Students in Shelby Guarino’s Gr. 5 English class recently became interested in the homework assignments of students around the world. In order to facilitate this curiosity the students volunteered to share their completed homework assignments with Harker’s sister schools. Sample homework assignments were swapped with students from schools in Japan, Australia, Ethiopia, France and Saudi Arabia.
Harker students sent assignments from Valentine’s Day and Halloween that highlighted their work in grammar and vocabulary. In return they received a variety of different homework assignments from all over the world. Students from the Institution Sévigné in France sent articles from their school newspaper including a poem titled “Night Poem,” which the students really enjoyed.
From the students of St. Stephen’s College in Coomera, Australia, our students received a variety of projects based on the novel “Convict Boy.” These assignments included a model convict ship and letters written by the students as if they were convicts trapped on the ship.
The Australian students also sent our students information on a program they participate in to learn about indigenous cultures. Students are treated to a presentation on these cultures by the indigenous people themselves. They are instructed in traditional dances and told tribal stories in an effort to give them a better perspective on the people and their heritage.
This homework exchange was a great opportunity for the students to learn about the education styles of other countries. Guarino stated that she “believe[d] it opened up their minds to start thinking more personally about more countries other than the U.S., Asia and India.” The goal of the program was to give our students a more worldly perspective and Guarino remarked that “interacting with our sister schools through giving and receiving real-life assignments makes [cultural education] all the more real.”
The sunny morning of June 1 provided the ideal atmosphere for the annual kindergarten tree planting. A tradition that began on the Saratoga campus, the tree planting gave the children the opportunity to leave kindergarten with something that “serves as a living memory of their first year at Harker,” said Sarah Leonard, K-Gr. 3 division head. The students gathered at the front of the Bucknall campus and were treated to a story telling by lower school librarian Kathy Clark, before each student shoveled a small amount of dirt into the hole where the small cherry tree was placed.
Two instrumental groups from the lower school, one of which included members from Gr. 6, won silver awards at the Heritage Music Festival. The event took place this past weekend at Foothill Community College.
Heritage festivals are held around the country for various skill levels. At this one, Harker entered non-high school-aged groups for the first time. Louis Hoffman, lower school music director, was pleased with the results. “They did so well,” he said.
Awards were given by three judges based on a standard rather than in competition with other groups, meaning each group had to meet certain expectations, Hoffman explained. Of the approximately 20 groups at the competition, Harker was the only one with elementary school students. The rest featured high schoolers, as well as one junior high group, which made the awards that much more difficult to earn.
About 25 students from Gr. 2-6 were in the jazz ensemble and about 27 from Gr. 2-5 were in the orchestra. Following their performances, a judge spoke to the groups, giving critiques and compliments in a sort of mini clinic, Hoffman said. Each student received a pin to commemorate the results and the school received two plaques to display on campus.
Hoffmann gave credit to Laura Lang-Ree, chair of the performing arts department, and to Chris Florio, upper school orchestra director, for their efforts in building the lower and middle school programs.
“The students’ behavior was so good,” said Hoffman. “They acted wonderfully. I was so proud of them.”
“Mr. Goodwin, is everything good in Japan?” a student asked English teacher Colin Goodwin as he surveyed posters and Japanese treats. It was a beautiful, sunny day and Bucknall students were welcoming spring with a display from Goodwin’s recent educational exchange.
In celebration of the change of seasons, and inspired by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden,” Goodwin thought it would be fun for his Gr. 4 class to share American spring traditions with fourth graders in Harker’s sister school Tamagawa Gakuen. With the help of Jennifer Abraham, Harker’s director of global education, Goodwin organized an educational poster exchange. He sent a descriptive essay and posters illustrating the first strawberries of spring, Easter, spring break and the start of baseball season to Tamagawa. In return, he received posters illustrating Japanese spring traditions. “They were fascinated that school starts in April in Japan and that Japanese kids only have several weeks off between fourth and fifth grade,” Goodwin said of his students. He also noted their interest in Girl’s Day (Hina Matsuri) and Children’s Day (Kodomo-no-hi).
The project challenged students to consider what spring symbolizes and introduced global education into Goodwin’s class. The students were impressed by Tamagawa students’ displays and the beautiful packaging of the sweets (wagashi) served at the party.
In an effort to expand the project, Abraham and Goodwin also sent posters to schools in France, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Ethiopia. They have received posters from Institution Sévigné in Compiègne, France.
“Overall, I think this project taught the kids that they have a lot in common with Japanese kids,” Goodwin said. “However, the kids realize that there are some distinct differences between Japanese culture and American culture that help make the world a more interesting place.”
