grader who far exceeded my idealized picture. In the heart of performing our concerto, it was the spontaneous, inspired accents, the nuanced colors of dynamics, the subtle, yet moving harmonies, and the unifying force of rhythm that the sixth graders concluded their performance with brilliance. Sure, a few misplaced notes here and there to jarring effect, but we kept on going!

What have the students become?

Pretend this is a plexer: a picture of a chunk of granite + a picture of a constellation.

Yes, you got it, ROCK STARS!

cache creek

regional gems of yolo county




The Tans are enjoying a reprieve from our school rhythm at Davis Waldorf. Yet, in our Spring break, we found ourselves scouting a possible sixth grade field trip venue: Cache Creek Campground. Less than an hour away from Davis, this regional campground in Yolo County was quite a treasure; we found ourselves enjoying an unexpected day at the beach - in the heart of agricultural farmlands of California's Central Valley!

dark ages

medieval history with grade six



In the sixth grade, we study Roman and medieval history. The cause and effect quality of these periods in history, the sense of law and order, conviction for truth and justice, and devotion to beliefs are soul food for the sixth grader. In studying the events surrounding the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity and medieval history, I realized that there really is not a clear line between the end of one period of history and the beginning of another. History has a sequential quality, a cause and effect linearity, that is particulary evident in the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and the beginnings of medieval history. A series of events, singular and concurrent, all contribute to the way the human story marches forward. I though I had left Rome behind several weeks ago in our Roman history block, but the Roman Empire proved quite resilient as it formed the foundation for the beginnings of the Dark Ages. So our medieval history block had to start with the fall of the Empire.

Under the Emperor Tiberius, a man named Jesus was crucified by the Romans for fear that his teachings about God and the power of love was counter to the laws of the Romans. His followers began to spread his teachings, and Christianity was born. Under the reign of Nero, many Christians were tortured and executed. By the time Hadrian had taked power, it was unlawful to be Christian and many went into hiding, spreading the word of God secretly. The Roman Empire reached the height of its power during Hadrian's reign, and many roads were built that reached to the edges of Hesperia, Gaul, the River Danube, and the northern coast of Africa.

In Britain, the Romans had tried to extend their laws and customs to this forested island. Pagan tribes of Celts resisted the might of the Romans. One tribe, the Iceni, led by Queen Boudicca, fought the Romans bravely. But Queen Boudicca and her two daughters finally poisoned themselves when they realized they had lost, and did not want to be brought to the city of Rome as prisoners to be humiliated, tortured, and executed. The Iceni were one of the last Celtic tribes to resist the Romans, and from then on, much of Britain, except for the northern lands where the Picts and Scots had lived, went under Roman rule.

The sixth graders and I, on a sunny Friday at the end of school, re-enacted the battle between the Romans and Celts out on the school's lawn, which abuts a mound of dirt and logs. The Romans marched with shields towards the Celtic hill fortification. I played the role of a Roman officer. On my command, we charged towards the hill, PVC pipe-swords drawn and ...we all threw water balloons at each other, and the children dumped a bucket of water on me! Glorious!

But Christianity continued to spread, and in the city of Verulanium in Britain, a Roman nobleman named Alban had chanced upon an old man he helped. The old man was a Christian. After hearing his stories about Christ, Alban proclaimed himself Christian. Roman soldiers came to his house, and he helped the old man escape. Alban did not deny to having helped the old man, and also admitted to the Roman officer, a family friend, that he had converted to Christianity. When Alban refused to renounce his faith, Alban was executed. He became the first Christian in Britain to die as a martyr.

Emperor Diocletian divided the Roman Empire into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. He gave the Western Empire to Maximinius. Their successors, Maxentius, the son of Maximinius, and Constantine, disagreed about the rule of the two halves of the Empire. They declared war on each other. Constantine had a vision from God and he instructed his men to paint crosses on their shields. When they went into battle against Meaxentius' soldiers, they scared them off with a crucifixion image on their shields, and the seeming determination they had on their countenances. Constantine decided that Rome would no longer be the center of power, so he established Constantinople. The executions of Christians stopped. It became fashionable to be a Christian.

