Pedagogical Storytelling for Early Childhood
Scroll down for more info about the course!
Our pricing structure:
$1,200: School-funded, school budget over $1M
$1,000: School-funded, school budget under $1M
$800: Self-pay, household income over $150K
$600: Self-pay, household income under $150K
$400: Self-pay, household income under $75K
Special price for returning participants and a group discount for schools sending 3 or more participants. (Contact us for the discount code at connect@almapartners.net.)
Note: Pricing is per person. Our sliding-scale pricing is intended to make our courses accessible to as many people as possible. Please pay the most you are able to afford, in order to keep lower-price spots open for those who need them. If you are in a double-income family or household, have savings or inherited wealth, own your home, and/or can afford vacations, please consider contributing at a higher tier.
Scroll down for more info about the course!
Our pricing structure:
$1,200: School-funded, school budget over $1M
$1,000: School-funded, school budget under $1M
$800: Self-pay, household income over $150K
$600: Self-pay, household income under $150K
$400: Self-pay, household income under $75K
Special price for returning participants and a group discount for schools sending 3 or more participants. (Contact us for the discount code at connect@almapartners.net.)
Note: Pricing is per person. Our sliding-scale pricing is intended to make our courses accessible to as many people as possible. Please pay the most you are able to afford, in order to keep lower-price spots open for those who need them. If you are in a double-income family or household, have savings or inherited wealth, own your home, and/or can afford vacations, please consider contributing at a higher tier.
Scroll down for more info about the course!
Our pricing structure:
$1,200: School-funded, school budget over $1M
$1,000: School-funded, school budget under $1M
$800: Self-pay, household income over $150K
$600: Self-pay, household income under $150K
$400: Self-pay, household income under $75K
Special price for returning participants and a group discount for schools sending 3 or more participants. (Contact us for the discount code at connect@almapartners.net.)
Note: Pricing is per person. Our sliding-scale pricing is intended to make our courses accessible to as many people as possible. Please pay the most you are able to afford, in order to keep lower-price spots open for those who need them. If you are in a double-income family or household, have savings or inherited wealth, own your home, and/or can afford vacations, please consider contributing at a higher tier.
Pedagogical Storytelling for Early Childhood
Responding to the moment with story
Hosted by Alma Partners
Aiyana Masla & Masumi Hayashi-Smith
Six Sunday afternoons on Zoom: September 8th, October 6th, November 10th, December 8th, January 12th, February 9th
12-2pm PST / 3-5pm EST
Special guests include:
Nancy Blanning
Celestine Stadnick
Melody Birdsong-Shubert
Chinyelu Kunz
Christa Joy Anderson
Keelah Helwig
“I loved how action-oriented this series was, and coming out of it with action items. It was really inspirational to hear from others but I can also see how it has already changed what I am bringing to my classroom. I loved the storytelling and could see the value in doing similar workshops around curriculum building within an EC team or bringing DEI work to parents and community members.”
We are so excited to announce the return of our popular course, Pedagogical Storytelling for Early Childhood: Responding to the Moment with Story! This course was developed in answer to the requests and questions that Early Childhood educators have brought to us. Beginning this September and carrying through February 2025, this series will meet monthly as a cohort for six Sunday afternoons on zoom. Together, participants will explore DEIJ-informed pedagogical storytelling theory, principles, and tools, as well as receive mentorship from experienced Early Childhood educators.
Each session will feature a guest presenter who will share wisdom, knowledge and experience. This highly interactive course involves practice in small groups, working from both case studies and personal experience.
Developing relationships across schools, we hope for participants to be nourished and inspired by growing connections. Participants will also receive an Alma Partners Toolkit for continued Pedagogical Storytelling practice.
Learn from each other, build skill and confidence in the power of storytelling, and workshop new stories!
Participants will:
Learn DEIJ-informed pedagogical storytelling theory, principles, and tools
Receive mentorship from experienced Early Childhood educators
Practice and share together in small groups, working from both case studies and personal experience
Leave with an Alma Partners Toolkit for continued practice
Cost: Sliding scale from $1200 - $400, with a special price for returning participants and a group discount for schools sending 3 or more participants. (Contact us for the discount code if you are coming as a group or are a returning student who has taken the course before.)
Space will be limited to allow for depth, and registration is filling up quickly. Sign up today!
Last year, the course was rich with connections, ideas and inspiration across schools, with insight and support from a diverse constellation of experienced Early Childhood educators. This year, our intention is to offer another opportunity to weave and grow. We hope participants will feel nourished in a cohort of other Early Childhood educators, working through challenges, class culture values, core principles and questions with the support of special guests.
