Teaching in Public Waldorf Education

This guy takes ‘fascinated dad’ to a whole new level

An MIT researcher bugged his entire house with video cameras and microphones to capture and study the speech development of his newborn son. Pretty cool TED talk. check it.

Parents of el Rio Play Date – Saturday, March 5, 2011

We have so much fun at these play dates, we’re doing it again! This time Kim is bringing a refrigerator box for the kids to play with/in.
Join the development team and our families on Saturday, March 5th from 11am to 1pm for a play date for the parents of el Rio.

We’ll be at La Tierra de la Culebra Art Park, located at 240 South Avenue 57 in Highland Park.

From their website:

The centerpiece of [this two acre] art park is a 550 foot long sculptural serpent, La Culebra, as well as revolving mural panels, an urban forest of over 150 trees, gardens, incised ziggurat, a stage, sundial, pond, sculptural amphitheater.

Look for Development Team member Kim Ilas under the trees.
Kim is striking and tall and mocha-skinned and has long dread locks and twin daughters.
<—— There she is now!

See you there!

Thank You, Volunteers!

Thank you to all who attended an El Rio volunteer meeting and/or the Workspace For Teachers Meeting(s).
Committees are being formed, decisions are being made, wheels are beginning to turn… Stay tuned.
On behalf of the El Rio Development Team, we are excited to be working with such a talented group of people as we move forward to making El Rio a reality.
And I’ll say personally that your devotion to el Rio warms my heart. I am re-inspired and motivated.

“WORKSPACE FOR TEACHERS” on Saturday, February 5th from 2-4PM, Highland Park

Friends,

The El Rio Charter School planning process is now getting to the heart of the matter.

Teaching!

If you’ve been following our progress you know we’ve been ueberbusy with business plans and bylaws and all such necessary parts of starting to move El Rio from rivulet to white water.  Parents write every day asking to participate.

And … some things just require teachers to weigh in.

So now, as we write our way towards our August deadline for presenting the El Rio Charter School petition to LAUSD, we turn to you, teachers, for input, feedback, guidance and vision.

Whether you are a teacher, a pre-service teacher …

• Are you interested in helping to write a charter petition for 21st century teaching that builds capacities for an enlightened future today?

• Do you wish to help build a network of classrooms in L.A. preparing young people to have the presence, empathy and initiative to think big and, as Obama said last night, “do big things”?

If this resonates with you, please join us at the first El Rio “WORKSPACE FOR TEACHERS” on Saturday, February 5th from 2-4PM at the home of El Rio Charter School development team member Jennifer Patton, in Highland Park, LA, CA 90042. Joan Jaeckel will facilitate a conversation between us and Julie Navarro will set the tone with a Waldorf kindergarten circle.

El Rio Charter School, although still a dream, is not a lone dreamer.  El Rio is part of a dynamically growing cultural movement of public Waldorf education that already has in it, nationwide, 45 public schools and 20 developing initiatives. Most of this growth is in California, northern California to be exact.  In L.A., things are just beginning.

Ocean Charter School opening six years ago and El Rio is in the works. The Mariposa school in Thousand Oaks is a ‘regular’ public school whose teachers implement Waldorf practices. Several individual teachers in L.A. schools use Waldorf approaches in their classrooms. The northern California school network grew out of close proximity to teacher training and intra-school mentoring.  We can build this same capacity of mutual learning  by getting together to imagine an expanded network of public Waldorf education adapted to the realities of urban, inner city life in Los Angeles.

The charter writing process, the most essential part of it all, can only be done with input from actual teachers – visioning what the children will experience, translating the vision into the actual charter petition, forming a mutual learning space … whatever is needed.

The WORKSPACE starts forming a energetic hub for L.A. teachers interested in teaching, adapting Waldorf teaching to the LA urban schools, interested in teaching or mentoring at El Rio … meet and form the actual life of the school.

Whether you wish to join us as actual worker bee between now and August or you only wish to come once or twice to share your thoughts — please join us for the first El Rio “WORKSPACE FOR TEACHERS” on Saturday, February 5th from 2-4PM .

For address and directions please  email joan.jaeckel@gmail.com.

Warmly,

Joan Jaeckel
Acting Director,
El Rio Charter School development team

P.S. Please allow 15 minutes for parking. Once at the house, you will follow the signs leading you up two flights of external stairs to the right towards a door to the cozy attic of the El Rio Charter School development team “HQ”!

Call for volunteers

Although September 2012 is 20 months away, it is fast approaching.  The el Rio Development Team has been busy and done some amazing work, but there is still a vast amount of work that needs to be done before the doors can open to el Rio and the first students can be served.  If you are interested in helping make el Rio Charter School a reality, your service is needed now.

We are offering three Planning Meetings where we will discuss the work that needs to be done & assign tasks.  If you are truly interested in making el Rio a viable reality, please attend one of the following meetings.

When & Where:

•Friday 2/4/11 9:00-10:00AM Swork (2160 Colorado Blvd. 90041)

•Tuesday 2/8/11 7:30-9:30PM Private Residence (1350 Armadale Avenue 90042)

•Sunday 2/13/11 2:00-3:00PM, Coffee Table (1958 Colorado Blvd, 90041)

We have chosen three different times and locations in an attempt to create opportunities for as many people to attend as possible.

We hope you can attend one of the meetings (no need to attend more than one).

On behalf of el Rio Charter School and future students, we invite you to take that step and get involved.

Follow Joan on twitter this weekend at the Alliance conference!

Our own Joan Jaeckel is attending the annual Alliance for Public Waldorf Education Conference this weekend at Rudolf Steiner College near Sacramento, CA.

Get updates on the latest in the public Waldorf movement by following Joan’s tweets live from the scene: @JoanJaeckel

The next best thing to being there

Been way too long…

Well, the site hasn’t been updated in a few months and here’s the reason why:

Your friendly WebMistress had a baby.

Meet Charlie – Super el Rio Baby – born 10-30-10 healthy and happy at home.

……………………………………………….

Here’s Charlie today ——–> 

Totally self sufficient – as you can see, so hopefully I’ll be updating the site more often. Thanks for being patient.

Love,

Jennifer

Just updated our FAQ page!

We just got some really good questions from a friend and so I shared his questions and our answers on our FAQ page.

Not yet in Spanish – sorry – but it’s the last 5 Q’s and A’s on the page.

2012 is right around the corner! Do you have any burning questions not adressed in our FAQ? Send ‘em in to elriocharter@gmail.com and we will do our best to answer.

Happy New Year

el Rio development team hard at work in 2011!