8 - 26 Summer Festival of Arts and Education
Senses' Revelation
November
8 -9 Waldorf Development Conference
Bringing Spirit into Life
Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto facilitates cultural renewal. We offer workshops and trainings in Waldorf Teacher Education, Remedial Education, Foundation Studies in Anthroposophy, Biodynamic Agriculture and the Arts. Here research into the spiritual nature of the human being brings practical insights for work, play and community.
We offer internationally accredited programs for Waldorf teacher education. Focus on early childhood, grades, high school or specialty subjects. Click here for Waldorf Teacher Education
If you want an opportunity to teach children with all of your heart and soul, being a Waldorf teacher just may be the avenue you are searching for. Never has there been a better time to consider becoming a Waldorf teacher. While the public boards in Ontario are ...
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If you want an opportunity to teach children with all of your heart and soul, being a Waldorf teacher just may be the avenue you are searching for. Never has there been a better time to consider becoming a Waldorf teacher. While the public boards in Ontario are barely hiring for any teaching positions, Waldorf schools in Ontario, across Canada and internationally are actively seeking qualified teachers to fill a broad range of positions for the coming school year. Our student teachers are often scouted out as early as our opening day and then sought after for employment after they complete our programs. The demand for qualified, inspired and dedicated teachers in the Waldorf schools remains as robust now as it has been for the past two decades.
Congratulations Class of 2013
We are pleased to celebrate the talented and hard working graduates from our Professional Development for Waldorf Teachers Class of 2013. This talented and accomplished group of professionals has worked dilligently this year to master all aspects of Waldorf pedagogy, child development, inner development and the arts. They are bright, caring and inspired to make a difference in children's lives. Most of them have secured teaching positions in early childhood and grade school classrooms across Ontario and in British Columbia for the coming school year. They make us proud.
Nevertheless, there are many more Waldorf schools in Canada and abroad that are still searching for trained Waldorf teachers to serve the needs of their communities. Being a Waldorf teacher could be the hardest job you will ever love. Contact us today for more information.
10 great reasons to become a Waldorf teacher. These qualities are at the core of Waldorf pedagogy and are what we at RSCT strive to inspire in our teachers. Join us for our Summer Festival of Arts and Education to become a more effective teacher, administrator, parent ...
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10 great reasons to become a Waldorf teacher. These qualities are at the core of Waldorf pedagogy and are what we at RSCT strive to inspire in our teachers. Join us for our Summer Festival of Arts and Education to become a more effective teacher, administrator, parent or artist.
By Derrick Meador, reprinted from About.com Guide
Qualities of an Effective Teacher
Think back to when you were in school. Who was your favorite teacher? Who was the teacher you dreaded having? Almost everyone will instantly be able to answer these two questions. We’ve all had good teachers and unfortunately most of us have had teachers that were not effective. So what qualities does an effective teacher have that an ineffective teacher does not? The answer is that it takes a perfect blend of several qualities to create a truly effective teacher who can have a lasting impact on virtually every student. In this article we examine ten qualities that virtually every effective teacher will possess.
An effective teacher loves to teach
The single most important quality that every teacher should possess is a love and passion for teaching young people. Unfortunately there are teachers who do not love what they do. This single factor can destroy a teacher’s effectiveness quicker than anything else. Teachers who do not enjoy their job cannot possibly be effective day in and day out. There are too many discouraging factors associated with teaching that is difficult enough on a teacher who absolutely loves what they do, much less on one who doesn’t have the drive, passion, or enthusiasm for it. On top of that, kids are smarter than what we give them credit for. They will spot a phony quicker than anyone and thus destroy any credibility that teacher may have.
An effective teacher demonstrates a caring attitude
Even teachers who love their job can struggle in this area, not because they don’t care, but because they get caught up so much in the day to day routine of teaching that they can forget that their students have lives outside of school. Taking the time to get to know a student on a personal level takes a lot of time and dedication. There is also a line that no teacher wants to cross where their relationship becomes too personal. Elite teachers know how to balance this without crossing that line and once a student believes the teacher truly cares for them, then there is no limit to what that student can achieve.
