RUDOLF STEINER SCHOOL
BULLETIN NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2011
THE FIRST WALDORF SCHOOL IN NORTH AMERICA
NOVEMBER 19, 2011
Fall Fair
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ince 1929 one of the most beloved RSS events has been our Fall Fair. Our archives show us that The Fair has had several incarnations in the past 82 years, but its essence has endured. Overflowing with beauty created by and for our community, the Fall Fair captures the spirit that lives within our school. Each year we look to this event to celebrate with our families the richness of our community. The evolution of an event such as this is a natural part of what renews great institutions. This year we continue to augment that which makes the Fall Fair such a success. The silent auction traditionally held during the event will be absorbed by our annual Spring Gala to create more space for children’s activities—further highlighting the unbridled creativity that remains the hallmark of the Fall Fair and Rudolf Steiner School. Perhaps more importantly, this change will keep the focus on the community-building event the Fair is meant to be. I want to thank all the faculty, staff and volunteers helping to make this year’s Fair a special and successful event. Furthermore, those parents and volunteers who have spent hundreds of hours on past Fall Fairs deserve recognition as well. What we will experience this year is a direct result of years of visioning, growth and hard work. Thank you.
IN THIS ISSUE
Fall Fair “Winter Awake”
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For updates, feel free to visit the Fall Fair blog at RSSFallFair.wordpress. com. I am excited by the collaborative dialogue many have already participated in regarding the Fair and look forward to seeing everyone on November 19th!
Student Support Services
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Appreciatively
Christopher J. Hancock
Apple Picking Sports at Steiner Serving our Community Student Work Community Marketplace
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FALL FAIR 2011
Winter Awake Saturday, November 19 10:00-4:00
ALL SCHOOL FALL FAIR MEETING
Building Layout
Wednesday, November 9 8:45am LSAR
Sidewalk: Farmer Nick, Ticket Sales, Stroller Check and Grilled Sliders
Trip Raffle to Napa Valley Bardessono Hotel and Spa
Basement: Puppet Show and Food First Floor: LS Crafts, Coat Check, Steiner Gear and EC Crafts
Win a fabulous 4-night trip to the Bardessono Hotel and Eco-spa in downtown Yountville, CA. Includes dinner for two, a case of Hill Estate wine and airfare for two from anywhere in the contiguous U.S.
Terrace: Nature Spirit Forest
The Bardessono Hotel is one of only 2 hotels in the United States that is Leed Platinum Certified. Thank you Bardessono for this generous donation!
Opportunities to Volunteer:
Class Liaisons Cleanup Committee Leader
Organize After Fair Sale
Second Floor: Steiner Education and 150th Anniversary Room, Raffle Ticket Sales, Performances and Alumni Café Third Floor: Frozen Physics with Marisha Plotnik, Bingo, Candle Dipping, Snack Stop and Watercolor Portraits Fourth Floor: Dolls, Handcrafts, Knitting, Woodworking, Crystals, Candles, Books and Play Materials Fifth Floor: Game Room, Snack Stop, Brown Bag Raffle and Quiet Room with Diaper Changing Station
We need Brown Bag Raffle donations! Drop items off at the front desk in the LS. There is no silent auction this year and this is the only room we’re soliciting donations for. Please help.