Meanwhile, Germanic tribes, barbarians, from the northeast, began to push against the fortified boundaries of the Roman Empire. The tribes did not have centralized power so the Roman tried to convince them to battle as Romans against other Germanic tribes. Roman law, loyalty, and power began to crumble under the weight of unruly, uncontrollable hoardes of people.

Attile the Hun, the "Scourge of God," struck fear and destruction across the Empire. Eventually, the Goths and the Vandals took their tour of pillaging and plundering the Empire. The Western Empire fell into ruin, and the Eastern Empire, ruled from Constantinople, managed to maintain some power due to tenuous alliances with the barbarians. The Angles and Saxons, also Germanic tribes, traveled northward into Britain as mercenaries against the Picts and Scots, battling at Hadrian's Wall and everywhere in the British countrysides.

The great Migration of People, the huge nomadic tribes of the central plains of Europe, continued their movement into what was left of the Roman Empire. Odoacer, a strong Roman Commander-in-Chief of Germanic descent and Christian faith took control of the Western Empire and threw away the title of Emperor. In 476 AD, the Empire ceased to exist. Along with the unrecorded history of the Angles and Saxons in Britain, and the settling of Germanic tribes throughout Europe, this period of history became known as the Dark Ages.

The monks believed that to be a true Christian, one must live simply and virtuously. In their monasteries were scriptoriums, where they spent night and day as scribes, creating beautiful, delicate, and perfect manuscripts of religious texts.

The sixth graders are learning the art of calligraphy and illuminated manuscripts. They will be completing a page of their creeds, of what it is they have a conviction for, of what they believe. It ties in with the strong devotion of the Christians, and of knighthood and chivalry. We had touched on the seven knightly virtues, and they seem to be getting into the spirit of the chivalric ways!

We are now in Spring Break. The timing of this block seemed to work well, as some families will be celebrating Easter, a time important to Christianity. When the children return, we wil learn about Islam and Eleanor of Aquitaine, the mother of medieval history! We will be working more on our calligraphy and completing our creeds. We will also be working on our individual coats-of-arms just in time for our participation in the Medieval Games, where we will compete with other sixth graders from other Waldorf schools.

sound and light

physics for the sixth grade


The sixth graders at Davis Waldorf School completed their three week block of physics where we covered the phenomena of sound, light, and magnetism. In the sixth grade, physics is about the experience and observation of the phenomena. There is less emphasis on quantitative data, and more on the quality, the sense-experience, of light, sound, and magnetism. However, I found myself not sticking strictly with the experience, but diving into the abstract as well. Maybe it is my science background, or perhaps the way the students had appeared to want to know about the abstract stuff such as sound waves, but I found myself introducing the hidden mysteries of the experience, in particular, the idea of the wave. I had to use my intuition as a teacher.

For light, I organized the material and the main lesson pages as:

1) the phenomenon of light, where I had the students copy the "gift of light" verse we sang at our Winter Assembly,

2) the sources of light, where we drew images of luminous objects, those that actually produce light, and illuminated object, everything else that reflects light,

3) the rays and rainbows of light, where we identified the properties of the light ray as reflecting, absorbing, and transmitting, including using a prism to see how visible light separates into the rainbow colors, and

4) the refraction of light, where we performed an experiment. We shone a beam of light through a water-filled tank at an angle, and observed the bending of the light as it passed from the medium of air and into the medium of water.

For sound, I organized the main lesson this way:

1) phenomenon of sound, where the students copied a verse about hearing,

2) making sound, about the three ways that sound is produced: striking, strumming, or blowing, told as a story about a king wanting music played at a spring festival,

3) affecting sound, about the qualities of sound: duration, volume, pitch, and character,

4) hearing sound, where we discussed the vibration, and the sound wave, and its properties such as frequency and amplitude. I wrote a rap about sound:

vibrations, vibrations

objects in motion

strum, pluck, or blow,

and feel the sound waves go

sound can be high

sound can be low

sound can be really loud

or quiet like an echo, echo, echo

sound goes on and on and on

sound can stop like this

sound has character

a bark, meow, or hiss

frequency and amplitude

waves have attitude

patterned or continuous

waves are not superfluous

big words - don't you fear

c'mon, just use your ears!