Focusing on the powerful tool of storytelling and what this tool encompasses, we will meet once a month for six months. This highly interactive course involves practice in small groups, working from both case studies and personal experience. Participants will also receive an Alma Partners Toolkit for continued Pedagogical Storytelling practice and development. Each session will feature a guest presenter who will share wisdom, knowledge and experience. Read on to learn more about each presenter, and to hear testimonials from participants who studied in the course last year.
*Please note: in alignment with the Alma Partners core value of Centering Relationship, we do not record our sessions! Please plan to attend all six sessions, or catch up by connecting with a classmate and engaging with the pre and post work.
We hope you join us as we gather to learn, share and practice DEIJ-informed pedagogical storytelling theory and core principles of diversity-responsive pedagogy in a learning cohort for six supportive months.
Course Schedule: (Scroll down for presenter bios)
“Every presenter and facilitator has been so warm, authentic, knowledgeable, prepared, and open, which created a safe space for all. It allows for much more understanding and growth to occur and I’m grateful for that because this is important and delicate work that requires deep care.”
All sessions are from 12-2 PT / 3-5 ET on zoom
Session 1, September 8: Beyond Multiculturalism in Storytelling: Weaving the Threads of Our Current Times with Imagination, with Nancy Blanning
Session 2, October 6: I See You: Representation in Storytelling & Meeting Each Child in Our Care, with Celestine Stadnick
Session 3, November 10: More than Madder Root: Cultivating and Modeling Class Community Values, with Melody Birdsong-Shubert
Session 4, December 8: The Work of Inner Knowing: Finding our own writer’s voice, with Chinyelu Kunz
Session 5, January 12: Courage to tell the truth: Responding to the Moment with Care, with Christa Andersen
Session 6, February 9: Once Upon a Time: Creating Tales for a Future That Offer Authentic Images for Every Child, with Keelah Helwig
More feedback from past participants
“…the value of hearing from and connecting with EC teachers in Waldorf schools across the country! I just wish there were more sessions! I feel like I could have done this all year!”
“Amazing presenters. Very thoughtful presentations and order of the sessions, clearly very knowledgeable and so willing to bring honest information to our group!”
“I liked the balance between the presentations and group and reflective work.”
“I thought everything provided was EXTREMELY thought-out and organized…I appreciated how each session flowed into the next and all of the readings are great resources to pass on to colleagues, parents, and the school community.”
“Supreme amounts of gratitude to all of you for imagining / envisioning this workshop and for the extreme amounts of striving and effort required to make it happen. The love and care is palpable in every email, in the toolkit, in the resources, in the assignments. It feels so good to experience. Thank you all!”
“I loved hearing the work that others are doing in their schools and being inspired by their stories.”
“I feel very held in this work because of you all, and this feeling is very needed.”
“So lovely, considerate, warm and friendly. Over Zoom, with such a large group, you did a wonderful job of connecting us all and holding us together as a group. The toolkit is super helpful and a great way to access the materials anytime you want.”
“There's so much work to do and if we just stay awake and keep putting one foot in front of the other, we are going somewhere.”
“I loved ALL the presenters; they brought awareness and proactivity to a topic that has felt dry and tragic for so many. Their work is beautiful and inspiring for true action.”
“I really appreciated the pre-reading each class; super helpful to have time to digest between meetings.”
“10/10 - I felt supported and held, challenged and growing, loved the journaling/intro settling into the space.”
“Thank you, and bless you for the clarity and the work you are doing. It seems like a new area of this work!”
“Loved the readings. I thought they were pertinent to the subjects we were studying. We were given enough time to prepare and have been given so many extra resources to sink our teeth into, which I really appreciate.”
Meet Our Presenters:
Nancy Blanning
Nancy Blanning is an early childhood educator with a special interest in movement and “incarnational support” for young children through all avenues. Children move physically to inhabit and claim ownership of their bodies as comfortable “homes.” Stories encourage, reassure, and nourish their souls and spirits. Nancy works with early childhood educators to use all of these avenues to support children in building this comfortable home for body, soul, and spirit.
Nancy served as kindergarten teacher and educational support staff at the Denver Waldorf School, from which she recently retired after almost 40 years. Her dedicated focus now is adult teacher development and professional deepening. She is co-director of early childhood teacher training at Sunbridge Institute in Spring Valley, NY, and serves as guest faculty at other teacher training programs. Additionally, she is co-director with Dr. Adam Blanning and colleague Laurie Clark for “Nurturing the Roots,” an advanced course for experienced teachers to develop observational and support skills to assist young children.