RSSFallFair@gmail.com 2
www.RSSFallFair.wordpress.com RUDOLF STEINER SCHOOL
Student Support Services
As students grow, change and become increasingly more sophisticated as they work through the grades, so too has the Student Support Services Department slowly grown over its many years at the Rudolf Steiner School. Class teachers began the department when they took the initiative to seek help for students who experienced challenges at school, and through the years the department has grown to a cohesive group of specialists from many different areas. Therapeutic eurythmy and academic tutorial have been offered at the Rudolf Steiner School for many years. The school now has an additional full time Learning Support Teacher whose work is focused on enhancing the foundational skills of learning through integrative sensory-motor instruction. We now have three approaches, two of which are anthroposophically based, that act as a solid three-legged stool to support students through all areas of the school. Last year the Rudolf Steiner School received a generous two-year grant from the Y.C. Ho/Helen and Michael Chiang Foundation to hire a full time Learning Support Teacher whose work would be dedicated to supporting students in the first three grades. Renni Gallagher, who began her work here last year, is this new full time Learning Support Teacher. Last year Renni implemented a new aspect of learning support at the Rudolf Steiner School, a pilot program whose focus is to support the foundational learning skills of students in the first three grades. She works on a more limited basis with both students and teachers in the upper grades. In addition, Renni has begun to act as a communication bridge between the kindergarten and the first grade to facilitate a smooth transition into the Lower School. Renni’s work is intended to complement the support program already firmly in place in the grades. The first year of our pilot program was a resounding success and is continuing comparably this year. In response, the College of Teachers has agreed to fund this position for the upcoming year. Renni works from a variety of disciplines, including the Extra lesson, with whole classes and small groups, in addition to working with individual students. The Extra Lesson derives its name from work begun in the 1970’s by Audrey McAllen, a Waldorf teacher in England. It includes a developmental assessment technique and a curriculum of drawing, painting, speech and movement exercises which are designed to strengthen learning capacities through the integration of the senses and movement. Linda Larson works with students through therapeutic eurythmy and has been teaching at the Rudolf Steiner School for five years. She works two days a week and sees students throughout the grades. Class teachers work with the Student Support Services Department to recommend students who might benefit from therapeutic Eurythmy.
NOVEMBER 2011
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Continued from page 3
“Please look forward to a Parent Education evening on therapeutic Eurythmy that will be presented by Linda Larson and Dr. Karnow in the Spring.”
Therapeutic Eurythmy is a movement therapy based on the sounds of speech, originating from the art of movement developed by Rudolf Steiner known as eurythmy. Practicing this form of movement therapy has the potential to bring balance where there is imbalance, bring harmony where there is disharmony, ultimately awakening the natural healing forces in each person. A wide range of needs may be addressed: physiological, academic, and socialemotional. The therapeutic eurythmist works with the class teacher and parents and meets with students individually over a block of approximately seven weeks. Please look forward to a parent education evening on therapeutic eurythmy that will be presented by Linda Larson and Dr. Karnow in the Spring. Academic tutorial is the last leg of the student support stool and it is typically provided to students in the second through eighth grades. We have three dedicated teachers, in addition to Brooke Brosenne on our staff, who each have, at least, a Masters of Education degree. Joan Bernstein, Barbara Dean and Ruth Heit have been with the school for a total of forty years. Each learning specialist provides individualized instruction for students that support them in their work in the classroom. All three branches of the Student Support Services Department are in frequent communication with class teachers and parents to report progress. In our continuing effort to increase communication and to answer questions, one can find further details about our program in the Parent/Student Handbook. The support services that the Rudolf Steiner School offers might be considered “the keys to the kingdom”. When we apply therapeutic eurhythmy and the Extra Lesson in our work with children, we are drawing upon the deep wisdom and indications of Rudolf Steiner. We also incorporate methods and techniques that are the result current educational research and practice. In this way we acknowledge the fundamental individuality of each child and apply what is needed and appropriate for each. We now have a model program of learning support at the Steiner school that has the breadth and depth to help students, whether they are facing challenges in the realm of sensory-motor, social-emotional, or academic learning, so that they may participate more fully and effectively in the rich and varied curriculum our school provides. Brooke Brosenne Learning Resources Coordinator
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Renni Gallagher Learning Resources Teacher RUDOLF STEINER SCHOOL
