These WISC students have completed, or are now in the final stages of completing, Waldorf teacher training, and are graduating this year.
This page may be especially helpful to Waldorf schools which are looking for qualified potential teachers to hire. For inquiries, e-mail: info@waldorfteaching.org
Katheryn Anderson grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and spent the majority of her high school and early college years working in the professional and community theaters of that area. The vast majority of her theatrical training and experience occurred with The California Shakespeare Festival, and includes one summer with the Oregon infants and toddlers. She has the equivalent of an Associates Degree, including all twelve Early Childhood Education units. She plans on pursuing a Bachelors Degree in Child Development after graduating from the WISC program. Katheryn is currently working with some of her WISC colleagues and a parent group to open a new Waldorf Initiative school in the Escondido area. She is most passionate about working in the Waldorf Early Childhood setting; however, she does wish to teach the grades at some point in her teaching career.
Kathi Blocher continues to reshape herself through her work. Presently, she devotes herself to early childhood. Previous to this work she concentrated on graduate studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a focus on Arts and Sciences and a thesis on social and emotional gesture to help children with autism. Earlier her work was in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science. Her life has maintained a balance vocationally with interruptions of a sailing and yacht management business and creating small business ventures, of which some still exist today.
Ramona Budrys: My path towards becoming a Waldorf teacher includes an early passion for theatre and literature, followed by the study of law and an enjoyable legal career. Upon starting a family, a discovery of Waldorf education and subsequent study of anthroposophy led me to enroll in the teacher training program at the Waldorf Institute of Southern California, which I will complete in the summer of 2008.
I have been a teacher’s assistant at the Pasadena Waldorf School for the past three years and am currently assisting in the second grade. I have been a parent at two Waldorf schools for a total of ten years.
I am looking for an independent Waldorf school where I can experience a collaborative atmosphere with colleagues striving to support each other in the art of education, together with a class where I can share my love of children and learning.
Veronica Connaughton: After receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, a desire arose in me to pursue a career in Education. While working with students with special needs, I began raising my three children and completed a Master’s Degree in Special Education and a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential. One of my first teaching assignments was as a bilingual (Spanish/English) Special Education teacher. Thereafter I spent six years at home with my three children who eventually led me to Waldorf and the WISC teacher training program.
The WISC program has given me tools to imbue my lessons with imagination, beauty and purpose. Through this training and the study of Anthroposophy I can now reflect inwardly to seek guidance and inspiration to meet each student where he is developmentally. Through Waldorf, I have found a place that feeds my passion for knowledge and my love for connecting with and nurturing the spirit in our children.
Corby Gallegos: I’m a WISC student who will be graduating in May, 2008. I’m currently teaching 9th and 10th grade Drama, Comedy & Tragedy, Russian Literature and Shakespeare main lesson blocks at Highland Hall. Next year, I will be employed full time as the chair of Highland Hall’s fledgling Drama Dept. I am an actor, writer, visual artist, and musician. I am also a husband and the father of two magical kids.
My entire life has been devoted to the arts, and I was lucky enough to have parents who supported my creativity. My Dad nurtured my musicality, and my Mom made all of my school play costumes. I was always involved in a play, art show, or starting up one of many rock bands in my family’s garage. I am still in a band, and my Dad still shows up to my gigs!
I began teaching Drama while attending CalArts in Valencia, where I majored in Art and Theatre. I worked for the City of Los Angeles and the City of Glendale as an outreach instructor for after-school arts classes. Later, I moved to Asheville, N.C. where I co-directed the Asheville Youth Theatre program in conjunction with the city’s cultural affairs department.
I was eventually hired to head up the acting program at The Sho Kosugi Institute in Tokyo, Japan for two years, where I taught scene work and improvisation to children and adults. Upon returning to Los Angeles, I met my wife and started a family which led me to investigate Waldorf Education.
My initial encounter with Anthroposophy and the writing of Rudolf Steiner was nothing short of a revelation to me. It felt, and still feels, like the path I was always meant to walk. I hope to bring my artistic experience and enthusiasm to students who are unfolding their magnificent abilities through the arts.
Beatrice Meier (a.k.a. Mei-yeh Chen)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
2007 Performed puppetry for the Magical Halloween Journey held at the Waldorf School of Santa Barbara (WSSB).
2006-07 After school care teacher for the kindergarten at the WSSB.
2006-07 Performed puppetry for the kindergarten at the WSSB.
2006 Performed puppetry for the Magical Halloween Journey held at the WSSB
2005 Performed puppetry and taught Chinese arts at the Santa Barbara Charter School, Home Based Program.
2000-03 Assisting in the Parent-Toddler group at the WSSB.
1993-1996 Worked as a translator for The Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture.
1990-1992 Worked as an editor and translator for the ART Book CO., Ltd in Taipei, editing books on Chinese painting, calligraphy, jade and porcelain, etc.
1988-1989 Worked as a classroom assistant in a Montessori kindergarten and the 1st grade.
