Practicum Handbook

Contents

1. Introduction

2. WECAN Expectations

3. Observation Visit Guidelines/ Report Form

4. Mentor Visit Guidelines/Report Form 

5. Practicum Guidelines

1. Preparation and Typical Activities

2. Child Observation Guidelines

3. Responsibilities of the Practicum Student

4. Responsibilities of Supervising Teacher

6. Practicum Documentation

1. Activities Report

2. Supervising Teacher Evaluation Report

3. Self-Evaluation

4. School Life Observation Report 

1 - Introduction 

Practical experience in an early childhood classroom is one of the most important aspects of Waldorf Early Childhood teacher education.  Hands-on experience in one’s own classroom or in that of an experienced teacher are equally valuable.  In-service students will be visited by Mentors, by either a SCC faculty member or an experienced EC educator in their local area chosen by the SCC EC faculty, in their own classrooms.  In-service students are also expected to do Observations and a short Practicum in a trained and experienced Waldorf EC teacher (See WECAN expectations below).  Pre-service students will complete several days of observation and a minimum of two three-week Practicums.  Students who are working as Assistant Teachers will complete at least one week of lead teaching in their home classroom and  one week of Practicum in an experienced teacher’s classroom. 

Observation Visits can be done at any time during the course of a student’s training.  It is recommended that visits be done in both years of the training.  While Child Observations are a part of the expectations for the Practicum, they will also be assigned as a part of the SCC coursework.  Please see the Guidelines in this Handbook and print them out for your use as needed. 

2 - WECAN Early Childhood Practicum Expectations

In addition to the course content, WECAN Member Institute EC Programs require a minimum of the following: 

• In-service students (those working at least three days per week in a Waldorf Early Childhood classroom) must have a minimum of three weeks of observation and practicum during the course of their training (of which at least two weeks must be in classrooms other than their own), and two days of mentoring per year in their own classrooms. 

• Pre-service students (those not yet working at least three days a week in a Waldorf Early Childhood setting) must have a minimum of two weeks of observation and six weeks of practicum with experienced Waldorf EC teachers and will be visited during a practicum by an institute-approved advisor at least once during their training. 

3 - Observation Visit Report Form  

Sound Circle Center Early Childhood 

Link Here to Print or Download Form 

Form Example (Please download the form through the link above)

Students: Please use this form to record your observations. Use as much space as you need.

Complete a report for each visit you make to observe another teacher’s class.

Keep the reports until they are requested by your advisor.

1. What did you observe and learn from in this visit about the effect of the classroom/ outdoor environment?

2. What did you observe and learn about the use of rhythm by the lead and assistant teachers?

3. What did you learn from observing the teachers interact with the children?

4. How were the four foundational senses addressed?

5. What did you learn by watching the teacher at circle and story time?

6. What stood out for you about the way in which transitions were managed?

7. How did the teachers work with modeling and imitation?

  8.  What did you see that you want to incorporate in your own teaching?  

Your name:

Name of the classroom and teacher that you visited: 

4 - Mentor Observation Report 

Sound Circle Center Early Childhood In-Service Program

A - SCC Student Self Evaluation for Mentor Visits

Link Here to Print or Download Form 

Form Example (Please download the form through the link above)

      Name of Student:                                                                                           

Guiding Questions:

1. What do you feel are your natural strengths as a teacher?

2. In what areas do you feel that you have grown most during the course of your training?

3. What areas do you still experience as challenging and how are you working with these?

4. Are there resources that you feel would be helpful?

5. Do you have any particular goals for the duration of your training course?

6. What have you learned about yourself during the course of your training?

B - Mentor Visit Report Form

Link Here to Print or Download Form 

Form Example (Please download the form through the link above)

Mentors: We are very grateful for your willingness to support our In-service students by visiting them in their home classrooms. Please use this form to record your observations.  Use as much space as you need. It is understood that some questions may be more relevant to Lead Teachers than to Assistant Teachers. Your visit will include a conversation with the student before and after the visit.  

Name of student_________________________________________________

Date(s) of visit __________________________________________________

Site/School_____________________________________________________

Classroom______________________________________________________

Number and age range of children__________________________________

What topics did you discuss with the student prior to visiting the class?

Did the student have questions for you or ask you to observe a particular part of the day or a particular child?

Please describe your impression and experience of the student’s work with the children and adults in the light of the essential principles of Waldorf early childhood education with particular attention to the following areas:

Mood for the young child; how do qualities such as love and warmth, reverence and 

wonder, joy and humor, gratitude and purposefulness live in the environment?

Care for space and materials; how is an awareness of the importance of order and 

aesthetics and need to provide healthy sensory development opportunities for the children 

expressed?

Rhythmic breathing of the day; how is the balance between free imaginative play and 

guided activities, between individual and group activities and is there a feeling of flow 

between activities?

Adult models worthy of imitation; how does the student work out of imitation and demonstrate uprightness, ego presence and consciousness of being an example in her 

movement, speech and relationships? 

Self-development; how is the student taking up inner work?

