Thank you for your interest in Horace Mann School. The Life at Horace Mann Student Ambassador Blog is designed to give our students the chance to share their Lion Pride. In this blog you'll find posts from our Student Ambassadors, other students as 'guest bloggers,' and even the occasional faculty or staff blogger. We hope you'll check back often for updates.
Recently, students in Japanese 3 went to the World Oyama Karate dojo. While learning karate, we practiced our listening comprehension skills as the Sensei spoke only in Japanese. Despite the difficulty of karate, I loved the lesson. I could not keep up with the Sensei’s flexibility. He was incredible; he made doing splits look easy! After our karate session, we attended the Mitsuwa Marketplace. The Mitsuwa Marketplace had delicious Japanese food. I enjoyed a bowl of miso ramen noodles. The Mitsuwa Marketplace also had great shops which students could purchase unique Japanese souvenirs. Finally, to conclude this trip, we practiced speaking Japanese as we interviewed different workers at Mitsuwa. Overall, this field trip was filled with fun and I learned a lot about Japanese culture!
A few nights ago Horace Mann held its annual Advanced Ensembles Concert. The Concert Glee, Horace Mann's advanced singing group, Sinfonietta, the advanced orchestra, and the advanced Steel Drums class came together and held a wonderful concert. It was wonderful to see all the different skill sets and the songs played in so many different mediums. The Concert Glee sang an arrangement of Harmonious Blacksmith (a piano piece transformed into vocal jazz) called Air. Afterwards we had a small reception. It was a wonderful night!
On Thursday, April 4th, no Horace Mann student will attend class. Instead, the entire high school will study a variety of different themes from the book, Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This special day, Book Day, will begin with an assembly featuring Michael Dirda, a Pulitzer Prize-winning essayist, whose work focuses on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story telling ability. Then, each student will get to choose four different workshops to attend. While each workshop will relate to the book, the topics vary from Mormonism to the role of computer science in crime scenes so that every student can find a workshop to interest him or her. I'm currently developing a workshop on the evolution of a murder mystery novel along with my former English teacher, Dr. Levenstein. To me, book day symbolizes why Horace Mann is so special. It's a place where people value coming together and learning just for the sake of learning.
Yesterday the Upper Division was fortunate enough to spend our weekly assembly period looking at the life and works of one of the most distinguished HM parents. Photographer Rodney Smith shared his inspiration with us, and took us through the path that lead him from creative photography all over the globe to fashion shoots and magazine covers. It was a unique opportunity for us to gain insight into a field that most of us aren't too familiar with. It was also a great way for us to see some critically acclaimed art work that was both inspiring and thought provoking. I enjoyed hearing about his physical process and the thought process behind some of his most famous photographs.
At Horace Mann, I have a tremendous amount of course flexibility for a high school student. This year, I have tried to take advantage of that flexibility by enrolling in an Independent Study course, which allows me to design my own curriculum. I am really enjoying studying ancient Roman history with my mentor. However, one of the highlights of the course is hearing my fellow students present their research every other day in our seminar class. I feel as if I am not only enrolled in a history course, but also a computer science course, a psych course, and tons of other courses! In independent study even more so than in my other classes, I feel so lucky to be able to benefit from the brilliance of my peers. I am now fairly well versed in encryption coding, the psychology behind dog behavior- and so many other interesting topics!
Early last month, the Diversity Team held an assembly for the Upper Division. We talked about culture in a lot of ways: our school’s culture, time as a facet of culture, what culture at home is like, and much more. The Horace Mann Diversity Team holds a variety of activities every year where we discuss different topics relating to diversity, identity, culture, and how all three are parts of Horace Mann. The Team is a collection of individual students who live in different places, travel to school in different ways, and come from different backgrounds, but we come together with a desire to understand each other and our common surroundings. We think deeply and talk about these things, and have some fun along the way.
