October Public Meeting Recap & Thanks

Thank you to everyone who turned out for a hot Saturday meeting and weathered the broken air conditioner to hear Nora Dvosin (Westminster Elementary School) & Fred Eric (Eagle Rock Elementary School) talk about the journey from seed to plate, gardening with kids.

Master gardener Nora Dvosin shared the inspirational story of transforming a former asphalt campus into a green campus.  She shared the plans drawn by an architect friend that helped promote the garden project at Westminster.  The drawings were helpful in creating the vision, generating excitement and presenting the projects for grants.  The encouraging news is Nora found that money to fund a garden was relatively easy to acquire.  Check out Westminster Elementary School’s webpage for more pictures of the garden now six years old and the Kindergarten Wee Garden.

Vivian Miller

Vivian Miller shared what el Rio has been doing since our June public meeting:  the Waldorf Education for Public School Teachers at Ocean Charter (two attendees were in the house), collaborations with Community Health Action Network (CHAN) and TreePeople, to name a few.  Vivian also put out an APB for Web Help to assist with our website while our web guru Jennifer Patton is on maternity leave.  Please email el Rio if you’d like to help.

Julia Posey, Fred Eric & Nora Dvosin

Fred Eric, restauranteur of Tiara Cafe and Fred 62, shared a valuable tip that kids will eat vegetables when paired with butter.  He also talked about the importance of kids completing tactile projects whether it be nurturing a plant to grow or learning how to bake cupcakes.  The act of doing builds self-awareness and self-esteem, collaborative skills and the joy of sharing.

A big thanks to Nora & Fred for sharing their time and wisdom.  And a huge thanks to the Audubon Center at Debs Park for donating the use of their meeting room.

The el Rio tote bag debuted with a welcome response.  $180 were generated in tote bag sales.  If would like to purchase an el Rio Think + Play + Do tote bag, please email us and/or show up to the next Parents of el Rio play date on Saturday, October 9th, 11AM-1PM at La Tierra de la Culebra Art Park, located at 240 South Avenue 57 in Highland Park. We’ll have bags available for purchase.

June Public Meeting Wrap-up!

Thank you to the 44 adults and 15 kids who came out on June 5th for our 4th Public Meeting! This one was full of new people, great questions and useful information from teachers and parents for our development team.

Daniel Balrderrama’s talk was inspiring and warm. He so obviously loves children and wants the best education possible for them. A mission we all share. He has been able to deliver on that mission, so it gives us courage that we’re on the right track with el Rio.

Our next Public Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, October 2nd, 2:30-3:30pm at the Audubon Center at Debs Park. Save the date!

RE-DISCOVER YOUR CALLING AS A TEACHER. This summer, K-8 Waldorf education experience for public school teachers in Los Angeles

Teaching at Ocean Charter School: public Waldorf education in L.A.

For five days this summer Los Angeles public school educators will have a chance to experience public Waldorf education in practice, not just hear about it in theory.

Begins July 19th at Ocean Charter School. ***PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD*** [Flyer, contacts, registration below]

Educators will EXPERIENCE:

• Experience the comprehension-inducing effects of storytelling.
• Experience the focus and learning effect of song, movement, drawing, painting, sculpture and more on the mind.
• Experience the mind-opening effect of hands-on science.

Educators will TAKE HOME:

• A KIT with ideas and materials for their grade.
• Collaborative strategies to form a professional in-house learning community.
• The ability to make a difference with different learners through Waldorf-based ‘different-learner’ methods.

ONLINE REGISTRATION [*Click on button that says "Waldorf Education for Public School Educators of Southern California"]

• Some people have found the online registration process a bit trying, so if that’s you, Debbie Brown in the RSC Registration Office will help you:  916-864-4864 and her email is  conferenceregistration@steinercollege.edu.

Waldorf Education for Public School Teachers
of Southern California [flyer]

JULY 19-23 2010

OCEAN CHARTER SCHOOL
12606 Culver Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90066

Workshop fee: $350

FOR MORE INFORMATION about the course itself or other info on Waldorf teacher professional development, including an MA in Waldorf Education, please contact bonnie.river@steinercollege.edu

In joy, the el Rio Charter School development team together with Ocean Charter School teacher Tamar Kern ANNOUNCE a collaborative project of el Rio, Ocean and Steiner College to boost teacher effectiveness in Los Angeles through a one-week professional development immersion into the K-8 Waldorf classroom experience …

We would love to meet you and invite you to take the plunge this summer!

Thank you for coming out on a rainy Saturday for our third public meeting!

Thank you very much to our guest Lisa Duarte of Ninth Street Elementary School in Boyle Heights for sharing her experiences and, at times, her personal struggle with applying Waldorf methods to her Kindergarten class in a public school that is demographically similar to our own. You rule Lisa! Thanks so much for your input.

