News and Announcements

Videos from Jamie York’s Math Series are now available online! Follow this link to view:

http://www.jamieyorkpress.com/videos/

German students at Shining Mountain Waldorf School in Boulder, CO got 2nd prize in the Fairytale Challenge  with their live performance of “Der Rattenfänger von Hameln”.  Student groups of any level were invited by the ZFA (Central Agency for German Schools and Programs Abroad)  to develop and perform plays of 8-15 minutes in length using the theme  of fairytales and submit live performances of the play recorded on DVD by December 31, 2011. This is in honor of the 200th anniversary of the first publication of “Children’s and Household Tales” by the Brothers Grimm.

German Teacher, Paula Blum, worked with the Eurythmy teacher, Thyria Ogletree on the play. The script, based on Grimm’s Pied Piper of Hamlin, was written by the level 3 German class. They also designed and painted the set and chose costumes.  They were joined on  stage by the level 1 German class and the 4th grade Eurythmy class.

They will use the prize money to experience something cultural.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A VIDEO CLIP OF THE PLAY

http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/saf/prj/sig/mus/cts/en7473917.htm

Shining Mountain Waldorf High School students Shanti van Vuuren, Nicole Brändli and  Noah Brändli won 2nd prize in the 2011 national  online Step into German competition organized by the Goethe-Institut.    German students around the US  had to make a German video which gave a personal portrait of their favorite sport. Shanti, Nicole and Noah portrayed Skiing in the Rocky Mountains. They won iPod Touches.

Read entire press release here

PRESS RELEASE: Shining Mountain Waldorf School installs solar panels on its High School as part of its strong commitment to environmental stewardship.

Ralph Doane and Paula Blum, German teachers at SMWS, are each recipients of a $500 grant to participate in the fairytale theater project Raise the Curtain for German. The ZfA (Central Agency for German Schools and Programs Abroad) is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the publication of Grimms’ Fairytales with this theater project. 20 US German teachers were awarded the grant to help them prepare an 8-15 minute performance of a fairytale in German. The culminating live performances in December will be recorded on DVD and submitted to the ZfA for the competition.

Pick up a copy of the Summer 2011 Issue of Lilipoh Magazine to read “Waldorf Education and the Importance of World Languages” – how Shining Mountain Waldorf School has transformed language arts into a vital, exciting part of the curriculum – By Dave Taylor

The German radio programs which the High School German students recorded before the summer break are now available as podcasts on the online radio station Deutschradio24sieben. You can hear original fairytales written by the level 3 German students. Level 1, 3 and 4 German students talk about the High School Musical and you can hear several of the songs. In the podcast “Konzert” there is a selection of pieces from the Spring Concert narrated in German by 8th and 9th graders

http://www.deutschradio24sieben.com/

Go the “Partner” tab at the top of the page, and click on Shining Mountain!

From the New York Times, Sunday, October 23, 2011:
“A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute”
by Matt Richtel

On November 14^th, 2012, William Alexander, a graduate of the Kimberton Waldorf School, was honored with the prestigious National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.  Below is Publishers Weekly interview with William.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/54780-pw-talks-with-nba-medalist-william-alexander.html

Rubbing elbows with the likes of Louise Erdrich and Dave Eggers came as a bit of a shock to author William Alexander, who on Wednesday night received the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for his first novel, Goblin Secrets. “It was surreal, just hanging out with these legends,” he told PW in an interview Thursday morning. “I’ve loved their words for so many years. Now, I just referred to Junot Díaz by his first name. That’s insane. I’ve only been a novelist since March.”

When Alexander’s name was called at the Wednesday ceremony, he says his mind went blank. “I think the only thing I was thinking about was how to reach the stage. With all those crowded banquet chairs so close together, I was plotting my route.” According to Alexander, the event was “a bit of a blur” after he gave his speech, but he says that everyone was “incredibly gracious” and that he was glad to have been able to speak with most of his fellow finalists.

Goblin Secrets is set in a world of goblins and witches in which theater is forbidden, and Alexander’s background as an actor – before a back injury put his acting days on hold – fed directly into his desire to tell this story. “All that theatrical stuff needed to go somewhere. I wanted to see how much theater would fit in a book, how much of the theatrical experience would survive the translation.”

Alexander first began writing Goblin Secrets while working on his master’s degree, and finished it during a “one-and-a-half-year concentrated push.” He credits author Holly Black, who was an instructor at the Clarion Writers’ Workshop he attended in 2006, with getting him in touch with the Barry Goldblatt Literary Agency, where he is now represented by Joe Monti. From there, Alexander says the book was on submission for about a year before finding what he calls its “perfect home” with Karen Wojtyla at Simon & Schuster’s Margaret K. McElderry Books imprint.