Janet Langley
As is true with so many class teachers, I first became involved with Waldorf Education as a parent over 30 years ago. My daughter, Sharyn, attended the Shining Mountain Waldorf School in Boulder, Colorado and the Sacramento Waldorf High School in California.
I majored in Social Studies Education and English at the University of Texas, Austin and received my B.A. in Waldorf Education from Rudolf Steiner College (RSC) in 1993. During my three years of training at RSC, I took Goethean Studies and received my Waldorf certification for both grades and high school (Humanities).
I was very fortunate to have found my Waldorf home in the foothills East of Sacramento at Cedar Springs Waldorf School (CSWS). It was there in 1993 that I joined an amazingly gifted group of colleagues including Patti and Tim Connolly, Isabelle Tabacot, Ari Magruder-Cone, and Lauren Hickman. Together we created a faculty environment based on sharing our work, respect for the gifts of each one, decision making using a consensus model, and a love and appreciation of the other. During this time, I was truly blessed by both my colleagues and the students who graced my classroom.
Being a class teacher was certainly one of the richest experiences of my life. I learned so much from my students; they helped me grow and expand my horizons beyond anything I could have imagined. Even though I am still to this day introduced at weddings and baby showers as, “This is Mrs. Langley, my teacher.” I smile and say to myself, “No, you were mine.”
Besides taking a class 1st-8th grade and another 3rd -8th grade at CSWS, I have taught adult education courses at RSC and in the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training. Some of these courses include: Study of Man, Classroom Management, Practicum Preparation, Parent Work, Nine-Year Change workshops, working with consensus, and numerous courses on the 1st- 8th grade curriculum. My newest offerings are literacy workshops based on my new book, The Roadmap to Literacy.
During the past two decades, I have also supported the Waldorf movement through school leadership workshops, faculty mentoring and evaluation, and as a member of the Anthroposophical Society and the Pedagogical Section.
My passion for supporting teachers, as they strive to bring quality and creativity into their profession, led me to collaborate on two major initiatives: I co-authored The Roadmap to Literacy: A Guide to Teaching Language Arts in Waldorf Schools Grades 1 through 3 with Jennifer Militzer-Kopperl and co-created www.waldorfinspirations.com with Patti Connolly.
In my spare time, I enjoy traveling with Jerry, my husband of over 45 years, spending time with my daughter (Sacramento Waldorf HS 1995 graduate), playing with my two grandsons, reading, swimming, photography, and exploring the natural world.
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Patti Connolly
Similar to Janet, I became involved with Waldorf when searching for the best education for my daughter, Emi. Since there was not a Waldorf school in our area of the California foothills, I chose to homeschool her. Soon after, a few friends of mine who were interested in Waldorf education, my husband and I created the Mandala Homeschool Cooperative. The cooperative turned into the Cedar Springs Waldorf School in 1989 with our beloved mentor, Nancy Poer. After pursuing my certificate in Waldorf Teacher Education at Rudolf Steiner College, I became the school's third class teacher in 1992. I was under the impression that my Waldorf certificate coupled with my Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential and a Liberal Studies B.A. from California State University, San Francisco, would have me fully prepared to teach. But, wow! Becoming the kind of teacher, who strived to bring creative, soulful lessons to her students every day, required so much more of me than I ever expected… it also brought me so much more joy than I ever dreamt!
Besides finding joy in teaching, I was also lucky to be able to work with a group of incredible teachers (including my husband Tim) who loved to support, collaborate, and share with each other. Janet became a part of this “dream team” in 1993 as the next class teacher at the school. And since then the three of us have been immensely enriched and blessed by our collaborations.
Over the last 25 years, I have served in independent Waldorf schools as a class teacher (taking a class 1-8 and another 1-3), kindergarten teacher (3 years), specialty teacher, pedagogical administrator, evaluator, mentor and adult educator. In the public education arena, I worked with the Journey School, one of the oldest public charter schools guided by the core principles of Waldorf education, as a teacher, mentor, evaluator and education director. I have taught in the Public School Institute at Rudolf Steiner College and have led summer curriculum workshops at both the Kona Pacific Public Charter School and Journey School.
Adult education is a great love of mine, and in recent years I have enjoyed teaching at summer intensives at Rudolf Steiner College and the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training. On an international level I have had two very different teaching experiences. From 2010 to 2012, I consulted with a UK-Aid education project in Nigeria. While there, I developed and lead training modules and professional development workshops for teachers and teacher trainers. Then from March 2016 to June 2017, I served as the school mentor for the Zanzibar Steiner School (formerly known as the Creative Education Foundation of Zanzibar) for disadvantaged children.
Currently, I am the Student Support Teacher (Early Childhood-Third Grade) at the Waldorf School on the Roaring Fork in Colorado. I also continue to support the larger Waldorf movement through teacher mentoring and evaluating. Along with these services, I have joined Janet in her endeavor to revolutionize the way we teach early literacy through workshops focused on how to teach a creative, comprehensive, and effective language arts curriculum. I continue to pursue new ways of bringing a creative, heart–centered approach to teaching and I love sharing what I have learned with others so that their journey as a teacher can become even more exciting and life-affirming.
Tim Connolly
After graduating from Rudolf Steiner College in 1992 with Patti and Janet, I accepted the role of the 3rd grade class teacher of the lead class at Cedar Springs Waldorf School, which Patti and I helped found with about ten other families and Nancy Poer. I taught those dynamic students through to the completion of 8th grade.
Upon graduating that lead class at Cedar Springs in 1998, I moved into leadership roles as an administrator at the Rudolf Steiner College, High School Dean at the Sacramento Waldorf School, Administrative Director at three Waldorf schools, and, most recently, Co-Education Director at the Journey School with Patti. I have loved being able to continue teaching children during these years of administrative work – co-teaching a middle school class for the better part of two years through to graduation, guest teaching math track class teaching at a few Waldorf schools, and model teaching with new teachers in Zanzibar, Tanzania for a semester! I have consulted for schools and mentored teachers, as well as taught adult classes and lectured on a variety of topics. I can clearly say that I have been blessed to have this life of diverse opportunity in the Waldorf movement.
I love this education and how it benefits students, their families and the world. I could not be happier with the way it has served our own children, Waldorf graduates through 12th grade. Our daughter is now a global health pediatrician and our son is a software developer working with non-profits. I have had the good fortune of knowing so many Waldorf graduates who now serve the world in diverse and compassionate ways. My relationships with them only affirm my belief in the education, and continue to motivate me to become a better teacher, administrator and person.