EDUCATION & CERTIFICATION:
2007 Juniper Tree School of Puppetry and Arts founded by Suzanne Down.
2007 Foreign Language teaching workshop at the AWSNA conference.
1985 Certificate for teaching Chinese from the Overseas Chinese Association.
1983 Graduated from the Department of Western Languages and Literature, B.A. from National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan.
INTERESTS & PURSUITS:
Teaching Grades or Chinese as a foreign language; combining Eurythmy, drama, and puppetry.
Leticia Ortega, oldest of six children, grew up in Chihuahua, Mexico and now finds her home in Southern California with her two children. Her daughter has started her higher education path while her son begins his sixth year in a Waldorf School.
Leticia’s love of children shows in her devotion to education of twenty years in the diverse plains of social, cultural and economic life. She works with children in early childhood, in special education and in varied learning environments. Presently, Ms. Ortega works with the Waldorf School of San Diego and embarks on her second year with this community.
Shaphir Paoli is a homeschooling mother of two and a certified massage therapist. Her main interest is the healing power of conscious community, and why they are so difficult to form. She is currently working with the Rock Rose Waldorf Initiative in Escondido, California, which is is providing opportunity for living into these questions.
Margarita Sabeva: I am a nursery assistant at the Westside Waldorf School Early Childhood Center, California. Prior to having this position I have worked as a nap/after care teacher and a first grade assistant. In addition, I have subbed and assisted the handwork teacher in all the grades of our school.
I was born and grew up in Bulgaria. There in 1989 I completed my M.A. in Elementary Education, majoring in Pre-School and Elementary Pedagogy, and began to teach at age of 21. For the next seven years I taught in Bulgaria where elementary school teachers instruct the same students from first through the end of fourth grade. The special time I had with my students in those years enriched my life in numerous ways and became an endless source of inspiration and gratitude.
My ex-husband's job brought me to the United States at age of 28. My new experiences were teaching, tutoring and assisting in private and public schools in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Unified School Districts. My main focus was children with special needs ranging in age from 3 to 18 years old. My interest in learning how to approach these children's worlds in the best educational and personal way was triggered by the fact that they are often placed in "regular" classrooms.
At age of 37, I gratefully discovered Waldorf education and embracing completely all its artistic insights, I enrolled in the Waldorf Institute of Southern California. While engaged at the grades oriented teacher training, last year I discovered the real magic of the early childhood world and puppetry. Creating puppets became essential for my self. Away from school I keep singing and not only Bulgarian folk songs. I also enjoy reading and writing poetry and creating jewelry.
In May 2008 I will graduate from the Waldorf teacher training. Although feeling drawn to subject teaching as well, I would love to become an early childhood teacher. Turning 40, I am looking forward to a next step - being a part of an inspiring and supportive group of colleagues in a Waldorf school.
Lauren Schowe was born in 1976, and raised in and near Pasadena, CA. She moved to the East Coast for college, where she graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. degree in International Relations, Peace and Justice Studies, and Community Health. She continued on in school, this time studying to be a social change organizer which would lead her down to South America, where she spent much of the following seven years doing human rights and environmental work. There, her path curved towards homebirth midwifery and anthroposophical studies, and endeavors such as biodynamic agriculture, hospice care and anthroposophical medicine. In 2005 she moved to the San Diego area, where she began working as a homebirth midwife, doula, childbirth educator and, being fluent in Spanish, as a Spanish teacher. In 2006 she started the Teacher Training through the Waldorf Institute of Southern California. Lauren joined the Sanderling Waldorf School in the 2006-07 school year, then as Assistant Teacher of the Chickadees Parent-Child classes. During the 2007-08 school year, she began assistant teaching in the Rose Mixed-Age Kindergarten (3-6 year-olds). She will graduate from WISC in June, 2008, and finish up class work in December, 2008. One of the many things that draws Lauren to wanting to be a Waldorf class teacher is the opportunity it gives to engage with the children in so many subjects and activities she finds fascinating and enjoyable. Lauren is not married and has no children of her own.
Yelena Sedochenkova: “The world is an infinitely interesting place,” someone once said to me. And over the years, I have found these words to be profoundly true, words by which I live. My journey so far has been rich, overflowing with experience and lessons, and through it all there has been a presence guiding me, helping me to create the person I want to be. There are so many sides to me, all of them real, all of them valuable. I am originally from Latvia, USSR, and I am Russian by heritage. I speak fluent Russian and can also speak Spanish. I have noticed that my Spanish flourishes when I am in a Spanish-speaking country, it seems that the mind stores things away until they are needed.
I moved to Burbank, California in 1992, just after the Soviet Union broke up. The United States was shockingly different, and it took me several years to adjust and to accept it as home. I finished high school in Burbank and moved to San Diego to attend the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). University was amazing. My time at UCSD taught me to think on a different level, I felt challenged and intrigued as new layers of life’s depth were revealed to me. In my third year I traveled to England on a study abroad program, a year that became a major turning point in my life. I turned 21 that year. That year and in the years since, I have done a lot of traveling, and I am excited to continue to explore the Earth and her people in the years to come. I finished UCSD in 2004 and graduated with a degree in Communication and in Russian Literature.