Apple Picking And what if I could tell you that you could pluck apples from bounteous branches with your very own hands, and that the sun would shine and that the breeze would be just light enough to carry the heat to your skin filling you with enough warmth to shed that cumbersome jacket you might wear, and that once you filled a big orange bag with all the red and juicy apples you picked from the ample trees that reached high for the blue sky, you could run the length and breadth of the wide and free orchard, across and through and under the fruit trees, around the pumpkin patch and maybe stop and chat and laugh with your friends, or just rest and listen to quiet, and what if I could tell you that there was a path you could take, through the corn, leading you to questions, one after the other and more after that that would ask you to think of curious places and things you had seen before, and thinking those thoughts you would find your way out of the labyrinth with a head full of answers and fly down a hill to a gathering point where a form, inflated to resemble a pumpkin, a pumpkin of giants, awaited and welcomed you in, children, so as you could leap and tumble and soar as if on a cloud that held you, and what if after all that, all that boundless joy, you could then travel on board a spirited carriage with the choicest of friends and eat warm doughnuts and sweet apples and sing big and bright songs all the way back to a city that is your home, if I could tell you all that would you believe me that such a place exists? Dolores Rice, Parent Class ’20, ’24
NOVEMBER 2011
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Apple Picking
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RUDOLF STEINER SCHOOL
NOVEMBER 2011
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Sports at Steiner
by Ging Vann, Athletic Director
W
ow! What a special sports season for Steiner. We are extremely proud of all of our student-athletes and coaches for the amazing and very exciting seasons they have had. All teams started practices in mid-August, working tirelessly and passionately throughout their seasons. The Varsity Volleyball Team, coached by Mitch Martin and Ging Vann, played their hearts out in every single game. With only one graduating senior, this year’s team was very young, improving steadily throughout the season. We look forward to a wonderful season next year! Our Middle School Volleyball Team had a very competitive season, finding themselves in serious contention for the I.S.A.L Middle School League Championship right up until their last game versus Brooklyn Friends. They finished their season in third place overall. The team, led by coaches Lucy Oswald and Thea Schlieben (Class of 2006), had a memorable season and have an extremely bright future ahead of them. The Varsity Soccer Team had another phenomenal season, finishing league play in third place and reaching the I.S.A.L SemiFinals for the third Season in a row! Led by coaches Christian 8
Perry and Jody Hughes, the Varsity Soccer Team is already looking forward to another great season in 2012! A hearty congratulations goes to our Middle School Soccer Team for winning the 2011 I.S.A.L Middle School Soccer League Championship! It is Rudolf Steiner School’s first Middle School level Championship since 2008. This is an extraordinary accomplishment for the entire team and their excellent coaches: Nathaniel Morgan and Amy Rinehart. This is another very exciting moment in our school’s athletic program history and the entire school community is very proud of the teams achievement. Please join me in warmly celebrating and saluting our Middle School Soccer Team as the new 2011 I.S.A.L Middle School Soccer League Champions!
Go Dragons!!! Fight With Fire Power!!!
We thank you all for your enthusiastic support that is always filled with true school pride and sprit for all our sports teams throughout the school year. RUDOLF STEINER SCHOOL
Serving our Community
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n October 15th, three Upper School students gave up their Saturday morning and afternoon to participate in this year’s New York Cares volunteer Day. 9th graders Madison and Angela and 10th grader Lillian joined Upper School chair Julia Hays and Director of Alumni Relations Eileen Diskin to paint murals in the nurse’s office at PS 75 - Emily Dickinson. School Principal Bob O’Brian kicked the day off by welcoming everyone to PS 75 and offered advanced thanks for the beautification efforts that would soon be tackled. Boasting a diverse student population of 650, Principal O’Brian told the group how proud he is to run a school that so adequately represents the cultural fabric of New York City. Unfortunately, this school has not been immune to the difficult economic climate. Having cut 10 staff positions for the 2011-12 school year, PS 75 found itself with maintenance work to be done but without the staff to do it. All that changed on October 15th. Over 40 volunteers painted, cleaned, and organized classrooms, scraped old paint off an iron fence around the perimeter of the school, and 10 volunteers, including our own Rudolf Steiner School team, painted brightly colored murals in the Nurse’s Office and Teacher’s Lounge. Of the experience, 9th grader Maddie said, “In the beginning of the morning I didn’t want to come, but at the end of the day I’m glad I was able to help out PS 75.” When asked if she would consider volunteering again in the future, 10th grader Lillian emphatically stated, “definitely!” While putting the final touches on an orange balloon, 9th grader Angie shared, “It was fun and I’m glad I came today.” We’re proud to see our students giving back to their community and hope the students at PS 75 - Emily Dickenson were excited by the beautiful work done by all the New York Cares Day volunteers.
