Onward and Upward: May 2021 Town Hall
Date: Monday, May 17, 2021
Time: 6 pm
Location: Zoom
During the end-of-school-year Town Hall, we heard from School Director Kelly Church, Board Co-Chair Ryan Gregory, Health and Safety Manager Christa Gustafson, and faculty members Dawn Archer and Vernon Dewey.
Watch the Recording
5th Grade Pentathlon
Every year, the 5th grade class studies Greek civilization, learning about the government, history, mythology and culture. As a culmination of their studies, each spring the students participate in a Pentathlon, which is an athletic event based on the ancient Greek games. As with all aspects of our Waldorf curriculum, the event is designed to relate directly to the students’ learning and development, bringing relevancy and enthusiasm for their studies. Grouped into four City States- Sparta, Athens, Corinth, and Thebes- the students compete in five events including long run, long jump, discus, sprint, and javelin. In preparation for the festivities, the students also write odes to their favorite Greek goddess or god and recite their compositions to those gathered as part of the opening ceremonies. The ritual opening, with the lighting of the torch and the offering of poems, very much sets a beautiful tone for the day. While the children put forth their best efforts in achieving results in speed and distance, more important is their display of grace, beauty, and form. In years past, our school has gathered with other neighboring Waldorf schools for this highly anticipated event. Although this year may have looked a bit different with a pentathlon only with our school, it was still very much a day full of fun, community, nobility, grace, and honor.
We look forward to being the new Colorado host in the future for many pentathlons to come!
Faculty & Staff Appreciation Week
As part of Teacher Appreciation Week this past week, our faculty & staff were showered with a new surprise each day as a token of gratitude from our parent community. Thanks to the generosity and thoughtfulness from our Parent Council Reps, parents, and families, they were treated with Summer Self-Care bags including goodies from Topo Designs, lunch in the courtyard from Cochina Taco, coffee cart & pastries, snack station & succulent plants, and for a grand finale, dinner gift cards and individual hand pies! Along with encouraging notes sprinkled throughout our hallways, there was certainly much warmth and gratitude in the air for all who make our community a beautiful place to learn and thrive.
Below is a letter from our school director, Kelly Church:
Dear Parents and Parent Council Reps,
The support you have shown to all of us here at the school this year has been amazing! Throughout the year, each time you have recognized our efforts it has put a new spring in step and a swagger in our walk! Your acknowledgement of our work in this challenging year has made a huge difference. We so love being with your children and we are honored to spend our days with each of them. Thank you for taking the time to share and show your appreciation, we feel truly loved.
With gratitude for you all,
Kelly
There were many, many words of appreciation shared amongst our faculty & staff, including:
- “Yummy, Yuuuuumy, Yummmmy! This is the best week ever!” – Christa Gustafson
- “Thanks to Parent Council for all of your work on all of this” – Mike McHenry
- “Many thanks to parent council for the goodies. I feel the love!” – Sarah Meyer
- “The coffee lady had everything I wanted & more! I’m even trying something I’ve never had before, which is saying something because coffee is my religion!” – Brie Kaiser
- “Thank you so much for all the surprises this week. They have really been helping me.” – Sarah Boyer
- “This is the best thing that’s ever been done! The Topo bags are so cute and I need to get some for all my girlfriends! Amazing.” – Brie Kaiser
- “The abundance is so striking. I’m speechless.” – Deb Wolf
- “It sort of feels squishy, like being hugged by parent council!” – Dawn Archer
- “Thank you, I feel so loved – this year has been so hard.” – (through tears) Milandra Pfister
- “Your little gifts throughout the year were wonderful and greatly appreciated. Your support means a lot. Thank you.” – Faustina Pfister
- “I feel so supported and seen. There was such thoughtfulness behind each surprise” – Jessie Cartwright
- “With our hearts, hands, and bellies full, we feel so much love from this incredible community. Thank you!” – Jen Lamboy
This would not have been possible without Carrie Tentori & Nicole Reinan spearheading the efforts, Parent Council Reps collecting sentiments about all of our faculty & staff, and of course our caring parents & families for donating so generously.
