How Horiba Is Special

In collecting her latest Teacher of the Year award from the County Office of Education, Ms. Horiba has emerged as a model for other educators to emulate. A Culver City native, she has followed an unusual path in winning multiple Teacher of the Year prizes. She began her career as a high school teacher. Then she became a 6th grade teacher. These days, Ms. Horiba is teaching 3rd graders. Some people would call that backward. Not Interim Supt. of Schools Diane Fiello. “To say the route is backward is a popular misunderstanding,” Ms. Fiello told thefrontpageonline.com today. “Alice is challenging herself. Every grade is a challenge, whether high school or the 3rd grade. Every grade is different, too.” Another sign of Ms. Horiba’s confidence in her teaching ability, said Ms. Fiello, is that she opens up her classroom to educators to observe. “We encourage our teachers to open their classrooms,” Ms. Fiello said. “Not all of them do it. This shows how strongly she believes in what she is doing and the way she is doing it.”

Onto the State Finals

Ms. Horiba, one of 16 persons chosen by the County Office of Education, next will advance to the state Teacher of the Year competition. At very progressive El Marino, she is a star in the unique Japanese Immersion program. Ms. Horiba grew up speaking Japanese with her parents, and when El Marino introduced its immersion p0rogram 14 years ago, the two turned out to be a match created in academic heaven. She must be smart. She started out to be a chemist, but she loved math, too. A graduate of Loyola Marymount University, after gaining two credentials in math, she was hired as an instructor of math at Culver City High School. Soon enough, she went away for a year to teach in Japan. By the time she returned, the Japanese Immersion program had been created at El Marino. Ms. Horiba was invited to teach the school’s first round of 3rd- and 4th-graders. Obviously qualified to assume command, she developed broad curricula and an entire educational culture. Fifth-graders now visit Japan for two weeks each summer. In partnership with a Japanese school in the South Bay, Nishiyamato Academy, they dually conduct educational activities, correspond with pen-pals and enjoy home visits. Ms. Horiba has organized a far-reaching culture that has influenced and trained hundreds of students, an enviable legacy.