A pedagogical leadership workshop for school directors/administrators, faculty chairs, teachers, and board members interested in exploring the intentionality and the process of combining grades

With facilitator Jody Spanglet of Ashwood Waldorf School

 

Description

While a departure from typical Waldorf convention, mixed-age classrooms are a growing reality in many Waldorf schools today. Combining grades can strengthen a school and its pedagogy—and benefit students—by

• Helping a school maintain a healthy student population
• Requiring innovation and fresh thinking on the part of the teacher and the school
• Creating class sizes that allow for a favorable social mix and opportunities for group work
• Providing older students in need of remedial work opportunities to strengthen their skills
• Providing capable younger students exposure to more challenging skills classes
• Providing multi-age experiences that allow younger and older students to develop deep and lasting relationships

 

Jody Spanglet of Ashwood Waldorf School has seen the advantages students and schools realize when schools intentionally combine grades. In Planning and Creating a Mixed-Age Waldorf Grade School: Methods and Strategies for Sustainability and Success we will explore mixed-age Waldorf grade schools from a strategic planning and governance lens. Through presentation, discussion, and sharing, our focus will be on

• The culture of your school: Does it support or undermine your multi-age classroom?

• How to create and communicate a predictable and transparent strategic plan incorporating the multi-age model

• How to manage expectations (for parents and others)

• How to staff a mixed-age classroom and provide professional development for teachers as needed

• How to conceive of and successfully work with a developmentally-based curriculum in a mixed-age classroom

• How to evaluate the progress and outcome of combining grades

 

You will leave with a newfound appreciation of the benefits that can result when combining Waldorf grades, and the knowledge of how to plan, create, and sustain a mixed-age grade school.

 

Facilitator 

Jody Spanglet has been director of Rockport, Maine’s Ashwood Waldorf School since 2005. Previously she was a  grades 1-8 and 5-8 class teacher.  Jody started her Waldorf career as after-care teacher at the Charlottesville Waldorf School when her daughter was a student there. She has since pursued 20 years of coursework in Waldorf Education and anthroposophical study at AWSNA-accredited institutions. Jody received a BA in sociology from SUNY Binghamton and her MSEd in Social Foundations of Education from the University of Virginia.

 

Schedule

Friday evening, January 24: Doors open at 6:30pm for check-in registration. Workshop begins at 7pm and runs until 8:30pm.
Saturday, January 25: Workshop runs 9am-5:30pm with time for breaks and lunch

 

Workshop Cost and Meal Plan

The workshop cost is $295 via online registration (cost includes Saturday mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks and a $25 non-refundable registration fee). Online registration is available through noon on Friday, January 24. If you haven’t registered by then and still wish to attend, walk-in registrations will be accepted at the walk-in cost of $310. Note: Meal plans are not an option for walk-in registrants.

For the convenience of workshop participants, we offer an optional meal plan consisting of Saturday breakfast (8-9am) and lunch (midday) served at the on-campus Threefold Cafe. You may sign up for the meal plan on your registration form. The $20 meal plan cost is non-refundable after 1/21/20.

 

Discount options

• For every three registrations it makes, a school may send a fourth attendee for free (the fourth registration cost will be rebated after the workshop takes place). Schools should fill out a volume discount form.
• Current Sunbridge program students receive 30% off the workshop cost and Sunbridge program alumni receive 15% off; a discount code will appear on your registration form once you provide identifying information. Only one discount option may be applied.

 

Housing

Campus housing and local accommodations are reserved directly through Threefold Educational Center.

 

 

Questions?
Contact Admissions and Summer Coordinator Barbara Vitale at [email protected] or 845-425-0055 x20.

Sunbridge Institute reserves the right to cancel any offering at any time. If Sunbridge cancels, all registrants will be notified and will receive a full refund. If the registrant cancels, he or she will receive a full refund less the non-refundable registration fee.  Sunbridge reserves the right to make faculty substitutions when necessary.