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Meet Raphaela Mazzone - Year 8 Teacher

17 June 2021

I joined Glenaeon this year to teach English, History and Geography to Year 8, as well as to be one of the Year 8 Guardians.

I bring a lifetime of experience with Steiner Education, having been a student at a Steiner school myself. I took a break from the ‘Steiner world’ in my twenties studying visual art at university and completing my a graduate diploma in teaching, but on graduating, I spent a year teaching high school art and music at Mt Barker Waldorf School. 

I soon decided that it was time for some adventure however, so spent the following eight months touring with a chamber choir, performing and teaching in Steiner schools around Australia, Asia, Europe and India. We performed over seven hours of repertoire, taught in over six languages, stayed with 'regular' families, saw rainbows, cheesecloth and wooden furniture used right around the world, and had the most intensely rich, cultural experiences imaginable.

On my return I went back to university to do a Masters of Fine Art. This was a particularly formative time for me as I became most interested in what the communication process is between what we feel on the inside and what is going on in the outside world. The further I delved into the world of ideas around identity, self awareness, mindfulness, communication and empathy however, the more I became frustrated with using art as my medium for communicating with others. I began longing to be back in a classroom.

So I returned to teaching. I chose also to return to Steiner education because embedded in this system is already so much content (both explicit and implicit) that supports the students in developing their own self awareness, their capacity for empathy and the nuance of different types of communication. 

After two wonderful years spent as a primary school class teacher at Kamaroi Rudolf Steiner School, I am now here at Glenaeon, and I must say, it feels wonderful to be back working with teenagers. 

Over the coming years I plan to complete my Graduate Diploma in Psychology and use all I have learned in this degree to continue finding ways we can further embed emotional intelligence skills and knowledge more deeply and consciously into everything we teach so that our students can graduate with not just academic skills, but all the life skills they need to live happy, healthy lives.