We’ve been nominated for the 2016 Best of Boulder™ Survey. 

The survey is live from March 1 through midnight on March 31. The survey will be able to be reached through www.BoulderWeekly.com, or directly via http://bit.ly/BestOfBoulder2016. Votes may be cast by smartphone, tablet or computer, but only one vote per device and per email address is allowed. All specifics about voting are explained on the first page of the survey. 

Thank you for taking the time to cast your vote for SMWS!

Dear SMWS Community,

As the darkest days of winter begin to wane, I am again reminded why I love living in Colorado, and especially, Boulder! When I lived in Virginia, I dreaded the month of February, with its dreary and overcast days, and little outside activities. Here in Colorado, the bright sunny skies and snow beckon me outside, whether it is for a sunrise run, cross country skiing in the open space, or the beautiful ski resorts just a short drive away. I continue to count my blessings, not only for living in such a lovely place, but for being part of this school and community, and seeing my children, as well as yours, thriving.

This past weekend I was again inspired and rejuvenated by attending our High School Future Search Retreat with 40 stakeholders in our High School community- parents, faculty, staff, alumni, and students. I learned so much about the High School’s biography, and together we co-created a vision for the next five years- and beyond. What was most surprising to me was learning about the founding of Shining Mountain Waldorf High School- and how different our founding was from what is typical across the Waldorf movement.

Our High School was founded very quickly, alongside the creation of the Lower School, and burst into being- with little planning, structure, and form. In fact, our High School’s biography has been one based on big personalities, rather than program. Founded by the Waldorf “giants” of Rene Querido, David Sloan, and David Mitchell, nurtured and built by Dan Diehl and Patricia Sexton, and carried in later years by Thom Schaefer and David Blair. What we all discovered together this past weekend, was that to have a thriving, sustainable future for our High School we can no longer build around personalities, but rather we must build from our core values and guiding principles, rooted in Rudolf Steiner’s developmental and pedagogical principles for adolescents. Understanding our biography really helped me to understand where we have been, and where we need to go- and was the basis for all the work we did this past weekend.

There were a few key themes that emerged from the HS Future Search Retreat, which we will be taking up and acting upon in the coming weeks, months, and years. The overarching vision for our High School can be summarized in one key statement:

Shining Mountain Waldorf High School leads the Waldorf high school movement worldwide.

We inhabit our core values and mission. Anchored in Rudolf Steiner’s pedagogy, we provide education effective to 21^st century life.

The major themes that emerged out of this overarching vision are summarized in the following provocative statements:

1.  Support for Life after High School.

SMWHS effectively prepares students for what comes after their experience at Shining Mountain Waldorf High School. We will take action to reduce stress for students preparing to apply for college, planning a gap year, looking at vocational plans, internships, or anything else.

2. Strong Student and Faculty Connections

We will abide by an agreement by faculty and students to engage actively on campus, creating a culture of kindness.

3. Faculty Development

We are a vibrant faculty that works collaboratively to inspire pedagogical excellence by utilizing internal and external support and resources.

4. Making SMWS a sanctuary of mindful and embodied living that provides a path to a child’s destiny

SMWHS is dedicated in all its endeavors to the development of the whole being (body, soul and spirit) for all members of the community, student and adult, so that each student may achieve his/her highest potential. We instill in our students the courage to commit to mindful, clean, and substance-free choices that live up to this ideal, empowering them to be freely present in the possibility of their destiny.

5. Faculty and Parent Relations

We, the parents and faculty actively engage in understanding how and why we apply the living and dynamic indications of Rudolf Steiner to form the HS curriculum so that together we can unanimously and unconditionally implement the vision and mission of the HS.

Our community culture is a model of aligned partnership between our unified body of the faculty, students, administrators, and parents.

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Building upon the strong platform created by our founders, we will focus our energy in the HS in these key areas. As our plans come together, we will share them with the entire community and ask for your support and participation. As the parent of a 9^th grader who is currently thriving in the High School, as well as an engaged and vibrant 6^th grader, I am deeply committed to ensuring that this vision is implemented. I stand in gratitude to each community member who spent last weekend at the Retreat, to each community member who took the time to fill out the survey, and to everyone who cares so deeply about our High School. In Waldorf education, the HS experience remains the “crowning achievement” of the curriculum, and I look forward to my own children having this opportunity, as well as yours.

In love and light,

Jane

 

Dear SMWS Community,

How I love the month of December and the Winter Holiday Season! Regardless of your own spiritual path, there is something magical and reverent about these long, dark days, and the light shining forth from candles, twinkly lights, and the stars that blaze their glory each and every evening. Because my work days tend to be so long, I have been taking my daily walks in the dark, wandering around North Boulder, looking up into the starry sky, and asking the big questions of our lives- “why are we here and what is our work on this earth, right here, and right now?”