Last Saturday’s public meeting was a little different than the meetings that we’ve held in the past. We decided to do a workshop this time. Joan led a “Conversation Cafe” and we broke into groups of 5 and discussed our topic for the day, “Meaningful Diversity.” We got a lot out of this meeting; ways to move forward in the planning of the school that will allow us to reflect and respond to the needs of our culturally and socio-economically diverse neighborhoods in North East LA. Thank you very much to you all for sharing your experiences, advice and insight into a subject that, I think, can be a bit challenging to talk about sometimes.

Here’s the meeting report in numbers: 35 adults, 2 teens, and 14 darling kids with excellent whispering voices. We sold 10 handmade birds and received $259.00 in donations! Fan-freakin’-tastic!

A big Thank You to The Audubon Center for continuing to host us in such a lovely space.

A big Thank You to Blue Hen Vietnamese Kitchen for donating a platter of delicious spring rolls for us to snack upon.

A big Thank You to Ruth Ortiz and Mary Crist for offering their spanish translation services.

And a last quick note; we found a red children’s art case and a blue water bottle/jug with a sport top after the meeting. Please email us if they belong to you.

Our next Public Meeting will be on Saturday, June 5th, same time, same place – meeting topic to be announced so stay tuned, or email us and let us know what you’d like to talk about next time!

Third Public Meeting

Thanks again to all who sallied forth on a rainy day to join us at the Audubon Center at Debs Park for our third public meeting.

Jennifer recapped what the el Rio team has been up to since we last met.  You can catch all updates by joining our email list.  Jenn sends out a monthly newletter that’s informative and a hoot to boot.

To recap the meeting, our esteemed board member Jennifer Patton wrote this review:

Thank you very much to our guest Lisa Duarte of Ninth Street Elementary School in Boyle Heights for sharing her experiences and, at times, her personal struggle with applying Waldorf methods to her Kindergarten class in a public school that is demographically similar to our own. You rule Lisa! Thanks so much for your input.

Last Saturday’s public meeting was a little different than the meetings that we’ve held in the past. We decided to do a workshop this time. Joan led a “Conversation Cafe” and we broke into groups of 5 and discussed our topic for the day, “Meaningful Diversity.” We got a lot out of this meeting; ways to move forward in the planning of the school that will allow us to reflect and respond to the needs of our culturally and socio-economically diverse neighborhoods in North East LA. Thank you very much to you all for sharing your experiences, advice and insight into a subject that, I think, can be a bit challenging to talk about sometimes.

Read the full recap at elriocharterschool.org.

Lisa Duarte speaks with Joan Jaeckel.

Smaller groups dig into the conversation.

Blue Hen Vietnamese Kitchen donated tasty spring rolls.

Thanks to Blue Hen Vietnamese Kitchen for the generous food donation.  And thank you to you!

Next meeting is Saturday, June 5th, at the Audubon Center at Debs Park, 2:30-3:30PM.  Doors open at 2:00PM.  Hope to see you there!

Second Public Meeting – Thank You

Thank you for joining us at our second public meeting.
And massive thanks to Tamar Kern of Ocean Charter School for speaking and answering questions.

Last Saturday’s meeting was an inspiring one! Tamar Kern of Ocean Charter School, LAUSD’s first and only public charter school inspired by Waldorf education (yet!), spoke, answered our questions and gave a sneak-peek of what the Waldorf pedagogy looks like when applied to a public school setting. Our own Joan Jaeckel fielded questions specific to our plans for el Rio.

The questions you brought were insightful and contributed to an excellent, informative and inspiring conversation. Imagine a classroom like Tamar’s for our kids and our neighbor’s kids! I’m so excited – can you tell?

We all look forward to more of these talks at our public meetings and during volunteer committee-work (we’ll be in touch; thank you!) Also, if we ran out of time and didn’t get to your question, please email us at elriocharter@gmail.com and we’ll do our best to answer it, and perhaps add it to our FAQ page.

Another packed house; 43 engaged adults and 22 incredibly well-behaved children – thanks for keeping it down, kids!

Our next public meeting will be held in February, stay tuned to the website for details and sign up for our mailing list at elriocharter@gmail.com.

Thank you for attending our first public meeting! Join us at our next meeting Saturday, October 17th!

We held our first public meeting on August 22nd at the Audubon Center in Debs Park. Our agenda for this first meeting was to gain petition signatures, volunteers and donations and to begin the conversation with our neighbors that will eventually inform the language of our charter.

Thank you for showing up and meeting those aims with us! We are filled with elation, wonder and gratitude at the outpouring of support from all who attended. Check out pictures on our facebook page!

In numbers: 43 adults, 17 children, 38 petition signatures, $283 in donations, 37 questionnaires/sign-up sheets turned in. [*statistics corrected -jp, web admin]

In less quantifiable terms; the day was a success because you shared valuable insights into your dreams, intentions and concerns about the education of our children here in Northeast Los Angeles. And because we were able to share our enthusiasm for el Rio with you.

Please join us for our Second Public Meeting; scheduled for Saturday October 17th at the same place; the Audubon Center at Debs Park.

This meeting will focus on Waldorf pedagogy as applied to public education in Los Angeles. With special guest speaker Tamar Kern, teacher at Ocean Charter School in Mar Vista.

Bring a friend!