Your donations impact students, teachers & programs
Student Support
In 2022-23, WWS elected to trial using technology in the classrooms for students who have an IEP with noted challenges in written output. The laptops that were purchased through funding from the Annual Give were largely allocated to the Grade 6 classroom and students were invited to trial completing selected written tasks using word processing rather than traditional pen and paper.
What we saw was increased confidence in students who were previously frustrated when attempting to share their learning in writing. We saw students showing their capability to participate in the writing process, given this new tool. We saw an increase in written output from students who found traditional pen and paper written output challenging. The addition of tech to the classroom removed a barrier for students, enabling them to demonstrate their full capabilities.
The outcomes were successful, resulting in a change to our Student Support practices. The school now has the capacity to support students from middle-school upwards in using technology in the classroom to support written output, while maintaining Waldorf educational values.
Tracey Sheppard, Student Support Manager
Faculty
“Demands on teachers are complex and varied. Having a mentor guide me when I was a new teacher helped me immensely. Good mentors help teachers and schools thrive. I am enrolled on a 10 month professional development course called “Mentor Training” through the Centre for Anthroposophy in New Hampshire, due to start in January 2024.
I hope this program will help me gather up the wisdom of my teaching experiences and learn best practice as a pedagogical mentor to new teachers at WWS. This course will help me cultivate my own capacities as a guide and is a next step in my own development as a collaborative leader. I am so grateful for the opportunity to take part in this course.”
Nina Moore, Grade 7 Teacher
High School
The Annual Give Campaign has been instrumental in supporting the science program at Whistler Waldorf. Experiential learning is a foundational component of teaching and learning at our school, which is integral to advanced science classes. Physics and Chemistry tend to be the most specific in terms of equipment needs, and as students move into grades 10-12 it’s incredibly beneficial for them to learn through experiments, inquiries, and labs.
Recently, the Annual Give provided our science lab with three electronic balances. These are essential to be able to measure small amounts of chemicals in labs, as well as physical items in mechanics experiments. Students using this equipment provides benefits beyond the science curriculum, specifically how to systematically move through a process, how to be precise in their actions, why it’s essential to calculate standard deviations of error, and what is needed to get accurate results.
Overall, as a teacher, I am beyond grateful to our donors for their support over the years to continually build our science equipment as it provides infinite ‘ah ha’ and ‘oh WOW’ moments to our students, and inspires them to move into areas of STEM after Waldorf.
Ellen Zelikovitz, Vice Principal
Throughout WWS…
#waldorfcurriculum #annualgiving #give@wws #wwscommunity #donations2023