She writes columns for Lilipoh on behalf of WECAN—Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN), and is editor for the WECAN journal, Gateways. She has edited several books for WECAN and is author of Walking with Our Children: Parents as Companions and Guides. She and Laurie Clark have authored Movement Journeys and Circle Adventures, Vol. 1 and 2.
She and her husband are parents of four Waldorf graduates and grandparents to eight. Sharing stories with the grandchildren is a favorite thing to do.
Celestine Stadnick
Celestine Stadnick, an Oglala Lakota Sioux tribal member, was born on November 12th 1990 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Her mother, a Swiss Waldorf School alumni, and her father, a traditional Lakota man, raised her on the Pine Ridge Reservation and in Switzerland. She received a Bachelor degree in Waldorf pedagogy from the Academy for Anthroposophical Pedagogy in Dornach, taught in Switzerland and at the Lakota Waldorf School. During her time at the Lakota Waldorf School she founded the Academy for Indigenous Waldorf Pedagogy, an in-house teacher training for the school’s teachers. Within that process she developed culturally relevant teaching methods and created a culturally relevant Waldorf curriculum based on the Lakota culture. Following this, she received her Master of Education in Educational Administration and Leadership from the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. The importance of learners’ cultural identity has been her striving force in creating spaces wherein students can reconnect to their culture that colonization and assimilation has removed them from. It is her strong belief that Waldorf education has strong potential to pursue social and climate justice in ways many other educational systems can only dream of. In May of 2023 she developed an education program for the reservation’s Juvenile Detention Center which she directs in addition to being the Associate Administrator at the Lakota Waldorf School.
Melody Birdsong-Shubert
Melody participated in a three-year long Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher Training with Sunbridge Institute in NY. It was during this time that she internalized that Waldorf educators must be committed to responding with great intentionality as they embrace the responsibility to present an atmosphere of opportunity and truth where children and community may thrive. She combines an anti-bias and anti-racist practice (ABAR) with Waldorf education to serve the early childhood and River Valley Waldorf School community, where compassion and being an affirming and contributing community member is continually developed.
Chinyelu Kunz
Chinyelu was born and mostly raised in Enugu, Nigeria. Upon graduating she attended university in the United States where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Interior Architecture followed by a Master’s in Architecture. She went on to earn her Waldorf Early Childhood teaching certificate after receiving her LifeWays North America training certificate in Child Development.
A year before leaving classroom teaching in 2020, Chinyelu created We Nurture Collective, her online platform. Her website wenurturecollective.com hosts her podcast episodes, Blog, parenting coaching support, and mentoring for early childhood educators. You can also find her on instagram @we_nurture.
With a focus on the early years, Chinyelu is passionate about supporting parents and teachers.
Christa Joy Andersen
Christa Joy Andersen is Forest Kindergarten teacher at The Hartsbrook Waldorf School in Hadley, MA. She began her career in education teaching in the Bay Area, California, after finishing her M.Ed at UC Berkeley in Developmental Teacher Education in 2009. Christa has spent fifteen years teaching in early childhood education, primarily developing forest programming in public schools. She is deeply committed to bringing equitable practice and anti-racist pedagogy into her teaching and classroom culture. Christa is a Mom of three children, a musician and Buddhist practitioner. She is so happy to participate in further conversation with Alma Partners and colleagues around this topic of pedagogical storytelling.
Keelah Helwig
Keelah Helwig (she/her/hers) is currently an early childhood educator, and chair of the EC program at the Waldorf School of Garden City (WSGC). There she has served as Chair of the College of Teachers and is a founding and continuing member of the WSGC's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee. Keelah is proud to be a founding member of the Sunbridge Institute Diversity Scholarship Fund Committee.
Keelah’s journey with WSGC started when she was a kindergartener herself. Later attending Spelman College, she obtained her BA in Theatre. In 2009, Keelah Helwig received her Masters Degree in early childhood education at Sunbridge Institute.
Keelah Helwig is a reverent adorer of the world around her. She relishes opportunities to explore and appreciate the majesty of nature on the shores of her home on Long Island. Reading, gardening, and baking for loved ones all bring warmth and joy to Keelah’s daily life.
A skilled facilitator, mentor, evaluator and shepherd, Keelah is passionate about motivating school communities and inspiring lasting and meaningful change. Keelah is interested in partnering with leadership circles who are ready to examine, name and transform the obstacles of bias and systemic racism, that prevent them from being communities where all children and families can thrive.