Summary of Observations

What is going well?  What are the student’s main strengths?

What were the areas of focus for the observation and conversation during the visit?

What suggestions were offered for further development?

Are there any specific topics that you suggest SCC faculty address during the remaining course of the student’s training?

_______________________________________              Date ______

Visiting Mentor

Please send the completed Mentor Observation Report to Holly Koteen-Soule, 130 5th St Langley, WA 98260. 

When SCC has received the completed report, a check for the stipend will be sent to you by mail.  This may require your sending us your mailing address and filling out a W-9 form for our Business Manager prior to the mailing of the check.

Thank you!

Sound Circle Center Early Childhood Program 

5 - Practicum Guidelines 

Sound Circle Center Early Childhood

1. Preparing for the Practicum

• Students will discuss practicum possibilities with their faculty advisors to determine the best placement.

• Faculty Advisors will make contact with Supervising Teachers and provide them with clear guidelines, forms for documentation, and expectations for compensation.

• Students will have at least one consultation with the Supervising Teacher prior to the practicum.

• Students are expected to read the school’s Faculty Handbook in order to be aware of the expectations of the school with regard to dress codes, timeliness, safety, discipline and working with diversity.

• Students are expected to contact their Faculty Advisors if they have questions or concerns during the course of the practicum.

Typical Practicum Activities

Activities at the beginning of an EC Practicum

1. Observe and try to get a sense of the class and its rhythms and routines

2. Begin child observation assignments

3. Assist with clean-up at the end of the day

4. Lead a song, verse or movement activity

 Activities that EC Practicum students are expected to lead

1. Bring a fairy tale at least 3-5 times

2. Tell a nature story

3. Tell a personal story

4. Prepare and present a puppet play

5. Bring a circle at least 3-5 times

Additional Required Activities

1. Attend an EC Parent Evening

2. Attend an EC Section meeting

3. Attend a Full Faculty meeting.

4. Support the Supervising Teacher as much as possible

5. Meet with the teacher regularly (daily, if possible and at least once a week) to review the work together and to talk about the children or questions that may have arisen

B - CHILD OBSERVATION Principles and Guidelines

Sound Circle Center Early Childhood  

“Receive the children in reverence, educate them in love, let them go forth in freedom” 

             -Rudolf Steiner

Principles of Child Observation

Prepare the space inwardly: We want to build a mood of reverence around the whole process of child observation. Inwardly ask the child if you may study him/her and carry the child in your consciousness. Include him/her in your Backward Day review, and picture the child before sleep, perhaps with the question, "What do you need from me?" or "How can I come to know you more deeply?

Look for qualities: The child is on an ever-growing, ever-changing the path of incarnation. In child observation, we want to look for qualities and see how they are expressed rather than why. Rather than looking "at" the child in an analytical way, allow the child to reveal him or herself to you. Try to "get inside" the outer phenomena you perceive, as a way of understanding it.  Artistic work is a help here; express what you perceive in the child through drawing, sculpting, poetry, or movement. Try to step into the child's shoes - walk her walk, speak her speech.

Notice polarities: See something, then look for its opposite and how it expresses itself. For example, if you notice the child's fears, look for the moments when the child is not fearful. What kinds of situations are these? How does the child exhibit courage? 

If your memory is vague, notice what you are missing in the picture you are building of the child, and look more closely on the following day. Consider also why a particular aspect is missing. Through practice, this capacity to see and to remember will grow.

Observe and describe what you see: You do not need to use these suggestions and the guidelines  as a checklist. Instead, try to see both the wholeness of the child and also the specifics. Try not to speculate about the child's inner feelings, motives, reasons behind the outer behavior or appearance. Avoid interpreting, speculating, diagnosing or labeling. Accept calmly what you experience and observe the child without an agenda to fix or change the child. Adding your own anxieties will only further burden the child. Strive to allow the child's being to reveal itself. When you describe the child, do it in such a way that others can form an image or living picture. 

"When you have love for the other, their whole being will be illumined for you." 

Rudolf Steiner 

Guidelines for Child Observation  Sound Circle Center Early Childhood 

1. The Bodily Nature and Foundational Senses

1. Overall Bodily Gesture and Form of the Child: Head, body, size, shape, 

skin, facial features, proportion, posture, orientation, feel, color

2. Movement: (Try to walk or move like the child).  Walk, skip, jump, run, sit, stand, 

grasp, gesture, consistency, movement relationship, orientation to gravity, dexterity, speed, flow, coordination, tone

3. Balance: orientation to gravity, control, coordination, above/below, 

forward/backward, left/right

4.  Touch: grasp, feel, presence, texture, pressure, preference, temperature, food

5.  Life: sleep, eating, relationship with other, fears

2. Soul Nature:

a. Willing: Imitation, impulses, strength

b. Feeling: Social relationships, fantasy/imagination, emotions

3. Speech: quality, flow, expression, articulation, singing, origination of voice, sounds not yet developed

4. The Child's Play: role, playmates, themes, consistency, flexibility, materials, 

concentration, preferences, outdoor, indoor, fantasy/imagination

5. Thinking: quality of consciousness, memory, orientation in time, capacity for 

planning, engagement and focus, pictorial imagination

3. The Biography: birth, family constellation, birth order, birthplace, milestones, childhood illnesses, allergies, home life, childcare, life events

