Anticipation for Seventh Grade Physics

A haiku written by a former student as a reflection on the physics block.

It’s been several years since I have had the good fortune to teach the Waldorf seventh-grade physics block. In fact, the last time I taught it, we ended our final week online at the beginning of the pandemic. To think! Mechanics on Zoom! Since then, I have had a tumultuous and beautiful journey that has led me to teach chemistry at the Santa Fe Waldorf School. New school, new state. New everything.

This year I have been asked to take on some of the middle school science classes and I couldn’t be happier about it. After spending 18 months teaching late adolescents/budding adults, I had forgotten about the sweetness that still resides in the middle school years. Looking through old main lesson books and leafing through notes, I remember the wonder the middle school science teacher can instill in the 12-14-year-old child.

My first block next week will be Optics, possibly my favorite week of my favorite block in all of the seventh grade. (Ok, besides chemistry.) I’m walking into a class that generally enjoys science, save a new girl who adamantly “hates it!”. My goal is to win her over. She’s never experienced Waldorf science and she’s never had ME! I LOVE the magic of science and I find that it helps inspire that wonder in others as well. That is my ultimate secret - I’m still fascinated by every one of these demonstrations, as simple as they are - and the only thing I love more than watching them unfold is watching the faces of the students that witness them with me.

- Tara