Professional development for Waldorf teachers and home school parents. Read Summer Series 2023 details here.

Taught remotely in real-time, this course offers you an invaluable opportunity to focus entirely on your upcoming sixth grade school year in five days brimming with presentations, discussions, and practical activities.

Under the guidance of an experienced class teacher, you’ll discover ways to enliven your teaching and learn how to approach the blocks so that they may meet the sixth grader in a meaningful and lively way. With the insights of anthroposophy, gleaned through a look at child development focusing on your class’s age group, you will get to know the sixth grade child in depth as they enter adolescence.

Along with time and space to consider and hone your skills in such practical matters as main lesson books, block planning, projects and activities, and classroom management, your course will include such key topics for sixth graders—and their teachers—as:

• The gesture of the sixth grade
• Topics in language arts, including poetry and research papers
• Multicultural approaches to world history and the introduction of the Asian empires
• Topics in math, including business math and practice classes
• Topics in world history, including Rome, origins of Christianity and Islam, and the Middle Ages
• Topics in geography
• Introduction to physics, astronomy, and earth science / geology
• Plays, projects, community service, and trips
• Sixth grade quizzes and assessment
• Parent work and colleagueship

These subjects will be supported by explorations in art, music, and movement, giving you practical tools to take into your school year.

In addition to inspiration and guidance which will support your teaching throughout the year, you’ll gain many invaluable opportunities for building connections among a community of parallel colleagues from across the country, to carry with you into your teaching.

Grade-specific resource materials useful for your year, including poems, songs, stories, and main lesson book ideas, will be provided to you electronically.

NOTE: This course is taught with the expectation that you have a foundational background in Waldorf education.

 

Lead Instructor 

Lila Rubio is a member of the core faculty at The Waldorf School of Atlanta, where she currently teaches grade six. A native of Puerto Rico, Lila previously was a math tutor for Decatur (GA) High School and a calculus teaching assistant at Georgia Tech. She also spent many years in senior management in the business world before becoming a mother to two daughters, both students at WSA. She has a Bachelor in Textile Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA with a finance concentration from Wake Forest University and received her Waldorf teaching certificate from the Rudolf Steiner Centre in Toronto. Lila loves to travel, camp, ride bikes, cook

Your course also includes sessions in art with Kelly Beekman, music with Adam Petersen, and movement and games with Charlie Orphanides.

 

Schedule

This course takes place July 16-21 in a synchronous online classroom.

ALL TIMES LISTED BELOW ARE EASTERN (NY) TIME ZONE

Sunday evening: 6:15 pm-6:30 pm: Log in for technical check-in and attendance. Your first session starts promptly at 6:30 with “The Gesture of the Sixth Grade,” and ends at 8:15. New teachers especially are encouraged to remain for a Q&A with your lead instructor from 8:30-9:00.

Monday-Thursday: Instruction takes place between 10 am and 5 pm (excluding breaks). We also encourage you to attend our elective music studio (5:15-6:15 Wednesday) and roundtable discussion with faculty (7:15-8:15 Thursday).

Friday: Instruction and wrap-up takes place from 10-2:30 (excluding breaks). We also encourage you to attend our elective art studio from 2:45-3:45.

Participants should be prepared to work on course-related assignments outside of their regularly scheduled instructional sessions (including some that may be assigned in advance).

 

Cost
$635 includes all resource materials, pre-recorded music and movement lessons, yearlong access to your Grade Six Google Classroom and Kelly Beekman’s art portal, and a $60 non-refundable registration fee.

NOTE: Participants will be expected to procure some materials to use during their course. A materials list will be sent three weeks in advance of your course start date.

Available Discounts

• Volume: $60 off each registration for schools sending 2 or more participants
• Alumni/CAD: 25% off for Sunbridge teacher education program graduates OR for payments made in Canadian dollars
• Current Students: 50% off for current Sunbridge teacher education students

Discounts may not be combined. Qualification for discounts will be verified by Sunbridge staff. 

Paid registrations must be received by Thursday, July 13.

 

 

Questions?
Please contact Barbara Vitale, admissions and summer coordinator, at [email protected] or 845-425-0055 x20

Sunbridge reserves the right to make faculty substitutions when necessary. See registration form for refund policy.