Congratulations to the six Harker teams that competed in the Silicon Valley Regional Destination Imagination Tournament on March 6. All the teams and their managers worked extremely hard, with some starting their preparations as early as November 2009. Everyone learned the true meaning of collaboration along the way.
Two of the teams, The Secret Atom, Gr. 3 and Delta Ismo, Gr. 4, placed in the top three in their division and advanced to the Destination Imagination California State Tournament, held April 6 at Independence High School. Although neither team advanced to the global finals, both groups refined their original presentations and received stellar reviews for their ingenuity, teamwork and performance. Additionally, team Delta Ismo received the prestigious Renaissance Award with the following pronouncement: “This was not a group of individuals; this was a team of brilliant young engineers. While others built their structure of strips or sheets of newspaper, they shredded the newspaper and re-engineered it into a pulp-based cylinder. The final design was possibly the strongest, best-engineered structure we have ever seen.”
Students from Gr. 3, 4 and 5 had impressive results in this year’s math competitions. All Gr. 3 students recently completed participation in the Continental Mathematics League (CML) contest, where the high team score earned Harker a regional award. The six problems for each meet require logical thinking and reasoning, and schools compete internationally. Earning a perfect score of 18 over the three meets this year was Brandon Ma, who earned a medal for his achievement.
Although the top-scoring student always wins a medal, this is only the third time since Stephanie Woolsey, Gr. 3 math teacher and contest advisor, began administering the contest approximately six years ago that a perfect score has been earned. Ma earned an additional medal for being a national student winner for his perfect score.
Previous scores of 18 were earned by Grace Guan in 2007 and Rishabh Gargeya in 2008. Scoring a total of 16 points and earning certificates of recognition were Lilia Gonzales, Jerry Peng and Tiffany Wong.
Two students, Sahana Narayen and Nishant Ravi, both earned scores of five on each meet, for a total score of 15. The meets occur once a month in January, February and March during regular math classes. Scores are reported as both team and individual scores, with the highest possible team score being 36 for each meet. The highest six scores for the grade are reported as the team scores each month.
This year, students earning a score of six for at least one meet, in addition to the winners listed above, included Priya Bhanot, Bobby Bloomquist, Tim Chang, Brian Faun, Jacob Kim and Gene Wang. “These questions are challenging, and require students to think creatively and work carefully,” said Woolsey. She added, “It’s a great way for students to demonstrate their problem-solving abilities outside of the normal course material.”
The cumulative Harker team score was 101, which tied with the Mirman School for the Gifted in Los Angeles and earned a regional award. This team score is in the top five percent of the 462 schools that participated this year.
Gr. 4 ranked in the top five percent of all 271 schools, earning 168 points out of a possible 180 points. Rajiv Movva, scoring 26 out of 30, was the fourth grade leader. The following students scored a perfect score of six on one or more contests: Movva, Michael Kwan, Shaya Zarkesh, Adrian Chu, Amy Dunphy, Edgar Lin, Griffin Ellis, Justin Su, Sahana Srinivasan, Neeraj Aggarwal and Rose Guan, who competed as a Gr. 3 cross-grader.
The Gr. 5 competitors were regional winners and ranked in the top two percent of all 287 schools, earning 172 out of a possible 180 points. Two students, David Zhu and Aneesh Samineni, earned regional individual awards and both had a cumulative score of 29 out of 30. The following students scored a perfect score of six on one or more contests: Zhu, Samineni, Peter Wu, Quentin Delepine, Steven Cao, Aditya Dhar, Alexander Lam, Antony Sagayaraj, Eric Pei, Kshithija Mulam and Rishab Gargeya.
In January, Manami Iso, a teacher from Tamagawa Gakuen in Tokyo, visited Harker for a chance to see and experience the school first-hand. She observed several classes during her stay, including those taught by Eric Leonard, Katherine Molin, Colin Goodwin and Kathleen Ferretti.
Iso also got to do some teaching of her own. She showed several classes how to make carp kites (koinobori), which are flown in Japan to celebrate Children’s Day. She also taught fourth graders about the Setsubun springfestival, celebrated Feb. 3 of each year. During the holiday, a member of the household dons an oni (“demon”) mask while other members of the family toss roasted soybeans at them. This practice is said to purify the household and protect it from demons and bad luck. To demonstrate, Gr. 4 English teacher Goodwin put on the mask and played the part of oni while the students pretended to ward him off.
While staying at Ferretti’s home for the duration of her visit, Manami also got to see a number of California landmarks, such as Muir Woods National Monument and its famous giant redwoods, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
In early February, the lower school hosted a presentation for parents titled “Child Empowerment: Abuse Prevention and Boundaries for Parents.” The program was led by Community Solutions, a Morgan Hill human service organization. In early March, the group also gave a presentation on child abuse prevention to kindergartners and second and fourth graders during their physical education classes.
The goal of these programs is to educate students and parents alike about child abuse and how to stop it. Parents learned about types of abuse, myths and facts, prevention, resources and legal obligations. They were told about the goals of the Child Abuse Prevention empowerment, teaching children about their basic rights, and promotion of safety and fairness. They were also given strategies for dealing with children who encounter bullies, strangers or even adults they know where the children’s rights are compromised.
Kindergarten’s annual Hat Parade took place in late March, as the children toured the Bucknall campus wearing hats they decorated at home themselves. Colorful headwear was adorned with Easter eggs, sports memorabilia, flowers and other eye-catching decorations.
Students’ storefront dioramas and ikebana flower arrangements are slated to replace other Harker pieces currently on display at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH) at Stanford University.