An effective teacher can relate to their students
The best teachers go out of their way to find ways to relate to each of their students. Common interest can be hard to find, but good teachers will find a way to connect with their students even if they have to fake it. For instance, you may have a student who is a Lego fanatic. You can relate to that student if you do something as simple as ordering a Lego catalog and then going through it and discussing it with that student. Even if you have no actual interest in Lego’s, the student will think you do and thus naturally create a connection.
An effective teacher is willing to think outside the box
There is no one set cookie cutter way to teach. If there was, teachers and students would both be bored. What makes teaching so exciting is that kids learn differently and we have to find and utilize different strategies and differentiated learning to reach every student. What works for one student, will not work for every student. Teachers have to be willing to be creative and adaptive in their lessons, thinking outside the box on a continual basis. If you try to teach every concept in the same manner, there will be students who miss out on key factors because they aren’t wired to learn that way.
An effective teacher is a good communicator
To be the best possible teacher you must be an effective communicator. However, in this area you are not just limited to being a good communicator to your students although that is a must. You must also be a great communicator with parents of your students as well as your faculty/staff team within in your building. If you have a difficulty communicating with any of these three groups, then you limit your overall effectiveness as a teacher.
An effective teacher is proactive rather than reactive
This can be one of most difficult aspects for a teacher to conquer. Intense planning and organization can ultimately make your job all the more less difficult. Teachers who plan ahead, looking for aspects that they might have issues with, and proactively looking for solutions to solve those problems will have less stress on them, then those teachers who wait until a problem arises and then tries to address it. Being proactive does not replace being adaptive. No matter how well you plan, there will be surprises. However, being proactive can cut down on these surprises tremendously, thus making you more effective overall.
An effective teacher works to be better
A teacher who has grown complacent in what they do is the most ineffective kind of teacher. Any teacher who is not looking for new and better teaching strategies isn’t being an effective teacher. No matter how long you have taught, you should always want to grow as a teacher. Every year there is new research, new technology, and new educational tools that could make you a better teacher. Seek out professional development opportunities and try to apply something new to your class every year.
An effective teacher uses a variety of media in their lessons
Like it or not we are in the 21st century and this generation of students was born in the digital age. These students have been bombarded by technological advances unlike any other generation. They have embraced it and if we as teachers do not, then we are falling behind. This is not to say that we should eliminate textbooks and worksheets completely, but effective teachers are not afraid to implement other forms of media within their lessons.
An effective teacher challenges their students
The most effective teachers are often the ones that many students consider to be their most difficult. This is because they challenge their students and push them harder than the average teacher does. These are the teachers who are often students’ least favorite teachers at the time, but then later on in life they are the ones that we all remember and want to thank, because of how well they prepared us for life after our time with them. Being an effective teacher does not mean you are easy. It means that you challenge every one of your students and maximize your time with them so that they learn more than they ever thought possible.
An effective teacher understands the content that they teach and knows how to explain that content in a manner that their students understand
There are teachers who do not know the content well enough to effectively teach it. There are teachers who are truly experts on the content, but struggle to effectively explain it to their students. The highly effective teacher both understands the content and explains it on level. This can be a difficult skill to accomplish, but the teachers who can, maximize their effectiveness as a teacher.
Lylli Anthon is this year's honourary recipient of a certificate in our Professional Development for Waldorf Teachers program. We want to recognize Lylli for her 30 year's of dedication to Waldorf education, the Halton Waldorf School, the Sensible Science Program and the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto. Her ...
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Lylli Anthon is this year's honourary recipient of a certificate in our Professional Development for Waldorf Teachers program. We want to recognize Lylli for her 30 year's of dedication to Waldorf education, the Halton Waldorf School, the Sensible Science Program and the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto. Her brief biography below makes for an interesting and inspiring read.
Born to Polish immigrant parents, I grew up on a farm in the Barrie area and started my professional career with a BA earned at Queens University in 1973.
