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In this course, educators in alternative schools will learn how infusing a standards-based curriculum with the arts and Waldorf methodology can lead to a successful, transformative educational experience for both teachers and students.

Focus of the course is disseminating an innovative model program for at-risk youth developed over the past several years at the Yuba County Court and Community Schools in partnership with Rudolf Steiner College. The project is currently supported by the California Arts Council (as an arts demonstration project) and the Walter S. Johnson Foundation.

 

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

• Students improve academic skills, as well as their attitude toward school, themselves, and their communities.

• The arts–– drawing, music, painting, storytelling, movement, poetry, and drama–– are integrated fully into academic lessons.

• The integrated arts program, in sync with current neurological research, increases students’ learning abilities, and helps break the cycle of failure and hopelessness in which these students are often trapped.

• The Waldorf-based program has been tested for seven years at the T.E. Mathews Community School in Yuba County with high-risk juvenile offenders, 12-18 years old.

WHAT TEACHERS WILL LEARN

• To deliver creative, arts-infused thematic lessons within a curriculum that meets state standards, as well as students’ developmental needs

• To develop personal capacities in the arts, literature, music, and movement

• to engage students with multiple learning styles and challenges

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"I had the opportunity to spend a day at T. E. Mathews School in Marysville. The program is impressive. The students, on probation from the Juvenile Court, were engaged, actively learning, and having fun...I wouldn't have believed it---thirty plus juvenile delinquents playing recorders and loving it. What an impressive sight!

Dale Hamad, Ph.D.
Supervisor of Academic Instruction
CA State Prison, Sacramento

Waldorf methodology…incorporates the best practices that resilience education and prevention evaluation research have found to promote positive developmental outcomes in young people, including health-risk behavior prevention/intervention and academic success.

The project fills an incredible void, a vast gap in the supports, services and opportunities available to young people, especially those with multiple risks and challenges in their lives. The project offers both the content and process for creating a cadre of turnaround teachers and turnaround schools that truly can weave a safety net, a fabric of resilience for our most in need young people.”

 

On the last day of school, two fifteen year old boys – one Hispanic, the other Hmong – played a Mozart duet on their recorders. Both had been expelled from public schools for violent acts, constant failure in class, and refusal to follow directions. But their music lessons were rigorous. They had never worked so hard on anything. When they finished playing their duet before an audience of 45, classmates cheered and they even clapped for themselves. It was a miracle.

Principal Ruth Mikkelsen
Yuba County Court and Community Schools
2002-2003 Administrator of the Year, Colusa/Sutter/Yuba Counties

SCHEDULE: Friday: 7:15 – 9:15 pm Saturday:8:30 – 4::30 pm

REGISTRATION:Before November 6 - $175 • Af ter November 6 - $200

FACULTY: Betty Staley, M.A. (Director), Penni Sparks, Maureen Curran and others

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS OF AT-RISK YOUTH REGISTRATION FORM PDF
Registration form in Adobe format. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, please go to the Adobe website for a FREE download.

For information: please contact Arline Monks
(916) 961-3932 at Rudolf Steiner College

RUDOLF STEINER COLLEGE
9200 Fair Oaks Boulevard, Fair Oaks, CA 95628
(916) 961-8727