The change will take place in April, said Eric Hoffman, lower school art department chair K-Gr. 5. Two years ago, Hoffman decided students’ work deserved a public showing. He proposed the idea to his students, asking for suggestions on where they could exhibit.
One student suggested a hospital. Hoffman hopped on the idea and contacted LPCH. After months of planning with Susan Gray, administrative project manager at the hospital, and display specialist Ted Cohen, student works premiered in spring 2009. Sculptural pieces were placed in the hospital lobby on the second floor while paintings, drawings and prints were shown in the outpatient clinic and waiting rooms across the street.
The exhibits change at least once a year, so Gray and Cohen recently visited the Bucknall campus to select the dioramas and ikebana flower arrangements to be displayed at the main children’s hospital. They will be on the second floor. The replacement pieces, made by fourth and fifth graders, are currently on display at the Bucknall campus.
“For our students, this validates their art skills and efforts and gives them a sense of purpose knowing that their artwork made somebody else’s life a little brighter,” Hoffman said.
Bounce houses, glow-stick tag, pizza and movies! More than 100 students, K-Gr. 5, participated in the family picnic sleepover, a longstanding Harker tradition. Held on a rainy night in the Bucknall gym and library in mid-March, the event drew energetic kids who had signed up at the Harker Family and Alumni Picnic last fall.
The evening, modeled after the summer camp sleepovers, began with pizza, fruit, veggies and soda served by Kelly Espinosa, director of summer programs, and Sarah Leonard, primary division head. After birthday cake provided by the Hirota family for the birthday of Vance, Gr. 2, the students had more fun in the gym.
They got to choose between two bounce houses and summer playtime activities including beach balls, hula hoops, rockets and flying disks. There were also arts and crafts activities in the gym lobby.
This last activity was a favorite of Misha Tseitlin, Gr. 5. A repeat attendee, Tseitlin liked that more of his friends came this year, and that “they actually let us make these wooden animals that we got to take home!”
After games and dancing in the gym, the kids (and adults) played glow-in-the-dark games, wearing glowing bracelets and necklaces. Kindergartners and first graders then went to the library for a movie and sleep, while the older kids stayed in the gym for their movie.
Hot breakfast was served in the morning, along with doughnuts. The food was the favorite part of the event for kindergartner Ainsley Millard. She loved the Tom and Jerry movie and “eating my favorite pizza, cheese pizza,” she said. “And we got to eat ring pops. And I had bacon and eggs and cereal and doughnuts for breakfast.”
Espinosa started the sleepover so that the school-year kids could have a chance to participate in one of the most popular summer camp activities. A good time was had by all, as noted by Justin Culpepper, Gr. 5, who attended for the third year. “Having glow-stick tag in the gym was fun!” he said. He also loved having doughnut holes for breakfast, and proclaimed the whole event “awesome!”
Many teachers, BEST staff and summer staff volunteer to help with the sleepover. Espinosa recognized the time and effort put in to make the event such a success, and appreciates all the volunteers, some of whom have helped every year.
Teachers who volunteered included Diann Chung, Gr. 1 teacher, K-Gr. 2 department chair and summer academic principal; Kelle Sloan, Gr. 1, 2 and 3; Eric Leonard, Gr. 3 English; Joe Chung, Gr. 4- 5 computer science and summer program director; Tobias Wade, Gr. 4- 5 social studies and summer program director; and Keith Hirota, middle school history and social science and summer swim teacher. Gary Mallare, middle school counselor, also assisted.
Helping to organize as well as run the event were Tristan Perks, summer program director, and Vanessa Bullman, K-Gr. 8 yearbook manager and summer program director. BEST staff volunteers included Arwen Lange, assistant BEST director and summer art teacher; Eric Kallbrier, Hillaray Tiopo, Amanda Crook and Tim Callahan.
In addition, some summer staff were on hand, including Kelsey Chung, Gr. 12 Harker student, plus Cai Balara, Mindy Hsiao, Megan Barrie, Stephanie Janac, Jackie Kolbeck and Anirudh Agarwala. Finally, kitchen staffers Carlos Madrigal, Juan Jimenez and Martha Gonzales came in on Saturday morning to cook breakfast.
Lower school students were greeted with another afternoon of great weather for this year’s Jump Rope for Heart event. Students in K-Gr. 5, as well as their teachers, could be seen having great fun jumping rope, high jumping onto soft mats, limboing, leaping over makeshift hurdles, crawling through obstacle courses, shooting basketball and other activities to “Celebrate Healthy Living,” the theme for this year’s event. Each grade level rotated to a different station for each activity to keep things running smoothly. Those who participated also had the option of writing a person’s name with chalk on the school blacktop and dedicating their activities to that person.
As always, donations proved to be an important part of Jump Rope for Heart, and nearly $2,400 has been raised for the American Heart Association.
In the ongoing battle for which homeroom has the most spirit, the fourth and fifth graders took part in a festive St. Patrick’s Day spirit rally. Green wasn’t the only theme. The games included a potato toss and lucky duck relay race. As an accent to the rally, Irish tunes helped keep everyone doing jigs throughout the competition.
Although there is no winner for each Spirit Rally, homeroom teachers allot points to the teams for winning competitions and showing their school spirit. Points are cumulative, and will go toward a big celebration in May.
Sylvia Carroll of the San Jose Quilt Museum paid a visit to Bucknall in late February to teach kindergartners about the art of quilting. She showed the students a wide variety of quilts and asked them to tell her what they saw in each of the complex designs. Children also got to make their own quilts using markers and cloth. At one point, Carroll used the quilts to tell a story, further demonstrating their many artistic uses.