Mirman School

Today during our Wednesday Assembly, Second Grade student, Theodore G., introduced our community to Dr. Alvin L. Smith, Manager of Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Protection Center of Excellence! Dr. Smith visited with our students today and answered their most burning questions about the amazing work he does. A special thank you to our STEAM Coordinator, Mr. Huyhn, for organizing this opportunity for students!

At Mirman School, Discovery is one of our core values and essential to our students confidence and development of their critical thinking skills! This week, our beloved Innovation and Media Specialist, Ms. Kanyikirize, worked with Kindergartners to discover how to use design thinking in their everyday learning. The objectives: I can use design thinking to keep me growing as an innovator and to solve problems, and I can make independent choices about activities that will interest me and keep me growing as an innovator. This is the intersection of our mission and our core values. This is innovation raised to the power of Mirman!

At Mirman School, Discovery is one of our core values and essential to our students confidence and development of their critical thinking skills! This week, our beloved Innovation and Media Specialist, Ms. Kanyikirize worked with Kindergarteners to discover how to use design thinking in their everyday learning. The objectives: "I can use design thinking to keep me growing as an innovator and to solve problems," and "I can make independent choices about activities that will interest me and keep me growing as an innovator." This is the intersection of our mission and our core values. This is innovation raised to the power of Mirman!

Since 1962, Mirman School has cultivated the boundless potential of highly gifted children. Mirman’s community is home to a diverse group of students in Kindergarten through eighth grade, an innovative curriculum celebrating all the dimensions of childhood, and a faculty dedicated to developing creative and constructive leaders of tomorrow. Learn more at a virtual admission event on October 7, 14, or 24. To join us, visit mirman.org/rsvp.

Happy Moon Festival! Today, students celebrated by learning about moon cakes, making lanterns, and learning Chinese poems! We learned about the origin and history behind Moon Festival and all of the many exciting ways to take part in celebrating lunar appreciation! A very special thank you to Mandarin teachers Ms. Yin, Ms. Huang, and Ms. Song for inspiring our students and our community to take part in commemorating such a special holiday!

Mirman Summer Recap: 1. Library refresh 2. New Lower School play yard 3. Dr. Powell, Mr. Dove, and Ms. Smith host an SDLC summer retreat... 4. Lunch with the Mirmans 5. Faculty and staff reunite at an impromptu jam session during In-Service Week 6. Fifth Grade joined us for our Upper School Orientation 7. Ice Cream parties with our new students We don’t know about you, but Mirman School had an amazing summer! Can’t wait to welcome you back Mustangs, see you in carline tomorrow!

Mirman Stepping Up Ceremony 2021!

This morning, we celebrated good times with the Seniors of our Lower School on their big step up to the Upper School! Complete with a dance-filled entrance led by Mirman's very own hype man, Mr. Kello, poignant reflections by our Fourth Grade Teachers, Ms. Leavitt, Ms. Tedder, Ms. Bowman, Ms. Sone, and Ms. Kobliha, a heartwarming address by Head of Lower School, Ms. Leung, and Boba for all! Today was the celebration our students (and their families) deserved! Students, we couldn't be more proud of who you are becoming and all that you have accomplished at Mirman thus far. We cannot wait to welcome you to the Upper School in the fall, congratulations!

#MOOD. After a successful (first-ever) Virtual Family Open House, we are dancing right into the weekend (and the final stretch of the school year), and just like our Third Graders, we can't stop the feeling! Show 'em how it's done 3A! Happy Friday to all!

Two of our core values here at Mirman are Empathy and Resilience. This wonderful poem shared by Lower School student, Ollie L., signifies both and sharing this with our community is the perfect way to close out Teacher Appreciation Week 2021. A special thanks to Ollie and his parents for their kind words of appreciation! Happy Friday!

In this most precious video, Second Grader, Alianna N., shared her appreciation for Mirman teachers, and in particular, Ms. Kanyikirize for inspiring her! On behalf of the entire Mirman Community, we salute the care, intention, dedication, innovation, perseverance, and resilience of all of our faculty. Thank you Mirman teachers for all that you do!

Phew! It has been a busy time for us at Mirman since returning from spring break. Highlights over the past two weeks include welcoming our entire Upper School back to on-campus instruction, a nature walk and poetry writing session for our Fourth Graders in honor of Earth Day, a special changing of the guard, where Second Grader, Caleb H., had the opportunity to be Head of Lower School for the day, and yesterday, 52 girls across both Lower and Upper School participated in the Girls Adventures in Math Competition where they had the opportunity to flex their muscles, show off their math prowess, and learn about some of the amazing women who have impacted history across the globe yes girls! Spring is in full swing, happy Friday to all!

Extra, extra, read all about the awesome moves our Mustangs are making! Two of our Upper School students have recently made some amazing strides that we are so happy to share with our community! Earlier this month, Ethan M. was awarded First Prize in the 2020 Golden Classical Music Awards International Competition, and has been invited to play at Carnegie Hall later this year! Ethan’s dad shared that his development, understanding, and interest in music have grown by leaps ...and bounds," thanks in large part to our Director of Music Programs, the one and only Mr. Kello! And in the world of innovation, recent MirmanX Pitch Night prize-winner, Ryan D., just officially launched a website for his new business venture, LavaPC, a new computer that offers robust gaming capabilities and he’s already taking orders! Ryan shared that his business originated out of frustration with the limited gaming options on his Macbook. He researched all that goes into building computers, purchased the parts, and spent four straight hours assembling what now is LavaPC! We could not be more proud of both students, please join us in congratulating them on a job well done!