A strong interest in spiritual matters from my early twenties was directed towards Anthroposophy via encounters with such representatives a Peter von Zezschwitz at Georgian college, where participation in an anthroposophical study group eventually led to meeting my future husband and cementing my commitment to the work of Rudolf Steiner and spiritual research.
After we moved to B.C. in 1980, now as a family with one child, I became involved in a small country school in Duncan, where I was able to plant seeds for its future as a Waldorf school (The Sunrise Waldorf School) by giving talks to the school community and hosting community events with several Waldorf graduates from the area.
Upon returning to Ontario in1983 with all of 3 children in tow, we focused on being near a Waldorf school for our children. As my husband found work at the University of Guelph, we were able to settle in Rockwood within reasonable distance to the newly founded Halton Waldorf School in Campbellville and as direct neighbours to a parent couple from that school.
With our daughter Sarah enrolled in their first grade one class at Halton, I became involved in fund raising and eventually was also asked to substitute in grade one. During the second year of the school, I became the first nursery teacher in the HWS under the guidance of Dorothy Olsen. Interesting enough, that nursery class later became the core of my first grade one class, which I took through to grade eight. Also, our daughter Sarah became the first graduate to emerge from the Halton School.
After one year in this position, I was asked by Dorothy Olsen and the board chair to take on the grade two class, as their teacher was leaving, which I did up to grade four. Alan Hughes from TWS was my mentor with help from Georg Locker, who observed my teaching and gave me a great deal of guidance.
When Helmut and Renate Krause joined the school, it was agreed that he would take over my class that was going into grade five, and I found myself starting with a new grade one. As an aside, I’m currently mentoring a graduate of this very first class at our school, where she is now teaching.
While taking this new class through to graduation, I attended curriculum intensive courses every summer on that amazing journey through all eight grades. After graduation I had one year off, where I did a teaching term in a third grade class at the Waldorf Academy.
When returning to HWS, I taught a split grade 6/7 to graduation, which strengthened my interest in the sciences and their relation to the development of independent cognition and thinking in the students. With constant support from my husband as an anthroposophical scientist, this interest, combined with a strong interest in that age group and the associated growth and emergence of the human Ego into the world, led to me becoming the go-to person and teacher for a grand total of six successful upper grade classes taking each of them through to graduation at the end of grade eight.
Another outcome of my strong interest in the math-science curriculum and its cognitive perspectives was my connection to Michael D’Aleo, with whom I am working teaching Sensible Science over the last eight years and counting. A workshop with John McLaughlin about enlivening Math through the grades also fell into line with these interests.
Currently my focus has been supported by the issues surrounding the needs brought about by our so-called technological age and how we can address the needs of the students throughout the grades to meet the challenges of high school and the abrupt encounter with this (computer) technology, so that this happens in a very human and real way. Enlivening and integrating independent thinking and cognition, as the Waldorf curriculum ultimately aims to do, became a subject at the most recent AWSNA conference at HWS; and I hope to continue working with recently developed aspects of this.
Warren Lee Cohen, MEd, BA Physics, is the Co-Executive Director and Director of Teacher Education at the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto. Join him this summer in his sculpting workshop "The Human Form Divine" July 22 to 26 at the RSCT ...
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Bringing Spiritual Ideas into Matter
Warren Lee Cohen, MEd, BA Physics, is the Co-Executive Director and Director of Teacher Education at the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto. Join him this summer in his sculpting workshop "The Human Form Divine" July 22 to 26 at the RSCT Summer Festival of Arts and Education.
During my annual visits to Brazil, I have noticed that Brazilians (“Cariocas” in particular – people from Rio de Janeiro) are looking for practical ways to approach an understanding of the spirit that will make a difference in their busy lives. The forces of materialism are powerful in Rio. Chaos is abundant, poverty and senseless violence all too common. The daily struggle for survival can be exhausting, leaving little time or energy to pursue other interests. Yet, the people there want to reconnect with their ideals, to bring meaning to their lives for inspiration and fortification. For these reasons, I was asked to lead a workshop, at the newly forming Waldorf Teachers’ Seminar, on the three-fold nature of the human being. I decided to work not only with the head, heart and hands; thinking, feeling and willing; body, soul and spirit … but also with the three-fold nature of the spiritual guidance available to us.
