Sophomore Advocate for the Unemployed Quoted in NYT Article

Holton's Sejal Makheja '17, the founder of The Elevator Project, an organization dedicated to lifting individuals out of poverty, was mentioned in this New York Times article "Make Way for Generation Z." Way to go, Sejal!

“Leaning in” forces us to come face to face with the unknown!

As we leave for spring break, here is a recent post from Christy Diefenderfer, Assistant Lower School Director. Enjoy!

Lower School robotics club participants challenge
themselves!

It is our natural tendency as humans to avoid discomfort. Yet, it is when internal discomfort arises that our greatest learning occurs. “Leaning in” forces a person to come face to face with the unknown, reevaluate what they hold to be true, and notice misconceptions that may alter their view of the world. Leaning into the discomfort requires open-mindedness, flexibility, resiliency, honesty, and empathy.

Every time a child is presented with a new concept, idea, or strategy, there is a level of discomfort. Our girls are challenged daily to come face to face with discomfort. They do not just lean into it when it comes their way, they actively seek it out. One of my favorite memories as a science teacher was during a lesson on the nature of atoms. As I progressed through my explanation, one student fully absorbing this rather abstract concept, covered her ears and said, “Ms. D. you have to stop. You are literally blowing my mind!” Learning something new can feel scary, especially if it doesn’t make sense.

Naturally curious, students embrace the discomfort in their learning. They ask thoughtful and often critical questions to make sense of the juxtaposition that is happening in their mind. It is important that they are learning to monitor their understanding, noticing when they do or do not make the leap to true understanding. Students are encouraged to advocate for themselves when a concept is unclear or a topic feels too challenging. The act of admitting to themselves, to their teacher, or to their parents that they do not understand something can, in and of itself, cause discomfort. As teachers, we find ourselves saying to our students through words and actions, “Trust me, we are in this together. I will help you figure this out.”

There are many areas beyond academics where students are asked to lean into the discomfort. Students navigate teamwork daily; they learn to listen to other’s perspectives, share their thoughts and questions respectfully, and resolve the conflicts that inevitably arise. Students feel dissonance as they hear ideas and opinions that are strikingly different from their own, especially as topics become progressively controversial. We model for students how to consider other’s ideas and value diverse perspectives. In fact, the ability to see our complex world through various lenses is one of the hallmarks of today’s global citizen.

Although our young students may not be able to articulate it, I believe one of the things our Holton girls love about this school is that we push them to lean into the discomfort. Our very motto calls each student to “find a way or make one.” Leaning in to the discomfort can be emotionally tiring, so it is no surprise that at times girls need a soft place to land and time to rejuvenate. I hope this spring break offers them time to rest and relax, and, when ready, to lean into something new and different. Have a wonderful spring break!

Sixth Grade - Good Deeds Day on March 15

Good Deeds Day, an annual celebration of doing good, was on March 15 and several of our sixth graders enjoyed a great day of community service! The girls' "good deeds" included: creating artistic messages of hope (canvas paintings) that were then sent directly to victims of terrorism living throughout Israel; collecting and donating new towels to homeless families at the Greentree Shelter; and weaving scarves for those in need. They also wrote messages to terror victims and wounded soldiers, listened to presenters talk about the need for world change, giving, and healing! What a way to spend a Sunday - putting into practice the simple idea that every single person can do something good, be it large or small, to improve the lives of others and change the world!

Two Holton Alumnae Return to Campus with Yale's "The New Blue"

The girls enjoyed a special post-exam lunchtime concert today! Yale University's oldest all-female a cappella group, "The New Blue," performed in the Simms Reception Room. Holton was an obvious stop on the groups's 5-day DC tour since two of its singers, Sammi Stroman '14 and Katie Kirk '13, are Holton alumnae! The group's repertoire ranges from classic jazz to modern pop with a variety of artists from Billy Joel to Christina Aguilera. The singers are continuing their tour with a concert on March 21 at 7 p.m. at St. John's Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, MD.

Yale's "The New Blue" performs in the Simms Reception Room.