We would also like to thank the wonderful businesses in our greater Denver community for helping make this week a success, including Cochino Taco, The Espresso Affair, Hinman’s Bakery, Topo Designs, Keith’s Coffee, Denver Beer Co, Mod Market, and also the following businesses from months past including Snarf’s Sandwiches, Phia Alchemy, Santiago’s, Tokyo Joe’s, Crock Spot, and Steam!
Thanks to all for the care, commitment, and intention that is shared within our wonderful community each and every day.
Transgender Journey
Open to all, this webinar includes panelists TC Tolbert, Theo Isoz, and Dylan Wilder Quinn who will share about their personal transgender journeys and discuss—each from their unique professional perspectives—how to support children and teens around their own identity explorations. We will close with a live Q&A moderated by DWS School Counselor Jenny Thompson.
Date: May 13, 2021
Time: 7pm MST
Location: Online via Zoom
Please register to reserve a seat.
About TC Tolbert
TC Tolbert identifies as a trans and genderqueer feminist, collaborator, mover, and poet. And, s/he’s a human in love with humans doing human things. S/he is author of Gephyromania (Ahsahta Press 2014 and to be re-released in 2021 by Nightboat Books), five chapbooks, and co-editor of Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics (Nightboat Books 2013). TC was awarded an Academy of American Poets’ Laureate Fellowship in 2019 for her/his work with trans, non-binary, and queer folks as Tucson’s Poet Laureate. Learn more at www.tctolbert.com.
About Theo Isoz
Theo Isoz (they, them, theirs) is pretty sure that talking about sex is going to change the world. No really, it is. Conversations about sexuality radically address the core of relationships, identity, values, goals, and pleasure which allows people to know and respect themselves as well as the experiences, bodies, and selves of others. Theo is a sex educator and believes deeply in what they do. In recent years, Theo has particularly focused their work on creating conversations that support youth when navigating their sexuality and media, developing LGBTQIA+ inclusive sex education and human services practices, advocating for young people to have autonomy over their bodies and pleasure, and facilitating groups for people whose relationship to their sexuality has been harmed by conservative religious messages. They work for the Colorado Sexual Health Initiative at the Department of Human Services to provide sex education to young people involved in human services systems. In their off-time, Theo crafts and enjoys the menagerie of pets and humans that fill their home with chaos.
About Dylan Wilder Quinn
Dylan Wilder Quinn (they/he) believes closeness is necessary to dismantle oppression. Their combination of life experiences as a childhood abuse survivor and holding both oppressed and oppressor identities informs their liberation work. They are especially passionate about bringing fellow trans, nonbinary, queer, masculine, and disabled white people along in seeing how our own liberation and mental wholeness is deeply tied to ending white supremacy while centering POC liberation. They are a part of a team called Holistic Resistance, founded by Aaron Johnson and Porsha Beed. Learn more at www.dylanwilderquinn.com
About The Denver Waldorf School
Founded in 1974 on Rudolf Steiner’s humanitarian curriculum, DWS believes education should foster what it is to be human, cultivate lifelong curiosity, and inspire a love for the world. Want to learn more about the benefits of Waldorf education? Join us online during one of our many virtual events.
DWS is also currently enrolling preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school students. Tour our school to see the Denver campus and meet us in person!
Webinar Registration
The Ancient Egyptian Spring Festival of Sham Al Naseem
Today, as Denver gets soaked in spring rain, some of our kindergarten students are learning about the ancient Egyptian festival Sham Al Naseem — thanks to DWS parent Bassant Mahran and DWS Kindergarten Teacher Kristina van’t Veer. With gratitude for a community rich in cultural diversity, we hope you enjoy the following description of this celebration written by Bassant.
Sham Al Naseem, which literally means “smelling the breeze,” is an ancient Egyptian spring festival celebrating the renewal of life and hope. The original festival name Shamo means “renewal of life” in ancient Egyptian language, and it is believed to be the first city festival ever celebrated. It dates back roughly 5,000 years, and came to be during the 3rd dynasty of the old kingdom in Heliopolis (“City of the Sun”).
Ancient Egyptians considered spring an essential time and the beginning of creation; the weather warms, the flowers bloom, and all the trees turn green again. Although the day of Sham Al Naseem was not fixed each year, it was announced at the Great Pyramids the night before the festival was to take place.