Coming through the past few months, some of these questions have been answered in my own journey. My work, in this time, place, and stage, is to continue to raise my children into morally upright and balanced human beings, to support my husband in his life’s journey, and to shine my light on the shadows that have been living at Shining Mountain Waldorf School. A wise woman and colleague once told me that in places of great light the shadows also live, and Shining Mountain is one of those places. As the darkness of the winter is reaching its peak, our spiritual light is blazing stronger than ever. We, as a school, will continue to strive to stand in the light, to shed light on the shadows that may surround us, and to walk each day doing our best to make the decisions that will serve this school and these children well for many years to come. I hope that each of you will commit to joining me, the Board of Trustees, the College of Teachers, Faculty, Staff, and other parents- past, present, and future, on continuing on this journey into the light together.

I love the festival life of this season. I love the Advent Spirals, the visit of St. Nicholas and his mischievous helper, Rupert, St. Lucia, the Holiday Bazaar, Winter Faire, Winter Concert, Winter Assembly, and the mornings on the last week of school that we spend caroling around a warm fire on the Lower School Courtyard. I also love thinking about the question that I will bring into my meditative life during the Holy Nights: that time between the longest day of the year and early January. This year I will be asking the universe to send our school a new Pedagogical Director, someone with a huge heart, deep connection to Waldorf education and anthroposophy, and a dynamic vision for how we can transform our school in this next cycle of its life. Last year, during the Holy Nights, I had three consecutive dreams about Stacie Schaefer, surrounded by a group of children. I reached out to her and told her, “Stacie, I think you should apply to be next year’s first grade teacher!” She informed me that she would meet with me after the Holy Nights, and that is what she did. She told me that she had also had dreams that “a group of children were calling to her.” She then went to spend some time with our rising first graders in the kindergartens, and, indeed, these were her children. What question will you be asking during the Holy Nights this year?

With many blessings to you and yours this holiday season.

In love and light,

Jane

 

Dear SMWS Community,

I am always surprised by how I am affected by the loss of Daylight Savings Time every year! The abrupt change in the clock, the weather, and the light always takes me a few weeks to get adjusted to, and in this transition, I am given the wonderful gift of feeling a bit out of sorts, a bit more introspective, and a bit more reflective. My family also suffered the passing of my dear father-in-law, which was not unexpected, but still a shock. These opportunities of being jolted out of my daily existence have been a gift, as it has again reminded me of the many gifts of being part of the Shining Mountain community and how blessed we truly are to be sharing this educational journey together.

Every Tuesday I have the opportunity to do Lower School Lunch Recess Duty, and there were a group of 4^th graders one day with stapled sheets of paper up in the climbing structure. I had never seen this, and could not imagine that at recess they would be studying for a test in 4^th grade in a Waldorf School! I was fascinated and had to find out what was going on. “We have written a play, Ms. Zeender! Can we perform it for you?!” “Of course!” And I proceeded to be the one audience member to witness a glorious performance by about eight 4^th grade girls about a mysterious ghost and its silly adventures. THIS is what Waldorf education is all about. The enthusiasm, creativity, initiative, and joy I witness every single day in the eyes of all of our students, from kindergarten through High School is what continues to motivate me to get up each day to be a contributing member of our community. The question I will ask you this month is this: What motivates you to give of your time, your talent, and your resources to our school?

I ask this question not only because it has helped motivate and inspire my work here as Shining Mountain’s School Director, but also because I am hopeful it will motivate and inspire your family, your parents, and your friends to give above and beyond tuition to this year’s Annual Fund, a critical component of helping us to support this school and its many programs. It is very easy to be influenced by our culture of being “consumers of an educational product”, and that “we pay our tuition, and that should be enough!”

How do I quantify the value of my daughter Kalea’s 6^th Grade Class Teacher, Michael Janzen, who not only carried my son Marcus through the travails of Middle School so beautifully, and now is doing the same for Kalea? How do I quantify the value of Tyler Haughness, Marcus’ High School Cross Country Coach, who is teaching my son through his actions to run when he is stressed out, and to make healthy decisions about his body as well as his mind? And how do I quantify the value of our Lower and High School Receptionists, Kim Rector and Bridget Gallagher, who know my children intimately, as well as yours, and provide them loving care day in and day out? And the list goes on and on.

A wise mentor once told me, “We trade our Life Energy for money, and that money is our collective life energy flowing through the world, in service to the world, and is most useful when it is motion.” My family’s life energy, in our hands, our minds, and our financial resources, flows into and through this school, and I hope that your family too will consider making a personally significant gift to this year’s Annual Fund, on behalf of these children and the light and life energy they will contribute to our world. Thank you so much, and continued blessings on our journey together.

With love and light,

Jane

The Tale of Michaelmas ~ A visual story created by Storyworks

Shining Mountain Waldorf School, in the tradition of Waldorf schools world wide, has a long standing, rich festival life. One of the most beloved festivals is Michaelmas, the celebration of the Festival of St. Michael. As the days become shorter and the autumn months unfold, we call on our Michaelic courage to meet the darker days and places in ourselves symbolized by the dragon.

Our school celebrated Michaelmas last week with our annual pageant of St. Michael and the Knights of Light taming the dragon, all set against a backdrop of the stunning beauty of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

 

We invite you to watch our tale of courage here: 

Enjoy! And may you find courage within yourself for this Michaelmas season!