The College Imagination
Rudolf Steiner had less than three weeks to prepare the first twelve Waldorf teachers, who were dedicated to incorporating a living, spirit-filled view of the human being into their teaching. Steiner knew that the teachers’ continuing development as whole, interested and open-minded human beings was central to the healthy functioning of the school and to the education they hoped to bring to the children. Therefore, from the beginning, he urged them to develop capacities within themselves to learn how to ask for and receive spiritual guidance and assistance in their work, and he warned them that were it not for this spiritual help, they would likely find the task of founding the school overwhelming and be tempted to give up. On the first day of training, he offered this imaginative picture, now often called the College Imagination, of how beings of the spiritual world support our daily work, even if this collaboration is often unseen and unacknowledged by us.
“Behind each of us stands our Angel gently laying hands upon our head. This Angel gives each of you the strength you need. Above your heads hovers a ring of Archangels. They convey from one to the other of you what each of you has to give to the other. They connect your souls. Thus you receive the courage you require. (From this courage, the Archangels form a vessel.) The Light of Wisdom is given to us by the Higher Beings of the Archai, who do not form themselves into a ring, but come from the beginning of time, reveal themselves and disappear into primordial distances. They project into this space only as a drop. (A drop of Time Light falls into the vessel of courage from the active Time Spirit.) “
(noted down by Caroline von Heydebrand):
This was summed up by Walter Johannes Stein:
“Strength – Angel
Courage – Archangel
Light – Archai “
Angels
Behind each one of us stands an Angel, our Guardian Angel. Like our mothers (ideally), it envelops each one of us in unconditional love. It prepares us to meet the challenges that are coming. Everyone has such a dedicated spiritual guide. They give us the safe space in which our higher selves can develop and eventually come into independent maturity. Angel light allows true imaginations to stream into our consciousness. These guide us in our earthly tasks and relationships and give us strength to overcome the inevitable challenges we all meet along the way. Eventually, in the very distant future after a number of incarnations, we will take over this responsibility from the Angels, just as we gradually find our independence from our parents. Until then, the Angels’ unconditional love remains steadfast, guiding us along our way and giving us the strength of which we are in need.
Archangels
Archangels unite groups of people, who have a common purpose or mission, by flowing in rhythmic motion amongst group members and their angels. They weave together mutual intentions and striving to help us form a sense of group identity, be it a community, family or nation. While angels give to each individual member the strength she needs, Archangels inspire and give courage to each member of the group to work together to fulfill their common tasks. Whether forming a school, a team, a theatre play or a political movement, the work of the Archangels helps form the group into a dynamic and viable whole. This group may well become able to receive higher spiritual intentions in order to meet challenges particular to its historical setting and time.
Archai
Archai, sometimes called Time Spirits, shine the light of intuition into the dynamic relationships or vessels that have been built with the aid of the Archangels. These exalted beings appear only in the form of a drop of light, which they offer to help us to meet the ever changing needs of humanity. The Archai help us attune our efforts to be most fruitful at this time and place. You can see the results of their work in the rise and fall of various peoples and impulses over the course of human history.
Individual strength from imaginations, courage and inspirations to work with one another and the intuitions to help us meet the essential challenges of our times: these are the gifts of the Angels, Archangels and Archai. As we work together as teachers or in any community for that matter, it is helpful to recognize the presence of these exalted beings that are ever ready to support our common work. Without their help, much that we set out to do would be too difficult, painful or disheartening to carry through to completion, or too misguided to be beneficial. With their help, true social innovation is possible. They support the creation of social initiatives that benefit individual societies and the continuing development of humankind.
Clay Modeling and the Imagination
Rudlof Steiner did not hope that the teachers would mindlessly recite the College Imagination or that they would believe in it as a doctrine. He wanted them to penetrate between these words to form a living understanding of the dynamics of how these spiritual beings work together with human beings to support their daily work, relationships and collaborations. He wanted the teachers to keep these ideas in the front of their minds so that these spiritual beings could give their optimal benefits to the first Free Waldorf School.
