Two groups of lower school students were treated to off-campus lunches with Joe Connolly, dean of students K-5, as part of picnic auction packages. In late November, Grant Smith, Elvin Chen and Avery Young, all grade 2, headed to Shangri-La, a Chinese restaurant in Los Gatos, and in early December, Kristin Ivey, Ashli Jain and Pumpkin Mayer, all grade 4, enjoyed Pizza-My-Heart.
Connolly remarked on the differences between going to lunch with a group of boys and a group of girls.
“If the diners at Shangri-La were looking for a nice quiet lunch, they picked the wrong day,” said Connolly. “Three second grade boys can make a lot of noise at lunch time, especially in a very small restaurant. Many of the customers seemed to enjoy listening to the boys’ conversations, though. There were lots of smiles and laughs as the boys talked about ‘boy things.'”
While lunch with the girls was much quieter, Connolly said everyone talked about their plans for the upcoming holidays and what they hoped to receive for Christmas. He also praised the girls’ appetites. “We ate a lot of food!” said Connolly. “Those girls could really put it away!”
Loud or quiet, it’s clear that everyone involved had a wonderful time.
Lower school students celebrated Halloween the traditional way and then some. The students made their annual trip in late October into the neighborhood around the campus not to collect treats, but to deliver painted pumpkins as a sign of goodwill towards those impacted by the school’s presence.
The students did have their annual Halloween Parade, making a couple of circuits in costume through the campus to the admiring looks of parents and teachers. In addition, there was a traditional Haunted House created by the BEST staff in the Bucknall gym lobby where students in grades 1-5 had a chance to be frightened by something other than having recess rained out.
After Halloween, students brought in their extra treats for Operation Gratitude. Hundreds of pounds of candy were collected and shipped off to troops serving in war zones to give them a bit of a day brightener and remind them that even on one of the most enjoyable days of the year, students were thinking of them.
To celebrate Veterans Day, a special assembly was held for grades 4 and 5 during which a film on the history of Veterans Day was shown. It was followed by a brief talk on the life of a soldier by upper school math teacher Anthony Silk, who spent two years in the U.S. Navy flying the electronic warfare plane the EA-6B Prowler.
In his speech, Silk talked about how members of the military, be they in the Navy, Army, Air Force or Marines, all share three things: “a love of the United States, a desire to serve and a willingness to sacrifice.”
Silk’s speech delved into each one of these areas. Because of the love of their country, he said, soldiers feel a duty to ensure that American citizens can continue to enjoy their freedom and way of life. “We want you to have the safety and freedom to choose what you want to do with your life,” he said. “We are very proud of what we do.”
Soldiers’ desire to serve, he said, often takes them to faraway places where they may be separated from loved ones for long periods. This was also a part of his third point, sacrifice. “But sacrifice can mean much more,” he continued. “Being in the military is often very dangerous. People get hurt, some are killed. But while it can be scary, the reason we leave our families for a while, and the reason we take those risks, is because we believe that we are making the world safer.”
The talents of grades 2 and 3 filled the Bucknall Theater with seasonal cheer at the special holiday show, titled “Home at Harker for the Holidays,” on Dec. 16. The show featured all students in both grades, each singing a wide array of holiday songs.
Louis Hoffman, lower school music teacher, directed the show, which featured riser choreography by Gail Palmer, lower school performing arts teacher, which made the singing numbers a visual as well as audio treat throughout the show. The show began with the second and third graders collaborating for the opening number, “December Nights.” From there, grade 2 students sang their portion of the show, which included songs such as “Over the River and Through the Woods” and “Jingle Bells,” as well as a tune called “Piñata,” which featured grade 2 English, math and social studies teachers Judi Beil, Jeanette Bhatia, Enni Chen and Kimberly Sandoval swinging at piñatas suspended above the stage.
After the second graders concluded their set, the third grade dance squad performed an entertaining routine to Johnny Marks and the Hit Crew’s “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas,” choreographed by Kristin Maurer, after-school dance teacher.