Later, when Christianity entered Egypt, the dates coincided with Easter celebrations, and Sham Al Naseem began taking place the Monday after the Orthodox Easter. This is still so today, and marks when painting eggs became part of Easter celebrations.
As a child, I remember waking up early on this morning to perfect spring weather. Fresh flowers surrounded our house, and we would start the day painting eggs and writing our names on them. As the morning turned to day, outdoor concerts and shows were held, families picnicked in the parks or took boat rides on the river Nile, and beachgoers who lived in the northern parts of Egypt dotted the coastline.
Another big part of the celebration is food: colored hard-boiled eggs, salted and smoked fish, green onions, and lettuce — each with a symbolic meaning:
Eggs — Symbolize the beginning of creation. Ancient Egyptians painted eggs and wrote their wishes and prayers on them and hung them on trees and temples the night before the festival. The next day, they would break the eggs so all their wishes would come true and their lives would be renewed.
Fish — Symbolize life development, goodness, and welfare.
Green Onions — To drive out evil spirits.
Lettuce — Symbolize hope and the beginning of spring.
To this day, Egyptians celebrate Sham Al Naseem in nearly the same way their ancestors used to celebrate it.
Parent Council Meeting: April 2021
For our last meeting of the school year, the DWS Parent Council was joined by Student Support Coordinator Dr. Sarah Boyer and Health and Safety Manager Christa Gustafson. Please enjoy the recording, minutes, and student support resources below.
We also came across this article you might find valuable from The Atlantic titled There’s a Better Way to Parent: Less Yelling, Less Praise.
Meeting Minutes
Click the button below to download the minutes from the April, 2021 Parent Council meeting.
Recorded PC Meeting and Student Support Presentation
Student Support Resources from Dr. Sarah Boyer
Spartan Senior Night
Celebrating Margaret Hecox and Alexie Pearson
It is with gratitude, excitement, and joy that we honor our beloved 12th graders on Senior Night — a DWS tradition taking place during the varsity girls basketball game on April 21st. About these incredible students, Coach Quinn reflected the following.
Margaret Hecox
Alexie Pearson
Step Inside The Denver Waldorf High School
Step Inside The Denver Waldorf High School
Our high school was founded more than 26 years ago, and our robust and dynamic curriculum has been taught throughout the world for more than 100 years. But today, students find that it’s our hands-on approach to education paired with a diverse and inclusive environment that best prepares them for the world beyond our doors. In fact, when students graduate from DWS, they possess the motivation and the confidence to do the work the world so desperately needs.
Watch the instagram reel below to get a feel for what our high school students value about their Waldorf high school education.
Hear from High School Faculty
All high school classes are honors-level courses that integrate high academics, arts, and movement to educate the whole student. Our seminars are organized into nine four-week blocks. During each block, the curriculum focuses on a single subject (such as chemistry, calculus, or history). These focused blocks allow our students the time to immerse themselves in a subject. In this way, we’re able to hone our students’ true abilities by exposing them to rigorous academics while exciting their critical thinking and developing their academic confidence.
Click the images to watch the videos below and get a sense of how various parts of our curriculum contribute to the larger tapestry of our high school experience.
Hear from DWS Alumni
How does a Waldorf school prepare today’s students for college? Of course, 100% of Denver Waldorf students are accepted into college, the vast majority finishing in four years. And our graduating classes, although intentionally small, average more than $4 million in scholarships per year. The investment feels worth it. But what are the experiences of our recent alumni once they go beyond our doors? During this podcast, we sit down with two recent graduates, Ellery Lewark and Vander Georgeff, and they candidly reflect and share about their experience.
About The Denver Waldorf High School
The Denver Waldorf High School offers a liberal arts education, consciously aimed to nurture and encourage adolescent ideals. The high school experience aims to balance the students’ academic needs with their longing to find meaning in the world.
Engaging Body, Intellect, and Emotion
At the start of each day, movement helps spark students’ circulation and bring them together. They then engage in a long, uninterrupted seminar (referred to as main lesson in elementary and middle school) to activate their minds, followed by music and elective classes to spark emotional expression. Music classes and elective courses promote the development of healthy emotional expression through creation.
