The Reader September 2014 by Pasadena Waldorf School

The Reader September 2014

Inside This Issue

Rose Ceremony • Elves’ Faire • High School News • Class Trips • WOW Day Alumni News • Campus Improvements

Welcome to The Reader

We are pleased to introduce the premiere edition of The Reader. We have listened to your feedback and now have two publications for our community: This Week at PWS and The Reader. This Week at PWS is published every Sunday evening and contains the important events in the week ahead such as class meetings, student plays, sporting events, classified ads, and community announcements. The Reader, published monthly, contains more in-depth articles, photos, events, and recaps. Please email us at news@pasadenawaldorf.org. We welcome your feedback!

Inside this Issue Contents

Letter from the Administrator

Rose Ceremony

Elvesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Faire

High School Update

8th Grade Field Trip

WOW Day

7th Grade Catalina Trip

PWS Alumni News

New Mendocino Campus

Parent Education Event

Campus Improvements

Annual Gift

Letter from the Administrator Douglas Garrett

Dear PWS Community: Thank you all so much for the beautiful Back to School morning last Saturday. There were so many highlights. Just a few for me were meeting so many of you and enjoying the coffee and treats (thank you, Parent Council!), hearing the entire community together in song, Mr. Glaze reminding us of the founding of Waldorf education out of the ashes of the First World War, Gildart’s inspiring and funny Annual Gift Campaign challenge, and seeing all together our dedicated faculty who meet your children in an “art of education.” Thank you also to the Development Committee for providing all parents, new and returning, with the myriad of volunteer opportunities for the year ahead. Yesterday morning, I was working in my office when the front desk called saying that Paul Livadary, the “founding father” of Pasadena Waldorf School, was downstairs. I had met Paul briefly some years ago as a benefactor of our West LA sister, Westside Waldorf School. Melissa Puls was here and we greeted Paul in the foyer of Scripps Hall and found out that he was just stopping in to see “how the place was doing.” We showed him through the building and he was greeted with hugs by several of our teachers and he stopped to chat with parents on campus crafting for the Elves’ Faire. And he got to listen to the 6th and 2nd grade classes on the lawn rehearsing their lines for the Michaelmas play. 4

We showed him the open site where previously stood our grades 1 and 2 classroom building and he shared with us some advice. He told us “Start big first, think big, and then work back from there to what is possible.” He had the time so we took him over to see the Mendocino campus, future home of our high school. As we walked around we imagined buildings that will house classrooms, science labs and art studios, conjuring visions of a biodynamic garden on the front lawn and an amphitheater hosting school concerts and plays. Paul pointed to the three-classroom building that was home to our school 28 years ago. (Did you know that our school was on that site before?). Paul hugged and chatted with old friends Dennis Baier and Becky Gafvert in the Business Office and met newer staff members Jessica Bolstad, Frances Mencia, and Jon Brody and wished them well. Paul is a visionary and a man who put action into his vision. We are here today because of what he and many, many others set into motion years ago and sustained and strengthened along the way. Having him stop by and stay awhile provided me with an inspired sense of our responsibility today to work together to ensure the realization of our full school, early childhood through twelfth grade. I’m so pleased to join with you on this journey. With gratitude,

Rose Ceremony Melissa Puls, Director of Development

On Monday, September 15, 2014, Pasadena Waldorf School marked its 36th opening by welcoming a new 1st Grade class and their teacher, Jenny Vilim at a particularly meaningful and emotional Rose Ceremony. As Ms. Vilim told the powerful story of the Phoenix to her enraptured students, we were reminded that we are continually in a process of rebirth together as a community. In light of the fire that destroyed our 1st and 2nd grade building, experiencing this ceremony further reinforces that it is not our material surroundings that make Waldorf education so powerful, it is the uniquely meaningful relationship between our teachers and our students,

and a curriculum that truly supports the inner development of each student as they journey towards adulthood. The Rose Ceremony is a beloved tradition at Pasadena Waldorf School during which the 8th grade students welcome the 1st Grade students into the â&#x20AC;&#x153;gradesâ&#x20AC;? by giving them a red rose. With this simple act, each 8th grade student begins a special relationship with his or her 1st grade buddy. The gesture will come full circle at the end of the school year, when the 1st graders give their 8th grade buddies in Ms. Murrayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s class a rose to wish them well as they begin their high school journey.