The grade 3 singers took the stage shortly after to perform some a special selection of songs, including “Arbolito,” which was sung entirely in Spanish and featured lower school Spanish teacher Anita Gilbert on vocals, music teachers Toni and Paul Woodruff on violin and piano, respectively, as well as four student instrumentalists: cellist Rachel Broweleit, violinist Gabriel Chai, violinist Kyle Li and cellist Jeffrey Yang. For “The Little Snowflake,” Walid Fahmy, lower school P.E. teacher, Kathleen Ferretti, grade 2 and grade 3 department chair, Heidi Gough, grade 3 social studies teacher, Jim McGovern grade 3 and 4 P.E. teacher and Heather Russell, grade 2 and 3 English, creative writing and math teacher, all took the stage dressed as snowflakes and danced for the crowd’s entertainment.
For the final performance, both classes once again took the stage to seeing “Around the World at Holiday Time” and the grand finale, “Jingle Bell Rock.”
Whitney McClelland designed the attractive scenery for the show, while Danny Dunn, lower school performing arts technical director, along with students from her middle school Tech Club and her grade 5 technical theater class, made sure the show ran smoothly and with minimal delay.
Famed beach volleyball player and two-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh visited the Blackford campus on Dec. 21 to give a pair of volleyball clinics to middle and lower school students. A Bay Area native and volleyball star since college, Walsh attended Archbishop Mitty High School and won national titles in 1996 and 1997 while at Stanford University. With her teammate Misty May-Treanor, Walsh was awarded Sportswoman of the Year from the Women’s Sports Foundation in 2004 and 2006. The appearance was arranged with the help of Harker volleyball coach Theresa “Smitty” Smith, a long-time friend of Walsh’s.
“It was really amazing because she’s like my role model and I want to be just like her when I’m older,” said Shannon Richardson, grade 7.
Walsh ran the students through several warm-up exercises and drills, having them work on fundamental aspects of the game such as passing and setting.
“I think fundamentals get glossed over a little bit,” Walsh said. “I feel like, especially at this age level, you need to take the time to really just break the game down.”
Students spent a significant portion of the lesson in pairs, passing and setting the ball to each other. In another exercise, Walsh hit the ball toward each student, who then made an attempt to keep the ball from touching the floor, a skill known as digging. After working rigorously on ball control, the focus shifted briefly to hitting and spiking.
Ball control, Walsh said, is especially important for young volleyball players to learn, and said she noticed improvement in the students’ ball control as the clinic progressed. “If you have great ball control, that means you’ll be an asset to any team,” she said.
“She gave a lot of good advice to us,” said Doreen Kang, grade 7. “It’ll help me a lot.”
Walsh’s biggest piece of advice to the students was to believe in themselves: “Don’t be afraid to look silly and take risks, because that’s when you become great, when you take those risks, and learn from your mistakes.”
Grade 1 students provided plenty of holiday cheer to the audience at the Bucknall theater, during the First Grade Holiday Concert on Dec. 14.
Directed by Louis Hoffman, lower school music teacher, with riser choreography by Gail Palmer, lower school performing arts teacher, the entire first grade class sang a diverse repertoire of holiday-themed songs, including “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” “Deck the Halls” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and also performed some lesser-known tunes such as “Candy Candy,” “Shine Little Candle” and a medley of traditional songs about Hanukkah. In between performances, students periodically spoke a few lines of amusing dialog.
The halfway point of the show featured a dance number to the song “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Johnny Marks, with choreography by after-school dance teacher Kristin Maurer. During the second half, the audience was delighted to see grade 1 homeroom teachers Rita Stone, Cindy Proctor, Diann Chung and Mary Holaday take the stage during the song “Gingerbread Cookies,” dancing with giant gingerbread cookie cut-outs.
