Reimagining our Upper Grades Curriculum
Tamarack Waldorf School will be featuring some exciting new changes to the way the grade school is structured this school year. Traditionally, Tamarack has been structured around a class teacher following a class from grades one through eight. This school year we will be shifting to a new model, which will consist of dividing the grades into two groups: grades one through four will comprise the lower grades and fifth through eighth grade will make up the upper grades. In this model, the lower grades class teacher loops with a class from grades one through four, while grades five through eight will have a circle of lead teachers holding the classes. This will allow teachers in the upper grades to teach to their strengths and areas of expertise, which will bring a new depth to the content of the curriculum in these grades, where the students need it most. Our upper grades teachers will work with a variety of subjects to deliver a strong and meaningful Waldorf curriculum.
sample schedule for upper grades
Grades one through four will look very similar to how they have in the past, but each of the upper grades will have a homeroom teacher. We are excited to have been able to finalize the homeroom teachers for the coming school year; Peter DeBoer will be the 5th-grade homeroom teacher, Kim Bair will be the 6th-grade homeroom teacher, Eliza Klunk will be the 7th-grade homeroom teacher, and James Boland will be the 8th-grade homeroom teacher. The homeroom teacher will help guide the group of students as they move throughout the year, being with the grade for drop-off and pick-up as well as lunch and recess. Communication and collaboration among all the teachers holding the upper grades students will be an important focus for this new model and the homeroom teachers will help serve a vital role in this task. The homeroom teacher model isn't the same as the class teacher model, where the class teacher is the primary focal point for communication, but the homeroom teachers will serve to ensure communication is happening between all parties.
One of the exciting new subjects we will be bringing to the upper grades classes is a Health and Wellness curriculum, which will encompass Anatomy and Physiology, Sex Education, Cyber Civics, Restorative Justice and Mindfulness. Our goal with this new offering is to bring a more comprehensive curriculum in these subjects to help students develop healthy self-care habits as well as a deeper understanding of interpersonal and intrapersonal communication and relationship building.
Over the course of many years, Tamarack faculty and staff have been working on ways to address several areas of challenge that the traditional Waldorf school structure presented. The model of one teacher following a class from grades one to eight presents many benefits to students, parents and teachers, but it also presents challenges, two of which are preparing students for high school and teacher retention.
As students move into the upper grades, the content of the curriculum becomes increasingly complex, and under the previous model one teacher was expected to teach a wide range of subjects at a depth that met the needs of the upper grades students. Under the new model, teachers will be focusing on content in a smaller range of subjects that are their specialties. Teachers in the upper grades will be able to focus on a more limited area of content and refine the subject matter and delivery of curriculum within that content area. Our aim is to have teachers who are specialists in their subject areas, while still delivering instruction in a holistic Waldorf manner, teaching with head, heart and hands and better preparing students for high school.
Additionally, as students move into the upper grades, they become ready for interactions and relationships with a wider variety of adults. The special student-teacher relationship that is shared in the lower grades, in which the grades teacher holds the class in an almost parental manner, now will make way for a cohort of teachers who all work to hold the students collectively while still bringing the caring attention and warmth that is a hallmark of Waldorf education. This model meets the needs of the preadolescent and young adolescent to develop relationships with a wider variety of adults and receive curricular instruction from teachers who are specialists in their fields.
In this new model, teachers’ student contact hours have been reduced from 29 to 21 hours per week, on average. This gives teachers more time during the week to prepare lesson plans and materials, participate in administrative and school committee work, engage in professional development opportunities, and communicate with families. We also believe that this will go a long way towards retention of teaching staff in the school.
This new structure will also address several areas that were part of Tamarack’s AWSNA recommendations during our last accreditation process, including but not limited to: teacher workload, high school readiness (especially in mathematics and science), having designated people to coordinate science and math instruction, and to strengthen language arts instruction in the upper grades.
Although we realize that with changes there will be growing pains, we feel that having more teachers teaching to their strengths, expertise and passions will benefit both the upper and lower grades at Tamarack. We have been able to hire new teachers that will help to create more unity in math and language arts instruction as well as bring an exciting new health curriculum with this new model, and we’ve also been able to create a more consistent schedule for the students throughout the grades.
We look forward to bringing this exciting new structure to fruition at Tamarack.
JAMES BOLAND
Teacher: Eighth Grade Homeroom, Upper Grades History, Geography, Language Arts and Drama
Mr. Boland is a Wisconsin native who is active in the Milwaukee theater community. He enjoys long form improvisational comedy, comic books, gardening and cooking.
ELIZA KlUNK
Teacher: Seventh Grade Homeroom, Upper Grades Applied Arts and Health and Wellness
Eliza grew up in and around the Milwaukee area. She first came to Tamarack as a parent and volunteer. In addition to handwork and woodwork, she enjoys reading, baking, games, hiking, biking, and movies.