WTEE Summer Renewal 2026
opportunities for currently practicing teachers
July 12-15
Perspectives on the Life Body:
Observation, Thinking, and Movement
Early Childhood and Grades 1, 2, & 3
We are pleased to invite you to our summer renewal for Waldorf educators. We will be focusing on the life body this year, starting with shared movement and a lecture each day before dividing into early childhood and grade 1-3 cohorts. We look forward to your participation!
Early registration by July 1st is $450 ($525 thereafter). Register now!
Schedule
July 12:
3:00-3:15: Introduction
3:15-4:45: Lecture I
4:45-5:00: Break
5:00-5:45: Eurythmy
July 13/14:
9:00-9:20: Spacial Dynamics
9:30-11:00: Lecture II/III
11:00-11:15: Snack Break
11:15-12:45: Cohort Session
12:45-2:15: Lunch
2:15-3:45: Cohort Session
3:45-4:00 Snack and Tea Break
4:00-4:55: Cohort Session
5:00-5:45: Eurythmy
July 15:
9:00-9:20: Spacial Dynamics
9:30-11:00 Lecture IV
11:00-11:15: Snack Break
11:15-12:45: Closing Plenum
Description
These uncertain times call for a deeper understanding of the body of formative forces present in the child's first seven years and its subsequent birth and development in the early grades. How do we recognize this life body? How do we engage in meaningful ways that strengthen this wellspring for the child and adult alike? What are the implications for first-grade readiness and the grades curriculum?
The early childhood cohort will join Lynn St Pierre and Beth Daly for delightful plays, including large movement, dancing hands, and health-giving touch for Kindergarten, Parent & Child/Nursery, and Early Grades children. These games and movements, developed by Wilma Ellersiek, are simple, yet profound in their healing capacity with the young child, and with people of all ages as well! They are so popular that they have been translated into over 20 languages and are played on every continent around the world.
Erika Finstad, David French, and Marcia Seymour will lead the grades cohort into the curriculum and art of grades one, two, and three.
Faculty
Beth Daly has her Waldorf Teacher Education certificate with additional certificates in Waldorf Early Childhood Therapeutic and Development Movement. Her main devotions are to motherhood, the meditative arts, storytelling, Waldorf early childhood, and curative education. She has been joyfully teaching early childhood seminars at WTEE since 2108.
Erika Finstad holds an MA in Education from St. Thomas University and a BA from St. Olaf College, where she studied music and elementary education. She completed her Waldorf teacher certification from WTEE in 1996 and spent the next 28 years as a grades teacher at the Eugene Waldorf School, during which time she also completed spacial dynamics training. Erika has enjoyed teaching in WTEE since 2009, where she leads music, spacial dynamics, and grades seminars.
Lynn St. Pierre joyfully presents early childhood developmental movement and music, including hand gestures, loving touch, large movement adventures, and singing in the mood of the fifth, as well as Spacial Dynamics® for Waldorf teacher trainings, conferences, and schools around the world. She offers a two-year deepening program for those who wish to carry this work forward. As a certified teacher trainer in both the developmental movement & music for early childhood created by Wilma Ellersiek and Spacial Dynamics®, Lynn enjoys mentoring and working with parents. In the mid-nineties, Lynn came to Waldorf Education as a parent and Specialty teacher of movement and has led Kindergarten, Nursery, and Toddler classes.
Jason Yates is the School Director of Waldorf Teacher Education Eugene. Jason graduated from the four-year eurythmy training at Rudolf Steiner College in 2010 before performing eurythmy in Europe and Asia as part of a stage group based in Stuttgart, Germany. He has a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, a therapeutic eurythmy diploma from Paracelsus-Zentrum für Anthroposophische Medizin, and an MA from Alanus University.
Lunch
Minutes away from WTEE is The Garden on Friendly, located at 2760 Friendly Street. It is a food court with a variety of choices. Across the street, at 2757 Friendly Street, is Friendly Street Market, a natural foods grocer and café.
If you bring lunch, you are welcome to find a nook on the campus or eat in the Starflower Kindergarten.