Tea School Days

Shop "Tea" at TeaSchoolDays.com form October 13th-19th and you can sign up New Amsterdam to receive a portion of the proceeds! It's an easy, fun way to give back! 

Holiday Auction Kick-Off Party

Join Us this Wednesday Night 

for Our Holiday Auction Kick-Off Party!

VON Bar, 3 Bleecker Street @ Bowery

Wednesday, October 8th
6:00-8:00pm

Join us and help make this year's Holiday Auction a success.

Join us for good food and drink, great company and to support an incredible cause. 

We hope you will consider donating items to auction off, and we hope that 

everyone will lend a hand to help solicit items. Please join us to find out how!

(And get a chance to bid on a few items available that night only!!)

A Big  Thank You to Our Sponsors:

Murray's Cheese, Lagunitas Beer, Jennifer Desmond and Von.

Dear Families,

Fall is here! We put our sandals and bug spray in back closets, trade summer berries for apples, and walk, bus, bike, and drive children to our newly expanded school. As I mentioned at the Community meeting, this Wednesday we will hold our Holiday Auction Kickoff Party at Von Bar.The Holiday Auction is an important fundraiser that helps support our tuition assistance program, staff enrichment, and defrays our school's rising operating expenses. Last year we raised more than $25,000 for our school and we're aiming to build on that success this year.

It's time to think about what contributions you can donate or solicit, or how to lend a hand to the Craft Cooperative to help create the toys and decorations that are always so popular. If every family got their favorite restaurant, shop, weekend escape, yoga studio, spa, or crafty friend to donate something, we'd have a fantastic offering.

Donation forms and solicitation forms are attached and available in reception at all three of our locations. Donations will be happily received via the hard copy forms or by email. (Please include as much information as possible plus any images).

Contact the Holiday Auction Committee if you have any questions or need more information.

Warmly,

The Holiday Auction Committee

Aya Karpińska

Mother to Felix in Mixed-Age Kindergarten and Nina in Parent-Child

aya@technekai.com

Lynne Wu

Mother to Shanti in Mixed-Age Kindergarten  

lynne.wu@newamsterdamchildhood.org

Howard Dulaney

Father to Lisette in Mixed-Age Kindergarten

Nina Kaufelt

Mother to Rose and Jacob in Mixed-Age Kindergarten

Kaarin von Herrlich

Mother to M. Sofia in First Grade

New Amsterdam School Directory

Dear New Amsterdam School Families,

We are currently working to compile a school-wide Directory to share with the families at our school. The directory will include the email addresses and home addresses of each enrolled family. If for any reason you wish to keep certain information private and out of the directory, or if you wish to be excluded from the directory altogether, please let us know as soon as possible by emailing Meaghan Witri with your request  meaghan.witri@newamsterdamchildhood.org

The directory is helpful as a community building and friendship building tool. The emails and addresses compiled will be used exclusively for school-related events (such as invitations to benefit concerts, etc.), and family-related events for the children and their families in our community (for instance a birthday party invitation from a family in your class). It can also be helpful for New Amsterdam families to discover neighbors and arrange playground meet-ups and play-dates.

The directory is intended for New Amsterdam family use only. We will never share your information with anyone outside the community. And we expect all recipients of the directory to uphold the same consideration.

With gratitude,

New Amsterdam Faculty and Staff

Caregiver Class at New Amsterdam School

“ If During the first period of life, we create an atmosphere of gratitude around the children, then out of this gratitude toward the world, toward the entire universe, and also out of thankfulness for being able to be in this world, a profound and warm sense of devotion will arise…upright, honest and true.” 

-Rudolf Steiner

The Child’s Changing Consciousness

Our Caregiver Class will meet on Wednesdays

11:30 AM -12:30 PM for 9 weeks, beginning Wednesday October 1^st

The Caregiver Class gives parents and caregivers alike the tools to provide care for children and infants that is reflective of the Waldorf approach, and will help support families to work with this approach in their homes.

This nine week course warmly invites anyone interested in deepening his or her understanding of the very young child, birth to three years old.  The course intends to support parents and caregivers in their work with children through study of the developing human being and self development in relationship to the wellbeing of the child and its relationship to their environment.

