2025 Virtual Workshop Offerings
These sessions will be provided without charge out of a desire to fill a piece of the gap left by the conference.
Dates, times, and zoom links to be announced – stay tuned!
David Sewell McCann
Free Course: Intentional Storytelling in Emergencies
David Sewell McCann is offering a free course focused on "Intentional Storytelling in Emergencies." This course provides video lessons, story texts, downloadable tools, and protocols for using storytelling in times of high stress. It emphasizes mindfulness, consciousness, and presence.
The course introduces a simple four-step process to help you communicate with clarity and intention during emergency situations. It also includes a live webinar for participants on January 30th to explore these concepts further.
You’re invited to explore the course at your convenience and share it with anyone who might benefit.
Mary Ruud
Eurthymy Workshop
Bio
Mary Ruud has more than 30 years working in Waldorf Education. She has degrees in Eurythmy from Spring Valley Eurythmy School and the Eurythmy School in Nurnberg, Germany. Mary has a Masters in Liberal Studies from the 21st Century Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Mary taught for many years at the first public Waldorf School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is on the core faculty of the Great Lakes Teacher Institute and has also taught teachers through Transformational Teaching, Kenthaten Teacher Training, Louisville Kentucky, Lifeways Early Childhood Teacher Training in Milwaukee and Alaska, and Arcturus Teacher Training in Chicago. She has adult grandchildren in the military and in social work. Mary is a certified Therapeutic Horsemanship instructor.
Bio
David Sewell McCann is co-founder and lead storytelling for Sparkle Stories, and currently teaches storytelling to teachers, leaders and change-makers at How to Story. He is a former class teacher and is in the final throes of his Doctorate of Education.
Visit: How To Story
Learn the Art of Emergency Storytelling
Video instruction, downloadable tools, storytelling demonstrations, and text versions of stories that you can use at home, in the classroom or at work.
Live Now: Start the Free Course Here
Coming Soon
Rick Tan
Watercolor Painting Workshop
Bio
Doctor of Medicine, Waldorf Teacher Certification, BA Biological Sciences
Rick is a professional artist, harpist, pianist, feng shui consultant, event planner, and educator. He has taught at two Waldorf schools, and has been a K-12 public school teacher, gifted and talented facilitator, and school artist-in-residence. Rick has homeschooled his own four children. He consults in the areas of Waldorf curriculum, school design, homeschooling, art, and music, and is co-owner of Syrendell.
Lisa Corr
Legal Workshop
Avoiding the Most Common Pitfalls Under the IDEA
Bio
Lisa Corr has been a zealous representative of school choice for over twenty-seven years in a wide array of crucial areas. After decades of development work advocating for creating public-school choices throughout California, Lisa’s current primary focus has been on special education, including the careful prevention and active defense of due process and the Office for Civil Rights and California Department of Education complaints. Lisa also regularly advises educational support organizations. Lisa also provides critical representation in day-to-day general student service areas, including student policy development and implementation, student discipline, UCP and Title IX complaints, student and parent rights, interpretation of child custody agreements, and control of disruptive visitors on campus. Lisa also assists nonprofit boards in developing effective and efficient governance practices, including assistance with strategic planning, legal compliance, and policy development.
One of Lisa’s unique practice areas is independent study compliance, including the appeal and defense of audit findings. Lisa has studied the complicated history and intersection of independent study law, the remaining provisions of the Education
Code, and the IDEA to advise on the technical legal rules and best practices for implementation. Lisa is a founder and founding nonprofit board member of the Westlake Charter School, where her children attend school. In her free time, Lisa loves to listen to live music, read, travel, and laugh (ideally all at once).Lisa frequently speaks at CCSA, APLUS+ Personalized Learning Network, the California Consortium for Independent Study, and the El Dorado Charter School SELPA..
Cassandra Bridge
Legal Workshop
Free Speech on Campus - Navigating Social and Political Tensions
Bio
Cassandra Bridge works on the Student Services and Labor/Employment Teams, emphasizing practice areas, including assisting clients in compliance with Title IX, special education, policy development, Section 504, student discipline, hiring, discipline/ termination, and labor relations. Before joining YM&C in 2022, Cassandra spent over 25 years in education as a teacher, professor, and administrator up to the postsecondary level. While living in Japan, Cassandra was the Education Program Director for the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet. Based on her varied years of professional experience, she is well-versed in operations, human resources, student discipline, finances, compliance, and special education. Providing support and guidance in these essential areas aligns with Cassandra’s passionate belief that an educated populace is the foundation of a free society. Cassandra is an active board member of the Read to Me Project. Its mission is to help under-served children achieve kindergarten readiness by empowering older siblings to read to their young siblings. She also volunteers as the Board President for the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education, a nationwide organization supporting Waldorf education in the public sector.