About Us

About Rise Waldorf School

Our Mission

We gather here in reverence; for childhood, for parenthood, for nature, for the extraordinary potential that lives in every human being from their very first years.

Our mission is to educate with presence. To meet each child in their wholeness; thinking, feeling, willing; and to walk alongside them with warmth, truth, and care as they grow into themselves. We do not hurry this process. We trust it.

We are a community rooted in the natural world around us: where the forest, the river, and the changing seasons are not a backdrop but a teacher. Where beauty is not an extra but a necessity. Where joy is not a reward for good work but the very atmosphere in which real learning becomes possible.

We ask of our teachers, our families, and ourselves what we ask of our children: to remain curious, humble, and alive. To keep growing. To show up fully for one another, and for the living, breathing community we are building together.

Freedom and responsibility. Truth and beauty. Warmth and rigor. Head, heart, and hands.

This is Rise.

Classroom chalkboard at Rise Inspired Waldorf School

Children in classroom at Rise Inspired Waldorf School

Our Actions

We dedicate ourselves to ensuring that every child experiences delight and wonder as the natural companions of learning, following the living curriculum of Waldorf education with care, depth, and reverence for each stage of childhood.
We are committed to sharing this way of life with the community around us, not as a product to offer, but as a gift to give. We believe that when a child is truly educated, and their parents are supported, the whole world benefits.
We love the world around us and show it in how we live: maintaining beautiful grounds, growing our own organic food, and dwelling in harmony with the wildlife and landscapes that surround us.
We see the person within every child, every family, every colleague, and we treat all people with equal dignity and care.
We are positively changing the world, starting with ourselves, our school, and our community. One child, one family, one morning at a time.

Our Values

Reverence for Childhood — we see each stage of a child’s development as sacred and irreplaceable, not to be hurried or overlooked.
Presence — we show up fully; for the children, for each other, for the living moment.
Love of the Natural World — the forest, the river, the soil, the seasons are not the backdrop of our school. They are the school.
Warmth and Human Connection — between teachers and children, families and community, colleagues and friends; genuine relationship is the foundation of all learning.
Wholeness — we educate the thinking, the feeling, and the willing. Head, heart, and hands, always together.
Freedom with Responsibility — we honor each child’s individuality and trust them to grow into their own purpose, with guidance but without imposition.
Truth and Beauty — we believe that beauty is not decoration but necessity, and that truthfulness: in word, in art, in action, is the highest form of respect.
Continuous Growth — we ask of our teachers, our families, and ourselves what we ask of our children: to remain curious, humble, and alive to learning.
Community as a Living Organism — we grow together, support each other, and understand that the health of the school depends on the health of every person within it.
Inspiration — in the ordinary, the extraordinary, and everything in between.

Receive the children in reverence, educate them with love, let them go forth in freedom.

Rudolf Steiner

Our Teachers

Meet Our Faculty

A school is only as alive as the people who show up for it every day.

At Rise, we seek teachers who bring more than qualifications, though those matter deeply too. We seek human beings who feel called to this work. Who find joy in the natural world and are comfortable bringing children into it. Who understand that a walk by the river, a morning in the garden, or an afternoon of woodworking is not time away from learning — it is learning, in its most alive form.

Our faculty brings together Waldorf-trained educators, mentors, and community guides with deep experience across early childhood through upper grades. We understand mentorship as a relationship, faculty development as inner work, and our school community as a living organism, shaped through intentional organization, trust, rhythm, and shared striving.

We build our faculty culture through collaboration, presence, and a genuine reverence for pedagogy. We support each other’s growth, not only as teachers but as whole human beings, because we know that what lives in us is what we pass on to the children in our care.

Amanda Easton, Director of Rise Inspired Waldorf School

Message from our Director

Welcome to Rise.

I came to this work through love. Love for children, for learning, for the quiet miracle of watching a human being unfold into themselves when they are truly met with care and presence.

Over 30 years of teaching, mentoring, parenting and building school communities have taught me one thing above all else: the health of a school begins with the health of the adults within it. When teachers feel supported, when families feel seen, when the community around the child is itself alive and growing — the children flourish. This is not a theory. It is something I have witnessed, again and again, in classrooms and circles and kitchens and riverbanks.

At Rise, we are building something rare: a school where the natural world is the first teacher, where rhythm and beauty are not luxuries but necessities, and where every person who walks through our doors is met as a whole human being.

I am honored to hold this community with you.

“The present moment and all it has to offer is the only experience we can really have. Let us build our capacity to be fully alive and awake to these moments.”

— Amanda Easton, Director
director@crwaldorf.org

Amanda Easton Director Biography

Amanda Easton brings to Rise a rare combination of academic depth, lived experience, and a deeply human approach to education. As a Colorado Elementary Education teacher with endorsements in Linguistically Diverse Education, Special Education, and Early Childhood, alongside a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology and a Waldorf Teaching Certificate; Amanda has spent her career bridging the gap between what we know and what we feel about children and how they grow.

Her philosophy is rooted in the vision of holistic child development, yet firmly grounded in the realities of modern life. She believes that education is not simply the transfer of knowledge, but the cultivation of presence and authenticity; in teachers, in parents, and in children. At Rise, this translates into a school culture where rhythm, beauty, nature, and capacity building coexist, and where each person is met as a whole person.

Before joining Rise, Amanda taught in classrooms and mentorship programs, worked with CASA, coached parents, homeschooled children as a private educator, and guided teachers with development support. What became clear through all of it was that a child’s wellbeing is inseparable from the wellbeing of the adults around them. This insight is at the heart of everything she brings to the Rise community.

As a mother of six, Amanda knows firsthand the complexity, the exhaustion, and the profound joy of raising children. She values both the mundane and the extraordinary, and holds space for both at Rise, where a morning circle, a garden harvest, or a river outing can be just as formative as a main lesson block.

Amanda is also a certified Jai Parenting Coach and continues her own learning through Yoga, Energy Medicine, Meditation, Anthroposophy study groups, and Breathwork. She sees growth as a lifelong practice; for children, for parents, and for herself.

“The present moment and all it has to offer is the only experience we can really have. Let us build our capacity to be fully alive and awake to these moments.”

director@crwaldorf.org