TALE OF TWO HIGH SCHOOLS Reflections of a Steiner High School Founder and Teacher On the 16th July 2002, your author was interviewed by Ms. Glennis Mowday for her Master of Education thesis on Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School, of which I was privileged to be one of the founding teachers of the high school. I […]
BOOK: Word Circus
Word Circus: The Book Review
New Directions A salutary exercise for Class 7 students enjoying their The Book main lesson is for them to select a book, either fiction or non-fiction, to read and then write a review. The following is one of my own – albeit tongue-in-cheek – efforts; a street directory being an unlikely subject for review (but […]
Word Circus: Story Writing
Australian Story Writing 3-Week Main Lesson, Class 8 Lorien Novalis School, 1981 Susan Whitehead – Teacher Note: This can be adapted to any country you live in. 17 X 2 hrs. Creative Writing By Stephen Whitehead The Creative Word A Gift to Man. Through the ages here on Earth The Written word has had its […]
Word Circus: Myth and Legend
SPIRIT OF THE HORSE Myth and Legend – Class 8 – Middle Lesson As a guardian of Class 8 (1981), I commissioned Susan Whitehead, she of the poetic eyes, to take this Literary Arts middle lesson, and as it turned out, all five units right up to Class 12. How my class benefited by this […]
Word Circus: Medieval Literature
TWO RAINBOW TEMPLES Medieval Literature – Class 8 – Main Lesson Note that in Earthschooling we do this block in high school so I have also filed it in the high school section. We do the Middle Ages block itself in 7th grade. The most noble subject in the whole of the 12-fold Subject Zodiac we […]
Word Circus: Grammar’s Great
GRAMMAR’S GREAT Language Structure – Class 8 – Main Lesson The Class 8 students had settled down at last in this, the first day of their new Language main lesson. There was a mood of ennui as the teacher toyed with a piece of chalk before announcing the subject. “Grammar!” she said; 25 faces pales […]
Word Circus: Story Writing
THE WHITE WARATAH Australian Story Writing – Class 8 – Main Lesson Note that the concepts in this lesson can be applied to any country you live in. The small audience of high school teachers were settling in nicely in the comfortable – smoke-free! – lounge-staffroom as the visiting speaker, after the usual formalities, began […]
Word Circus: Print Media
TOWN CRYER TECHNOLOGY Print Media – Class 7 – Middle Lesson “Why have you got that picture on the wall?” asked one of the Class 7 children, a small, Aboriginal girl named Alana, of the newspaper Editor on the Print Media excursion. “That’s St. John,” he answered “Patron Saint of Writers. Sometimes in the hurley-burley […]
Word Circus: Audio & Visual Media
HOLOGRAPHY – HOLLOW LAUGH Audio-Visual Media – Class 7 – Middle Lesson The Class 1 teacher, Steen, had worked in radio before becoming a Steiner teacher; so he was the obvious choice to conduct the Audio-Visual, or Electronic, Media middle lesson in Class 7. This was one of the ever-sensible swaps which occur – or […]
Word Circus: The Book
ON PAPER WINGS The Book – Class 7 – Main Lesson The Librarian replaced the book, the novel Rolf Boldrewood’s Robbery Under Arms, in the shelf; took a last look around the room, turned off the lights – and hurried off home. “It’s funny isn’t it.” Mused Noel to no-one in particular “how books represent […]
Word Circus: The 12 Figures of Speech
ONE BY ONE 12 Figures of Speech – Class 7 – Main Lesson One by one they came, From a pre-cast die On a distant sky…dum, dum, dum…? The trapeze artist caught himself humming that song again as he supervised the roustabouts erecting his rigging. High Flyer, as was his show name, was going to […]
Word Circus: Calligraphy
SIGNATURE OF SEVENTH CLASS Calligraphy – Class 7 – Main Lesson Class 7 is the final year of primary in many Steiner schools. This was not always so, in the “Mutter Schule’ in Stuttgart, the first Waldorf School, that created (at first almost exclusively) for the children of the factory workers in the Waldorf cigarette […]