This week felt more like April break than February break…at one point our girls were out washing cars in their bathing suits with virtually no evidence of the snow that buried us only a week or so ago. Prior to the unexpected arrival of spring, we went to NH for a couple of days...tubing, snowshoeing, and relaxing by the hotel pool. We also were lucky enough to welcome a couple of new additions to our extended family. My brother Steve and his wife Heather recently gave birth to twins (Dominic and Ava) and are bringing them home this week. That makes 11 grandchildren for my parents. Hope you all enjoyed the time as well.
Fostering Conversations Event - This Wednesday night at Horace Mann, we are hosting a Title 1 event aimed at continuing our work to build a welcoming school community for all. Our goal is to take participants through an engaging activity that will help us to reflect on our own beliefs about the wonders and challenges of living in a diverse community, as well as to hear stories/experiences of other families in our community. In addition, we would like to provide parents with tools that will enable them to talk to their children about these topics. This is not meant to reflect any political agenda; it is most important that all people feel welcomed and valued. We will again provide childcare and pizza so that as many families can attend as possible. Please consider coming to this important conversation.
Details:
Pizza from 5:30 - 6pm
Workshop from 6-7:30
Here’s the registration link (please not that even if you can’t register, its ok to just show up):
https://goo.gl/forms/Z55jAVDKPdvTbldA2
Dr. Seuss Day and Read Across America - This Thursday, March 2nd, we will again host a variety of guest readers as we celebrate Dr. Seuss Day. Also, at the end of the day we will ask all classrooms to participate in Read Across America. For anyone who is new to the idea, students and grownups will come out into the hallway with a favorite book and read silently for 15 minutes. Here’s a link to some fun resources you can use at home:http://www.seussville.com/parents/themes/hats-off-to-dr-seuss-s-birthday
Staffing Update: Some of you may know that Jenna Goldstein, our school psychologist, is expecting a child any day now. I wanted to let families know that we have found a psychologist to fill in for Jenna while she is out on maternity leave. Ali Shwartz has worked in a couple of elementary (and K-8) schools over the past 5 years, both in Brookline and in Connecticut and has solid experience with the evaluation process as well as with individual and group counseling. Ali plans to start on March 13th. Jenna and Ali have set up time to talk about psychologist services at Horace Mann to enable as smooth a transition as possible. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Geography Bee Finals - A couple of weeks back, ten finalists participated in our annual Geography Bee competition. Congratulations to the following students for making it to the HM Finals: Arushi Shatkin, Mason Schiefer, Jacob Krylov, Andrew Arcese, Sophie Matthewson, Bridget Stone, Raven Belson, Haitham Ismal, Thomas Ruane, Uma Katz, and Aritra Ghosh. Students were asked a series of domestic and global questions in front of peers and families. After several rounds of challenging questions, Andrew and Sophie emerged as our two semi-finalists.
Congratulations to Andrew Arcese, who, for the second year in a row, took home the top slot at Horace Mann. He will go on to try to qualify for a national competition this spring. We wish Andrew good luck!
