The Beauty Is Here
Dear Members of the WSSB Community,
We joyously announce that we have hired Ms. Hillary Lowenberg as our teacher for WSSB’s 2024 First Grade.
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ms. Lowenberg studied Global Environmental Policy and Media at the University of Vermont. While in college she also traveled abroad to England, Tanzania, India, New Zealand, and Mexico in a year-long program called Rethinking Globalization.
After college Ms. Lowenberg taught in farm and garden-based programs in Vermont and Oregon. Her passion for connecting children to nature and art and her desire to have deep relationships with students led her to obtaining dual Master's degrees from Southern Oregon University. She obtained a Master's of Arts in Teaching and a Master's of Science in Environmental Education.
Ms. Lowenberg discovered Waldorf during her quest for an education that served the whole child. Hillary earned her Waldorf teacher training at the Micha-el Institute, and has taught for over ten years at the Madrone Trail Waldorf Charter School (Medford, Oregon), Portland Village Waldorf School (Portland, Oregon), and a small Waldorf-inspired farm school in Ashland, Oregon. Ms. Lowenberg also served as an adjunct faculty member at Southern Oregon University where she taught literature, storytelling, art, drama, and Waldorf methodology.
In light of her education, experience, and sincere heartfelt commitment to serving children, we are very enthusiastic about Ms. Lowenberg's arrival.
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We extend our deep gratitude to the WSSB Fundraising and Faires Committee for putting on the Spring Soiree. It was a fun and festive evening. The soiree raised over seventeen thousand dollars for the WSSB garden. Thank you, F&F Committee, and all those who helped make for such a beauty-filled night!
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Important Dates (please read!):
*Monday, May 27th: No School (Memorial Day)
*Tuesday, May 28th: Yearbook Orders Due
*Friday, June 7th, 5 to 6:30 p.m.: End of Year Potluck (information forthcoming)
With gratitude,
The Admin Team
PS On March 28th, 2024, The New York Times published an article with this title:
"Working With Your Hands Is Good For Your Brain
Activities like writing, gardening, and knitting can improve cognition and mood. Tapping, typing and scrolling? Less so."
PPS Relatedly, the Thought of the Day is from writer and Waldorf teacher Patricia Livingston:
"Making things, using materials from nature, should develop respect and appreciation for the earth out of which grows the cotton, wonder for the trees that give knitting needles, and great love for the sheep whose warm fleece becomes the wool to knit into a soft scarf. These are the seeds for understanding all that man and nature can do together and how human beings depend on one another. In this way, a true social impulse is born."
PPPS Above is a student-made drawing found under a lunch table.