The Harker School’s grade 2 students had their annual pumpkin painting and delivery in late October, a community service project that the school has been taking part in for the last seven years. A discussion about community is a big part of the project. According to Paula Bither, a lower school P.E. instructor, it gives the students a chance to talk about “what a community is.” Bither says the conversation led them to discuss “how we live in a neighborhood that is part of the school’s community. We talked about how challenging it is to live near a school with all its various noises.” Toward that end, it is important to be a good neighbor, and to show appreciation toward the wonderful neighbors the school has. The students decorated pumpkins, and then walked around the neighborhood, delivering pumpkins on porches along with cards. “The pumpkin is a gift to show our appreciation,” says Bither. “We want to thank our neighbors for being so great.”
Storyteller Jim Cogan returned to The Harker School campus once more in mid-October, regaling K-5 students with stories centered around this year’s lower school theme of kindness. Cogan performed first for K-3, and for grades 4-5 shortly thereafter. As always, the students loved listening to Cogan, who has a unique, warm and animated style of storytelling.
The Harker School’s grade 1students took their annual trip to Johnson Farm in mid-October, a fully operating farm in the mountains surrounding Santa Cruz. Teacher Rita Stone said the farm is “deep in the forest. Gorgeous location.” The farm offers many opportunities to connect with nature, including growing Christmas trees that families can come and cut down during the holidays. The Johnson family has been running the farm for 45 years, and particularly emphasizes the educational trips it provides for children, to help them understand “the relationship between farming and day-to-day life.”
The first graders were joined by many parents and teachers, all of whom took advantage of everything the farm has to offer. Led by Farmer Rob, a person Stone described as “very warm, friendly and animated,” the group got to see an old barn where Farmer Rob demonstrated the process of shucking corn, and talked about some of the things corn is used for. Students were then allowed to walk the land and feed some of the animals, like chickens and goats.
The classes then boarded two hay wagons for a ride through the farm, which studenet Rick Lu said was his favorite part of the trip, “because Farmer Rob did some funny driving.” The ride ended in a pumpkin patch, where Stone says, “each student and adult got to pick their perfect pumpkin.”
Freddy Hoch and Andrew Reed, both in Cindy Proctor’s class, enjoyed this part of the trip. “It was fun saying ‘yoohoo’ when you wanted to get your pumpkin,” Reed said. Hoch added that he also liked “going through the corn field.”
On a Saturday in mid-October, students and teachers from The Harker School’s lower school campus participated in the Walk ‘n’ Wag, a charity walk for the Humane Society of Silicon Valley that encourages people and their dogs to come together for a mile-long walk through Kelley Park.
This is the second year that the lower school has participated in the event, and Rita Stone, grade 1 teacher, said she hopes it becomes an annual event. “It started last year as an introduction/kickoff for the first grade community service project, which was raising supplies and funds for an animal shelter,” she says. This year, 10 students and eight staff members participated. “We even had some faculty with no dog, but a lot of spirit and enthusiasm,” says Stone. One student, Arissa Huda, a first grader in Cindy Proctor’s class, participated in the walk, and said she liked it when she fed one of the canine companions, Wiggin, “a little treat.”
Stone says she presented the idea to the class by first talking about animal shelters, and telling the students how they always need help.
After the walk, Dalya Tanurhan, a student in Stone’s class said, “I was so happy!”
Shalini Bhatia, a grade 1 student in Proctor’s class, said, “I wish the walk had been longer! It was too short.”
This article was originally published in the Fall 2011 Harker Quarterly.
Reading and writing go together in academia, and an innovative program is helping musicians learn to write as well as read music.
“Usually students learn to read music and to play it,” said Louis Hoffman, lower school music teacher, “and that’s it. But that’s only half. They should be learning to write it as they’re learning to read it, just like with language.”
Until then, he argues, students are not musically literate.
With the musical literacy goal in mind, Hoffman started the Young Composers program and extended an invitation to all students at the lower school to study composition, no musical background required.
Two students, Paul Kratter and Aditya Andrade, both now in grade 3, took part in the program last year. They wrote pieces for orchestra and jazz, respectively, that were performed at the lower school’s orchestra and choir concert in May. Both students also conducted their pieces, another skill learned in the Young Composers class.
Conducting is one of Kratter’s favorite parts of the program. When asked about his experience at the concert last year, he said, “It felt good to conduct my own music in front of so many people.” His other favorite part of the program, he said, is the composing itself, and because of that, he’ll be continuing with it this year.
Andrade said of the concert experience, “It did feel a little odd playing my own piece. But it has always been a dream of mine, to conduct and play my own piece.” He is looking forward to writing a short symphony for the program this year.