Sammi Stroman '14 sings a solo with "The New Blue."

Katie Kirk '13 sings a solo with "The New Blue."

Rain or Shine!

The sixth grade patrols on flag duty even in the rain yesterday! That's dedication!

Sixth Grader Represents Holton at 2015 Scripps Regional Spelling Bee for Montgomery County

(adapted from Head of School, Susanna A. Jones March 13 blog post)

Esther Kim during a round at
2015 Scripps Regional Spelling
Bee for Montgomery County 

The first weekend in March, we hosted the 2015 Scripps Regional Spelling Bee for Montgomery County. While students have tested their spelling prowess in bees since the nineteenth century, the first national spelling bee didn't take place until 1925. Today the field has expanded from nine contestants ninety years ago to more than eleven million students participating in bees leading up to the national championship which Scripps, the media giant, sponsors and ESPN broadcasts. We held a bee for our Lower and Middle School students to determine who would represent Holton at the County-wide bee. Spelling "cygnet" correctly, sixth grader Esther Kim won.

On March 7, Esther joined 35 other students, third through eighth graders, representing independent, parochial and public schools around Montgomery County, who had triumphed in their school bees. From awkward eighth grade boys whose voices had already changed to a pint-sized eight-year-old in pony tails and mary-janes, they arranged themselves in the order of the numbers on the plastic placards around their necks and practiced adjusting the microphone, a necessary skill due to their widely divergent heights. As the official pronouncer and the two judges, one of whom was our own Dr. Hannah Krug, Upper School math teacher, whom, it turns out, competed in the national championship bee in 1999, waited, I read a little history, thanked people, including the Meakem Group, who sponsored the bee, and reviewed the rules.

The competition began with contestant number 1, an adorable third grade boy who was asked to spell "burrito." A student may ask for alternate pronunciations, the definition, the language of origin, to have the word used in a sentence, and whether they are pronouncing it correctly before actually spelling it. Number 2 girl asked for all this every turn. She went down in round seven when she misspelled "blenny," a small, scaleless fish who lives on coral reefs (she missed an "n"). When a child spelled a word wrong, the judges rang a bell. She returned to her seat until the round finished when all losers left the stage.

I learned later from Esther that all the students had received packets with words they could expect to be used in the bee, along with the rules and other pertinent information. Until round six or seven, the pronouncer drew the words from the provided list. A very odd collection of words they were: the first two rounds included idori (a Japanese dance), wiki wiki, geoponics, and vibrato. One poor boy started spelling "gardenia" with a "j" but despite catching himself and spelling it correctly after that, he was out. In the third round, students fell to "strudel," "boutique," "gristle," "catkin" (according to the Encarta dictionary, "a long hanging furry cluster of tiny leaves and flowers without petals, produced by trees such as willows, birches, alders, and poplars" – one of many words I'd never heard in my life) and "mongrel," but handled "greengage," "junco" (the bird), and "satori" (a state of spiritual enlightenment in Zen Buddhism). In the next round "philippic," "lockshen," "novello," "fraulein," "facetious," and my personal favorite, "waterzooi" (a Belgian stew – who knew?) proved the undoing of six students while our own Esther stayed in the game with a correct spelling of "ersatz." The contest continued with words like "kibei," "kuchen," "serdab," "lahar," "alim," "caballero," "gynarchy" (rule by women, definitely my favorite new word of the day), "roodebok,"and the aforementioned "blenny."

By round eight, only seven students remained, Esther being one of them. I was just beginning to visualize her winning the whole enchilada (a word from round three), when she skipped the second "o" in "indecorous" and her impressive run came to an end. After two more rounds "orrery," "effete," "besom" and "omniscient" had eliminated all but the last two contestants. "Insomniac" brought down one of the two remaining, and after spelling "ostium" and "pantheistic" correctly, Raffae Chowdhury, a sixth grader from Rocky Hill Middle School, emerged victorious, the Montgomery County Scripps Spelling Bee Champion.

Congratulations, Esther!