ARCHIVE: March 20, 2013

The staff at the Scene has spring (break) fever! But before you head out for a well-deserved break, we want to tell you a couple of cool things that happened at Holton this week! Around Campus The first thing to tell you about was in the making for a few months and we enlisted Lower School Chorus Director and Music Department Chair Ann Vaughn to tell us more: Together with the Washington Middle School for Girls, we have developed a pilot program to bring the two schools together in a collaborative experience involving the arts in Ghana. This project came about as a result of strategic initiatives on the part of both schools to forge meaningful connections with other schools in the Washington area. On Tuesday, March 19, the two schools shared what they learned over the last six weeks, and families from both communities were honored guests. We had an art exhibit and short music performance at the Washington Middle School for Girls location at THEARC, a beautiful building in Anacostia that also houses branches of The Corcoran, The Levine School of Music, and The Washington School of Ballet. WMSG students visited Holton as well on February 12 and had lunch, got to know each other, and shared some arts experiences. Both WMSG and Holton-Arms share overarching fifth grade themes of exploring individual identity and the place of the individual within a community of others. This is a rich theme with so much to consider, from the unique character of each individual student, to two distinct school communities, to the diverse communities of Anacostia and Bethesda within our larger Washington community, to the place of the arts in creating strong communities and bridging global cultural divides. Thanks Ann for that report. We can’t wait to see what you all do next! An integral part of the Holton experience is for our students to make meaningful connections – sometimes with others or sometimes with themselves - and both were happening in Middle School during Mini-Mester. Students spent the last week taking a risk and exploring something new in a class of their choice. And what could possibly be riskier than conducting a blind taste-test of baby food with a fellow Middle Schooler? These students explored the anatomy of the human brain and how we use our senses to learn about the world around us in the Mini-Mester course – MindFind. You may be thinking – what does eating baby food, blind-folded have to do with the mind-body connection? But as the students explored they learned how to transform individual interests, ideas, and attitudes into long-term, memorable learning experiences! The 10th grade students had a memorable learning experience over these past few months as they conquered a long-time Holton rite of passage – the 10th grade term paper and then celebrated with s’mores in Centennial Garden. The paper is a major project demonstrating writing and research skills, but the awesome aspect is that each girl is allowed tremendous flexibility to explore any topic of interest to her. Some of the titles this year included: Organ Trafficking, Autism, Puppy Mills, The Cultural Revolution of China, Assisted Suicide, Birth Order, Princess Diana and the Evolution of her Fashion Sense, Interpretation of Dreams, Steroids in the Olympics, Muppet Diplomacy, and The Impact of Rent on Musical Theater. Talk about some interesting beach reads for the break... Speaking of spring break, have a great one! Be safe, have fun, and enjoy some time with friends and family. See you all back on campus on April 2!