Elves’ Faire Heidi Rose Robbins, Elves’ Faire Chair

Dear Waldorf Community, My name is Heidi Rose Robbins and I’ll be chairing the Elves’ Faire this year. I want you all to know how delighted I am to work with our community in this way. I am looking forward to connecting with you to help facilitate a joyous Faire full of ease and celebration. I am so grateful to be taking this on after Anna Zamarripa who paved such a clear and inspiring path for us last year. We will continue to build upon what she created. Throughout the next two months, I will often be available for conversation down by the Wishing Well in the mornings. If you have any needs or questions or wonderful ideas, please don’t hesitate to stop by or contact me at heidi@pasadenawaldorf.org. One of the reasons I’m most excited about taking on this position is an opportunity to meet many new parents! I love the tapestry we weave with all our gifts and creativity. Here’s to collaboration and community! Heidi Rose 10

Look for the Elves’ Faire Parent Handbook coming soon. Grandparents and Special Friends always welcome at weekly crafting workshops, Elves’ Faire Raising and Elves’ Faire.

Welcome to the High Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Third Year Arthur M. Pittis, High School Pedagogical Chair

The high school opened its third year with great enthusiasm for the work that lies before us. The student body has expanded considerably. The addition of a strong new ninth grade and the new and returning students in the other two classes has filled our rented quarters at William Carey to the brim, and the strength of our students was clearly evident at the Rose Ceremony where they gave a beautiful performance of an original setting of a verse by Rudolf Steiner by Mr. Masur, our high school music director. It is so encouraging to reflect on the growth and strengthening of programs that the performance represented and to imagine into the future what we will be able to experience next year when we realize a full Early-Childhood through twelfth grade Waldorf school. Similarly, the expansion of the high school faculty has contributed considerably to this enthusiasm. The addition of three new teachers, two in math and science and one as pedagogical chair and humanities, and the moving up of other faculty to full and three-quarter time responsibilities has given us the opportunity to form into departments and committees, integrate programs as we develop them, provide much more extensive support for our students, and feel the creative satisfaction and security that comes from working as a collaborative team. There is much work before us this year in the high school. We will be finishing out the design and implementation of our core curricular 12

program in all discipline areas, reviewing and revising our block, skills and art schedules so as to best support our students and utilize the talents of our faculty and the capabilities of our facility. We will bring clear form to all aspects of how we work with students, each other, and the full school community. And we will be adding and planning new programs, academic, artistic and social.

Eighth Grade Field Trip submitted by Jeff Bernstein

On August 27th, our eighth graders began the school year with a trip to VT Ranch, a rustic camp nestled in a remote valley of chaparral and oak groves, just north of Santa Clarita. The morning there was spent in games and team-building exercises. It was wonderful to see the students together again after the summer break, to see how warmly they met one another and how they all welcomed new eighth grader Rose Reiner to their class.

Morning circle ice-breakers

Welcome to the class, Rose Reiner!

The goal: to get everyone through the â&#x20AC;&#x153;spider webâ&#x20AC;? without touching the lines

Using only one plank the class crossed between three platforms

After a tasty bunch of burgers and salad, everyone took to the ropes courses. They honed their balance on a low tightrope and ended the day, helmeted and harnessed, on the vertiginous high ropes, forty feet above the ground. Our 8th grade teacher, Mrs. Murray, also took to the skies, fearlessly executing the notorious “Leap of Faith”. By day’s end bodies were tired and spirits were high, and our harmonious class was knit beautifully together and ready for a great year.