For magnetism:

1) the phenomenon of magnetism, where in our main lesson page, I had them copy down a medieval style of courtly love poem (force of attraction = magnetism, get it?)

2) earth's magnetism, about the history of the discovery of lodestone and its use in navigation

3) field of magnetism, where the students practiced their 3-dimensional drawing and shading to show a magnet and its lines of magnetism.

Our project for the block was making an instrument. The students created some lovely-sounding instruments!

I chose to do a chalk-drawing of a lotus flower in a still pond. The photograph that inspired it had a luminous lotus flower and I wanted to try to capture it in chalk. Also, I was struck by the quietness that the image had. So sound and light.

Anthroposophy 101 eCourse

geography

sixth grade visits europe




The sixth graders of Davis Waldorf School (no, we really did not take a filed trip to Europe - but that would have been molto fantastico!) came back from their winter break to learn a little about geography. The three branches of geography are physical (biomes, cartography, coordinates), human (cultures, populations), and environmental (resource management).

We learned about the different biomes of the world (forest, grassland, tundra, desert, marine, and freshwater). The students created dioramas of their biomes, which we called "bioramas." They were spectacular! Some had fashioned trees from wire and frayed rope, animals from beeswax, snow from old cotton jerseys, and rocky cliffs from clay.

We learned about latitude and longitude, and how to make accurate maps using a grid technique.

To study human geography, the students are researching European countries for their reports. It is a big undertaking for the sixth graders as they are learning to choose the right resources and compile information about the land, the culture, and landmarks. They are writing creatively and using illustrations to create beautiful reports.

To bring in the global, environmental consciousness into our work, I had the students list their observations of things outside our classroom. It was not surprising that when I had them categorize their observations between human, human-made, and nature-made, most things they listed were human-made. I had told them that it was very important how our geography is closely tied to human impact, that it was our responsibility to always be mindful of how we interact with our earth.

supply and demand

grade six economics and winter concert


Supply and demand is a relationship. It is about the dynamic balance of what we produce and what we want. During our three weeks of economics, sixth grade viewed the world in this way. The relationship begins with what the earth itself provides: natural elements that through human use become natural resources. From natural resources, we derive raw materials. Raw materials give us the stuff to be self-sustaining. When reliance for survival shifts outside of the self, we enter into barter. From barter develops a more convenient form of exchange, currency. In maintaining mutually beneficial exchange, we discussed value and worth. From understanding the value of things, the theory of economics itself is formed: production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Then the world of entrepreneurship, profit, capital, and interest opened up. From here, we were ready to tackle suppy and demand.

I had deliberately (strategically) placed our economics block just before our winter break. There was no better way for the students to understand economics than to experience it. We created Grade Six Greetings, converting our classroom into an assembly factory. We produced greeting cards with original artwork by the students, and sold them to the school community, just in time for the holidays! Consumers demanded, and we supplied. Lo and behold, we turned a profit!

In the midst of the excitement of our curriculum coming to life, we also had practiced for our school Winter Concert. I wrote an instrumental piece for the sixth grade strings ensemble called Winter Solstice, which our strings teacher arranged for me, and composed a song called Gift of Light, with choreography. At the Winter Concert, the sixth graders were magical, inspiring, and awesome. The audience demanded, and we supplied!

In each of these students, there is a light. It flickers, it dances, it glows, it warms, it shines. The light fills me with hope and encourages me to keep doing what I do. I nurture the light, cup it with a gentle hand when a mischievous wind comes blowing. I keep it safe, let it shine, and it gets brighter and brighter.

Blessings to all.

roman aqueduct

our sixth grade roman history project



Our sixth grade block in Roman History at Davis Waldorf was crowned today with a Roman feast and a presentation of our Aqueduct Project. The project, in Roman fashion, required precision and citizenship. Each segment of the aqueduct had to be exactly measured and executed by each of the students so that when connected, their sections would function collectively to convey water.

The project needed a box of specific dimensions, and cut precisely for the columns, arches, and holes. A layer of spackling or plaster, scored and painted to resemble brick, gave it an artistic touch. When each of the segments were lined up end to end, the impact was quite incredible. I ran a 3/4" PVC pipe through all the segments, attached a hose to one end, and a spout at the other. Our aqueduct directed water for a ceremonious washing of our hands to begin our Roman feast.