Sabreur Eric Pei, Gr. 5, took the silver medal in April in Virginia Beach, Va., at the North American Circuit event in the Youth-10 boys sabre category, placing him second in points in the U.S.. Pei will next fence in Summer Nationals in Atlanta in July. At the Virgina Beach tournament, Pei won five out of six pool bouts and seeded fourth into the elimination table, then fought his way through three elimination bouts to reach the gold medal match. Pei trains at The Fencing Center of San Jose and Halberstadt Fencers Club, San Francisco; his main coach is Rob Handelman at Halberstadt.
This year’s Evening of Jazz represented a first for Harker’s conservatory. It was the first concert to feature musicians from both the lower and upper school jazz bands. Director Chris Florio said he was “really passionate about [the school’s] instrumental program being strongly K-12.” He called the pairing of the bands “the newest example of how we’re succeeding with that goal.” The night got off to a rousing start with the lower school band performing first. Next up was the upper school band, featuring soloists Ben Tien, Dwight Payne, Frankie Nagle and Nikunj Donde. The show ended with an encore of “Brick House,” with solos from graduating seniors Aadithya Prakash, Sammi Werthen and Won Hee Lee.
Dazzling the Gr. 5 students with his cool Martian moves, Rudy the Rover made a guest appearance on the Bucknall campus March 26 in celebration of National Engineers Week.
Math teacher Pat Walsh invited IBM engineers Diane Reese and Eric Butler ’81 to teach his students ways to apply their math practically. Reese, a mother of two Harker graduates, and Butler challenged the students with simple programming, manipulating the different paths Rudy, a Lego Mindstorms robot, could take to reach his target.
By also pulling numbers and word problems off the desk and highlighting the potential for practical applications, the two engineers gave the students a peek into an engineer’s life in research.
The kindergarten classes took their audience on a jungle cruise during the 2010 kindergarten show at the Bucknall Theater on April 22. Directed by lower school music teacher Louis Hoffman (who also played the part of Baloo the Bear), the production featured students from each class playing the roles of various wildlife, including elephants, tigers and bears.
Backed by a well-crafted set designed by Whitney McClelland and lighting that provided the ideal safari atmosphere, the students performed and sang songs that fit the event’s theme, such as “Banana Phone” and “Morgan the Monkey.” There were also several songs from Disney’s “The Jungle Book,” including “Elephant March,” “That’s What Friends are For” and “The Bare Necessities.”
A highlight of the show was a special song and dance number featuring the quintessential jungle anthem “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” featuring choreography by lower school dance teacher Gail Palmer.
Technical director Danny Dunn and assistant technical director Ivo Salemink received help from Dunn’s Gr. 5 technical theater students, who all played a key part in running the show.
On April 21, a group of Gr. 3 students traveled to Mission San Juan Bautista to learn about the early history of California. Refusing to let the cold, wet weather stand in the way of a fun and educational outing, the students toured the historic location and discovered what daily life was like during the time when the Spanish missions were at their most influential in this state.
Later, the group visited the Tops A Rock Shop just down the street from the mission for a lesson on sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks. The session proved to be timely, as the students had just finished learning about rocks in their science classes. As a bonus, the presenter gave each student four types of rocks to keep.
To complete the excursion, the group went to Margot’s Ice Cream Parlor for treats. “The ice cream parlor was the hit of the day for the kids,” said Heidi Gough, lower school California history teacher. “No surprise there!”
The 2010 Ogre Awards took place March 25 at Bucknall Theater before a lively lunch-time crowd. A vignette from “Cinderella” started the show. In a change from past years, the awards did not present a story from start to finish by integrating the Ogre nominees into the tale’s plot. Instead, the Gr. 2 students acted out scenes from each of the 21 nominated stories.
Gr. 2 homeroom teachers co-hosted the event with Enid Davis, library director. As is customary, awards were given out to various characters featured in the show. This year’s Best Witch was Baba Yaga, the infamous hag from Russian folklore, portrayed by Simren Gupta. Best Wolf went to the Grey Wolf from “Czar Ivan and Grey Wolf,” played by Montek Kalsi. The title character from the Scottish fairy tale “Molly Whuppie,” played by Radhika Jain, won Best Heroine.
Best Magical Object was won by January’s staff from the story “Marusa and the Month Family,” while the Youngest Brother from “The Waters of Life,” played by Gabriel Chai, won Best Enchanted Creature. The titular character from “Lazy Jack,” portrayed by Devin Keller, was this year’s Best Fool, and the year’s Best Trickster was Anansi from “Anansi and Five,” depicted by Benjamin MacDonald. Finally, the 2010 Ogre Award for Favorite Story went to “Lazy Jack,” which was performed by students Keller, Andrew Cheplyansky, Matthew Jiang and Vance Vu.
This year’s Special Ogre Award went to Marie Clifford, who – along with Chris Nikoloff – spearheaded the drive for a new upper school library. Clifford was business manager for Harker schools for more than 20 years and is now a member of the board of trustees.