Attempting to better understand and make connections with these ideas, we set out to model this verse in clay. First we spoke and contemplated the imagination in both English and Portuguese, allowing plenty of time for the images to build up our imaginations. We then set the text aside and brought out large bags of ceramic clay. Sometimes hands can reveal ideas and relationships that do not easily arise to full consciousness in our thinking alone. A more tangential approach can free us to become aware of deeper insights and meanings that seem to emerge when we least expect them
Each of us began by forming a large lump of clay into a sphere. We worked in the air with only our hands trying to make this sphere as round and homogenous as possible. Our hands appeared to intuitively know the shape of a sphere and to need little input from our other senses. In fact, even when we paused to reflect on our activity, our hands seemed to carry on forming the spheres on their own accord. Through this process we discovered the three-fold nature of the hand: the powerful base or heal of the hand that easily moves large amounts of clay, the sensitive and rarely touched inner palm and the dextrous and clever finger tips. We worked in silence (not easy for such social people) so that we could be attentive with all of our consciousness to the unfolding creative process. After 15 minutes we passed our spheres to other people and compared the remarkably different qualities they embodied, including their shape, density, smoothness and warmth. We had all crafted spheres, and yet each one reflected unique qualities of its creator.
I encouraged each person to imagine that she was working as the Guardian Angel of her clay sphere, helping it to approach its true form, its ultimate perfection, in much the same way as our Guardian Angels work with us, giving us strength and guidance. We held this imagination while working (and then again in quiet contemplation before moving on to the next step of our creative process).
We then gathered into groups of five participants. Each set her sphere next to four others forming a circle or ring of spheres. I invited participants to envision the dynamic activity of the Archangels as they flow from one being (sphere and sculptor) to another. We then worked with 10 hands per group gently moving and moulding the clay together in these now larger collaborative sculptures. Each person was given permission to make changes to any part of the sculpture and equally encouraged to accept the changes that others made. No part of it remained identified with an individual. It became a group collaboration. Gradually, the spheres merged into a form that then began to take on some of the qualities of a vessel with an inside and an outside. The participants regularly moved around their emerging sculpture. This helped them to perceive it in its full dimensionality, to contribute to all perspectives and to accept responsibility for the whole sculpture and not just one part of it.
After working in groups for some time, I then invited each group to make their vessel ready to receive a drop of light from a yet more mysterious spiritual source, the realm of the Archai. This process is akin to making a home ready to receive a new baby. Questions of sensitivity and robustness emerged. Was the vessel ready? Would it be strong enough to hold this drop of light? How would the vessel be altered by receiving the light? The groups worked to simplify, strengthen and focus their vessels so that they could best receive this gift, which in this context would be a small ball of clay.
The groups worked with concentration and focus to prepare their vessels. Some sculpting groups invited a golf ball size ball of clay into their vessel. Others only wanted the tiniest drop, and others wanted a few drops in a number of special spots. These drops transformed the vessels completely. They gave the vessels a sense of purpose, a mission to fulfill, and a responsibility. Participants expressed that had there been more time, they would have wanted to allow their vessels an opportunity to respond to the unique impulse that each drop brought to their vessel.
Collaborative sculpturing requires a lot of giving and receiving, acceptance, rejection and coping with change that is and clearly feels beyond one’s direct control. Yet, the participants were remarkably full of energy, enthusiasm and grace. They expressed that this process, while challenging, had helped them to step closer to the mysterious workings of Angels, Archangels and Archai. They were grateful for the mutual support and inspiration that came from working collaboratively and said that this far outweighed the challenge of having to let go of their individual impulses. This exercise helped them to imagine the subtle ways in which these spiritual beings’ support for human endeavours might manifest in their own work and lives. The participants were active in body, soul and spirit. They used their imaginations and will to penetrate into the mystery of communal creation. The dynamic quality of this exercise cultivated a living quality of thinking and feeling that enabled them to sense and consciously work with the spiritual world.
References
Steiner, Rudolf Foundations of Human Experience, SteinerBooks, 1996
Photographs courtesy of Isabel Santos