PWS Students Fundraise to Help Transform the World Yoëlle Carter Martinez, Lower School Spanish Teacher Imagine transforming the void left by 1st & 2nd grade burnt classrooms into a space for good thoughts, wishes and prayers. Imagine those wishes and prayers flying across the ocean and transforming the lives of children in a war-torn country like Sierra Leone. This is exactly what PWS students and our community will be doing. Michaelmas marks the kick off of a two-month campaign, WOW (Waldorf One World) Day, to raise funds for Waldorf schools in developing countries. On Michaelmas at PWS the students will make a beautiful garland out of jump ropes and ribbons. The ribbons will be full of good thoughts and inspiring words. The garland will adorn the fencing surrounding the open space of our former 1st & 2nd grade classrooms for the next two weeks. During the two weeks, everyone can contribute to the campaign by adding a donation and a ribbon. There will be a WOW Day table during Michaelmas, and a box at the Wishing Well thereafter. There will also be a garland and a donation box at the High School. All the money raised will go to Friends of Waldorf Education who distribute 100% of the funds to the projects in need. Our 8th grade students decided that the jump rope garland be sent to Sierra Leone’s Goderich Waldorf School. Find out more about WOW DAY! and Sierra Leone’s Goderich Waldorf School by clicking on the links.

Wishing Well What’s New?

New Fall Hours • We will be open every Saturday from 10 am - 2 pm New Items! • Crystals, Jewelry, Books, Yarn, Toys & More! Follow Us! • Find us on Instagram (www.instagram.com/thewishingwellpws) • check out our blog (thewishingwellshop.blogspot.com) for special discounts and deals!

Save the Dates

October 8th & 9th • Trunk Show (with cupcakes & pastries). Inshi will be here with her precious girls clothes sizes 2-14 October 17th • Kathleen Van Dusen, Dr. Hauschka skin care expert, will be visiting us from 9am - 12 pm. Sign up at the Wishing Well for FREE treatments & consultations

Seventh Grade Starts the Year at Little Harbor Peggy Reilly, Grade Seven Class Teacher

Little Harbor will be one of my strongest memories of the class of 2020. Where else but in a Waldorf school can a teacher pursue a dream such as taking students and parents to a secluded island beach for three days to reconnect with one another? On the first day of school, we met at 5:00 a.m. to organize into seven cars and drive to San Pedro to take a boat across to Two Harbors on Catalina Island. When called to embark at 7:45 a.m., we marched in lines carrying our gear, requiring nearly three trips per student, and loaded all 56-plus pieces of gear and 24 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2.5 gallon jugs of water onto the boat. At 8:00 a.m. we were unexpectedly asked to unload the same gear when the harbor master and boat company proclaimed the seas unfit for travel. That is 56-plus large pieces of luggage that had to come right back off the boat, including coolers, tents, chairs, stoves, lamps, pots and pans â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all strapped together to conform to the luggage requirements for our happy group. So you may wonder what we did next. What did 20 students and eight adults do next at Berth 95 in San Pedro? Well, this group of 20 students, and eight adults stayed happy. The students unloaded the boat with no complaints and proceeded to play on the AstroTurf lawn in the outdoor waiting area, while the adults chaperoned and teachers discussed our options. Would we get over to Catalina at all? Would Catalina Express run 20

another boat? Would the hurricane swells subside? Chaperones started taking out their smart phones and investigating everything from waves, to alternate beach camp sites, to local Long Beach attractions. The students were happy to play keep-away and volley-the-ball for quite some time, and when they tired of that, they stretched out on the lawn and ate their first meal. When it became warm they lounged in the shaded, seating area. A chaperone or two snoozed. And throughout all of this, I was in teacher heaven. No other teaching job is quite the same as a Waldorf teaching job. I was in teacher heaven because of the fact that I have traveled with these students and parents enough times to be comfortable with whatever happens. The students are so familiar with each other, and love one another like siblings do, and the adults are so accomplished in their own professions, and by seventh grade they are so experienced in Waldorf ways, that I was able to sit down and watch the children â&#x20AC;&#x153;play.â&#x20AC;?