The Roman saying holds true: FINIS CORONAT OPUS (the end crowns the work). I think the students will remember this project, and they will know the work they put into it had lead to a sense of accomplishment and pride.

o roma nobilis

roman history with sixth grade

Do as the Romans do. So my chalkboard drawing took on a very austere, practical, disciplined, and serious nature. It was from a relief of a Roman general leading centurions in battle, rendered in marble, beautiful in the precision of the sculptor's craftsmanship. It set the tone of my 3-week block of Roman history.

It is not easy to condense 1500 years in 3 weeks!

In our first week, we traveled with Aeneas, the Trojan prince who escaped from the burning Troy, who traveled to Latium, in what is now Italy. He begins the Trojan bloodline that lead to Remus and Romulus and the birth of Rome in 753 BC.

In our second week, we moved through 500 years of the Roman Kingdom, and with the suicide of Lucretia in her refusal to be kidnapped by Tarquinius' son, the Roman Republic was formed in 509 BC. We discovered the social structure of the Republic with the plight of the patricians and plebeians. We learned about the technology of arches learned from Rome's Etruscan neighbors, and its application in the famous aqueducts. During the period of the Republic, I read to the sixth grade about the great Carthaginian general Hannibal's declaration of war against the Romans, and his eventual defeat in Zama.

We have also been learning Latin word roots, and a Latin verse that I put to song that reflects the somber glory of Rome.

About to begin our third week, I will end the Republic and enter the Empire. There are key players whose biographies I will bring: Julius Caesar, Marc Antony and Cleopatra, and Octavian Augustus. At the end of our block, we will put together our aqueduct project (pictures to follow), and I will run a PVC pipe through a channel in each of our segments. Water will flow and we will ceremoniously wash our hands to prepare for a Roman feast!

geometry

sixth grade gets precise

Our dear sixth grade students of Davis Waldorf are in the second block of the year: geometry. We shifted from the organic, amorphous shapes of rocks in the geology block to the precision of geometric lines and shapes. I used the acronym "TLCC" to give structure to the block.

Technique, Language, Construction, and Calculation.

The students are learning proper techniques of using a compass and a straightedge to develop the precision of an architectural draftsman! They are learning the language of shapes, the parts and pieces that describe the points and lines of circles, triangles, and parallelograms. Through constructions, they will continue to hone their drafting skills to create beautiful artistic work. And finally, we will calculate formulas for areas of shapes.

Within the block, I decided to offer them short biographies of Frank Lloyd Wright, Piet Mondrian, and Euclid to give a historical and artistic perspective to geometry.

My chalkboard drawing for the block, called Blue Right Triangle, was inspired by stained glass designs by Frank Lloyd Wright. (If you can tell, I had a hard time letting go of my Mount Lassen drawing so I incorporated a portion of it in the new drawing!)

michaelmas dragoneering

the task of the waldorf sixth grader

Michael:

Fear not good people your prayer is heard.
Michael am I, guardian of the highest word.
Oh dread dragon with this sword of light
I can conquer you in a single fight.
Your scaly hide it can easily pierce
And drain the life from your fangs so fierce.
But also to you a last chance I may give
To change your ways and so to live.
That the highest is served through your power
And a part of us you become from this hour.

Dragon:

Ah, Michael, conqueror from on high
If I may but live then I shall try
To serve the princess as best I can
And with her every woman and man.
I’ll plow the fields and plant the wheat
So that she and all her folk may eat.

People:
We’ll teach him to plough
And we’ll teach him to sow,
We’ll teach him to harrow
To reap and to mow.
He’ll garner the harvest
And grind all the flour,
Humankind will grow strong
In the strength of his power.

The Michaelmas play at Davis Waldorf was held in a stand of trees on our field. The second graders, directed by their teacher Patrice Rapp, presented their play with strong, fearless voices! The sixth grade students provided the dragon.