Course Outline

Week 1: The Unfolding Human Being

Week 2: The Unfolding Human Being

Week 3: Self Initiated Movement

Week 4: Rhythm

Week 5: Rhythm

Week 6: Imitation

Week 7: Foundational Senses

Week 8: Practical Activities: Bread Baking

Week 9: Artistic Activity / Review

The price for the course is $414

Please contact our Admissions Director, Cherish Pratt, to fill out an application or for more information
cherish.pratt@newamsterdamchildhood.org

Lecture at the Steiner School with Douglas Gerwin, Ph.D.

Community Lecture at the Steiner School with Douglas Gerwin, Ph.D.

Rudolf Steiner School, Upper School, 15 East 78th Street 

Monday, September 17th 7pm

Sleep On It
In education, we are finally waking up to the value of sleep.

Recent research confirms what Waldorf teachers have long known: children and teenagers learn more––and more deeply––when they sleep than when they are awake. In an age of insomnia, how do we guard the sleep of our youngsters?  Indeed, how do we restore restful sleep for ourselves?

Douglas Gerwin, Ph.D., will guide us on a journey to the land beyond the River Lethe –– where sleep is practiced as a vibrant activity, not as a vacuous zoning out.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Douglas Gerwin, Ph.D., has taught history, literature, German, music, and life science at college and Waldorf high school levels for over 35 years. As Director of the Center for Anthroposophy (CfA), he divides his time between adult education and teaching adolescents, as well as mentoring Waldorf schools across North America.
Himself a Waldorf graduate, Douglas is the founder of CfA's Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program, as well as the first Executive Director of the Research Institute for Waldorf Education. He is author and editor of nine books on Waldorf education, as well as numerous articles on education and anthroposophy. His most recent publication, due out this year, is a collection of articles entitled Trailing Clouds of Glory: Essays on Sexuality and the Education of Youth in Waldorf Schools.

At present, Douglas resides on the outskirts of Amherst, Massachusetts, with his wife Connie, a Waldorf high school teacher of mathematics.

An Invitation to Join us on June 7th

Dear New Amsterdam Community,

Our faculty and board invite you to join us as we 

welcome Chris Schaefer to New Amsterdam 

June 7th from 1 to 5pm.

Chris Schaefer will lead us into discussion around 

building community.  We will look at some of the

current tasks the New Amsterdam Community has and how to address

the questions we are all carrying.

If you are a parent, friend, and or have served on committees it would be great if you were able to join us.

It is important to us that we know if you are coming.

Please RSVP to lisa.bono@newamsterdamchildhood.org

by June 1st.

An agenda for the day will be circulated June 3rd.

Here is a link to an article about Chris Schaefer's new book " Partnerships of Hope: Building Waldorf School Communities" and his BIO.

http://www.anthroposophy.org/articles/article-detail/?tx_ttnews%5Byear%5D=2013&tx_ttnews%5Bmonth%5D=03&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=1167&cHash=0f8c01f0e7177a62ce8cfbcba205e6f9

Christopher Schaefer is a Waldorf graduate and a Waldorf parent and grandparent. He was a founding member of the Waldorf School in Lexington, Massachusetts, and has worked as a Waldorf school advisor on questions of school and community development in the United States and Canada as well as internationally. He was for many years a faculty member
and program director at Sunbridge College in Spring Valley, New York, where he founded and directed the program in Waldorf School Administration and Community Development. In Europe he was the co-founder and co-director of the Center for Social Development at Emerson College, as well as a founder of Social Ecology Associates, an international organization development
consultancy institute. He travels, consults and lectures extensively and is the co-author of Vision in Action: Working with Soul and Spirit in Small Organizations.

Blessings to you all,

Lisa

New First Grade Teacher!

Dear New Amsterdam Community, It is with joy in our hearts that we share with you the news that Jamie Loftus will be joining us as our first First Grade teacher. Many of you had the opportunity to meet Jamie when he spent a week with our community. Jamie has graciously accepted our offer to join our school and help pioneer our first grade. Jamie hails from Sydney, Australia, where he has taught in Waldorf schools for over 20 years. He will bring his adventuresome spirit to this task, and infuse the classroom with his inquisitive mind and joyful energy. We are profoundly grateful to his commitment to our school and to our growth. And we look forward to many years of working together. With Gratitude, The Hiring Committee

5-10 Year Plan Committee

Dear New Amsterdam Community,

 

After our open meeting last Wednesday, The 5-10 Year Plan Committee would like to share an update regarding our work. We feel it is important to be transparent about the tasks that we will be working on in this committee and would like to share our mandate with you all. A mandate is an agreement with the decision-making bodies of the school (in this case the Faculty Circle and Board). Our mandate outlines the timeline, tasks, responsibilities, and articulates the goals of the committee. Please follow this link to find our mandate.