The young composers learn different strategies for composing while also studying everything from musical theory to arrangement (deciding the instrumentation) to orchestration, meaning which instruments will play which parts.
“If you write a note for violin,” Hoffman says, “it has to be something the violin can actually play; you have to be sure that instrument goes that high or that low. Or let’s say you want to write a part for a recorder in an orchestra, an instrument not usually in the orchestra. You won’t be able to hear it; the other instruments will overpower it.”
Another important skill Hoffman wants students to learn is improvisation. He started jazz ensembles at the lower school to encourage students to master this skill. “In jazz,” he said, “you’re expected to understand what’s happening in the music, and then to change it and make it your own.”
With all these new tools in hand, students learn how to prepare the score, which lays out all the parts for the conductor, so he or she can see, measure by measure, who is playing what. And when it’s ready to be played, the students take it to rehearsal and see how their music really
sounds.
Hoffman knows firsthand the importance not just of seeing your notes on paper but of learning to change and revise them based on the style of music being played. His own background is in composition; he worked for 13 years in television and film, writing scores for everything from
Disney cartoons to full-length films.
“Doing this in the real world where you have to meet the expectations of somebody else is actually very challenging,” he said. Learning to compose in the face of those expectations is an important lesson that Hoffman wants to pass on.
In terms of other challenges he’s faced with in teaching composition, Hoffman said, “There are none. Composing is a very natural thing. Whenever new students start, I tell them, ‘You know much more about music than you think you do.’ My job is to prove it to them.”
Once a student has written a piece, Hoffman said, “I don’t change a single note. We talk instead about stylistic expectations. If a student wants to compose something in the style of, say, Duke Ellington, there are certain things people expect to hear.”
Hoffman has taught composition at other schools and said teaching children composition is actually easier than teaching it to adults. “With adults, if after five minutes they aren’t
Beethoven, they throw up their hands. Kids come into composing with fewer judgments and expectations, and because of that, get into it much easier,” he said.
The important thing in music teacher teaching kids to compose is to not “confuse intellect
with experience,” Hoffman said. “Kids can learn anything adults can. My job is to find and use a strategy that makes sense to them. You have to make it make sense within the context of their own experiences.
“I think people hear about it, about younger kids composing and conducting music, and almost can’t believe it,” Hoffman said. “But we should expect musical literacy from all students studying music. It’s just like writing. Just as we expect kids to learn to write paragraphs as they learn to
read them, we should expect kids to learn to write music as they learn to read and play it.”
Hoffman called composing “the missing component” in musical education. “Being able to recognize what you’re hearing in music and then freely create it is what makes you musically literate.”
Grade 1 students and their families were treated to a special movie night in late September at the lower school gym, where they watched three episodes of the popular animated series, “Wallace and Gromit.” The children sat on blankets munching pizza, cookies and of course popcorn, while their parents met and chatted with one another.
Each year, the lower school provides training for parents interested in chaperoning field trips, and in the last two years, Harker has had about 600 parents go through chaperone training. The evening meetings help maintain Harker’s commitment to safety by making sure chaperones best know how to assist the teachers on school outings to keep students secure. Approximately 45 parents attended the final training for Bucknall field trips, held in late September, and can now join students on off-campus trips. Chaperones-in-training heard Joe Connolly, dean of students K-5, cover everything from the buddy system to bus safety.
Lower school classes have been getting themselves excited for the Oct. 9 Family & Alumni Picnic, titled “Hats Off Harker,” by decorating their doors with festive posters, each with a different twist on the picnic’s theme of stylish headwear. Students’ and teachers’ faces are pasted on each door poster, and many different hats, from sombreros to top hats to pith helmets, are well-represented.
Imelda Kusuma and Rita Stone, both grade 1 teachers, got their classes together for their annual Friendship Party in mid-September. The parties started five years ago. Stone says the first party was borne of the idea that “the classes could get to know each other a bit better while at the same time using our character development ideas about friendship. It worked beautifully!”
Every year, the Friendship Party starts with a story — which, fittingly, centers around friendship. The story can prompt, Stone said, “good discussions.” Kusuma and Stone thought it would be meaningful for the students to extend a friendly hand to others, so they came up with the idea of all the students making a craft project for them to give to residents of a nursing home. “We explained to our classes that even though we don’t know who will be getting our projects, they will certainly brighten someone’s day, and that’s a big part of friendship!” Stone said. The students did a great job decorating pencils with fake flowers, and their craft will be donated soon.
In late August and early September, lower school families gathered at the Bucknall campus for a pair of special Welcome Back barbecues. Families enjoyed hamburgers, hot dogs, snacks, soda and other treats in a fun, picnic-like atmosphere. Parents had the opportunity to meet and chat with faculty and staff while their children made use of the campus’ excellent playground areas.