4. Reflections: Changes in child, changes in you, behavior, relationship, questions, 

revelations 

C - Student Responsibilities for Practicum Documentation

The Practicum Journal is a tool for the practicum students to document their daily experiences and learning. Other suggested way to use the Journal include documenting:

Daily rhythm of the class

Drawings of the classroom and outdoor spaces

Child Observations

Notes from regular conversations with the Supervising Teacher

Students will share their Practicum Journal with their advisor at their Practicum Review, but the journal is not an assignment that needs to be turned in.  It is primarily for the student’s own use.

Students will need to turn in their Practicum Self-Evaluation and their School Life Observation Report at the end of their Practicum to their Advisor. On the last day of the Practicum, students will have a final conversation with their Supervising Teacher and make sure that the Supervising Teacher has received and signed the Weekly Practicum Activities Forms and will return those to the SCC EC Director along with the  completed EC Supervising Teacher Practicum Evaluation Form. 

D - Responsibilities of the Practicum Supervising Teacher

Hands-on experience with children is one of the most important aspects of our teacher education program. The faculty and staff of Sound Circle Center are very grateful to our colleagues in WECAN member Waldorf Schools and WECAN member Early Childhood Programs for their willingness to support our students in becoming successful Waldorf EC educators. SCC offers an honorarium for the work that you do with our students, knowing , however, that what you give them cannot actually be quantified.

Below, you will find a summary of the expectations of our SCC Practicum Supervising Teachers:

• Set up an initial consultation with the Practicum student prior to the start of the Practicum and invite the student to  observe the class for a day or two

• Meet daily or at least twice a week with the student to review the work together

• Allow the student to tell the story or fairy tale for one week

• Allow the student to lead circle for at least one week

• Give the student feedback and suggestions on how to improve their storytelling and circle work

• Give them opportunities to ask questions and share with them suggestion to support their development  

Complete the Supervising Teacher Practicum Evaluation form and return it to the EC Program Director as instructed on the form.

Practicum Documentation Forms

A - Activities Report Form 

Sound Circle Center Early Childhood

Link Here to Print or Download Form 

Form Example (Please download the form through the link above)

Students: Please list below, by week, the main activities which you observed, or in which you were engaged and for which you had a responsibility (recess, story, main lesson, painting, rhythmic activity, faculty meeting, parent meeting etc.). Use keywords which briefly, but clearly identify these activities. Indicate whether you were observing or leading. Review these forms and have your supervising teacher sign them at the end of each week.  You must return completed forms to your Supervising Teacher on the last day of your practicum. Please remind the teacher that these forms must accompany their written evaluation. Make a sheet for each week.

Student Name: 

Supervising Teacher: 

School: Name: 

Practicum Dates:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

B - EC Supervising Teacher Practicum Evaluation Form 

Link Here to Print or Download Form 

Form Example (Please download the form through the link above)

Name of Student Practicum Dates

Supervising Teacher Name School & Classroom Name

Supervising Teacher Address, email, and phone

Please provide an overall assessment of this student’s potential as a Waldorf EC teacher. What gifts would this person bring to a school? What challenges need to be overcome, etc.? Specific comments on the student’s abilities in the following areas will also be very helpful, but please note that the categories below are meant as guidelines. 

Please attach your comments on a separate sheet of paper.  Sign and date this form within two weeks after the practicum has ended and send it to  the EC Director at the address below.  In addition, please sign the Weekly Activities Forms and attach those as well.

• Presence (with individual children, the larger group, colleagues, and other adults)

• Preparation (sufficiency of preparation and clarity of direction and purpose)

• Sense of space, movement, and gesture (including posture)

• Speech ( mood, tone and grammar, appropriate to the age of children, imaginative and lively)

• Singing (confidence, ability to carry a tune)

• Storytelling (ability to paint pictures with words)

• Punctuality, reliability, and willingness to work

• Professionalism

• How did students respond to your comments?

• Any additional comments?

Signature Date

Please send the completed evaluation form to Holly Koteen-Soule, 130 5th St Langley, WA 98260. Holly.koteen-soule@soundcirclecenter.org 

C - Student Practicum Self-Evaluation Form 

Sound Circle Center Early Childhood

Link Here to Print or Download Form 

Form Example (Please download the form through the link above)

Students: The completion of this form is required for course credit. Please turn this Your Self-Evaluation and your Observation of School Life Report Form with your Practicum Journal. Use as much space as you need.

Course: Practicum

Supervising Teacher: 

Name of Student: 

Guiding Questions: 

1. What was the most valuable learning in the practicum?

2. How have you changed as a result of the practicum?

3. What aspects of teaching came naturally to you? What gifts have you discovered?

4. What did you experience as a challenge and how did you work with this?