From the fire-breathing volcano of Mount Lassen to the fire-breathing dragon of Davis Waldorf, the sixth graders gave life to the dragon. I used chickenwire to form the head, and tarp for the skin. We draped the tarp over the children and with flour thrown to simulate smoke, they made a convincing dragon!

Enjoy the following pictures (I used publishing software to make them look like pencil drawings to maintain the children's privacy).

preparing to enter the dragon

the second grade townsfolk

with a loop and a puff of smoke, the dragon appears

the archangel Michael saves the day

pausing proudly with our dragon

mount lassen

our sixth grade camping trip

This second week of September, the sixth graders of Davis Waldorf School spent three days in magnificent Lassen Volcanic Park. The feel of cinders crunching at our feet as we climbed Cinder Cone or inhaling the sulfur from fumaroles at Bumpass Hell allows their study of geology to live in their hearts. Our itinerary included a picnic at serene Lake Helen, a hike into steamy Bumpass Hell, and an epic climb up Cinder Cone.

The following images, taken by me, were inspired by B.F. Loomis' photographs of the 1915 eruption of Mount Lassen, on display as giant black and white photos in the Loomis Museum at the northern entrance of the park.

Lassen is rich in geological treasures.

The dynamic landscape is in a cycle of decay and growth.

We camped on the edge of secluded and picturesque Summit Lake.

Our campsite may have had forest nymphs watching over us!

As we hiked on trails, there were amazing views in all directions...

And lots of rocks.

This is on the way to Bumpass Hell.

The intrepid chaperones paused on the Bumpass Hell boardwalk -

where are the children?

Oh, there they are!

Cinder Cone is a 750 foot tall cone volcano, whose steep climb is like

scaling a tall sand dune.

The wind was wild and the views were spectacular from the crater rim.

We conquered Cinder Cone, and brilliantly documented the shoes that got us there!

opening day

reverence and the rose

Davis Waldorf School celebrated its first day of school with the Rose Ceremony. It symbolizes the beliefs of the Waldorf way: honoring the beauty of the spiritual nature of the child. With reverence and grace, each grades teacher proudly expressed the voyage of their students through the curriculum and through the developmental stage of that particular grade.

As the sixth grade teacher for Davis Waldorf, I spoke of the new sense of reasoning awakening in the 12 year old child, which opens their hearts to the transformation of people and places in their curriculum. More importantly, the course of the year will see a transformation in the children themselves.

offering a hand-made gift for my colleague, Coleen Borrego

The opening day celebration centers around the Rose Ceremony. Ms. Ute Luebeck, our dear first grade teacher, shared heart-felt words with the parents. Truly, the first grade child will begin on a path of wonder and adventure, but they need not fear. With gentleness, our eighth grade children, young adults, offer the rose to the little ones as a token of friendship, peace, calm, and beauty. Then the parents had formed an arc of sunflowers that lead the way for Ms. Luebeck and the children to enter into the first grade classroom.

It is a magical way for the little ones to begin the school year.

my son Wilson gets a hug, a crown, a key, and an 8th grade buddy

Angela Kost, our strings teacher, provides music for the ceremony

a beautiful and welcoming display

a new gate for the lower grades garden

warm, calm, nurturing kindergarten spaces

It was also a magical way to begin my first year with the sixth grade! With consciousness of the incredible task about to unfold, I prepared as best as I could for this day, for my year. I moved my family to Davis over the summer, a huge task in itself. I spent 5 intense weeks at Steiner College. I wrote a variety of material to organize my thoughts and plans for the year, created a Google Group for my parents, cleaned and organized my classroom, planned our sixth grade Mount Lassen filed trip, gathered resources, painted and sanded my gift for the fifth grade teacher the night before opening day, and it continues.

This first day was key, it sets the tone for the year. Jennifer knitted me a tie to wear for Opening Day, which I was glad for. In so many ways, it was an important day. It was the first day of school for my three kids at Davis Waldorf, it was my first day to greet the community, it was my first day to be in the classroom with the sixth graders.

And as I write this blog at the end of this first week, I will say that I am truly grateful for them. They have shown me this week that they have the courage, honor, faith, and heart to take this journey with me. And as I reflect on the first day of school with the children, I feel that a connection was made, and the natural bond formed felt as if I had been standing in front of the classroom with them much longer.