On Thursday, March 25, a vision came to life for our Student Diversity Leadership Council, Rishi G., Arya F., Sukari F., Simone P., Soraya R., Dylan W., and Megan Y., as they hosted a social justice conference like no other for 75 middle school students across Los Angeles in a virtual world. The conference, "In the Middle of the Movement: The Revolutionary Act of Freedom Dreaming, Doing, and Planning," was hosted in "Topia," a spatial platform designed and created by "Heroes ...of Color" author and animator, David Heredia, and delivered a powerful opportunity for students to connect, imagine, and ignite their power as agents of change. Throughout the various break periods, students had the opportunity to explore Topia, which came complete with a live arts center, a sports arena, a spoken word arena, a library, a wellness spa, a health center, and a beach, and so much more! Students also had the option of leaving a note or message in the world to express their feelings and leave feedback on their experience. This conference was nothing short of epic and we are immensely grateful to Dr. Tunette Powell and Ms. Christina Pak for their unwavering commitment to making this conference unforgettable and that it was! A very special thank you to our partnering schools and organizations New Roads School, Westside Neighborhood School, HEET Community of Schools, and ReThinkIt for your collaboration on this event! What a perfect send-off to spring break!

On Wednesday evening, our Upper School students displayed their scientific prowess at Mirman's very first virtual Science Fair! The event featured almost seventy Zoom break-out rooms and over four rounds of student presentations. After months of testing hypotheses, surveying, experimenting, observing, gathering data, and analyzing results, the students presented their scientific questions, processes, and conclusions over the course of this culminating evening. Their inquiries... spanned a wide variety of topics, from the natural and social sciences to health, sports, economics, technology, the arts, and more! We could not be more impressed by our students' display of aiming for their highest potential, this truly was a science fair raised to the power of Mirman! A very special thank you to Dr. Peoples-Marwah, Ms. Braun, and Ms. Lipshutz for their undeniable commitment to the development of our young scholars! See more

Mirman School is closed today in honor of MLK Day. To celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., our community will be joining together via Zoom between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. for a service-learning opportunity with L.A. Works. Families will learn more about food insecurity and its correlation to race. As we hear from local leaders and changemakers, we'll prepare sack lunches to be delivered to the homeless population in and around the L.A. area later today. Happy MLK Day from our community to yours!#MLKDAY #mlkdayofservice

Day 2 of Innovation Week kicked off with a special visit from digital animator and creator of the Heroes of Color series, David Heredia. Today, Mr. Heredia is leading our Lower School students through digital design and animation workshops including walking them through the process of creating a superhero and developing comic books. Thank you Mr. Heredia for inspiring the next generation of heroes and hero-makers here at Mirman!

Mirman is ringing in 2021 with a bang! Today kicks off Innovation Week where students will be immersed in all things inventive and imaginative. From a rapid prototyping challenge compliments of Mr. Lueder, to Ms. Arshad and Ms. Kanyikirize highlighting the stories of some amazing women making strides in the field of STEAM, our students are in for an exciting first week back! Stay tuned to keep up with what our budding inventors, scientists, and engineers are up to!

They may be remote, but our Upper Schoolers are still having plenty of fun! Read about their first-ever Cocoa House in our Newsroom. https://mirman.org/newsroom/upper-schools-got-talent

Aww, what a sweet surprise awaited our teachers as they logged in to participate in the final community song of our 2020 Winter Program! Now if you'll excuse us, there's something in our eye...

One of the silver linings of our first-ever virtual Winter Program: our families could get in on the act, too! We loved seeing everyone's parents, siblings, and PETS! Did you catch that during "Let it Be?"

Spread the word - all are invited to join us for this crucial presentation on advocacy for gifted students of color on November 18!

Ms. Braun - is that your Halloween costume, or did you just get really bored in quarantine?? (A fun flashback to our US4 socially-distanced social on Halloween! courtesy the Farrier, our awesome yearbook)

"Did Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii dooooooo thaaaaaat???" Um...win the best costume ever award? Yes Mr. Urkel, yes you did. Our Upper Schoolers bringing the Halloween spirit!

Google Maps?! Every costume has been amazing today, but wow!

Heroes, helmets, and a hamburger...we've got something for everyone here at the spooktacular Halloween Drive-through event! We're so excited to see everyone's costumes!

Another peek into the daily life of our Kindergarten cohorts. Individual materials help each of our students have safe (and fun!) math lessons that are still very much hands-on!

Some of our Upper Schoolers got into the Halloween spirit a little early in advisory this morning! Which one is your favorite? We're partial to the invisible man

The smiles (or the "smizes" - we are wearing masks after all!) keep coming this week as our next Kindergarten cohort returns to campus! We're having a great time getting acquainted, staying safe, and hanging out.

Our fantastic teachers and tech team are still bringing students together even while apart! While some of our learners are staying remote, SWIVL cams and Zoom help them stay connected to their classmates (and vice versa).

Getting back into the swing of things! Welcome back to PE!

It's good to be back! Today, we welcomed our first cohort of Kindergarteners for in-person learning. It may look a little different, but we're still loving it! RESILIENCE is one of our Core Values for a reason!

There ain't no cure for the Zoom Log-in Blues...

Two thumbs up for all our cross country participants! It felt great to be safely back on campus watching our Mustangs gallop once again!

We’re ready for you, mighty Mustangs! For weeks, our Athletics Director Angela Brown and her team have been prepping to bring students back for a safe cross country experience. Today is the day!! go Mustangs!