5th CONFERENCE NORTHRIDGE, CA 2020

From the 16th until the 20th of February 2020, 63 Spanish teachers from all over the United States, plus one from Spain and one from Wales, attended our 5^th annual Spanish Teachers Conference at Highland Hall Waldorf School located in Northridge, California. A total of 18 workshops were offered for every grade level, with topics like Grammar, Drama, Festivals, Class Management, the Art of the Chalkboard, Storytelling, Poetry, Festivals, and sample lessons for the lower grades and the middle school.

This year we were gratified to welcome 15 Waldorf high school Spanish teachers to our conference, a really large number considering that there are only 35 Waldorf high schools in the US. Some of the topics offered for this level were Gender and Identity; Indigenous Literature of the Americas; Grammar, Poetry and Creative Writing; Lessons on Fire through the News; Ecology, Geography and Literature; and Incorporating Different Art Forms in the Spanish lesson.

The mornings started with a Eurythmy session led by Andrew Dzedulionis, and Monday afternoon concluded with two round table discussions: Challenges and Successes Teaching Hispanic Heritage Students, and Diversity and Inclusion.

Our Guest Speaker, Georgina Escalante from the Waldorf-Steiner School El Til-ler in Barcelona, has been a guest teacher at the Akademie für Waldorfpädagogik, in Mannheim for the last five years. Her lectures included The Angel of Language and the Soul Mood of the Child, and the Awakening of Reason in the Adolescent.

This was a very successful and valuable event. As expressed by the words from one of our teachers, “We know we have a home – a bright, dynamic and strong association that continues to grow. We know that we will count the days until the next Conference”.

We want to thank all the teachers who were able to attend. We are deeply grateful to Highland Hall Waldorf School for hosting our Conference, to our guest speaker to making that long trip to share with us her knowledge and experience, and to every Spanish teacher that has supported our Association for the last seven years. We are proud of all we all have achieved over the years, and we know how proud our teachers are when entering a classroom and telling their students “Yo enseño español”.