NOVEMBER 2011
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Hannibal with his elephants by Zora, 6th grade
HANNIBAL WITH HIS ELEPHANTS, MARCHED PAST THE ANIMALS, PAST THE PLANTS. HE MARCHED THROUGH SPAIN, THE PEOPLE WERE SCARED, NONE OF THEM, FOR ELEPHANTS, WERE PREPARED. GAUL WAS NEXT, THE CELTS WERE GLAD, ROME WAS THEIR ENEMY, TO THEM ROMANS WERE BAD. THE GANG OF MEN THEN CAME TO THE ROUGHEST PLACE OF ALL, THE ALPS STRETCHED ABOVE THEM, MIGHTY AND SO TALL. BUT HANNIBAL PUSHED HIS MEN ON; “LET’S GO!” HE SAID, “I WANT THE ROMANS GONE!” THE ALPS WERE COLD WITH ICE AND SNOW, COLD WAS SOMETHING THE TROOPS DID NOT KNOW. THEY PUSHED ON THROUGH, BUT MANY DIED, FOR THE LOSS OF HIS MEN HANNIBAL CRIED. ONLY HALF OF THE FORTY ELEPHANTS DID SURVIVE, ONLY IN WARM WEATHER DO ELEPHANTS THRIVE.
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RUDOLF STEINER SCHOOL
Marketplace
Community Support
Frequencies” PLUS EP and “Future History”), album artwork, album mastering and album pressing (including vinyl). If you would like to help the McNulty’s reach the final target by December 13th, 2011 or learn more about Sam McNulty and his music, please click here.
Last July, we lost one of our alums, Sam McNulty ’99. An amazing artist, performer, composer, and rapper, his friends and family are now fund raising through Kickstarter.com raise money to distribute Sam’s music to the world. The campaign launched in October and there is already a tremendous response. After just 2 weeks of a 60 day campaign, Sam’s “Kickstarter” drive has rocketed to meeting 75% of its target goal.
rent. I am quiet and not home much; I work long days and go away on the weekends. Please contact Renni Gallagher by email at rgallagher@ steiner.edu or phone (212.535.2130 ex. 233). Many thanks!
There is also a facebook page administered by Sam’s mother, renowned jazz vocalist, Chris McNulty. Friends of Sam’s are encouraged to “Like” this page to share thoughts and pictures.
The money raised will go towards releasing Sam’s, A.K.A. “Chap One,” last recorded music (including the 15 track album, “Strange
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32 N Moore St. NY NY 10013
NOVEMBER 2011
Seeking Accommodations Steiner teacher is looking for an affordable and comfortable room to
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(646) 484-6845 www.playing-mantis.com
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with 10% discount to Steiner School Parents.
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Marketplace
Service Robert Elliott III, ’07 I’m offering private reading and writing tutoring, K-12. I graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in May, having studied English and Writing there for three years and having spent my junior year at Oxford University. I have had extensive experience working closely with youth, including tutoring while a student at Steiner, working for the Boys Club of New York, assistant teaching and, this summer, teaching my own writing workshops through the O’Keeffe Education Department, contact Robert at relliott@gm.slc.edu. 2011 Michaelmas Festival
Guitar Lessons with Artist/ Producer/Educator Aaron Roche Aaron Roche is now offering guitar lessons to students of any level of skill interested in learning any style. Classical, Folk, Finger-styles, Blues, Rock, Pop, you name it! Having toured the world and produced albums for many diverse artists in the studio, Aaron has developed a method of teaching that allows kids to become technically proficient on their instrument and have A LOT of fun in the process. Lessons can be held either at The Rudolf Steiner School, Aaron’s guitar studio at 111 East 87th Street, or in your home! Rates: $30/half hour, $50/hour. Lessons at Home: $45/half hour, $60/hour. Contact Aaron at aaronrochemusic@gmail.com (School Community connection: Aaron is husband to Whitni Roche, Upper School Librarian, 4th Grade Assistant, and Middle School English teacher). Gabriel Garzón-Montano Steiner graduate, class of ‘07 and brother of Luna Garzón-Montano, offers private music lessons, language tutoring, and babysitting services. Areas of expertise include: Piano, Bass, Drums, Gruitar, Theory, Composition, French, and 12
Mary Mackenzie, Voice Teacher Interested in voice lessons? Study with a professional opera singer! Mary holds Vocal Performance degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Manhattan School of Music. She has studied classical and musical theatre vocal technique with top instructors in New York City. 30 minute and 1 hour lessons are available. For more information and pricing, contact Mary at mmackenzie981@gmail.com
Spanish. To contact him, call 646852-7489 or email him at gabriel. garzonmontano@gmail.com Dane Delaney Photography Celebrity, Headshots, Concept, Product, Beauty & Fashion Photographer. Visit www. danedelaney.com. To contact, call 646-413-6252 or email at danedelaney@gmail.com
RUDOLF STEINER SCHOOL