In the end, we got on the 12:30 p.m. boat, rode hurricane swells on our crossing (the kind that you see in special effects wave tanks), only it was our little, toylike boat riding the rolling water up and down. When we made it to Two Harbors, we hopped on three safari vans to Little Harbor with a gear haul truck specially chartered for our luggage. Once there, we set up camp rapidly. Over the next several days, we swam and kayaked in warm waters at Little Harbor, and body-surfed at Shark Harbor. We shared delicious meals prepared by our three illustrious “cookies.” We hiked the 5.5 miles from Little Harbor back to Two Harbors. And eventually, we arrived safely back to our school. Each person will remember something different from this back-to-school “bonding trip,” but I will cherish being able to watch seventh grade Waldorf students and parents interact so gracefully, beautifully, and knowledgeably. The students and adults know what to do because of the repeated presence in each other’s lives, in places near and far. Teacher heaven is a little different from parent heaven, but very similar. With her students gathered, a teacher can experience “the more, the merrier,” and the joy expands. So it was at Little Harbor, when we celebrated the start of a new school year together as the Class of 2020. 22

Coffee Cart Update Jon Brody, Development Officer

Since school began at the lower school, many of our community members have been asking, “When is the Squirrel’s Nest going to be back?” Due to its proxmity to the fire, unfortunately our insurers have mandated that it needs to be replaced. But do not fret - the Nest was fully insured and the Squirrel (and Friendly Barista Jeff) will be back better than ever as soon as we can procure the new cart and equipment. In the meantime, we are working towards a temporary solution so that all of our parents, teachers, and staff can get their daily morning fix of coffee, tea, snacks, and community.

Footprints PWS Alumni News

We thought we’d check in with a few of our Alumni who graduated from College this past spring (Class of ’06) and those who just graduated from High School (Class of ’10) to see what they and their siblings are up to. Hearing from our alumni never fails to inspire us. We received so many wonderful updates, we decided to spread them out over the next few months. (Note that these are our 8th grade graduates from before we had a high school.) Grace Gately (‘06) graduated from Mayfield High School and went on to receive her Bachelor of Liberal Studies from Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Her interests are art history, research, and archiving and she plans to stay in New York to begin her career. Grace’s brother Will Gately (’09) graduated from La Salle High School and is currently at Santa Barbara City College with plans transfer to a 4-year college to pursue his interest in finance. Thor Blough (’06) graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music and plans to move to England. He has been training for the past four years as a classical singer and was asked to perform at the commencement. This past summer he was invited to two music festivals in Germany and England which will launch him into his new life. Thor was also diagnosed with testicular cancer last January and since his surgery, he remains cancer free. In May, he put on a benefit concert to raise money for research for testicular cancer. “A Ball for Bach” raised over three thousand dollars for the USC Norris Cancer Center where he receives treatment. Many of you may remember his moving vocal performance at our “Extravaganza” fundraiser for our Capital Campaign in 2012. 26

Parker McFarlane (’06) is finishing up his degree in Sociology at Cal State Long Beach and is interested in computer coding data for social science research. Parker’s brother Hayden (’04) moved to Toronto in November to take on a job as an apps marketer for Corus Entertainment in Canada. Hayden had previously left a lucrative lobbying job to pursue his dream as a rap artist and released his first album under the name ACERIC, with his sister Maddie (’08) as a back-up singer who is attending Santa Barbara City College. Nailah Jamerson (’10) is attending Spelman College, an all-women’s college in Atlanta. She entered with an undecided major, but is minoring in Business. Rowan Gaddis (’10) will be attending UCSB as a Pre-Med student. He graduated from Nordhoff High in Ojai and was co valedictorian of his class Olivia Kavanaugh (’10) is studying Environmental Science at UCSB. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from La Salle High School. Congratulations PWS Alumni! We are proud of you. Look for more updates in the next Reader. If you have an alumni update for us, please email alumni@pasadenawaldorf.org. We look forward to hearing from you.