I figured out that teaching is my path sometime after university, and of course, Waldorf came my way at the perfect time. Waldorf was the nourishment and challenge for which I yearned, and it has been bringing out the best in me since we began. The safety of the environment allows for true growth to take place, and even if old structures need to fall apart, we hold space so that it need not be a threat. I realize that it is this “holding space” that we are bringing to the children, guiding them to explore the world around them and the world within them. We hold them so they may grow into themselves.
I love creating. I am a dancer, and have been since childhood. The arts is where I’ve always felt most at home. I love to draw and paint, and to sculpt things out of clay. I love playing guitar, and singing, and playing drums. I am learning the flute. I love to write poems and stories, I am so grateful for words. And I am grateful for everything else too, for the blessings of inner and outer life, and for the challenges that come along to teach important lessons. Sometimes it’s peachy and sometimes it’s a struggle, but I am finding that there is always room to grow. For all of us. We are in an ongoing process of becoming, individually and collectively, and the more we can see ourselves in each other, the stronger we become. And the children already know this; we are here to help them not to forget. We help them find their own power. We help them find the world and themselves in it. I am open to any teaching position, but initially I am leaning towards kindergarten, so that I may lay down a strong foundation before embarking on the journey of the grades. Here we are this time around, exploring this life, this form, and each of us brings something that helps us all grow, and learn, and laugh, and love.
Brandy Steinhilber: What I’ve always wanted to be is a teacher. As a child, I played teacher and made a little grade book. I had a slate that I set up on an easel and gave lessons to all my imaginary students. What I didn’t know until many years later was that I wanted to be a Waldorf Class Teacher.
I grew up in rural Kentucky working and playing outside and in the kitchen. My mother taught me the skills of living - cooking, gardening, canning, sewing and how to apply a little elbow grease to tough jobs. My father taught me how to use a hammer and saw and to not repeat the words he said when he smashed his thumb. He read poetry and literature to me and taught me magic tricks. My sister taught me to be kind and generous. Our family sang together on the porch swing and went to plays and museums. We hiked and canoed and waded in creeks.
When I graduated from high school, I left the nest and went out into the world to seek adventure. My adventures led me through a year of school at Warren Wilson College in the mountains of North Carolina and across the country to Northern California where I worked for the California Conservation Corps doing Salmon Restoration in the cold, muddy creeks of the redwood forests, but my future did not lie in fish, and I began to feel myself being called back to school.
I enrolled in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky and graduated with a degree in Foreign Language Education. I had been in the process of looking at graduate schools when a friend introduced me to Waldorf Education. I moved to Los Angeles, enrolled in the teacher-training program at the Waldorf Institute of Southern California and took a job as an assistant in the Fourth Grade at the Pasadena Waldorf School. I continued assisting the same class the following year and started working in the After-School Care Program for which I ran the study hall. This year, I am still at PWS, now assisting in the Third Grade and continuing with study hall.
I am graduating in May, and I would like to take a class next year. While I am open to the possibilities that come my way wherever they may be, I have sorely missed having four distinct seasons while living in Southern California. I would love to live and work in a place where the leaves change color in the autumn and it snows in the winter.
Mara Rickenbacher West: When I embarked on my study of Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy, I stopped my work as a casting director and art event planner to work with children again. I am currently the child care provider for three families, two of which I met during their enrollment in the Pasadena Waldorf Toddler Program.
I became interested in Waldorf Education after attending a lecture on the Social Mission of Waldorf Education. It was a beacon in the night; I had been searching for a way to collaborate with those who wanted to protect human freedoms. How better to achieve this than through education and the constructive revolutionary thoughts and ideas of Rudolf Steiner and this three fold approach.
I come from a progressive family of innovative educators, environmentalists, farmers, poets, musicians, artists, and performers. I grew up across the woods from a farm school for teenagers with special needs that my grandparents started on Bainbridge Island, Washington. I attended alternative high schools and later received my B.A. from The Evergreen State College where I won the Senior Thesis Award for a musical I wrote inspired by Goethe’s Faust. I have continued to write plays and poetry since then as well as to explore my other artistic interests such as sculpture, dancing, costume design, crafts, cooking, and my dear love and appreciation for music and singing.
When I look to my near future and what I can give to a Waldorf community I see myself bringing theater, speech, sculpture, art, festival planning, and eventually class teaching. Coming from a strong education formed by collaborative study, I wish to be a part of a school that holds this spirit and makes it accessible to all. I am a great admirer of John Muir and his tenacity for wonder-filled observation, curiosity, and an enthusiasm for the glories of Nature. I hope to be a part of a community that holds true the importance of learning about and from the harmonies of the earth, her kingdoms, and the Cosmos both in and around us.