Teaching Reflection at Eugene Waldorf School

Trafton B.

May 20, 2010 - 12:50 PM

This week the Climate Equity Team was back at the coolest school in town, the Eugene Waldorf School. If you're not familiar with the Waldorf teaching method, I'll give you a quick run down. More or less, each grade has only about seven or eight students and they have the same teacher from 1st to 8th Grade. It's a really interesting model, and it's much different from the other three schools we're teaching at.

Our lesson today centered around finding alternative routes to school by analyzing a map of the area. Just like last time, I sat back and let two of my teammates, Ashly and Claire do the teaching. I swear it just worked out that way. I don't have any aversion to teaching at Waldorf; it's simple coincidence.

At the end, I talked about bicycle safety procedures and protocols - minimum amount of lights needed when biking at night, how old do you have to be in order to legally ride without a helmet. Then we made sure to say that it doesn't mean that you shouldn't wear it all the time.

One girl asked if we wore our helmets when we rode our bicycles, obviously we responded with a unified, "Yes!" And I said, "You may think it looks dorky wearing a helmet all the time. To be honest, I do too, especially when I have to carry it around on my bag all day. But I guarantee you that you look a lot less cool with a busted noggin." My father gave me that piece of wisdom. The class chuckled in agreement, and I noticed a smile of approval coming from the teacher in the back of the room.

For the rest of the class I took notes on Claire and Ashly's performance. I really didn't have too much to say. Their presentation was great, but a little low on energy. It was 8:30am and we've been working like crazy this week, so I felt super hypocritical saying it as I feverishly sipped my coffee.

Also, being able to sit back allowed me some time to speak with Waldorf's principal. I'm still very curious about the Waldorf method and mantra and I wanted to know how often they have either students or teachers switching schools on them. She said, "It's probably 50/50 chance for both teachers and students making it through 8th grade, and probably a higher percentage of students turning over." She explained further:

"For teachers, some are just more suited for older students and some more for younger students. We have some teachers that just struggle with their classes the first four years, but know they will do better after their students turn eight or so, so they stick with it. Others just have to drop out when their students reach the middle school and go back to kindergarteners. For the students, drop outs usually happen because they don't get along with a teacher, parents' priorities change or students want a change of scenery after being in the same building for their entire academic life."

I was surprised to hear the number about teachers the most, but it really makes sense. She said, "The teacher's find it difficult because it feels like your first year teaching every year for eight years." Having lead classes for the first last summer in the Bay Area, I can imagine how difficult that is.

Thinking back when we taught at Spencer Butte that first time, even though it was my first time teaching at that particular school, I fell back into a familiar teaching rhythm. Having to expand the information level and teaching vocabulary for every year has to be challenging. It made me have a lot of respect for Waldorf teachers, especially the ones that make it through the 8th grade with the same class.