PWS alumni reunite at the 2013 Elves’ Faire Alumni Cafe and perform at the 2012 Spring Extravaganza (opposite) 27

Mendocino Campus Business & Development Offices have a new home at future High School Campus

Our Business & Development Offices have moved to the future home for our growing high school on Mendocino Street. Located just blocks from the lower school on over 3 acres, our offices are in the big gray house with the red door. The office also houses the PWS Parent Volunteer Center, home to many future crafting workshops and meetings. At Mendocino you will find Dennis Baier, Becky Gafvert, Jessica Bolstad and Alicia Ramirez from the Business office and Melissa Puls and Jon Brody from the Development office. Phone number: (626) 765-9978 Address: 508 E. Mendocino St., Altadena, CA 91001 Please note: when visiting Mendocino, please park in the parking lot and park in the spaces facing

The Box is Back! Eat healthy and support our communities! On Thursdays, the PWS Produce Collective returns to the lower school on Mariposa. For just $25 you get 7-10 pounds of locally grown organic produce and so much more. You are supporting family farms that respect our planet, and you directly help in supporting weekly organic â&#x20AC;&#x153;pop-upâ&#x20AC;? markets for people of modest means at affordable housing sites in LA managed by our partners eroots and WORKS (Women Organizing Resources Knowledge & Services) to give much-needed access to affordable healthy food. Sign up today at www.eroots.org 29

Save the Date! Saturday, October 18, 2014 The PWS Parent Education Mandate Group and Parent Council are pleased to present Dr. Susan R. Johnson, MD, FAAP “How the Lower Senses are Related to the Development of Higher Capacities” Date:

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Time: 10am-12pm Lecture 12pm-1pm Lunch Break (bring your own) 1pm-3pm Question & Answer Location: Community Room Paquita Lick Machris Campus (lower school)

209 East Mariposa Street, Altadena, CA 91001

Author, Waldorf Lecturer and Pediatrician Dr. Susan Johnson will speak with us about how the young child’s sense of well-being, touch, balance, and movement lead to the higher capacities of creative thinking, sense of the other, auditory and visual processing, and sense of the word.

To learn more about Dr. Johnson’s work, visit her website at: www.youandyourchildshealth.org Look for more information in the coming weeks 30

Your Gifts Make an Impact PWS Development Office Recent gifts to Pasadena Waldorf School have resulted in significant changes to the school. Last spring, thanks to a generous donation from a PWS family, the school installed beautiful craftsman-style lighting throughout the campus, providing light, warmth, and safety for all teachers, staff, students and parents at the school afterhours. With the opening of the school year comes a beautiful new addition to the Early Childhood building housing our Sweet Pea, Lily, and Rose classes. Thanks to two of our families, the vision of the Early Childhood teachers to have more space to teach, inside and out, has been fulfilled with a new deck around the west side of the Lily Kindergarten classroom and new benches and roofing behind the Rose Kindergarten room. The result: each kindergarten class now has their cubbies outside, providing much-needed expanded indoor space for Mrs. Balderrama and Mrs. Rinden while also minimizing interference with Miss Adrienneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s outdoor space. Thank you PWS families for your inspiring gifts!

imagine

Pasadena Waldorf School Annual Gift

Annual Gift PWS Development Office

What an incredible kickoff to the PWS Annual Gift Campaign at Backto-School day! Led by Annual Gift co-chairs Gildart Jackson and Gaurav Malhotra, we heard many personal stories about giving from the heart in several of our class meetings. We received over $49,000 in pledges and donations on that day alone! To date, we have received 85 donations and pledges from families, teachers, grandparents, staff, and trustees totaling over $70,000 with an average gift amount of $860. We are nearly halfway to our goal of $150,000. Annual Gift brochures and pledge forms are available at the Lower School and High School main offices as well as the Business & Development Office at Mendocino. Help us reach our goal of 100% participation. To learn more about the campaign, visit www.pasadenawaldorf.org/giving/annual-gift, and make your donation today. Thank you to every individual and family who has made a generous contribution to this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campaign. Your gifts truly do make a difference.