Schools We Serve
Alexander Dawson School, CO
Bear Creek Elementary, CO
Boulder Community School of Integrated Studies, CO
Friends School, CO
Hillel Community Day School, FL
Jeffco Open School, CO
Lexington High School, NE
Mackintosh Academy, CO
Maui Prep School, HI
McKelser Waldorf Peninsula High School, CA
North Rockland High School, NY
Northfield Mount Hermon School, MA
Oakwood School, CA
Platt Choice, CO
Poudre High School, CO
R. A. Doyle and Martin Elementary Schools, MO
Sacramento Waldorf School, CA
Shining Mountain Waldorf School, CO
Shoreline High School, WA
St. Paul Academy, MN
Talmud Torah School, MN
Think College Now, Oakland, CA
Twin Cities Jewish Middle School, MN
Watershed School, CO
West High School, Denver, CO
Wildwood School, CA
PassageWorks School Profiles
Think College Now Elementary, Oakland, CA Martin Elementary & Doyle Elementary, East Prairie, MO Boulder Community School of Integrated Studies, Boulder, COSchool Stories of PassageWorks
Building the Container in a Kindergarten Class
Building the container for us starts at day one. In kindergarten that’s the main goal of the whole year – building that solid community. Prior to PassageWorks, classroom control was harder. Because I didn’t know the kids that well, I didn’t feel as connected to them. So now, I feel like kids are more motivated. I can really talk to them about the struggles they’re having, and they know that I understand them. Also the kids are respectful in a different way—they hold the class together because they know that if they’re not doing their best, it impacts the whole class. So as a community, they support each other and raise each other up. Also with the recent death of one of the mother of one of my students, I find that the kids are so thoughtful. They’re so young, but they still know that this little girl needs support, and they continue to reach out to her. I think that that has come a lot from PassageWorks—we’ve built this really strong community, and they are able to step outside themselves. My hope is that this experience with their classmate will help them too. As they get older and have to face grief I think they’ll be able to empathize and also to get the support that they need.
-Laurie Nakauchi-Hawn Boulder, CO
Open Heart
Of all of the dimensions of the teaching presence, I believe “open heart” has had the greatest impact in my life both inside and outside school. I had heard the phrase before Passageworks, and I understood what it meant, but I had never actually paid attention to when my heart was open, and when it would close. I never before had spent the time and given the attention to what internal or external events caused my heart to open, to close, and to open up again. Because of Passageworks, this idea has become a core part of my awareness, not only in the classroom, but in my life.
My daughter was 13 years old when I began training with Passageworks. Everybody knows that moms and 13 year old daughters often struggle, and we were no exception to that rule. After I began paying attention to my heart’s openings and closings, I became aware that certain interactions with my daughter would slam my heart closed to her, and I could feel hers slamming closed to me. I began to realize that if I could keep my heart open to her, listen patiently, love her, and acknowledge her feelings; her heart would soon swing back open towards me. It was a miraculous thing to experience.
This wonderful daughter is now about to go off to college. She often tells me how much she loves and appreciates me and I honestly cannot imagine a better mother/daughter relationship. We still have occasional challenges, but I know what to do now. If I just keep my heart open, hers quickly swings open as well.
-Lorri Acott-Fowler Ft. Collins, CO
Not Fixing
Sometimes really intense things come up for 5th grade kids. I was doing a five-year teaching loop with students, so I saw half the class through their divorces. PassageWorks real gift to me was helping me to see that I don’t have to take these challenges in or on. I can just be the person that listens or play that role of the witness. I saw that I could witness and experience student’s struggles and still go home and have a lot of fun and be joyous. This was very liberating for me. It has allowed me to feel like I can go deeper with kids without having to shut off the feelings in my heart. I went through years of teaching feeling I had to fix my students lives and then saw that I really just need to be present and authentic with them.
-Sabine Smead Boulder, CO
Reflections on Teaching Presence
Over the last 27 years, I have taught a range of students, from kindergartners to seniors. Sometimes those big classes of surly teenagers would shake me up, and I would react to them from a closed tight place of fear—not present, not compassionate, without emotional range and certainly without an open heart. It was a lose-lose situation for everyone involved. Then one day I was substitute teaching in a middle school class and had an interesting realization. I saw that these same outwardly surly, ‘disrespectful’, rude teenagers were the same children I had known since they were in Kindergarten with my own children. In that moment, as I looked at them, I saw that they were still those cute Kindergarten children I had watched grow. I melted, let down my self-protective guard and was present, compassionate, wide open and ready to ride the wave of authentic energizing connection, learning and growing.
-Margaret Dodd, Teacher Boulder, CO