Elaborate stage scenery courtesy of scenic artist Whitney McLelland enhanced the ambiance of the show, as did the lovely array of poinsettias provided for the show by Sarah Leonard, lower school division head. Danny Dunn, lower school technical director, as well as her middle school tech club handled the slide show and props, while the students in her grade 5 technical theater class acted as the show crew.
Following the show, students and parents attended a special after-party at the Bucknall gym, where they enjoyed cookies, hot chocolate and a special appearance by Frosty the Snowman.
In keeping with the giving spirit of the holiday season, the lower school’s annual holiday toy drive delivered 925 toys to Sacred Heart Community Service in San Jose on the afternoon of Dec. 16. Grade 4 students loaded up a Harker delivery truck, which transported the toys from the Bucknall campus to Sacred Heart. There, members of the grade 4 student council helped unload the toys and received a tour of Sacred Heart’s facilities.
Toys donated included “sports equipment, board games, stuffed animals and all the popular toys of the season,” said Joe Connolly, lower school dean of students. “We even had toys that were purchased at FAO Schwarz.” Harker tech support manager Jesse Lara donated more than 125 toys from his personal collection to help the cause. “He originally collected them as an investment, but decided that boys and girls should play with them,” Connolly said. He later thanked the Harker community for its generosity, saying that Sacred Heart was “thrilled” with amount of toys they received. The donations will play a big part in assisting the 5,000 families that Sacred Heart will serve this holiday season.
“I continue to be touched by the incredible generosity of our parents and students,” Connolly said. “We organize these service projects so the children may realize the wonderful feeling of giving to others. It is uplifting to be able to partner with our parents in this worthy cause.”
On Oct. 6, the Class of 2013 took a short field trip to the lower school campus and was welcomed with cheers and applause by the Class of 2021. It was an exciting day to celebrate in the Harker community as the students joined together for an afternoon of scavenger hunts, three-legged races and snacks.
The sophomores’ visit to the lower school marked the official kickoff of the Eagle Buddies program, an initiative aiming to bridge the campus divide by pairing tenth graders with third graders. Inspired by his own children’s experience with similar buddy programs, Butch Keller, upper school head, suggested starting Eagle Buddies, which strives to foster an ongoing relationship that will continue until the Class of 2013 graduates and the lower school students matriculate into the middle school.
Each third grader has been paired with one or two big buddies, and prior to the October kickoff the sophomores spent time writing introductions to their new buddies and talking about the exciting events to come. Crayons and markers in hand, the older students spent one advisory period creating handwritten cards about their interests. Some invited their little buddies to come watch their upcoming performances. Others talked about what they did during the summer and asked their little buddies to share stories as well. “I’m very excited to meet you. I remember when I was in third grade,” Apricot Tang wrote to her counterpart Annie Ma. “I had a buddy. It was lots of fun. I know we’ll have fun as well.”
“The goals for the program are to foster a K-12 sense of community and to promote responsibility, relationships and communication,” said Carol Zink, history teacher and one of the Eagle Buddies coordinators. Both students and faculty alike are looking forward to forging friendships.
“I am most looking forward to watching the students interact during the various activities we have planned for them at each campus,” Joe Connolly, lower school dean of students, said. “I am also looking forward to watching the relationships develop and seeing the positive benefits each student, young and old, will receive.”
Sarah Leonard, primary division head, was impressed by how quickly the new relationships unfolded during that October morning. “For most, it was instantaneous,” she said. “The buddies clicked, and new friendships were born.” Jeffrey Draper, sophomore class dean, thought it was great to see the care and attention taken by sophomores while working with their little buddies that day.
For Cecilia Lang-Ree, Eagle Buddies offers a chance to meet lower school students outside of her grade 4 sister’s circle of friends. Paired up with Fiona Wiesner, Lang-Ree looks forward to helping her through the rest of her years at the lower school. “I remember being a little kid in the lower grades, and influences from the ‘big kids at Saratoga’ were huge,” Lang-Ree said. “I’m excited and honored to be able to be a friend to one of these awesome kids.”