High School Music
Regarding music, all high school students participate in chorus, with the option to participate in either music ensemble or orchestra until their senior year. Students new to DWS and who have not played their instrument before are strongly encouraged to take private lessons.
Hands-On Learning of Real-World Skills
Students apply what they’ve learned theoretically to scenarios in the real world. For example, a study of soil composition could be applied to a chemistry lesson on acids and bases, as well as a close reading of The Grapes of Wrath, and a course in black-and-white photography in which they learn to develop their own film.
Rhythm of Thinking, Feeling, and Willing
Our goal is to expose our high school students to academic wealth, and demonstrate to them that all knowledge is valuable to encourage their pursuit of wisdom throughout life.
The high school curriculum revisits themes and subjects periodically to strengthen functional knowledge. Students cultivate their ability to think critically, organize ideas and information, and clearly present thoughts through an academically challenging mix of math, English, humanities, physics, life sciences, chemistry, world language, practical, industrial and fine arts, chorus, orchestra, drama, and physical education.
About The Denver Waldorf School
The Denver Waldorf School is an urban pre-K through 12 independent school in Colorado. Founded in 1974 on Rudolf Steiner’s humanitarian curriculum, DWS believes education should foster what it is to be human, cultivate lifelong curiosity, and inspire a love for the world. We are currently enrolling for in-person learning:
Want to learn more about us? Schedule an in-person tour of our Denver campus or join us online during our virtual events.
Denver Waldorf High School Virtual Open House
Step Inside The Denver Waldorf High School
Wondering if The Denver Waldorf School is the right choice for high school? Join us for a virtual open house with some of our faculty to discuss how the curriculum integrates academics, arts, and athletics in educating the whole student.
Date: April 23, 2021
Time: 12:30pm MDT
Location: Online via Zoom
Please register to reserve a seat.
What You’ll Learn
Led by DWS High School Director Brie Kaiser, you’ll hear from faculty on our approach to humanities, life sciences, art, theater, music, athletics, and more. Take a sneak peek by watching the videos below, and then we’ll dig in with a live Q&A on the 23rd.
About The Denver Waldorf High School
The Denver Waldorf High School offers a liberal arts education, consciously aimed to nurture and encourage adolescent ideals. The high school experience aims to balance the students’ academic needs with their longing to find meaning in the world.
Engaging Body, Intellect, and Emotion
At the start of each day, movement helps spark students’ circulation and bring them together. They then engage in a long, uninterrupted seminar (referred to as main lesson in elementary and middle school) to activate their minds, followed by music and elective classes to spark emotional expression. Music classes and elective courses promote the development of healthy emotional expression through creation.
High School Music
Regarding music, all high school students participate in chorus, with the option to participate in either music ensemble or orchestra until their senior year. Students new to DWS and who have not played their instrument before are strongly encouraged to take private lessons.
Hands-On Learning of Real-World Skills
Students apply what they’ve learned theoretically to scenarios in the real world. For example, a study of soil composition could be applied to a chemistry lesson on acids and bases, as well as a close reading of The Grapes of Wrath, and a course in black-and-white photography in which they learn to develop their own film.
Rhythm of Thinking, Feeling, and Willing
Our goal is to expose our high school students to academic wealth, and demonstrate to them that all knowledge is valuable to encourage their pursuit of wisdom throughout life.
The high school curriculum revisits themes and subjects periodically to strengthen functional knowledge. Students cultivate their ability to think critically, organize ideas and information, and clearly present thoughts through an academically challenging mix of math, English, humanities, physics, life sciences, chemistry, world language, practical, industrial and fine arts, chorus, orchestra, drama, and physical education.
About The Denver Waldorf School
The Denver Waldorf School is an urban pre-K through 12 independent school in Colorado. Founded in 1974 on Rudolf Steiner’s humanitarian curriculum, DWS believes education should foster what it is to be human, cultivate lifelong curiosity, and inspire a love for the world. We are currently enrolling for in-person learning:
Want to learn more about us? Schedule an in-person tour of our Denver campus or join us online during our virtual events.