I’m looking to populate my sidebar with links to other great Waldorf resources. If you’ve got one that you love leave it in the comments below!
The Temperaments — An Introduction
February 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
When I first discovered Waldorf Education, I was fascinated by everything I read about the temperaments. I found it endlessly fun to think about my own personality type, as well as my son’s, and try to determine what exactly was behind our actions.
I really could have used a simple, straightforward introduction to the temperaments.
Well, recently, I took it upon myself to write one. I’m currently offering it for sale for $1.99 on my teaching blog A Waldorf Journey.
You can find the mini-ebook by following the link below and checking out with Paypal.
The Temperaments and Waldorf Education.
I hope you enjoy it!
Steiner Audio Lectures
May 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment
This is a fairly recent discovery of mine — Rudolf Steiner Audio.
I’ve already downloaded a couple of the lectures that have been recorded by a man named Dale Brunsvold and they are fabulous. I’ve mentioned before that for reading I prefer Steiner’s books. The conversational, repetitive style of some of the lectures bothers me a bit when I’m reading them. I’m so pleased to have discovered, then, that lectures are best listened to! I’m so grateful to Mr. Brunsvold for taking up this task, which seems quite a monumental one. Listening to his voice I feel as though I am listening to Steiner speak, and I find the conversational style endearing. Steiner’s books are so rich that they would be difficult to listen to, but the lectures are completely accessible.
I’ve already downloaded the series of lectures on Bees and I’m enjoying listening while I’m in the car. Audiobooks are so good for making use of that time!
Top Five Waldorf Websites
December 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
There are a handful of Waldorf websites that I check pretty regularly. They represent a diverse range of information — from the esoteric to the hands-on practical. Here are my favorites. Please post yours in the comments.
1. Waldorf World – Back in the day this site was called Bob and Nancy’s. Bob and Nancy are still there behind the scenes and the site is just as informative as it was back then. The site includes job postings, school directories, articles, and a bookshop. The job postings section is probably the most used and most schools post their openings there.
2. Waldorf Teachers – This site has been up for probably a year and a half and has quickly become the number two job postings site. In addition to job postings, though, it has a lovely gallery section that contains examples of Waldorf artwork. I heard somewhere that the site has some connection with AWSNA (the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America) though you won’t find mention of it on the site. When you visit sign up to be on their mailing list. They send out a lovely e-newsletter periodically with articles about happenings within the Waldorf movement.
3. Main Lesson.com – Mainlesson.com is the site of the Baldwin Project which is an effort to publish literature that is in the public domain for teachers and parents. From the site:
“The Baldwin Project seeks to make available online a comprehensive collection of resources for parents and teachers of children. Our focus, initially, is on literature for children that is in the public domain in the United States. This includes all works first published before 1923.”
I have found literature there when I have been in a pinch for main lesson content and it’s nice to find a resource that has entire texts published online. I usually prefer those older resources, anyway, and mainlesson.com is great for providing that.
4. Millenial Child – This website, with resources developed by longtime Waldorf teacher Eugene Schwartz, is a treasure-trove of information. From the site,
We hope to serve as a resource for anyone interested in educating children in the twenty-first century. Our foundations lie in Waldorf education, which in turn arises out of Anthroposophy, a worldview promulgated by Rudolf Steiner. Our web site grows out of the wish to share as much about Waldorf education’s roots and fruits as we can with the widest possible audience. We hope that millennialchild.com is helpful to all educators and parents who visit it.
With articles, lecture podcasts and online consulting Millenial Child is evidence that Eugene Schwartz is one of the few teachers in the Waldorf movement who has embraced the many ways that technology can support our work.
5. Why Waldorf Works – The official AWSNA website, Why Waldorf Works provides the most thorough school directory, a form for subscribing to Renewal Magazine (which is great, by the way), a bookstore, links to community support, and a newsletter with happenings in the Waldorf movement. There are lots of links to explore and it is definitely worth taking some time to do so.
6. (Because I guess there are 6 “Top Waldorf Websites”) The Rudolf Steiner Archive – This site has a huge collection of the full text of many Steiner lectures and books. Though it is sometimes difficult to pluck a lecture and read it out of context, the conversational, sometimes repetitive language in his lectures make them easier to read than his books. I’ve found the lectures posted on this site to be quite readable and I have not encountered those difficulties with reading a lecture out of context. Rudolf Steiner Achive is my go-to resource when I wonder what Steiner said about a subject.
Okay, those are my favorites. What Waldorf sites are in your bookmarks?
Introduction
December 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment
When I first began teaching at a Waldorf school I quickly found that there were resources for teaching that everyone used. Usually the not-to-be-missed resource titles were passed down from teacher to teacher, as each one of us shared with the teacher of the class behind us what worked, what didn’t, and what resources we couldn’t have lived without. All through I was so grateful for the benevolence of those teachers who shared the fruits of their labors with me and I was more than happy to share my experiences with the teachers who were behind me.
I wondered, though, if there might come a time when I would be undertaking an adventure through the grades again, perhaps this time without the support of a veteran teacher just one step ahead of me. Because of this fear, I made every effort to take detailed notes all the way through (sometimes more successfully than others) making sure that even if I wasn’t so good about taking notes on the exact content we studied, I at least had the titles of those few valuable resources.
In recent months I have become a part of a Waldorf homeschooling community that is composed not of teachers following each other in a neat little line, but of parents, doing their best, with limited resources, to provide this phenomenal education for their children. I’ve realized how lucky I am to have my little store of notes, however cryptic or sketchy they may be.
I’ve realized also, though, that there are a lot of people out there with a lot of really good information, and they’re all too willing to share.
It is with all of these thoughts in mind that I begin this blog. My intent is to post my own recommendations for books, toys and curriculum resources and hopefully to collect some of that worldly Waldorf wisdom that is out there into one place. I’d love for people to offer to contribute — writing up a little summary of their resources at the end of each block.
These will be real reviews written by real people who have real lives that have been shaped by the resources that we post here. Our advice is tried and true and it is offered to the community of Waldorf mothers, fathers, parents and teachers.