 

Also, we would like to invite all members of our community to participate in our weekly study for the remainder of the school year. Please join the 5-10 Year Plan Committee this week May 21, from 4:00-5:00pm. RSVP to Meaghan (Meaghan.witri@newamsterdamchildhood.org).

 

Thank you for your interest and we look forward to continuing our work together.

 

The 5-10 Plan Year Committee

Mandate for a 5-10 Year Plan Committee (Final Name TBD)

 

Members of the Mandated Committee

Patricia, Mayra, Meaghan, Brigitte and Lisa

 

Length of Mandate

This mandate would go through June 2015

 

Context and Background

These are times of intense growth for the New Amsterdam School. To coordinate the many aspects of this growth effectively a 5-year plan is needed. This fall, the Work-Pay committee found it difficult to develop models for a healthy salary structure because such a larger

plan was missing. A sketch of this plan was created. Having recognized the need, we would now like to work on it in earnest. Such a plan will make the work of all committees far more effective (and, in addition, it is something that any outside Waldorf agency, such as

AWSNA, will rightfully expect from us if we seek accreditation). We are committed to researching and developing ideas to help create a sustainable future and life at New Amsterdam.

 

The context for this work springs from the source of the social mission of Waldorf education: to build individual and group capacities, to develop gift consciousness and to bring about a renewal of education for human beings. Self-education is the doorway into understanding any structure or form, and Waldorf education can be the doorway to the future. Bringing these ideals into clearer and pertinent articulations can support this much larger task of our work in relationship to unfolding the future.

 

Overview

Our proposal is to start a new 5-10 Year Plan Committee, that would take up what has been developed by the Work-Pay Committee. We also propose ending (and, in a sense, merging with) the Towards Societal Wholeness group, so that we have more time to dedicate to this essential task. We also expect that some evenings and weekends will be required.

 

This group will be looking into the following aspects of the current plan: salary structure, tuition models, governance structure and the community life. Also, we will look into developing our school in relationship to, and including these foundational ideals: building capacities, gift consciousness, building partnerships, creating cooperatives.  We will be working primarily with Rudolf Steiner’s ideas and indications on these ideals brought to us out of Anthroposophy.

 

 

 

 

 

Accountability

We take responsibility for facilitating this work between the faculty, board and committees as needed. We will report to the faculty on a bi-weekly basis and to the board monthly. As specific areas are identified within the plan, we will work directly with the individuals or groups involved. This collaborative effort will result in proposals made to the faculty and board for final decisions.  

 

Please find below some examples of the topics we will explore and the corresponding groups with whom we will collaborate.

Salary Structure ⇄ Faculty, Finance Committee and Hiring Committee

Governance ⇄ Board, Faculty, Parents, all Committees and Mandated Groups

Tuition (including finance, tuition assistance and admissions) ⇄ Board, Faculty, Parents

Community Life (this depends on what area but likely) ⇄ Faculty, Board, Parents

Peer mentoring ⇄ Faculty

College of teachers ⇄ Faculty, Board

Co-Teaching ⇄ Hiring, Faculty, Finance

Partnerships ⇄ Board, Faculty, Parents, Other Organizations

Cooperatives ⇄ Board, Faculty, Finance, Hiring, Parents, neighborhood community 

Intentions and Tasks

Specifically, we propose the following:

·        Focusing our work on the 5-10 year plan that the Work-Pay group has developed, while still including broader questions around social hygiene and societal context

·        Continuing with the same schedule as Towards Societal Wholeness (Wednesdays from 4-6pm), but more intensively - meeting weekly with some additional evenings and weekends as needed.

·        Keeping the group open to faculty, parents, board members, and friends of New Amsterdam, and to anyone we feel is connected to the school and these questions, with the requirement that all participants are excited by this work and want to make the above time commitments.

-              If anyone has individual constraints that would prohibit their participation, we ask them to speak with us about their needs (childcare, finances etc.) and we will find a way for them to join us.

-              We will also strive to include those who can't make such a commitment with weekend workshops or open meetings.