This semester, Gann has a fresh lineup of courses designed to ignite students’ curiosity and enrich their experience here on campus. Here are some of the exciting new offerings:
Great Books
The Great Books class features novels that have left indelible marks on our culture. Despite being written across almost two millennia, these texts share themes of transformation, self-discovery, and the struggle for agency, revealing how enduring and universal these experiences are. Readers will meet in the library, a calm and cozy spot that’s perfect for conversations about the words and works that have shaped us. The books they will explore are 1984 by George Orwell, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Metamorphosis by Ovid, and The Metamorphosis by Kafka. Together, Ovid and Kafka will spark an especially rich conversation about literary inheritance, revealing how the same idea of transformation can express very different views of the human experience across centuries.
Shabbat Ritual and Craft
Taught by Rabbi Noah and Reva, this one-of-a-kind interdisciplinary course combines Judaic text learning, kosher cooking class, and traditional challah-making practicum. The class is founded in the texts and traditions around Shabbat – but has students creating this weekly feast by hand and with a lot of heart. This course is one of the “homiest” and most sensory-filled of Gann’s recent offerings, filling the Beit Midrash with the smell of freshly baked challah and lit candles. Not only will the students participate in making traditional Ashkenazic and Sephardic challot, but they will use flour milled right here at Gann. Whether students regularly have Shabbat meals or not, this course is an empowering experience in “making Shabbat” – from the kiddush ceremony to all the table settings and foods. The instructors will lead the class in discussing crucial themes like cycles of rest and release, the significance of the letter seven, and cultivating joy and rest on Shabbat while bringing family and friends together.
Hebrew through Yoga
Hebrew through Yoga combines language learning with students’ developing (or even beginning) yoga practice. Over the course of the semester, students will gain new vocabulary and confidence in Hebrew and even have the chance to teach their own class in Hebrew. This interdisciplinary class invites students to move mindfully while building their language skills in a calm, welcoming atmosphere. Pairing Hebrew with yoga engages multiple ways of learning, helping students internalize new vocabulary through both thought and movement. Yoga’s popularity in Israel reflects a culture that values wellness, mindfulness, and community. One fun bonus for students: when they travel to Israel in the future, they’ll be able to join a yoga class in Hebrew – and actually understand the instructions!
Combinatorics and Graph Theory
In Combinatorics and Graph Theory, advanced students can further challenge themselves to move beyond a “plug into a formula” approach and start reasoning about structure, logic, and proof. The first part of the course will cover enumerative combinatorics such as elementary counting problems, the binomial theorem, partitions, permutations, sieve methods, and generating functions. In the second part of the course, students will leverage these skills to solve graph theory problems: trees, coloring, matching, and planar graphs. If there’s time in the semester, students will also be introduced to Ramsey theory.
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From the library to the kitchen to the yoga studio to the math classroom, these new courses allow students to engage in learning that is sophisticated, interdisciplinary, and experiential. At Gann Academy, students are active co-creators of their educational experience – whether they are kneading challah dough, graphing “nodes and edges” in a math class, practicing a sun salutation (and knowing it’s called birkat hashemesh in Hebrew), or debating timeless questions in a Great Books class. Happy second semester to the students, and we can’t wait to see everything they create!