Eagle Buddies events will continue to happen throughout the year. A special tailgate party was organized before the Homecoming game, allowing the buddies’ parents to meet one another and providing a chance for the buddies to watch a portion of the game against Valley Christian-Dublin.
For Liam Bakar, hanging out with his Big Buddy Robert Deng meant watching Deng, a junior varsity football player, play on the field; they were able to say hello after the game finished. “He’s very nice,” Bakar said of Deng, “and I like a lot of things that he likes.”
In a series of notes, Deng told Bakar his interests in candy and video games and asked Bakar how Halloween went. In response, Bakar wrote him a Thanksgiving card answering questions and sharing more about his own interests.
“When I first heard about the program, I really liked it,” Bakar’s mother, Carla Hindie, said. “Liam is my oldest, and he doesn’t have an older brother. I thought it was great to match him up with somebody who would be able to explain to him stuff that kids might not like talking to their parents about.”
Hindie hopes to organize more opportunities for the two grades to get together. “I’m very happy,” Hindie said. “It’s an amazing idea. All the parents understand that it’s a pilot, so I’m sure that every year there will be more and more great things added to the program.”
In January, buddies will be participating in the lower school’s annual Pajama Day fundraiser, and little buddies will visit the upper school campus in the spring for the spring spirit rally. In between, sophomores will maintain correspondence through letters and invite their buddies to performances and sports events.
“We are a K through 12 school, and watching the interaction that day at Bucknall, all our hopes for the program came true,” Keller said. “We saw hundreds and hundreds of pictures – students throwing sponges, having a good time. When [the kickoff] was over and the upper school kids were on the bus coming back, it was incredible having the kids say, ‘Thanks. This was fun. Thanks for doing this.’”
The only complaint about the new program is that it is limited to third graders and sophomores. Students from other grade levels wish to participate and get involved. “So that’s the good negative comment,” Keller said. “Other people see it, and they want to be involved in it.”
Keller, Zink and Connolly do intend to expand the program. As the 2011-12 school year begins, the Class of 2014 will be paired with buddies from the class of 2022. With the exception of freshmen, who are still adjusting to the upper school, Keller hopes that three classes of buddies will be involved in the program at one time.
“It is my hope that this is the beginning of a long, time-honored tradition,” Leonard said. “The benefits to young and old alike in encouraging communication, promoting responsibility and building and managing relationships cannot be overestimated.”
This story first appeared in the Winter edition of the Harker Quarterly.
In late September, 50 members of the Harker community, including students, parents and teachers, got involved with California Coastal Cleanup Day by picking up litter scattered about Pillar Point and Pilarcitos Creek in Half Moon Bay. The effort was kick-started by parent Kelly Lewis Brezoczky (Emma, grade 5; Charlotte, grade 3; Katherine, grade 1), who believed it to be a good fit for the lower school’s theme of compassion. Brezoczky received help from service and Spirit Club advisor Katie Molin and Redwood City’s Marine Science Institute to coordinate the event.
“The students were excited to be helping the environment by collecting candy wrappers and other paper trash, as well as by finding an old tent and two shopping carts in the creek,” Molin said. Her daughter, Naomi, grade 7, received a T-shirt as a reward for discovering the most bizarre item of debris, a plastic net.
In early November, lower school mathematicians participated in the first meet of the Continental Math League’s (CML) 2010-11 math contest. The meet required students to solve six problems in 30 minutes. The grade 5 team of Adrian Chu, Michael Kwan, Linus Li, Rajiv Mova, Justin Su and Shaya Zarkesh performed exceptionally well, garnering six perfect scores for a perfect team score of 36. The grade 4 team had two perfect scores of its own, courtesy of Rose Guan and Katherine Tien.
More CML meets will take place throughout the school year until the spring. Updates will be made as more information becomes available, so please stay tuned!