Laura Hayes

Teaching looks like lesson plans and classroom management. But ask any teacher what holds a classroom together, and the answer is rarely a technique — it's trust. And trust cannot be performed.
The Stance of the Teacher is a personal development book for Waldorf educators and school leaders, drawing on Anthroposophy, Steiner's Pedagogical Law, systemic constellation work, and Nonviolent Communication. Available June 30 on Amazon

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Humans have always gathered around fire to tell the truth. Campfire Wisdom is a simple tool for that ancient need.

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About

I spent more than two decades in Waldorf classrooms — in Germany, Maine, Connecticut, and New York — before I understood that the most important work I was doing had very little to do with lesson plans.
It had to do with who I was when I walked through the door.
I trained at the Waldorf LehrerSeminar in Hannover and hold a certificate in curative education from Hamburg. I have taught every grade from first through twelfth, worked as a world language teacher on two continents, and since 2022 have served as School Director at Ithaca Waldorf School in Ithaca, New York. Alongside that, I trained as a systemic constellation facilitator and as a practitioner of Nonviolent Communication, and have worked for years as a coach and mentor for Waldorf teachers.
What I have learned, from the classroom, from the families I have worked with, from my own ongoing inner work, is that the conflicts, the difficult students, the parents who exhaust us, the colleagues who frustrate us, are rarely random. They are invitations. And the teachers who learn to read those invitations rather than manage them become the ones their students remember for the rest of their lives.
That understanding is at the heart of everything I offer: the book, the card deck, and the one-on-one work.
If something here resonates and you would like to talk, I offer a free 20-minute exploration call. No agenda, no pitch, just a conversation to see whether working together makes sense.
Reach me at [email protected]